Introduction
Brand Design Decision: Portable brand
The basis for coming up with a portable brand is to enable business persons who needs to travel with a computer device that can get used in business trips and has all the applications that get used in a computer based in an office. The name that got chosen for the creation of the portable brand is mega machine SB1. When customers hear of Strong Brand, what will get into their minds will be fine, fast and sleek machines. This brand image is what the company wants to get executives attention and put into their consideration of buying our new laptop brand. This market needs a laptop design which targets the travelling executives.
Portable brand functionality
The portable brand is a unique one in a class of laptops. The mega machines SB1 comes with an Intel core processor of 4th generation that enables the laptop to operate without slowing down the transition from one program to another. This feature is important and helps when business executives get to run remote meetings and need to use programs that are additional when making presentations. The laptop comes with 500GB hard disk. It has a memory of 8GB for faster retrieval of information from storage systems that get multiple. Also it has enough memory to store information from diagrams and projections. The laptop has a pre -installed windows 8 operating system that has Microsoft office 2012 that contains all the important Microsoft office applications that are needed. The reason most logical for creation of portable brand got based on the needs of customers and wanted survey. I was enabled to identify the most important functions that business executives look for when purchasing a laptop so that it can perform best during travelling times. The most important attributes that they looked for was fast office applications, portability and linkage of plug in or internet to home office systems.
Company machine model
The other model designed was Mega Machine SB2 which was to get flexible and could get switched from various company needs. The company machine model was supposed to run databases of a company. Its functionality was a quad core processor with high hard disk enough to Store Company’s information. It used Microsoft processor and windows 8 operating system.
Target
The target markets that got chosen were for mega machines model and portable laptops.
I would not change the target market for portable brand model and company machine model because am extremely conversant with the business executives. The laptops for business executives got received very well in the market. I was able to record good sales and hence did not need to make any noticeable changes. However, some changes needed to get done on the company machines because the competition was very stiff.
Sales office locations
In regards to location of the sales offices I would not have changed anything in the simulation. My decisions to open up offices in California in North America and Japan in Asia got decided on by using market data that got provided. The data provided information that there was potential demand for my chosen markets. Each of these business locations I had assigned about three sales persons. In each location I had set up one service support system, one sales associate for the portable brand models and another for the company machine models. The initial locations to conduct sales got chosen according to a year’s potential demand in the simulation. The two locations California and London, following the research data it offered good sales speculations for the portable model and company models. Even though the Japan market sales location showed a high annual demand potential for the portable model, there was an opportunity to attain better shares of the market in London. Also, it is important to note that the set up cost in California and London was significantly low than in Japan. The real estate cost in Japan helped me to not choose Japan for set up. California has the largest markets for the portable model laptop with about four thousand customers. The second largest is Japan with about three thousand potential customers. However both sales locations are home to business executives who are highly intelligent and are offer the most potential markets in America and Asia, the third largest market was London with about two thousand five hundred customers. I had to consider potential sales as well as cost of location. I chose to launch the products in London and California because these two locations have potential for the business in the long term. The company saved money by not launching in Japan on the cost of startup (Kotler, 2012).
If I had to repeat the simulation I would choose California and Japan, but from the perspective of startup cost I would go for London since it had an attractive cost than Japan. However Japan still would have provided a good platform for more sales. It is important to note that I had made investment in Paris which I have feelings for that it was good choice to make. However, due to a forced emergency loan and the approach I used that got conservative I was not enabled to open a final office in Paris (Brace, 2008).
Given the chance to do a repeat on the simulation I would not because market research is important in conduct of business in the present world of business. If had the chance and the money I would have invested more in market research because I found it beneficial and it guided every business move I made. Seeing that during the first quota I had no historical data I depended so much on data provided by the market research. Market research data helped me to open the business. In the second quarter, marketing research together with sales report from the first quota helped me make important financial decisions. During the second quota I made the necessary changes that helped improve overall sales in the laptops and also helped to improve the products significantly. A demand report conducted during the market research showed how the other laptop brands were selling from competitive companies. This report was to determine if we needed to apply changes in our brands which were not selling to maximum.
Presence in international markets
Venturing into international markets normally creates a risk that is large to all companies and their size does not matter. Each product gets to a point whereby growth gets to a minimum. In such a situation a company gets expected to move from a comfort zone for them to carry on making money from their products. Computer companies are many and customers get to choose from a wide range of products. However, not all computer models sell in respective countries as required to. Internationally I based the decisions to establish a presence internationally using the demand in each of the areas for the manufacturing of the products and the target groups that I had chosen. By establishing markets internationally I increased product awareness and accessed new customers (Kautz, 2008). I successfully hoped to bring in additional long term growth, profits and revenue to the company. The first international market based in Japan showed positive results and hence I decided to make an approach to the second international market with the intent of increasing sales and give the company a chance to extend the products life. The sales numbers that came in helped me to expand market research which consequently led to change in product lines that fit demand internationally and also domestic demands. The ability to spread the overall risk of business in a market base that was wider was another factor that helped in the international expansion of the company. Where there was poor product performance in a market the loss could get covered up in the positive performance of another market.
Factors to consider when analyzing a company internationally
There are various factors that can get considered before a company can expand internationally. The first factor is shipping cost or product building in market that is based far from home market and the operation that get based centrally. The second factor that should get considered is the economic and government condition in existence. The conditions I refer to are; income per capital, exchange rates of currency, tariffs and taxes and the demography (Gorodnichenko & Svejnar, 2008).
Currency rates
The rates of a currency get based on the exchange that exists between buyers and the sellers of the same currency. For example, the US dollar is one of the world’s strongest currency and its buying power is stronger compared to African currencies. Its strength enables it to buy a lot of local currency and hence has power to buy more goods and services. When coming into foreign markets the stronger the currency is the higher the profits a company makes. However, currencies are not always stable and their fluctuations can get devastating to a company that relies on the prices best for purchasing goods and services and their production too (Annacchino, 2007).
Stability of a country
Stability of a country economically helps a company to access resources with ease. Some countries complicate foreign investments by asking them to work with local partners in manufacturing and supply of products parts. Quality control can easily get jeopardized and hence the quality of a product.
Shipping or transportation cost
Shipping parts should flow smoothly from one place to another in order to keep the production of the product continuous. In foreign countries there are recommendations that that the warehouse gets located close to the production plant. The production plant is also required to get located near the actual method of shipping that delivers the products to different parts of a country. All the forms of shipments whether by cargo boat, air or land get planned from the central plant in the foreign country. Foreign companies can only address the needs of local population with the help of local companies. Tariffs may get increased by the government due high cost of transportation across the border.
Heavy investments
Conclusion
These conditions affect the company’s ability to get profitable in the international arena. A company that has plans to expand globally should invest its resources and time in making intensive research on these factors before deciding on creation of a business plan that is international.
References
Annacchino, M. (2007). The pursuit of new product development the business development
process. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Brace, I. (2008). Questionnaire design how to plan, structure and write survey material for
effective market research (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page.
Gorodnichenko, Y., & Svejnar, J. (2008). Globalization and innovation in emerging markets.
Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Kautz, G. (2008). Developing international markets: Shaping your global presence. Central
Point, Or.: Oasis Press.
Kotler, P. (2012). Marketing management (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson.
