International Marketing Strategy Report

International Marketing Strategy Report

The company that we are going to use for this article is the Philips consumer electronics that has a very well founded market in the Eastern Europe. This company works at improving the lives of people by making great innovation in things that are used daily by people especially home electronics. This company is based in Netherlands and it has a wide market in various countries in Eastern Europe that include Russia, Poland, and Bulgaria. Philips has experienced very many successes in the near past and currently. The strategy that is being used by the company is mainly focusing on reduction of costs of its products. It is also focusing on reducing the costs of production so as to attain a larger market share, and be able to secure long-term profitability (Bradley 2005). Quality and efficiency are key values that are maintained in the company so as to ensure success of the company locally and globally. Manufacturing efficiency is aimed at driving down costs while at the same time, supporting price levels and improving product’s value for money. There are many companies that deal with electronics in Eastern Europe and, therefore, Philips electronics has come up with international marketing strategies that are making it easy for the company to penetrate in the market. These are also enabling the company to compete favourably with the other companies that are providing similar electronic services in Eastern Europe (Bradley 2005). There are micro, macro, and external environmental influences that must be considered in coming up with marketing strategies for the company.

The macro environment influences are the influences that come from outside the company that cannot be controlled (Bradley 2005). The micro environmental influences are influences from the internal side of the company and these can be easily controlled. The external factors that influence the performance of the company in the market include the economies, demographics, legal structures, political and social conditions, technological changes, and natural forces. This is what constitutes the natural environment. The economies of the different market countries are fluctuating from time to time and this definitely affects the market and adjustments have to be made in the marketing strategies when such changes take place (Theodosiou & Leonidou 2003). The economies of Russia, Poland and Bulgaria are closely similar but each country goes through economic changes at different times with the other, as a result of this, there are very many changes that are put in place by the company in order to keep up with the changes in the market. The economies of the market countries determine the marketing strategy that is going to be applied at a particular time (Theodosiou & Leonidou 2003).

The economies of the three countries can change from time to time and that cannot be controlled and therefore the change has to be made by the Philips Company so as to ensure it maintains its market (Theodosiou & Leonidou 2003). Changes in technologies determine the kind of inventions that the Philips electronics company makes in its electronics. The electronics produced by the company are of great technological advancements so as to meet the standards of the people and those of the international market. Considering that the Philips electronics company is an international company, the products that it produces have to meet the technological demands of all people all over the world. This means that the company has to stay updated of the very current technological advancements in all parts of the world. This will ensure that its consumers enjoy the most recent technologies in the world. The Eastern Europe region is very developed technologically and the company ensures that it keeps up with this. This means that improvements are made on its products after a very short time and that very new products are available in the market after a very short period of time (Theodosiou & Leonidou 2003).

The political and social changes in Russia, Poland and Bulgaria are uncontrollable to the electronics company and whenever these changes happen, the market is affected. This forces the company to update or change its marketing strategies. These changes could include changes in social and cultural interests, changes in interest rates and government regulations. Sometimes these factors are so extreme to a point that the overall strategies for the company have to be revised (Doole & Lowe 2008). These influences affect not only the market of the products but also the production of the products. When the market is affected, the internal functioning of the company is also affected to some extent. Therefore, if there are changes on one side, this is likely to affect the other side. These influence factors are a major part of the company and they are accountable for the company’s marketing. The other influential factor that is contained in the macro environment is the demographics of the particular market country. This simply means the human populations in terms of size, destiny, location, gender, race, occupation and other statistics (Doole & Lowe 2008). The company must be aware of the changes in demographics that take place from time to time. This enables the company to be ready to deal with whatever changes that come and that have the capacity of affecting the market and the profits of the company. By knowing the target market in terms of the stated factors enables the company to know which products should be targeted to whom. The natural environment refers to the natural resources that are required in the production of different goods. The natural environment trends are uncontrollable and they tend to affect the market (Doole & Lowe 2008).

The microenvironment can be said to be the relationship between the company and the driving forces that control this relationship. The micro influences are the factors that affect the company directly. The factors that affect the Philips Company directly include suppliers that are involved directly or indirectly, consumers and customers, and other local stakeholders. In terms of micro influences, marketing alone cannot satisfy the consumers and therefore other departments must be employed to meet the need of the consumers. These include the suppliers, publics, company departments, and intermediaries (Albaum & Tse 2001). All these work jointly to create value to the customers. The micro environment has no major influence on the market because it can be controlled and changes can be made so as to secure the market before major changes take place. The suppliers of a company can make changes in the competitive position and marketing capabilities. The Philips electronics company has market intermediaries that work together at delivering the best to the consumers. These intermediaries are for promoting, selling, and distributing the goods to consumers. Through the use of intermediaries, the company is able to reach all the consumers which could have been challenging if it was working alone. Since the company is focusing on different country markets, this is very helpful because its products can be made available to consumers in their own countries and even in their local homes. This promotes the functioning of the company and also ensures that the company meets the needs of the consumers. The other micro environment influence factor is the customers and this can refer to the ultimate customers, industrial customers, resellers and many others. These also ensure that goods are distributed from the company to the users. This can affect the market if it is not controlled in the appropriate way (Albaum & Tse 2001).

In order to determine the internal and external environments of the Phillips electronics company, SWOT analysis was used in the analysis. This tool analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the market (Dyson 20040). This in turn helps in identifying the best strategies to use of in identifying which appropriateness of a particular strategy. This tool also helps in improving a strategy that has already been put in place. The strengths and weaknesses touch on the internal environment of the company and the opportunities and threats touch on the external environment of the company. For the company to establish a good market in Russia, Poland, and Bulgaria, the company employs SWOT in establishing a good relationship with the customers, creating good internal communications, employing excellent staff who have strong knowledge of the products and creating successful marketing strategies. The company also identifies the fields that it is struggling in and comes up with solutions, identifying the products that are providing competition in the market but the products are not more reliable and are expensive, and identifying competitors who have similar products (Dyson 20040).

Company’s product, price, promotion and distribution strategies in the chosen market and organisation’s approach to positioning in the marketplace

Product

The Phillips electronics company produces electronic products for different purposes at home and other area other than the home. The electronics that are used for simple works in the home are designed in small sizes that are easy to work with and portable to move from one place to another. The electronic devices produced by the company are user friendly and people of all ages can be able to use them with ease (Onkvisit & Shaw 2004). This is what attracts the customers to use these products because they are also packs with a manual that instructs the users on how to use them. There are also people who are specifically employed with the speciality on functioning of different products for the convenience of the customers. The packaging of the products also facilitate transportation and shipping from one country or place to another. This ensures that the products can be moved from the company to different part of the world easily. This fits the transportation of the products to Russia, Poland, and Bulgaria. The packaging of the products is also done in a way that distinguishes the products of the company from any other because they contain the logo and information about the company (Onkvisit & Shaw 2004).

Price

The prices of the products are suitable for different economic standards and the price suits the quality of the goods. This ensures that the customers get the value of their money and that they are consistent in using the products because they realize that they are worth the money that they give (Katsikeas Samiee & Theodosiou 2006). The market is also flexible in different markets and in different market situations. The strategies put in place during the pricing of the products ensure that the price is not very much affected by product development, cost of materials, and cost of delivery. The stability of the costs is another factor that attracts customers to electronics produced by Philips electronics. The prices of the products are suitable for the company when it comes to competition with other companies. This is because the other companies sell their products sell their products at extremely high prices and they are not as of good quality like those from Philips. Therefore, electronic products from Philips are affordable for a very wide population in Russia, Bulgaria and Poland.

Placement

The location of the distribution centres for the products are in central locations. This is necessary so that the products can be easily accessible to the people and those who buy and resell. The distribution centres are also very well distributed in major cities in the three countries to allow accessibility by both customers and those who transport the products from the manufacturing centres to the selling centres (Katsikeas Samiee & Theodosiou 2006).

Promotion

Promotion can specifically refer to advertising the product. Philips Electronics Company used the media and social sites to advertise their product. Television advertisements are used to show how life is convenient with the use of Philips electronics (Craig & Douglas 2005). The advertising department ensures that it produces that anyone can relate to in the global market. Since the target market we are focusing on is in the Eastern Europe, it is very easy to create advertisements since these countries have so much in common. They utilize global marketing techniques so as to ensure that the message is delivered in the intended way. Social media has been useful to the company because a common site can be used to serve people in the three countries. This is cost effective because little resources are used in the processes of advertisements. The company also engages local organization in advertising so as to get the people to relate to the products through organizations that exist in their own countries (Craig & Douglas 2005).

Company’s decisions at the corporate level and entry selection and market selection

Some of the company’s decisions at the corporate level include expansion of the market distribution in the three countries. This is composed of creating big distribution centres that are owned by the company itself (Czinkota 2012). This also encompasses introduction of the company branches in the countries. These are intended to have full management teams to facilitate the coordination of business in the countries. This is going to be of great benefit to the county because it will ensure that the management of business in the countries is done in those countries. The company will be able to get extra resources from the ones that it used to conduct the management of marketing of the products from different locations. This will also improve the market position of the company because the consumers will be seeing the producers of the items that are sold to the promoting trust of the consumers (Czinkota 2012).

The entry and market selection strategies used for the consumer electronics industry are directed toward controlling costs, rationalising production, making the products user friendly and of high quality, entry into new markets, and launching innovative products. The market entry strategies used by the company include directly exporting its products and indirectly exporting the products. The company exports the electronics directly to the market countries to ensure that genuine products are delivered to the consumers (Czinkota 2012). This also ensures that the company is able to get the extra profits by taking the products directly to the consumers. This also gives the company a chance to get feedback about the products directly from the consumers. This also helps the company to do an evaluation of the market directly because they get a better experience of what the market is like. However, since it cannot manage to export products that serve the populations of the market by itself, it users intermediaries who export the products to the country markets. This can also be composed of joint ventures with other business organizations in the market countries. These organizations buy the electronics from the company and resell them in their home country. In such a situation, the company ensures that the cost of products to these organizations is suitable so that they can get a profit after they resell the products. This also calls for licensing of these organizations to ensure quality. When any organization is allowed to import and export the products, other people will see a change to create counterfeit products that are of low quality (Czinkota 2012).

When these products are sold to the people, this tarnishes the name of the company leading to loss of market (Shaw 2011). Some of the factors that the company should consider in its international market include competition in the specific markets, economies and cost of transporting the products to the specific countries. This will enable the company to create appropriate strategies that will enable the company to secure a good market position. In the process of expansion and market selection, the company has utilised Ansoff’s matrix, this matrix focuses on four strategies that include market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification (Shaw 2011). The company has focused mostly on the forth one in the process of growing its markets. This involves moving new products to new markets. Even though this is a risky strategy, the planning is a strong one to ensure success (Ellis-Chadwick Mayer & Johnston 2009).

Recommendations

The marketing strategy that I would recommend for the Phillips electronics company is the global marketing strategy. This strategy will contribute to competitive advantage because it goes hand in hand with diversification (Ellis-Chadwick Mayer & Johnston 2009). The company has gone beyond the limits of domestic market and it can do very well if it intensifies the sales of its products in all parts of the world. The establishments of markets in most of the countries are not as intense as they should be. The quality and prices of the products can help the company to succeed in most of the market and therefore they should increase the amount of products that they ship to these countries. The company ensures that the prices are set appropriately to suit worldwide, national, and local markets. This removes the discrimination of selling products at very high costs in the international markets. Global marketing is also very easy and cost friendly for the company because of the existence of marketing assets such as Google PPC, social media, local mini-sites and many more. This makes communication and coordination of business easy from different parts of the world. Global brand identity is also necessary in the global marketing strategy. This ensures that the products are recognised in different parts of the world. The entry into the global market is also competitively advantageous because the products from Phillips are known for good quality.

References

Albaum, G, & Tse, DK, 2001, Adaptation of international marketing strategy components, competitive advantage, and firm performance: a study of Hong Kong exporters. Journal of International Marketing, 59-81.

Bradley, F, 2005, International marketing strategy. Pearson Education.

Craig, CS, & Douglas, SP, 2005, International marketing research. John Wiley & Sons.

Czinkota, MR, 2012, International marketing. Cengage Learning.

Doole, I, & Lowe, R, 2008, International marketing strategy: analysis, development and implementation. CengageBrain. com.

Dyson, RG, 2004, Strategic development and SWOT analysis at the University of Warwick. European journal of operational research, 152(3), 631-640.

Ellis-Chadwick, F, Mayer, RE, & Johnston, KJ, 2009, Internet marketing: strategy, implementation and practice. D. Chaffey (Ed.). Pearson Education.

Katsikeas, CS, Samiee, S, & Theodosiou, M, 2006, Strategy fit and performance consequences of international marketing standardization. Strategic management journal, 27(9), 867-890.

Onkvisit, S, & Shaw, JJ, 2004, International marketing: Analysis and strategy. Psychology Press.

Shaw, S, 2011, Airline Marketing and Management. Stephen Shaw. Ashgate Publishing.

Theodosiou, M, & Leonidou, LC, 2003, Standardization versus adaptation of international marketing strategy: an integrative assessment of the empirical research. International Business Review, 12(2), 141-171.