International Marketing: Chatime's Expansion from Taiwan to France

International Marketing

Executive summary
International marketing is the process which includes the performance of business
activities at international level for generation of higher profits. Further, it also involves the direct
flow of products and services to final users in one or more than one country. The current report
involves the expansion of Chatime from Taiwan to France by involving the tea products. In this
regard, Hofstede cultural dimensions has been applied to know about the cultural of host
country- France and home country- Taiwan for the growth tendency of Chatime. Apart from this,
Porter’s five forces analysis has been used for the identification of world level competitors.
Furthermore, strategic recommendations have been provided such as modified pricing strategy
and involvement of collectivism culture in business.

Table of Contents
1.0 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................1
2.0 DESCRIPTION AND JUSTIFICATION COUNTRY RECOMMENDATION......................1
2.1 Overview of the company......................................................................................................1
2.2 Nature of the product.............................................................................................................1
2.3 Environmental justification for country.................................................................................2
3.0 COMPETITOR IDENTIFICATION.........................................................................................3
3.1 Major competitors..................................................................................................................3
3.2 Competitor’s analysis............................................................................................................3
3.3 Supportive evidence for growth.............................................................................................5
4.0 CULTURAL PROFILE.............................................................................................................5
5.0 COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC CONSUMER PREDISPOSITIONS
.........................................................................................................................................................7
5.1 Country of origin...................................................................................................................7
5.2 Success of tea in France market.............................................................................................8
6.0 MARKET SEGMENTATION, TARGET MARKETING AND POSITIONING...................8
6.1 Market segmentation.............................................................................................................8
6.1 Target market.........................................................................................................................9
6.2 Positioning...........................................................................................................................10
7.0 MARKET ENTRY AND EXPANSION.................................................................................10
7.1 Marketing entry strategies...................................................................................................10
7.2 Joint Venture as the entry mode in France..........................................................................11
8.0 STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS..................................................................................11
8.1 International marketing mix................................................................................................11
8.2 International marketing strategies........................................................................................12
8.3 Cultural adaptation in France...............................................................................................12
9.0 CONCLUSIONS.....................................................................................................................12
10.0 REFERENCES......................................................................................................................14

List of Tables
Table 1: Market segmentation for Chatime.....................................................................................8
List of Figures
Figure 1: Porter's five forces analysis..............................................................................................4
Figure 2: Comparison of France and Taiwan by Hofstede cultural model......................................6

1.0 INTRODUCTION
International marketing refers to worldwide scale of reconciling the global operational
differences, opportunities and similarities to meet the multinational objectives (Czinkota and
Ronkainen, 2013; Terpstra et al., 2012; Keegan and Green, 2015). It includes the application of
marketing principles which depends on the expansion of local strategies. Further, this can be
done with the help of the focus on the market identification, segmentation, targeting along with
international decisions. In this context, the current report is based on the expansion plan of the
Chatime; a Taiwan based company in the France with special reference to tea series. For this
purpose, cultural environment of the country has been analyzed and a complete marketing plan
has been prepared. Apart from this, competitors have been identified and strategic
recommendations have also been provided to achieve the purpose of the study. At the end,
several authentic references have been used such as journals, books and web sources.
2.0 DESCRIPTION AND JUSTIFICATION COUNTRY RECOMMENDATION
2.1 Overview of the company
Chatime is a Taiwanese global franchise tea house which is based on the generous
products such as bubble tea, fruit tea series, refreshing juice, smoothies and coffee etc. (Chatime,
2018). The company is specially dealing in the variety of tea series such as hazelnut milk tea,
strawberry Au lait, Pudding, butterfly pea with grapefruit juice etc. On the other hand, bubble
tea, tea and flavored tea are the special products of the Chatime café (Chatime, 2018). Further,
the company has adopted growth and expansion model through franchising at world wide level.
it has 1000 number of locations of tea stores in 80 countries (Chatime, 2018). It has been
globally operated the business-like United States and California and it has been expanded
business in various countries involving Malaysia, China, Korea, Canada, Indonesia, Philippines,
Australia, UK, India and New Zealand etc. The company has unique concept to offer tea a
healthier, refreshing as well as joyable alternative with coffee.
2.2 Nature of the product
Chatime offers the wide variety of products and use the less sugar in every product which
is healthy and fruitful for the body as per the texture. The company has unique concept to offer
tea a healthier, refreshing as well as joyable alternative with coffee (Chatime, 2018). Further, it
1

also uses all-natural product for the preparation of the final product such as tea. In this regard, it
prefers the natural tea leaves for the development of new product range. At this juncture, the
current environment of consumers is demanding for the hygiene products due to health
consciousness. On the other hand, Chatime products are available with the variety of toppings
like pearls and mixture of QQ jelly, aloe vera, coconut jelly and red beans. Apart from this, the
café has unique identity of its brand over the products because some of the items are available
only in fewer countries. Further, Chatime also deals in the variety of drinks in which it offers the
ice level as per the requirement of customers (Foodgressing, 2018). Hence, it reflects that
products which are provided by the Chatime are healthy and offer the ingredients as per the
demand of the consumers because they have trust on the hygienic nature of the products.
2.3 Environmental justification for country
France is a European country and has been selected for the expansion of products of
Chatime café. The country would enter into French market with new product of tea with wide
variety of series. The country is surrounded by the various external factors such as political,
social and cultural, economical etc. which affects the business environment of the companies. In
this regard, France has been selected by Chatime café for the expansion of tea products on the
basis of following factors.
 Environmental factors- These factors have great impact on the new entrance business
entities because the commencement and growth of a company is based on the
environmental factors. The climatic conditions of France are better because it has mild
summers as well as cool winter seasons (Commisceo Global Consultancy Ltd, 2017). In
this context, it would be beneficial for the Chatime café to establish the store in France
because cold environment always demands for a hot tea. Coffee whereas hot
environmental conditions increases the demand for cold and iced tea. Moreover, the
respective café is offering both type of tea such as cold and hot as per the requirements of
consumers.
 Economic factors- As per the analysis, it has been found that France has 7th largest
economic power of the world and it is covering the economic crisis on a huge rate in
comparison to another European countries. Further, better weather conditions, high GDP
growth rate and less tax rates on business and flexibility in availability of workforce are
2