Strategic Market Positioning in Global Automobile and Food Industries

The assignment content discusses the different market entry strategies adopted by two major companies, Coca-Cola and Toyota. While Coca-Cola follows a mixed model approach with varying products, pricing, and promotion in different countries, Toyota relies on an export strategy for entering target markets. The study highlights that industries have different business strategies and models, which are influenced by their product offerings and market demands. Additionally, the target market and entry model also vary between industries. The comparison between Coca-Cola and Toyota showcases the differences in their approaches, with Coca-Cola focusing on delivering similar products worldwide and Toyota maintaining a standardized product quality.

Running head: REPORT
Comparative Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Executive Summary
This is a comparative study of two-selected topic that are global strategy as business model
change and target markets and modes of entry. Four companies have been chosen for the study
from two different industries that are food and beverage industry and automobile industry. The
chosen organizations under study were Nestle, Coca-Cola, Ford, and Toyota. The strategic
comparison was done between Nestle and Ford that showed a clear evidence of dissimilarities in
the global business strategy. On the other hand, the entry mode was compared between Coca
Cola and Toyota that showed overlapping but different strategies for both the industries.

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Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3
Global Strategy as Business model change..............................................................................................3
Background of the companies...............................................................................................................4
Nestle..................................................................................................................................................4
Ford....................................................................................................................................................4
Critical Evaluation................................................................................................................................4
Target marketing and Modes of Entry....................................................................................................6
Background of the Companies..............................................................................................................6
Toyota.................................................................................................................................................6
Coca-Cola...........................................................................................................................................7
Critical Evaluation................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Companies are primarily categorized into four according to their area of operation that
are domestic, international, multinational, and global. The global companies are those who
operate in global market with equal importance in domestic one and the products offered by the
company remain almost same for all the markets under operation. The global strategy of a
company is the process of expanding and taking part in the competition in the globalized market
(Peng 2013). On the other hand, target marketing is the process of breaking a market into
particular segments and then focusing one or more particular segments of the market for the
benefit of the organization. It is required because different people of different age group use
different product (Heslop and Nadeau 2010). These two topics will be covered in the report
citing examples from global food and beverage industry and automobile industry. A comparative
analysis of global strategy will be done between the Nestle and the Ford. Toyota and Coca-Cola
has been chosen for covering the topic of target market and modes of entry. A brief background
of the companies is provided prior to every discussion.
Global Strategy as Business model change
While considering expanding and entering the global market, the companies should
consider reconfiguration of the business model. It should be changed keeping the target market
in mind and decide whether or not to bring the changes in their domestic business model
components like value proposition, participation dimension, value change and others. Hence,
formulating the global strategy is about making decisions on how to change and adopt the
company’s core model into the global market to achieve a competitive as the organization
globalizes its operation (Grant 2016; Verbeke and Kano 2012).

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Background of the companies
Nestle
Henri Nestle, a pharmacist developed the company in 1860 as a baby food producer for
the cases where the mothers were unable to breastfeed their babies. Over time, they developed
their business and enhanced their position in various milk products ranging from baby foods to
chocolate and ice cream. In the year 2007, they included Novrtis Medical Nutrition, Gerber, and
Henniez in their company. Value creation through manufacturing and marketing the company’s
products is their primary goal. They also want to sustain these gained values over long period for
all the stakeholders of the business (nestle.com. 2017).
Ford
Henry Ford is the sole founder of the company Ford Motor Company. He established the
company in the year 1903 in Dearborn, Michigan, United States with the vision of people
working together as a lean and makes the people’s lives better through automotive and mobility.
As from 2014, the financial objective of the company seeks to increase their global sales and
achieve more geographic profitability in the upcoming years. The company is extended more
than automobile manufacturing and takes part in the grand racing events around the world for the
promotion of the company. They have come a long way from their starting years and 1908 was
important phase for the company as they incorporated Taylorism theory to increase their
productivity, which was a revolutionary step for the company (ford.com. 2017).
Critical Evaluation
Initially, Nestle had a domestic business strategy and business model that required
modification while globalizing the company. Their primary strategy was to enter the market
before any other brands and introduce the products to the target market. They do it by narrowing

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down the initial market focus limiting to handful of brands, which reduces the possible risk. The
concept of customization over globalization was the key strategy of the company in the emerging
markets. Their strategy also bases on the assumption that of the market situation (Peng 2012).
For example, the company mostly follows a centralized warehouse in their market countries.
However, they prefer to modify with the situation. The proof of this can be seen in Nigeria where
they focused on decentralized warehouses to avoid the circumstances that could possibly pose
threat to their business. The second global strategy of the company is to become the
unchallenged competitor in the market. They resolve the issue by purchasing the possible
competitors and integrate them as their own. Hence, a clear adaptation in their business strategy
based on the operational market can be seen (Segal-Horn and Faulkner 2010; nestle.com. 2017).
On the other hand, Ford faced strategic paradox in their global business strategy. Their
diversified approach in global strategy, that is to have a different approach for different markets
caused them revenue loss. They then reviewed their strategy and came to the standardization
strategy to recover the loss. They then had the plan to conduct research and development on a
particular product in a single place and distribute it around the globe, which benefited them. It
also helped them to raise their value in the market. Transformation from adaptation to
standardization in the year 1994 managed them to hold their position in the competitive market.
The modification in the business model that was required is branding, distribution channel, and
value chain. There are still some changes required in the strategic management of the company.
They are compliance with standard, cash flow, organizational size management, strategic
challenge implementation (ford.com. 2017; Peng 2012).
The above studies of global strategy based on the two famous companies show deferent
approach in global strategy. The food industry based company Nestle requires a more adaptive

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strategy, whereas, it proved to be a failure for Ford. Ford required a more standardized strategy
to maintain their value and quality and the customer loyalty. It is due to the different between the
industries. Food products are more changeable as they need to change according to the target
market’s demand. The core essence of the products needs to be maintaining though, while
modifying the side products. Whereas, automobile industry needs to maintain their uniqueness to
its maximum in order to create value in the target market.
Target marketing and Modes of Entry
Target marketing and mode of entry is essential for any given company in the global
market. Various strategic analyses need to be followed before entering the market. Market
analysis and segmentation in the given country is the first step followed by the timing of the
entry (Gheorghiu, Gheorghiu and Spanulescu 2010). The company needs to enter the market in a
particular time for the best response. Other important consideration is the mode of entry that
includes, studying the FDA policies, licensing, considering joint ventures in the market,
exporting and many more. Different strategies are opted by different organizations from different
industries. They are like, exporting product from home country, marketing subsidiary, counter
trade, licensing, joint venture, wholly owned operation. Sometimes, same company chooses
different strategies for operating in different target markets.
Background of the Companies
Toyota
Kiichiro Toyoda established the Japan based automobile company in the year 1937. The
headquarters of the organization are in Toyota City of Japan. The company is comprised of
various companies that are specialized in different sectors of the car par manufacturing. They
received the title of largest automobile manufacturing company in the year 2008. The vision of

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the organization is to provide the safest motor vehicles for enriching the lives of their customers
in a responsible way. Their current objective includes the sustainability in their business for the
purpose of value creation (toyota-global.com. 2017).
Coca-Cola
The company was founded by John Pmberton and Asa griggs Candier in the year 1886.
The headquarters of the company is located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company is
now the world’s largest beverage company serving 500 brands to people of more than 200
countries around the world. More than 700,000 workers are employed by the company around
the world from manufacturing to delivering of the products. The primary objectives of the Coca-
Cola Company are to establish their business globally on the grounds of responsibility and ethics
and accelerate sustainable growth to operate in future world. The decisions taken by the
company is based according to these objectives to ensure the fulfillment (coca-
colacompany.com. 2017).
Critical Evaluation
Toyota has been successful in targeting markets and became the largest automotive
manufacturers in the world. They hired special team for the target marketing and market
positioning in the global automobile industry. It examines the current markets and the possible
growth opportunities in the market. They use the present market data with the possible target
market and identify the possibilities of success in the target market along with other factors like
timing of entering the target market (Shiau, Huang and Chen 2013). We can cite example from
the North American market where the young generation is the primary target of the company.
Hence, they branded the luxury SUV in the market gained them access to capture 11.2% of the
U.S. market. U.S. has been the largest geographical target market since 1957 when they entered

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the market. Their next largest target market is their home country Japan. In Europe, Toyota needs
to provide fuel-efficient diesel engine cars as per the market demand. The evidence clears out
that the company has a range of product that is made available to particular market. They have
products for different age groups of the target markets (Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Swoboda
2010; toyota-global.com. 2017).
On the other hand, Coca Cola’s target population is broad and extensive due to product
appeal and their popularity. Careful market analysis of the company around the world shows that
the target age group is to be between 18 to 34 years. However, the company considers the other
age groups, but this is the primary target of set by thee company as it represents the highest sell.
Moreover, the target population of the company are the major cities around the world. Their
products are almost similar around the globe and sell the same product with little and no
modification. For example, their Diet version is available in every part of their operation, though
the response received from the customers around the globe is different (Aghdaie and Alimardani
2015). The methods and strategies taken by the Coca-Cola Company for entering the target
market is different from Toyota automobile company. Firstly, they established their bottle-
manufacturing factory in Beijing in 1981 to enjoy benefits from the country’s foreign investment
policy. This reflects the Foreign Direct Investment of the company in the China. They made
alliances with Lenovo Computer Company and became marketing partners. Lenovo’s technology
helps Coca-Cola to in the internet marketing. Their joint venture with nestle in US and Japan
helped them in value creation to the target market for all the shareholders in both the companies.
For operating around the globe, they segmented the whole world into six parts that are Eurasia,
Africa, North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Moreover, their product, pricing, and
promotion varies according to their target countries. The product price remains almost same in

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all the countries, though the bottling differs according to the market needs (coca-
colacompany.com. 2017; Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Swoboda 2010).
Hence, the above analysis represents a mixed model of various market entry strategy for
the coca cola company. Whereas, Toyota purely follows the export strategy for the target market
and uses the export strategy for entering the market. However, the products, pricing, and
promotion proposed in different countries varies according to the market demand.
Conclusion
The above discussion reflects that the strategies taken by different industries varies
considerably. The business strategy and model of food organization can be flexible according to
their market demand, keeping their products more or less similar in every target market.
Whereas, the automobile industries shows a more standardized business strategy to regulate and
maintain their product quality and to hold the customer value. The example for the study was
drawn from two famous companies Nestle and Ford for the comparative study. On the other
hand, the target mart and entry model also varies between the chosen industries. The comparison
between Coca Cola and Toyota clearly highlights the difference. The Coca Cola Company
represents a more mix approach in entering the target market, whereas, Toyota follows an export
strategy. However, the products proposed to the target market varies considerably ion Toyota,
Coca Cola tries to deliver similar product all over the world in different sized bottle.

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References
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