International Marketing Strategies for Mackie's Crisps

This assignment examines Mackie's Crisps' international expansion into the US and Canadian markets. Students are tasked with analyzing potential challenges and opportunities presented by these markets, including cultural differences and their impact on management styles. The analysis should include a recommendation for the most suitable market entry approach, considering factors like local consumer preferences and competitive landscape.

Managing International
Business

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Applying PESTLE analysis which can influence Mackie's Crisps international businesses.
.....................................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Implication of PESTLE analysis on Mackie's Crisps operations..........................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Discussing IHRM approaches which Mackie's Crisps will adopt........................................4
2.2 Recommendation of the most appropriate approach to be adopted within US and Canadian
market..........................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Discussing how Mackie's Crisps adjust its management style of US and Canadian national
culture..........................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In today's scenario putting the business on international level is the main goal
that new and emerging businesses want to achieve. International business is the
commercial transactions including the private, governmental, sales, investment and
transportation. International business is the transactions which takes place between
two or more nations of the world which is beyond their political boundaries. The
current report is based on the most important issues within international transactions
like that of globalisation and rise of the power of the multi-national enterprises. The
report will cover Mackie's Crisps of Scotland, which was the first Scottish
manufacturer of crisps to begin exporting. At present it is exporting to almost 17
countries of the world and making 15% of the business through exports. “Mackie's
crisps” now is looking for a new market and certainly wants to join the US and
Canadian market. It will also cover the external factors which are possibly the
challenges which it would be facing in the new markets.
TASK 1
1.1 Applying PESTLE analysis which can influence Mackie's Crisps international
businesses.
Mackie's Crisps is exporting to almost 17 countries of the world and is very
sustainable and applying more targeted approaches to the international business. It is
working with many countries of the world with having various cultures within them
and this is the biggest challenges which the company is facing. The other challenges
involve small team and limited resources with them but is having a wide range of
distributors and agents (Chase and Telford, 2017). As China is the biggest exporter of
Mackie's Crisps which began exporting in 2014. Chinese market is slightly different
market from the others especially from that of UK and this has always been
challenging for Mackie's crisps. The company is producing potato crisps with a very
gentle cooking method which are full of flavours and they also ensure the quality of
the potato crisps.
Mackie's Crisps is highly influenced by the international business in every
country as all the nations are having very different cultures and economic
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backgrounds. Mackie's crisps are also producing Mackie's ice creams which is the
sister brand and also doing the cross selling with the customers. Mackie's crisps began
to target the new market and starting working with Scottish Development
International to identify opportunities. As working with China is the great challenge
for Mackie's crisps so it surely needs to do the critical and appropriate analytical
framework by applying PESTLE analysis (Chessell, Charters and Stretton, 2017).
There are many macro factors which are influencing Mackie's Crisps international
business like the political, social, economic, technological, legal and environmental
factors.
 POLITICAL- Mackie's crisps will have to look after the political background
of many countries in which they are operating and they need to analyse the
country. As China is normally not a politically sound country and is having
many regulations regarding the international business. But is having a very
good relationship with UK and Scotland which is the plus point in the
international business of Mackie's crisps.
 ECONOMICAL- Mackie's crisps also must see and analyse all the economic
conditions of all the countries which are certainly different from each other.
China is very strong economy in the international market it is having a strong
bond with UK (Schaltegger and Wagner,2017). The economic factors include
rise in the currency value of the country, inflation and the economic policy of
that particular country.
 SOCIAL- These are also the important factors which are influencing the sale
and profits of Mackie's crisps. Like China is the most populated country in the
world and most of its population are having a very strong demand of the
imported goods and high-quality food and drink products. So, the profits of the
company from Chinese market is more than the other countries.
 TECHNOLOGICAL- E-commerce industry in the Chinese market is very
much there prominent. As the customers of China buy a lot more things online
than any customer in the world. In UK the customers are likely too but the
products from supermarkets and grocery stores whereas in China Mackie's
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crisps work with a lot through online marketing and online businesses are every
much profitable in the Chinese market (Coviello and Tanev, 2017). Thus,
technological factor of the macro environment is also of much importance to
Mackie's crisps to analyse the international business.
 LEGAL- this is also a common factor affecting Mackie's crisps business on the
international grounds as there are many countries in which the company is
operating and all of them are having different legal rules and regulation
regarding the crisps market. For example in China the customs' department
through which the products are actually coming in the boundary of the nation.
This custom department is of big challenges to Mackie's crisps as they have to
send them the taste orders and then start their business or trading in China.
 ENVIRONMENTAL- This factor includes climatic conditions of the country
in which Mackie's crisps is trading into (Goh and Sairamesh, 2017).
Environmental factors are also of much importance for the company to do the
international business in any of the country of the world.
1.2 Implication of PESTLE analysis on Mackie's Crisps operations.
All the above said macro environmental factors which are influencing the
international business of Mackie's crisps will certainly have the implementation of
them on the company's operational work. The operations of the company are majorly
depended upon manufacturing and production of the potato crisps in the factory of
Mackie's crisps. Like in China the custom officers always need to taste the crisp
before allowing them to do trading in the country. So, the taste of the potato crisps
should be very good and the quality of the crisp should also be good (Groover and
Zhou, 2017). E- commerce is a very fast-growing industry in today's world so the
company always need to do much better in the technological field.
 The new innovations in the food industry are likely to influence the functions
and working of the company.
 If Mackie's crisps do the PESTLE analysis before entering in any new country
of the world. This will help the company to grow in the market and earn high
profits.
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 This will also help the company to know the economic and political conditions
of the country in which they are expanding their business (Nguyen, 2017).
 Mackie's Crisps will be requiring a huge amount of capital to invest in the
operations of the company and if required they will also be requiring the land
to set up the factory.
TASK 2
2.1 Discussing IHRM approaches which Mackie's Crisps will adopt.
Mackie's Crisps is likely be enter into US and Canadian market very soon and
they will be requiring staff there to manage and operate there. But before starting the
business or expansion of the operations in US and Canadian market the company and
the HR of the company need to identify all the human resource management
approaches. As the international employee would for sure be different in each and
every aspect so various approaches must be followed by them.
The HR of Mackie's crisps should not only try to hire the international level
staff with having skills and education but also those who would be able to mix with
the organisation's culture (Oliveira, Story and Cunha, 2017). The company is involved
in the world trade and they invest in their work but the management approaches which
they are using should also be very appropriate to every country. There are four
different international human resource management approaches which need to be
followed: ethnocentric, polycentric, Regio centric and geocentric.
 Ethnocentric- It any policy is working in the home country then it should also
work in the host country, according to ethnocentric approach. As Mackie's
crisps will be starting its operations in the US and Canadian market (host
country) and the company is mainly of Scotland (home country). So whatever
policy the home country will be applying in their working, operations and
management of human resource the same policy it will be used in its host
countries as well. The main problem of this approach is difficulties in
communication in different languages and accepting the cultural difference. So,
this is not always possible and especially for such a big country like US to
adopt the policy of Scotland.
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 Polycentric- in this approach the company generally hire the staff of their own
home country in the host country as well. Like if Mackie's crisps is expanding
its business in US and Canada then it will generally on the top management
employ the Scottish officials only (Bhogal and Talbot, 2017). As the Scottish
official will be knowing what is better for the company and there are very
heterogeneous environment in the different countries. One of the main problem
with this approach is the lack of exposure in the international market and the
language problems with the staff.
 Regiocentric- this is a regionally oriented approach where the staff or the
employee of US can be employed at Canada as well. As both the countries US
and Canada are having the same functional area and the same region. Thus, the
global international staff is likely to get transferred in the same region only.
The main advantage of this approach is that it apply the same interaction within
the executives of the region if they are transferred (Crane and Matten, 2016).
While the disadvantage is that this approach is not improving the career
prospects at the national level and it also generates federalism at the regional
level.
 Geocentric- in this approach of international human resource approach the
staff will be selected on the bases of the skills and knowledge that person is
having and not based on any nationality. The best person is selected in the
Mackie's crisps so that they can perform on the bases of their competency
rather than on nationality bases. But the drawback of this approach is bridging
the gap between the employee working in the country.
2.2 Recommendation of the most appropriate approach to be adopted within US and
Canadian market.
Mackie's crisps is about to invest in US and Canadian market with its product
and surely will need to manage the working and the staff in the biggest economy of
the world (Chase and Telford, 2017). So to manage the staff and the relationship of
the staff with the employer Mackie's crisps need to adopt Geocentric approach of
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international human resource management. As this approach is totally based on best
people for best job.
Geocentric approach-
Regardless of the nationality which the person is of he would be employed in
the organisation by only taking into perception the person's knowledge and his
experience. Mackie's crisps will be taking this global approach into its operations and
then employing the people in organisation which will make a unique contribution with
the required competency. The merits of geocentric approach are:
 Geocentric approach is generally overcoming the drawback of polycentric
approach which is the home country will be employing the staff of their
country in that of host country.
 There is sharing of resource and always support cooperation among the
employees in geocentric approach.
 As there are all kinds of employee's in Mackie's crisps so this will increase
international executive team within the multinational organisation (Chessell,
Charters and Stretton, 2017). This will enable in developing the global
perspective and internal bonding of the staff throughout the global
organisation.
Despite of the advantages of the geocentric approach there are certain disadvantage as
well which are:
 There are always a communication and cultural gap between the employees as
there are various employees who are different from each other.
 To hire an international staff there are too much documentation from the
company's side which is time consuming and expensive as well.
 The whole approach is too expensive to set up as increased in training and
relocation of the managers and the employees.
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TASK 3
3.1 Discussing how Mackie's Crisps adjust its management style of US and Canadian
national culture.
Mackie's crisps is using democratic style of management where the all the
decisions are made in a collective manner. In this management style all the staff and
management are involved in the decision making process and everything is agreed
upon the majority (Coviello and Tanev, 2017). This help Mackie's crisps to make
decisions which are in favour of both the management and the employee as they both
participate in the process. There is also a high level of employee satisfaction and low
employee turnover. So the employee working in Mackie's crisps find it easy to cope
up with the policy and rules of the company which is also helpful for the company's
profits and sales.
This democratic style of management which is used by Mackie's crisps would
also be helpful to the company in US and Canada where it is planning to expand the
market. As US is already having a wide range of population from all over the world
who are employed and living in US. And all the organisations in US are already using
the democratic style of management of human resource. So this will also be helpful
for Mackie's crisps to implement this same management style to the company so that
it can earn more and more profits (Bhogal and Talbot, 2017). This is profitable from
overall point of view of Mackie's crisps as will increase the profits, job satisfaction
and quality of work will be there all the employees will be participating in the process.
CONCLUSIONS
From the above report on international business management it is concluded
that there are most of the organisation which are now operating on the international
grounds. But to operate in international market it is necessary for the management
team to manage and lead the staff in proper manner. As Mackie's crisps is having a
huge potato crisps market in Scotland and 17 other countries of the world and now it
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is planning to enter the US and Canadian market. At present China is the biggest
market of export and biggest opportunity as well and there the market is still growing.
Mackie's crisps is working with a wide range of distributors in the international
market with a collaboratively working with them.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Bhogal, K. S., and Talbot, M. W., 2017 International Business Machines
Corporation, 2017. Systems and methods for detecting and managing recurring
electronic communications. U.S. Patent 9,672,493.
Chase, J. S., and Telford, R.D., 2017 International Business Machines
Corporation, 2017. Resource-aware system, method and program product for
managing request traffic based on a management policy. U.S. Patent 9,755,989.
Chessell, A. E., Charters, G. C. and Stretton, P., 2017 International Business
Machines Corporation, 2017. Method, apparatus and software for managing
the generation of process events by a software process. U.S. Patent 9,703,666.
Coviello, N. and Tanev, S., 2017. Initiating a New Research Phase in the Field of
International Entrepreneurship: An Interview with Professor Nicole Coviello.
Technology Innovation Management Review, 7(5).
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship
and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Goh, S. and Sairamesh, J., 2017 International Business Machines Corporation,
2017. Adaptive and dynamic data synchronization system for managing data
and inventory. U.S. Patent 9,672,480.
Groover, M. P., and Zhou, Y., 2017 International Business Machines Corporation,
2017. Managing a code load. U.S. Patent 9,696,986.
Nguyen, T.N., 2017International Business Machines Corporation, 2017. Managing
a lock to a resource shared among a plurality of processors. U.S. Patent
9,747,210.
Oliveira, S. C., Story, J. S. and Cunha, M. P., 2017, January. Managing Ongoing
Dualities in International Business. In Academy of Management Proceedings
(Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 15267). Academy of Management.
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Schaltegger, S. and Wagner, M. eds., 2017. Managing the business case for
sustainability: The integration of social, environmental and economic
performance. Routledge.
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