Marketing Actions in Terms of Marketing Mix Strategy - Assignment Example

Overseas Market Entry Actions Table of Contents Introduction 3 Detailed of Appropriate International Business Strategies 3 Detailed Explanation of Marketing Actions In Terms of Marketing Mix Strategy 5 5 Detailed Analysis of the Proposed Organisational Structure and Control System 6 Conclusion 7 References 9 Introduction Strategies are often regarded as effective action plans that are usually designed for accomplishing long-term objectives. Similarly, business strategies are often adopted and implemented by varied organisations belonging to this modern day context with the intention of attaining their respective predetermined targets. These targets can be duly measured in terms of accomplishing greater market share, enhancing profitability and most vitally gaining superior competitive position over chief business market competitors (Karami, 2012; Tyndall & et. al., 1990). Elfin Sports Cars Pty Ltd was founded in the year 1957 and is regarded as one of the foremost market players operating in the automotive industry throughout the globe. The company has been involved in making certain extremely competitive open-wheeler and sports cars that range from Formula Vees to the MR9 Formula 5000 and the 1959 Streamliner (Elfin Sports Cars, 2008). It is quite essential for Elfin to adopt and execute appropriate international business strategies in order to make a dominant entry into the business market of Brazil. It has been earlier discussed that Brazil can be a potential business market for the company i.e. Elfin due to its exceptional possession of natural resources, stabilised political system, greater level of Gross National Product (GNP) and raising income level of the people residing within various regions of the nation (Campante, 2009). With this concern, the report intends to discuss the appropriate international business strategies that Elfin might adopt and apply to the target overseas market i.e. Brazil. Moreover, a detailed discussion regarding the marketing actions in terms of marketing mix strategy focusing on certain specific elements of marketing mix would also be discussed in this report. Most importantly, suitable organisational structure and control system emphasising the association prevailing between home and host organisation, relationship between headquarter (HQ) and subsidiary and centralisation versus decentralisation would be proposed in the report. Detailed Description of Appropriate International Business Strategies Elfin may adopt appropriate and effective international business strategies as an action towards making a flourishing entry in the intended overseas market i.e. Brazil. It is worth mentioning that the favourable conditions prevailing within Brazil in terms of political and financial aspect among others would ultimately support the sports manufacturing company to make successful entry in diverse regions of the nation. However, still the company requires following certain international business strategies for sustaining in the Brazilian business market and compete with its chief business market participants that already exist in the similar market. It would be vital to mention that the adoption of appropriate international business strategies would certainly aid Elfin to reap certain significant benefits. These benefits would include building broader customer base, incurring lower production as well as operational costs, making effective decisions and utilising accessible resources efficiently among others. It can be affirmed from a broader understanding that Elfin must possess a strong international vision, obtain experiences concerning international management, ability to form strong working collaborations along with employing differentiated technologies for smoothly entering into the overseas market of Brazil (Terris Worldwide, 2009). Conceptually, the notion of international strategy denotes the activities of globally dispersed subsidiaries in an independent manner and operating similar to local companies, with minimum amount of coordination obtained from the parent company. After acquiring a brief idea about the perception of international strategy, it can be stated that Elfin may apply various sorts of international business strategies in order to make successful entry in the Brazilian business market. In this similar context, the various entry strategies include exporting along with importing, franchising, strategic alliances, licensing and joint ventures. However, the three broad options for Elfin to enter into the Brazilian business market would be franchising, licensing and exporting as well as importing (Twarowska & Kakol, 2013). A detailed explanation of these three entry strategies has been portrayed subsequently. Exporting and Importing: The term ‘exporting’ is regarded as the procedure of selling any particular product or service, which is produced in one specific nation to other nations. Notably, exporting is of two types that include direct exporting and indirect exporting. Generally, direct exporting refers to the direct involvement of firms in marketing products specifically in foreign business markets. On the other hand, indirect exporting signifies unforeseen engagement of firms in marketing products especially in overseas markets. Importing is viewed to be an excellent market entry strategy, which aids in reaching into new national business markets with existing products or services (Twarowska & Kakol, 2013). Based on the above discussion, it can be affirmed that Elfin may apply the market entry strategy of exporting as well as importing as this would aid the company to attain business success through diminishing manufacturing expenses, growing network contacts and facilitating in accessing new products (Small Business Development Corporation, 2014). Licensing: Apart from exporting along with importing, licensing is duly considered to be the other option or strategy to enter into any overseas business market with limited extent of risks. It can be apparently observed in this particular approach that an overseas licensing firm provides a licensee with trademark rights, copyrights, patent rights or know-how on specific products as well as operational procedures. In return, the licensee would eventually produce the products of the licensors, market these products in his/her consigned region or territory and most importantly pay royalties as well as fees associated with the product sales. It is worth mentioning that this sort of approach is welcomed by foreign authorities as it tends to bring technology know-how in the respective nations (Twarowska & Kakol, 2013). Thus, the licensing approach as a form of market entry strategy might prove to be quite appropriate for Elfin as this might support the company towards generating additional product lines and targeting more customers through using varied licenses among others. Franchising: This is the other market entry strategy, which might be followed by Elfin in order to enter successfully in the business market of Brazil. Theoretically, the approach of franchising is principally described as a system wherein semi-independent business owners i.e. the franchisees often pay royalties as well as fees to a particular parent company i.e. franchiser for attaining the right to become recognised with its trademark and often for using business format along with system. It is worth mentioning in this circumstance that Elfin may apply the market entry strategy of franchising for successfully expanding its business in the overseas business market of Brazil due to incurring low expenses and facing low political risks among others. Apart from these, the franchising approach might prove to be beneficial for Elfin in this situation by a certain level as it would certainly assist the company towards strengthening its managerial capabilities at large (Twarowska & Kakol, 2013). Detailed Explanation of Marketing Actions In Terms of Marketing Mix Strategy The strategies relating to marketing mix are often identified to be used by the marketers and the business or strategic leaders of an organisation for the purpose of reaping several significant benefits. These benefits typically include attracting the customers, enlarging customer base, expanding business in new business markets with existing products, raising profitability in terms of market share and most vitally attaining superior competitive position over the key business market competitors. In other words, it can be affirmed that marketing mix related strategies are often regarded as effective business tools that assist the business organisations towards accomplishing their respective predetermined targets within stipulated time period. Notably, the different elements of marketing mix include ‘place’, ‘promotion’, ‘product’ and ‘price.’ Usually, the leaders of a particular organisation take effective decisions about making any sort of adjustment in the above discussed elements, resulting in making the businesses sustainable in this competitive landscape (Lamb & et. al., 2011). It would be vital to mention that if an organisation such as Elfin takes the decision of expanding its business or has the desire to make entry in any overseas nation, initially it requires analysing whether its varied marketing mix elements need to be adjusted in accordance with the local market requirements of that particular overseas nation. In this regard, the organisations are required to make a thorough analysis of the new overseas business market through examining the above discussed marketing mix elements and ensuring that necessary alterations are made according to the preferences of the local customers (Slideshare Inc., 2014). In terms of marketing mix strategy, Elfin may wish to focus particularly on two specific elements i.e. price and product rather than others which might aid the company to make successful entry in the overseas business market of Brazil. Generally, the marketing mix element of pricing is viewed to be one of the imperative marketing mix decisions, which supports any business towards yielding maximum amount of revenues. Elfin must consider this particular marketing mix element i.e. pricing as one of the topmost priorities as this largely affects two decisive aspects that encompass buyer behaviour and profitability (McGraw-Hill Education, n.d.). It is worth mentioning that in order to make successful entry in the overseas business market of Brazil, Elfin might take into concern the pricing strategies that are fundamentally based on cost, profit and demand or sales oriented objectives. The pricing strategy based on cost objective would significantly focus on recovering investment related costs and lessening operational expenses. On the other hand, the pricing strategy in alignment with profit objective would emphasise maximising profits and measuring profit satisfaction level. Finally, the pricing strategy based on demand or sales objective would focus on incessantly looking after the sales growth and augmentation in market share (McGraw-Hill Education, n.d.). Thus, these pricing strategies are mostly advised to Elfin in order to make successful entry in the overseas business market of Brazil. Apart from the pricing strategy, Elfin might adopt product related strategies like product invention and product adaptation while entering into the overseas business market of Brazil. Conceptually, the notion of product invention strategy denotes making entire change in the product with the intention of appealing the customers towards buying the same at large. On the other hand, the strategy relating to product adaptation signifies making slight alteration in the product in order to suit the diverse cultural requirement instead of concentrating on entire change in the product features (Slideshare Inc., 2014). Thus, based on the foregoing discussion, it can be affirmed that Elfin may wish to focus on price and product attributes relating to marketing mix strategy for the purpose of entering into the overseas business market of Brazil successfully. Detailed Analysis of the Proposed Organisational Structure and Control System The term organisational culture describes how the activities that include allocation of tasks, cooperation, coordination and administration are focussed towards the achievement of predetermined organisational targets. On the other hand, control systems mainly determine whether the strategies and the structure of a particular organisation are working effectively towards reaping several significant benefits including raising profitability and accomplishing superior competitive position over others among others. It can be apparently observed that there exist numerous organisational structures as well as control systems that Elfin may wish to take into concern while entering into the overseas business market of Brazil. In this similar context, the diverse sorts of organisational structure encompass divisional, hybrid, functional, horizontal and matrix (Slideshare Inc., 2014; ICMR, 2012). After acquiring a brief idea about the diverse sorts of organisational structures, the divisional based organisational structure can be proposed to Elfin for entering into the overseas business market of Brazil. Theoretically, the divisional type of organisational structure is mainly featured by grouping organisational members on the basis of their respective skills along with expertise. Moreover, in this sort of organisation structure, divisions are mainly formed in accordance with the product ranges belonging to any organisation, specific business markets wherein the organisations cater to and the geographic locations wherein they perform their respective operational functions. By taking into concern this perceived notion of divisional based organisational structure, it can be affirmed that this sort of organisation structure might prove to be quiet beneficial for Elfin towards making successful entry in Brazilian business market. This might be owing to the reason that the company possesses broad assortment of product ranges and tend to operate in diverse geographical regions of Brazil (Slideshare Inc., 2014; ICMR, 2012). It has been earlier mentioned that an effective control system can provide active support to the managers of an organisation towards monitoring their respective business performance through providing them with relevant and appropriate information. The prime characteristics of an efficient control system include target-setting, evaluation and monitoring along with feedback that deliver the business managers with the information about whether both the organisational strategies and structure are working effectively. Notably, the various sorts of control system methods include market control, clan control, bureaucratic control, financial control and strategic control. It would be vital to mention that both strategic and financial control system method can be proposed to Elfin as these two methods mainly assist in controlling the strategic as well as financial functions that are quite necessary for this sports manufacturing company while entering into the business market of Brazil (Slideshare Inc., 2014). Specially mentioning, the adoption of strategic and financial control system would certainly aid Elfin towards monitoring its entire operational functions that are conducted in its home and host nations. These would certainly form a greater relationship to prevail between home and host organisation. Moreover, the incorporation of a divisional organisational structure would certainly establish a greater interrelation between headquarter and subsidiary in terms of allocating tasks based on the location and the scope of these operational bodies. While proposing an appropriate organisational structure to Elfin, it can be affirmed that along with divisional based organisational structure, decentralised structure might prove to be quite suitable for Elfin while entering into the overseas business market of Brazil. This can be owing to the reason that within decentralised organisational structure, decisions can be made jointly instead of relying on one particular individual, resulting in saving much time and aiding the entire procedure (Slideshare Inc., 2014). Conclusion Based on the above discussion and analysis, it can be ascertained that Elfin is required to implement certain effective strategies along with adopting valid decisions for making successful entry in the overseas business market of Brazil. Thus, it can be affirmed in this similar context that the sports manufacturing company may wish to apply the three international business strategies that include exporting along with importing, franchising and licensing while entering into the target market i.e. Brazil. The aforesaid three international business strategies undoubtedly possess certain significant benefits due to which these three strategies have been suggested to Elfin. Apart from suggesting Elfin concerning the application of appropriate international business strategies, certain marketing actions in terms of marketing mix strategy have also been proposed to the company so that it can successfully conduct business in Brazil and attain predetermined business targets. In this regard, it has been suggested that the company may focus on certain specific elements of marketing mix that include product and pricing. Specially mentioning, Elfin might implement the pricing strategies based on cost, profit and demand or sales objective. In addition, the company might execute the product related strategies like product invention and product adaptation. Finally, a divisional based as well as a decentralised organisational structure and financial along with strategic based control system methods have also been proposed to Elfin so that it can perform its business in the Brazilian business market efficiently and attain maximum profitability as compared to others. References Campante, F., 2009. Introduction. Papers, pp. 1-21. Elfin Sports Cars, 2008. History: The Elfin Story. 2008. [Online] Available at: http://www.elfin.com.au/elfin/2008/history/ [Accessed May 24, 2014]. ICMR, 2012. Overview. Design of Organization Structure and Control Systems. 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Strategic Planning and Management Guidelines for Transportation Agencies. Transportation Research Board. Terris Worldwide, 2009. International Business Strategies for Global Business Success. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.consultant-for-business-excellence.com/international-business-strategies.html [Accessed May 24, 2014]. Twarowska, K. & Kakol, M., 2013. How Do Firms Go International? – Entry Strategies. International Business Strategy - Reasons and Forms of Expansion into Foreign Markets, pp. 1005-1011. Read More