Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) International Market Entry Strategy: A Case Study of Scotland

This report analyzes the feasibility of Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) entering the international market of Scotland. It examines the macro environment using PESTEL analysis, evaluates market entry options, identifies potential market segments, and recommends a suitable generic strategy based on Porter's framework. The report concludes that a merger and acquisition strategy, targeting specific demographic and behavioral segments, and adopting a differentiation approach would be most beneficial for AMS's success in the Scottish market.

Strategic Marketing
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Executive Summary
The main aim of the report is to bring out recommendation for the Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS), which has its headquarters in Britain and wants to enter the in6ternational
market, so that the organisation is able to expand its business. The report analyses the macro
environment (PESTEL analysis) of Scotland in order to recommend a particular country for
the organisation to enter the international marketing.
The report has also described the different market entry strategies for the Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) with which the organisation will be able to enter the international market of
Scotland. In order to start up the business in Scotland, the report analyses the segments of the
market of Scotland for the Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS). Lastly, the report with the
help of Porter’s Generic Strategy, analyses the suitable approach applicable for the Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS) to enter the international market of Scotland.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
PESTEL Analysis.......................................................................................................................5
Market Entry Options.................................................................................................................9
Market Segmentation...............................................................................................................13
Porter’s Generic Strategy.........................................................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
Reference List..........................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) has its headquarters in Britain. The organisation is
willing to increase its organisational boundary and the profits margins by entering the
international market. The report evaluates the macro environment of Scotland, so that the
organisation is able to understand the environment of Scotland in the context of politics,
economy, society, technology, environment, and legislations.
In the second part of the report, different marketing options are enumerated regarding to the
entry of Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) in the international market of Scotland. Then
the report is able to come up with possible market segments of Scotland upon which the
organisation needs to focus in order to successfully operate its business in the international
market. Finally, the report proposes a suitable generic product strategy that is essential for the
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS).
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PESTEL Analysis
Elements
Scenarios
Political Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) operates in the
international market and has stores all around the
national boundary of Britain. Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) has its headquarters in Britain and
want to expand its business in other countries in UK.
Therefore, there are certain political factors of the
countries, including the countries in European Union
(EU) that influences highly the performance of
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS).
The political situations within Scotland are stable. The
government is concerned mainly about crisis in
finances due to which the economies are affected all
over the globe, so that the economic position of the
nation becomes stronger (McLaverty
et al., 2015).
In context of employment, the government of Scotland
has provided opportunities to the retailers. The job
opportunities offered are flexible and mixed that
includes lower-paid, locally-based, highly-skilled,
highly paid, and centrally- located jobs. Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS) will be able to employs
workers in larger numbers in Scotland that will
generally include students, disabled as well as elder
people.
The main political concern that affects most of the
organisations in Europe is Britain voted for its
separation from European Union (EU)-Brexit.
Economical Despite of the fact that the economy of Scotland is
strong and has able to avoid downturn in 2008, there
are still existence of uncertain situations in
employment and economic conditions. The banks in
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the national boundary of Scotland have also increased
the interest rates by the end of 2013 so that there are
able to save their interests (Dekhtyarev, 2014).
These economic conditions have influenced highly the
demand, costs, and profits of Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS). The increase in unemployment
ratios due to the economic disorders in the nation also
has led to greater unemployment within Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS).
Social According to the current research, it has been found
that the population of Scotland is decreasing and due
to this shrinkage will certainly lead to lack of labours
in the market along with the increase in the expenses
such as medical services, educational services and
others (Hine
et al., 2017).
The government have decided to cut down the benefits
such as pensions and increase the taxes, so that the
people will have to pay higher contributions and
health insurances.
The marketing trends of the national population of
Scotland has been changes from
“One-Stop” to
“Bulk”
shopping due to changes within the societies in
Scotland. This has made Ashanti Marketing Solutions
(AMS) to put some specific items available for sale.
There has been increase in the number of female
workers in UK that have made Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) to focus on the value-added products
and services due to the declining of home-prepared
meals.
Technological The consumers within Scotland are demanding for
new, convenient and innovative technological
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products. Technology is responsible to enhance the
user’s experiences along with making the products
more cost effective (Hakansson, 2014). Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS) has installed self
checkout systems in their stores, intelligent scales and
shelves and electronic advertisements displays for
promoting their products and services.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) is attracting the
customer from all over the market with the help of
internet via e-commerce and web 2.0 services.
Environmental The rate at which Scotland is using renewable energy
in its national boundary, by the end of the year 2020, it
will rise to 31%.
With the help of CSR activities, Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) is able to gain consumer’s trust.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) has contributed
lot for the sustainable consumption of resources along
with low generation of wastes (Dai
et al., 2015).
Legal The European Commission has made it mandatory for
the retail industries to display proper service and
product information (Jondle
et al., 2015). Distortion of
facts is highly prohibited according to the
advertisement regulations of Scotland. This nation
also has several employment regulations and others
are should mandatorily complied by businesses
operating in its soil. This organisation should consider
such legislations in order to avoid legal complications.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) should give
specific care of such regulations.
Table 1:
PESTEL Analysis of Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS)
(Source: created by the learner)
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Opportunities
 It is an opportunity for the organisation that the Scotland’s government is able to
provide supporting them to operate their business in the international market and gain
huge profit margins since Brexit and stable political conditions has positive impacts
upon the business of Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS).
 Scotland still has good economic conditions within its national boundaries and this
serve as an opportunity for Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) (Mason
et al., 2015).
 Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) is adopting new and innovative marketing
technologies to serve the needs of its consumers and through this the organisation will
have the opportunity in raising the quality of the products along with cost effective
production through machines.
 Scotland is known to have stronger legal structures and the organisation strictly
follows the legislation enabling them to have systematic business structure as an
advantage.
Threats
 There are chances that the Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will able to lose its
business after the final decisions on Brexit (Mackenzie, 2017).
 Since the business jurisdictions in Scotland are strict, if Ashanti Marketing Solutions
(AMS) do not structures its business framework in accordance to national legislation,
it may pose threat upon the organisation.
Recommendation
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) needs to think about Brexit and shall plan accordingly
so that the business does not get hampered post Brexit. Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS)
shall continue in bringing new and unique products in the international market, so that they
will be able to differentiate with the leading retail industries in Scotland. It will be convenient
for the organisation to properly maintain and exercise its business operation in the future in
accordance to the national legislation of Scotland.
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Market Entry Options
Nowadays, most of the organisations in Scotland are aiming to establish their local business
in the international market. This is not possible without make strategies to enter the
international market and therefore, the organisations make extensive researches upon the
different market entry options and choose only one with which they will to operate their
business successfully in the international market. Some of the major market entry options are
as follows:
Joint Ventures
The organisations that are aiming to enter the international market, often chooses
Joint
Ventures market entry strategy, so that by collaborating with one or more investors in another
nations, they will be able to share the ownership and control over the resources and the
operations and rights associated with it (Johanson
et al., 2015). The entry strategy is the most
common among the others where collaboration can be done in two ways: foreign investors
showing interest in local company and local company attaining interest in an existing foreign
industry. Joining the business together, the foreign and the local company tend to create a
new, large and single enterprise. The major benefits and limitations of Joint ventures are as
follows: Benefits
Limitations
The collaborating companies will be able to
share the risks incurred in the business.
The control of the business is distributed
therefore, limiting the partners to have full
control on the business.
The single enterprise formed after
collaboration will have good financial
strength and control will be distributed
among the partners.
Each of the partners will have their
individual beliefs upon the benefits and this
may be regarded as a limitation (Johanson
et
al., 2015).
The entry method is advantageous for the
partners in some of the countries where joint
ventures are the only option.
If there is a loss of capital in the market, the
recovery of the lost capital becomes difficult
for the partners.
Table 2:
Benefits and limitation of Joint Venture Strategy
(Source: created by the learner)
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Merger and Acquisitions
The
Merger and
Acquisition market entry strategy are adopted by those companies, who aim
to expand their businesses in international market. This particular strategy is often considered
to be the most important and powerful strategy for globalization. Most of the companies that
have adopted merger and acquisition entry strategy have able to develop instant access to
markets and distribution network with the help of new technologies and patent rights
(Lebedev
et al., 2015). This particular strategy has more number of benefits than compared to
limitation and are shown below:
Benefits
Limitations
The merger and acquisition entry strategy
adopted by the organisations is the efficient
way to attain talent and intellectual work (IP)
that are considered to be the latest trends of
modern business.
There are chances that the companies
adopting the particular strategy will have the
limitations due to the clash of cultures of
different firms.
The entry strategy is able to provide the
organisation to fill decisive gaps in offered
services and clients lists.
The merged and the acquired organisations
will have the limitation of diluting its brand
and competitive advantage.
The organisations that adopt the strategy as a
core need of growth, will be able to generate
synergies that will benefit the organisation
with real value for acquired as well as the
acquiring ones.
The organisation may have confusion related
to the marketplace and scope of losing brand
strength where they are expanding their
business.
The strategy benefits the organisation to cut
the costs with the help of overlapping
operations, resources and combine both of
them in a single entity.
Companies with the help of the strategy will
benefit themselves with reduction in
competitions, establishment of new
territories, accessing new markets, expansion
of new markets and develop more sales
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opportunities for their products and services.
Table 3:
Benefits and limitation of Merger and Acquisition Strategy
(Source: created by the learner)
Franchising
The industries that aim for rapid growth of their business in the international market are often
the ones that choose franchising as the strategy to enter the international market. The strategy
is considered to work efficiently for those industries that has repeatable business model, so
that it becomes easy for them to transfer their business in the new global market (Madanogluet al., 2017). Benefits
Limitations
The industries have an advantage to offer
great employment freedom.
There are risks that the potential returns
achieved from the global market may be lost.
The products that are manufactured after
choosing this particular strategy are proven
ones with proved trade mark on the services
and the products.
The strategy can be applied for shorter
duration and requires substantial fact finding,
planning, investigation, and interpretation.
There are reduced risks in failure of the
business to the organisation adopting the
particular strategy.
Table 4:
Benefits and limitation of Franchising Strategy
(Source: created by the learner)
Recommendation and Justification
It will be convenient for Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS), to adopt
Merger andAcquisition entry strategy since with the help of this strategy the organisation will be able to
increase its power in the international market of Scotland with the use of technologies and
optimum use of resources. This will help the retail company to minimize the probability of
generation of risks and will provide Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will tax benefits.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will have the advantage in building great organisational
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size in the global market of Scotland in small duration with the help of adding a new business
plan to operate its business in the global market. The only disadvantage that the organisation
will have on adopting strategy for expanding their business in the international market of
Scotland is that the cost that is incurred while acquisition may be unrealistically high.
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Market Segmentation
Segmentation
Market Segmentation is termed as the process in which an entire market is broken down into
further more markets or rather segments that majorly includes customers and their behaviour
towards the market. The organisation evaluates the entire market according to this process.
The consumers of Scotland have various formats to shop to fulfil their retail needs and all the
formats are not always comparable (Venter
et al., 2015). The retail industries have to fulfil
the needs of these customers in order to attract customer towards their product and service
portfolio. The retail industries existing in the Scotland market consider demography,
psychology, geography, and behaviour of the customers to segment the entire Scotland
market.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will mainly focus upon the demography and behaviour
of the national population of Scotland to break down the market into segments in order to
know about the specific needs of the customers in Scotland. With context to
Demography, the
organisation segments the entire population of Scotland into age, gender, religion, income,
ethnicity and education (McCrohan, 2016). Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) appliesBehavioural segmentation to break down the Scotland market in accordance to the behaviour
of the national population. The behavioural segmentation includes breaking down the market
based upon the benefits hunted, degree of allegiance, rate of usage, and mode of shopping by
the customers (Mishra, 2016).
Targeting
Targeting the customer based upon the created segments of the market is very much essential
due to the falling of mass market approach that was used ages ago by the retail industries in
Scotland to promote their products and services to the potential customers in the region. With
the help of target market approach, the organisations are able to boost the efficiencies of their
retail products and services.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will have to target the Scotland’s market based upon the
segmentation done upon the demography and behaviours of the consumers in the market.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) promotes its products among the people who are from
the adolescents and adults age groups since they are ones who are responsible to run their
homes and their choices of retail products and services are kept in mind by the organisation
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(Vallier
et al., 2016). The organisation targets the customers who belong to low and medium
annual income groups and in order to satisfy their needs along with increasing its customer
audience, Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) lowers the costs however maintains good
quality of the product and services. Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) changed its
promotional activities and adopted the use of internet to advertise since with the course of
time the customers are developing their behaviour and becoming health cautious and
adopting more technological facilities. This way Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) shall be
able to target the customers, who are using advanced aspects of technology in Scotland.
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Porter’s Generic Strategy
Figure 1:
Porte’s Generic Strategy
(Source: Mindtools.com. (2018))
Porter’s Generic Strategy is a tool that is used to describe the organisational behaviour in
order to pursue advantage in the competitive market. There are mainly three approaches upon
which the organisation is able to apply to achieve its concerned goal in the market (Wicker
et
al., 2015).
The Cost Leadership Strategy is the approach of generic marketing strategy in which the
organisation reduces the costs of its products and services in order to gain higher position in
the competitive market (D. Banker
et al., 2014).
The Differentiation is the approach in which
the organisations are able to manufacture products and services completely different, unique
and attractive than compared to its competitors.
The Focus approach of generic strategy is
used by those companies that are concentrated upon the particular alcove markets. These
approaches have different modes in which they will be applicable to apply (Van Alstyne
et
al., 2016).
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In order to apply the
Cost Leadership Strategy, the organisations needs to increase the profits
by reducing costs by applying industry-average costs upon the goods and services
manufactured by the organisations. The organisation also needs to increase the number of
shares in the market by charging lower prices along with generating profits on each sale.
After apply the approach the organisations are able incur benefits such as: access of
technology to the production in order to bring down the costs, effective use of logistics and a
low-cost product base that includes labour, materials and facilities. The aim of using theFocus Strategy is to understand the dynamics of the particular market along with the
understandings of customer’s needs, where the organisation is going to expand its business.
Since The Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) is going to expand their business in the
nationality of Scotland, the
Differentiation Approach Strategy will be advantageous for the
organisation (Ogasavara
et al., 2015). With the help of this strategy, the organisation will be
able to produce unique products and services compared to the existing organisation Scotland
and through this Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will be able to provide tough
competitions to them. In order to achieve success from the strategy, the organisation needs to:
 Do a good research, development and proper implementation
 Deliver high quality products and services
 Use effective sales and marketing techniques, so that their operations are
differentiated from the existing organisation in Scotland.
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Conclusion
From the overall analysis done within the report, it can be concluded that for the Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS) to successfully operate its business in the international market,
the organisation needs to choose Scotland to expand its business prior to its headquarters in
Britain, select the Merger and Acquisition market entry strategy, target the international
market of Scotland depending upon the demography and behaviour of the consumers, and
select the Differentiation Approach of generic product strategy. This will help the
organisation to provide tough competitions to the existing industries in the international
market of Scotland.
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