MN7331 International Marketing Assignment Sample

Module Code And Title : MN7331 International Marketing Assignment Sample

1. Company background

AEL outdoor solution is a British originated furniture manufacturing and supplier as well as provides structures for the alfresco, hospitality and leisure industry which was formed by Richard Smith and Jenny Green in the year 2001. Currently, the company has more than 100 employees who are busy in innovating the production and design of commercial furniture as well as outdoor structure to accommodate the consumer interest.

The company has made annual revenue around $24 million in the United Kingdom (UK) and became a leading brand with bespoke customization of products which helped to gain huge customer loyalty (Aelsolutions.com. 2022).

2. Overview of the market

Political

Poland is politically stable and a member country of the European Union (EU) which ensures the free flow of goods, service, labor and capital across the region of EU and benefited the Polish economy to grow fast paced. The country has a strong relationship with the world order through bilateral and multilateral tie-ups and which helped the Polish economy to engage in import and export of goods and services across the international border.

Poland is an active member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), United Nation (UN), and Organization for economic co-operation and Development (OECD), International Energy Agency, Schengen agreements and some other agreements which help in sustenance of business transactions.

Economic

The Polish Economy is highly thriving where market consumerism engulfed the population with growing exports from other nations with high purchasing power parity of the population. The low rate of inflation has been maintained with tight economic policy where subsidies from the EU and low interest rate has made the country’s economy fastest growing and least affected by the adversaries of the Covid-19. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country is around $596 billion which supports the economic activities to grow further with wide opportunity in the market proposition (Data.worldbank.org. 2022).

Figure 1: GDP of Poland (Source: Data.worldbank.org. 2022)

Social

The country is greatly benefitted from the membership of EU and open border flow of labour and capital which allow the earnings of remittances from foreign expatriates. Poland’s unemployment rate is around 3.3% where it is facing a huge labour shortage due to the large expatriate rate of the nation as well as it also experiencing the issues of economic inequality and housing crisis in the society.

Poland’s population is nearly 38 million where it is one of the cheapest nations in Europe where people are hardworking and globally ranked 8th as hardest working nation where more than 10% of the country’s population work around 50 hours a week (Bórawski et al., 2019). Poland has ranked 40 in ease of doing business among 190 countries which showcased the healthy business environment of the nation (Goujard and Guérin, 2018).

Figure 2: Ease of doing business ranking of Poland (Source: Goujard and Guérin, 2018)

Technology

Poland is a technically sound and adaptable country where almost 80% of households have the internet connection through the existence of a massive broadcasting market. The country is home to around 50 thousand software companies and 18 technical universities which influence the Polish population to collaborate and grow through technical skill ability and adaptability through the initiatives and innovation.

Environment

Poland’s economy is heavily reliant upon the non renewable energy sources where the presence of smog and other particulate matter in the air remain the cause of issues in the polish cities. The Environment Protection Act 2001 of Poland has provided the framework of all commercial and environmental activities in the nation (Trade.gov. 2022).

Legal

Polish commercial code of 2000 as well as the Accounting act, the civil code act and tax ordinance Act are harnessing the business environment of the nation where a foreign national enjoys as much liberty and scope as a Polish national in relation to business activity. The Polish national action plan for the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights of 2017-2020 has provided guidelines for employee management in business organization which has great influence in the business economy of the country (Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Poland. 2022).

3. International STP

Segmentation

Market segmentation is an important aspect for the product to make a reputation through consumer transaction and satisfaction through the product and services of the AEL outdoor solutions. The company is doing business in manufacturing and supplying of the commercial and customized furniture and outdoor structure for accompanying the hospitality and leisure through utilizing personal space in accordance with comfort and orientation.

The Poland market is segmented by the aspects of demographic, psychographic and behavioural type where the niche market will allow the flow of product for the interested consumer for both high and low cost furniture for personal and professional use. The demographic segmentation corresponds to the age, gender, income, ethnicity, education and religion of the consumer where the business direction is considered the income of the consumer for the product presentation in the market. The lower middle, middle and high income category people will be the market segmentation for the products of AEL Outdoor Solution through demographic segmentation.

Other than that, psychographic segmentation is based on lifestyle, values, and beliefs. Hobbies of individuals which are harder to identify in market engagement where the psychographic traits influence the people for luxurious spending for enjoying the leisure hour through productive implementation of structure and outdoor furniture (Jarosiński and Janiuk, 2020).

Psychographic segmentation allows the marketing management to focus on consumer practice and lifestyle where it accommodates the right place for the company’s high end furniture. The behavioural type of segmentation is the most useful for e-commerce businesses where it accompanies the traits of spending habit, purchasing practice, browsing habits, brand interaction and loyalty along with the previous product feedback has helped the delivery of business efficiency through relevant and targeted campaigns.

The behavioural segmentation has speculated the browsing habits of existing customers and others where the purchasing practice and past habit of potential buyer is followed and communicated for better business relationship with the product of outside dining (Refer to Appendix-3).

Targeting

The process of targeting involves focusing on the target audience from the consumer segment and then making advertisements and broadcasting it through a variety of channels and media. Advertisers closely interacted with the market functionaries to choose the target audiences and make the advertising content as per influencing the target audience for enhancing the market transaction of the products.

The people of working, young and mature age group of 25-55 are the main target audience of the company to offer and campaign for the outside dining furniture as this group of target audience constitutes the maximum buyer of the furniture product to decorate the interior and exterior as of personal and professional wish and demand. The low pricing strategy along with the high product differentiation will be the targeting strategy to accompany the evolving consumer preferences in manufacturing and design of high end outdoor dining furniture in the Polish market.

Positioning

Positioning helps to actualize the market position of the product respective to other products in the marketplace which also has the same effect in the consumer mindset which influences the purchasing practice of the customer through engaging in branding and brand reputation. The target audience comprises around 42% of the population of Poland which is a large chunk of population to grow the business function through satisfying consumer demands and needs (refer to Appendix-2).

Outside dining furniture is a symbol of status and somehow associated with public culture and ego to maintain the lifestyle with highly decorated furniture for accommodating the consumer dining with bespoke colour and essence. The market position has been dependent on the product quality and after sales services which co-creates value for the organization as well as the consumer (Betlejewska and Grzegorzewska, 2020).

4. Action programme

4.1 Product

The product that the company is going to sell in the Polish market, is their outside dining structure that is tailor made by the organization and these products are suitable for offering you services in all weather throughout the year. It is stated that one of the ways businesses are able to increase its attractiveness and footfall of consumers is by having a lavish and alluring outdoor place.

Thus, by taking advantage of the outdoor dining arrangements, retractable roofs and with the bespoke structure of AEL, the clients of the company have seen significant improvements in the overall revenue gained and for engaging the consumers. The given item is a specific line of products sold by the company and will be released as the extension of the brand, since AEL outdoor solutions is quite famous for making such outdoor dining structures, the existing brand name and image may be a positive aspect for business.

Research has suggested that brand value that is created for the business consumers indirectly improves the competitive advantage of a brand (Gupta et al., 2020).

On the other hand, creating a completely new brand will also require a significant amount of capital and establishing everything from scratch will be a relatively complex process. The product will be adapted in the local market of Poland and the design will be made as per the requirements of the local consumers as the outdoor business spaces that the people use may be different than in the UK.

4.2 Place

In order to distribute the products in the local market of Poland the channel of distribution will be used and the wholesalers will be the preferred intermediaries in this context. Wholesalers will be chosen as the preferred intermediaries since the aspect of wholesaling offers greater market potential for the consumers concerning the geographic locations and the purchasing power of customers (Refer to Appendix 1).

Additionally, the company will also use an omni-channel strategy for their marketing purposes as the concept of omni-channel strategy refers to offering consumers a completely integrated experience concerning shopping from the virtual to physical store.

Thus, such an approach has the potential of better rate of retaining consumers, increase in turnover rate, more customer satisfaction, enhanced collection of consumer data and more. Omni-channel marketing or the notion of effective integration amongst channels to offer consistent experience of shopping and services for consumers has become one of the most critical aspects for multichannel management for organizations in recent years (Hossain et al., 2020).

4.3 Price

The company currently uses the standard UK pricing strategy for the consumers, however, after distributing the products to Poland, the prices will have to be increased given that the operational cost for expanding to the international market will also go up. Manufacturing and selling products in the home market does not involve as many people as it will when the company will start selling to Poland as there will be a significantly lot more intermediaries involved in the operations.

However, once the business is established in Poland, the company may use the price skimming strategies in case the organization decides to establish a wholly owned subsidiary later in Poland. The price skimming strategy is known for charging an increased price after the products are launched in a given target market and the price decreases over time (AlJazzazen, 2019).

Given the strategies adopted by the company, it may be implied that the strategies will have to be adopted for entering the Poland market owing to different factors, such as consumer preference and requirements, involvement of intermediaries and providing more effective shopping experience to consumers.

5. Plan regarding marketing communication

State the name of your brand

AELsolutions

Why are we communicating?

In order to be different from the competition

For stating the mission, vision and objectives of the brands and for letting consumers have strong ideas regarding the brand

In order to inform the public about the given product and the way it will cater effectively to the target market

For persuading the target market in order to explain the reason for which the product is right for the group of people

Who are we talking to?

The age group of the target market is 25-55 years, positive attitude towards the brand; this group of people mostly associated with social media.

What do we want them to ‘think’ and ‘feel’ as a result of our communication?

The consumers need to think and feel the needs and demand for the given product for the benefits of their own business and based on that want the item after engaging with the brand communication

What are the key benefits or value of your offering?

The consumers will benefit by having a state of the art outdoor structure for business that will be helpful in attracting the consumers in the company’s commercial space that has a potential to increase the growth of consumer’s business

What do we want our customers to do?

The call to action for consumers on the company’s website will be to click on the buy now link and the same will be for social media as well.

The marketing communication plan will not remain the same as the home country, since the company uses a mix of both digital and traditional marketing communication plans in the UK for engaging with consumers. It may be stated that although using a mix of both the communication mix is more effective for engaging with the consumers rather than just using a single approach and thus, choosing the traditional approach, such as print and electronic media in Poland may be a complex process for the brand.

Therefore, only digital communication mix will be used by the given organization for communicating with the people living in the country as it is easier to do and also cost-effective as well. Marketing communication performed through online platforms is able to cover an extensive reach concerning advertising for a large audience base (Krizanova et al., 2019). Moreover, digital media has enhanced reach now than traditional media in terms of reaching to the target audience effectively and thus, only such methods will be chosen as the preferred approach for marketing communication.

Digital media, such as social media marketing, has been playing an imperative role as a strategy for marketing according to research and in this context social media sites are utilized by organizations to establish direct communication and positive relationships with the target audience (Wibowo et al., 2020).

However, in order to communicate with the people in Poland, cultural issues, such as language, being sensitive towards the religion of the people will have to be considered. Since many Jewish people and other individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds reside in the country, the communication has to be conducted in a manner that does not hurt the feelings or beliefs of any of those people.

Despite the cumulative power of Christianity, the European continent that Poland is a part of represents an extremely diverse and multicultural reality as throughout the years the Europeans have learnt to coexist with diversity and conflicting minds and sensitivities (Osewska et al., 2021).

6. Strategic planning, control and implementation

In order to make sure that the international marketing plan of the company and to ensure that the plan is working effectively the company will use the strategic framework of the Ansoff matrix for evaluating the potential opportunities for growth in the market and more.

The Ansoff matrix is a framework that is used for the purpose of strategic planning and recognizing strategic opportunities for options and it also addresses 4 alternatives for growth concerning an organization to grow in a new market (Matrix and Ansoff, 2021).

Figure 3: Ansoff matrix (Source: Matrix and Ansoff, 2021)

Market penetration

For selling more units for the products the company will need to create a more effective communication plan, decrease the processing time of order, show the complete portfolio of products and more. In a market that is highly competitive a firm needs to keep adapting, update on the offerings it has and enhance its market share for maintaining and improving its position in the market (Auma and Waithaka, 2020).

Market and product development

The company will need to have a thorough understanding of the market and consumer requirements for developing the market and based on the preference of consumer the company will keep making required changes in the existing products.

Diversification

Before diversifying and entering the Polish market, the brand name has to be established in the market beforehand to make people aware of the company and its products and create a need for the given product in the minds of the consumers.

Strategy Map

In addition to the Ansoff matrix, the tool of strategy mapping will also be used by the company to effectively control the expansion to Poland. By incorporating the tool of strategy mapping, AEL will improve extensively the strategic and communication efforts that the company has adopted for the Polish market. A strategy map is one of the significant components of a balance scorecard and it comprises different strategic objectives culminating into four different perspectives and the link of cause and effect amongst those objectives (Moraga et al., 2020).

The majority of the people are known to be visual learners and thus, a picture of the strategy map will be comprehended more effectively by the employees rather than a written narrative. This will also help the workforce of the company to agree on the aspects that the organization is trying to achieve in the international market and further work towards that for the success of the expansion.

It will allow the business correspondence to evaluate the change in statistics of market revenue and competitiveness through close interrogation of business performance, market reaction, consumer response, marketing reach expansion and the response of marketing partners (Hieu and Nwachukwu, 2019). The monitoring of the number of sales and daily productivity has evolved with growing market possibilities where it helps in evaluating the success of the marketing management plan and steps to acknowledge the consumer reaction as well as market dependency, investment, employee and ethical business conduct.

7. Conclusion

From the above all discussions, it has been concluded that the AEL outdoor solution has thrived through the long leap toward the business correspondence of the furniture product and structure in both inside and outside frame for accommodating the right product in the right place. The market expansion plan of the company is quite beneficial in the Poland market where high consumerism has welcomed a huge product and services in the country through export.

References

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