This assignment discusses the impact of social and cultural factors on business expansion, cross-cultural analysis, market entry strategies, and the marketing mix. It focuses on Waitrose, a British supermarket, and its expansion into the Indian market.
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Marketing across Cultures Assignment: CW2
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3 MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3 Cross-cultural analysis................................................................................................................3 Social and Cultural Factors and the Marketing Mix...................................................................6 Market entry strategies................................................................................................................8 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10 REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11 .......................................................................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION Cross cultural practices and social norm are refers to the most essential determinant of a community or customer which support in forming up a decision in term of purchasing of a product or services (Ang and Van Dyne, 2015). This report is based on the determining the impact of social and cultural factor over the business expansion by considering the Waitrose, which is a larger British supermarket offers food, grocery, clothing and other items. This project is the expansion of CW 1 which contains the description about the cultural analysis and different techniques of it. In this CW 2, there is an implementation of Hofsted culture for determining the difference between the cultural practices of India and UK along with its implication over market mic and determination of different entry modes. MAIN BODY Cross-cultural analysis International marketing is refers to the process of performing business activities that are designed to promote, plan, price and direct the company's flow of product or services to the consumers that are living in more than one nation for profit. This brings up several growth opportunity to the businesses as it provide accessto larger number of resources, skills, knowledge and expertise which contribute toward the growth and success of an organisation. But on the others side the its also brings up several cross-cultural and social issues to the company which it must address in order to get sustainability at particular market place. Waitrose is a British supermarket which form up the best Britain food retail division in order to offer variety of food items across UK and in several other countries(Davidov and et. al., 2018). But as competition is arising in these countries it become very crucial for Waitrose to take strategic action in order to maintain its customer base while expanding it to become more competitive as the competition is arising at a rapid pace within the industry and players are trying to eat one another's market share. Hence, in order to enhance its profitability as well as market share it must expand the business into totally a new country i.e. India. But as UK and India both the countries are different in term of its social and cultural practices which may affect the business operations and market performance as well. Therefore in order to effectively established the supermarket of Waitrose in the market of India it is becomecrucial to firstly study and compare the social and cultural practices of the two country to determine the difference so that appropriate strategies can
be formulated. Therefore in order to differentiate the culture or social practices of two country i.e. India and UK, Hofstede cross cultural analysis techniques can be used which work over six major dimension while taking into account the diversity within culture is usually uncertain. Its implication on both the factors are mentioned below: Hofstede's dimensionsUKIndia Power distance indexInUKthepowerdistance indexisrelativelyloweras employees usually demand to work over a place where they get equal opportunity. Hence in UK power not remain to the hand of few people(Davidov and et. al., 2018). Indiascorehighatpower distanceindexaspeople maintains hierarchy as well as top down structure within the societyaswellasin organisation.Herethe organisational mainly maintain thecentralisedorganisational structurewhichallowsthe higher authority to role over the employees. Individualism & CollectivismInUKpeoplewithinthe society are highly individualist and belies to be private people as the children are being taught from very early age to think about themselves to determine the unique purpose of their life andmannerinwhichthey contributetosociety. Happinessisjudgedby individualsfromtheirself fulfilment. InIndiapeoplemainly maintain both collectivism and individualism.Amongthem collectivismcultureis followedasthereishigher preferenceisgiventothe belongingnesstoalarger socialframeworkwhere people prefer to work with one anotherandinbenefitof collectivism where the opinion of friends, family, work group andneighboursarebeing considerwhiletakingup
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decision.Onotherside individualist aspect is followed due to its dominant religion as theybelievetherebirthid dependuponhowan individuallivehispreceding life as each one is individually responsibleformannerin which they lead their lives. Masculinity and femininityUK is a masculine society as it is highly success oriented and driven as they maintain a clear performanceambition (Dawkins and et. al., 2016). India score high at masculine society as people get operates withthepoweraswellas success. Uncertainty Avoidance IndexUK is relatively score lower at the uncertainty avoidance scale asthepeoplearemore comfortableatambiguous situationastermmuddling through fit best to express this. As the people not maintain too many rules in the society but thosethatareformulateare required to followed strictly. India has scored medium low preference in term of avoiding uncertainty as in this country their is acceptance given to the imperfectionasnothingis requiredtobeperfectnor required to move as per plan (DeMooij,2015).Here peoplenotfeeldrivenand comfortable get settle with the established roles and routines without querying about it. Long & short term orientedUKpeoplearemainlylong term oriented as they mainly beliefinmoderneducation. Therefore,thedominant Itscoreshighatlongterm oriented culture as a dominant preference with in the Indian culture cannot be determined.
market as it is a new place and culture which required company to perform more sophisticated actions so that desired outcome can be achieved. The impact of culture over the product and consumer behaviour is represented with the help marketing mix while adhering to specific codes of conduct and norms that India maintain which have a huge impact over the product, price and other factors. The marketing mix of Waitrose is mentioned below: Product:-Waitrose is a British supermarket chain which offers its product or services related with food, cloth and other grocery items. Now in order to expand its business in Indian market it will expand the operation by offering ethnic wear(Feskens and Hox, 2018). This is because the people within the country are more cultural driven and prefer to wear ethnic dresses on their special occasion as it provide them more happiness. Therefore, it would be more fruitful for the Indian market as ethnic wear range will easily get accepted by the people of India. Price:-In India people mainly prefer to purchase the product or services that are affordable, therefore Waitrose must offer its ethnic wear to the people at affordable or average price. This is because the majority of population in India belong to middle class family and people of India maintain a culture of restraint where they do not believe on spending a leisure life. Hence they mainly do not prefer to spend much over the higher priced product when substitutes are available in market. Promotions:-India is a developing country where majority of population lives in the rural area therefore such people mainly prefer to use television as a main source for gathering information. On the other side the people live in urban area are highly active over the social media sites. Hence the Waitrose must focuses toward using promotional channels like television broadcast as well as social media marketing which support it in capturing the larger market base for spreading the information. Use of multimedia is suggested to Waitrose as people in India are more collectivism as they take decision after discussion it with reference group and close ones. Therefore by spreading more information it become easier to attract larger number of customers toward the company' product. Place:-In India people mainly prefer to purchase product or services from the physical stores so Waitroes must focuses toward setting up its stores to offer ethnic wear. This in turn support in attracting people to the store which support in increasing the sales of the company (Marsh, 2016). This is because people in India follows a culture of collectivism where they prefer to perform shopping in group, hence by setting up the physical store it become easier to
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influence the consumer behaviour toward purchasing of product in favourable manner as face to face interaction provide more opportunity to influence and satisfy the customers. Despite of this youngsters of India are more active over social media sites so Waitrose can also target customers through digital medium by selling its product or services using social networking sites. Process:-In order to cater the need of different consumer group with different need or preference, Waitrose will follow a digitalisation as well as physical selling procedure(Ordóñez and et. al., 2017). In which the customers of Waitrose can access the webpage of company by creating their account in order to select the product of their choice while considering all the required information related with the product and then place the order for getting home delivery of the products or services. Despite of this, the physical store will be set up where customers can visit in order to choose or try the product as per their choice. People:-For hiring the employees of India and keeping it retain within the marketplace it is crucial for Waitrose to follow a centralised structure as majority of organisation in India prefer to follow a power distance culture in order to manage the operations in effective manner by guiding employees over the direction of work. In addition to this it will also support the Waitrose to easily setup the business as employees belong to India find it difficult to manage the operations as per the strategies of company due to new cultural practices. Hence by centralising their operation it become easier to manage them and integrating both the culture to extract out best practices. Physical evidence:-The brick and mortar stores of Waitrose will proves to as a physical evidence for the company where the ethical wear are directly available to the customer. In physical stores merchandise will be well organised and dummy will highlight the dress design. Hence by attracting the customer by the design and by offering an ease of access to product or servicesitbecomeeasierdrawtheattentionofcustomersandgettingsustainabilityat marketplace. Market entry strategies Business organisations mainly expand their operations with an aim to achieve higher growth and to enter into new market for growth it adopt different market entry strategies which support them in positioning their business practices in effective manner at minimal risk.The mainlypreferredmarketentriesarefranchising,jointventure,directexporting,strategic alliances, licensing etc. The Waityrose is planning to expand its business operation In India by
brining the ethnic wear, which make it crucial for the company to adopt right market strategy in order to implement the business operations in effective manner. Some of the most commonly adopted business strategy are mentioned below: Strategic Alliance:-This is basically refers to as a strategy where two or more companies get bind into an legal agreement of partnership in order to work over a common objective or for a particular period of time(Soldatenko and Backer, 2019).. In order to adopt this strategy, Waitrose is required to form up a strategic alliance with an organisation which is already exist in the marker of India with an aim to get a share over the resources, market share and human resources. This will support waitrose in getting adequate resources, guidance as well as knowledge which it required in order to set up the business in Indian market in effective manner. The main advantage of this strategy is that waitrose become able to get a clear understanding regarding the actual culture and customer taste or preference which support it in achieving the competitive edge at marketplace. But it also hold up a drawback that it involves lack of secrecy as the secrets of the company may get be stolen by another alliance partner. Joint venture:-It is a kind of contract between the two or more organisation in order to form up a totally new entity. In the context of Waitrose, the joint venture strategy is suitable for the company as at initial stage the business can be set up or sustain with the help of existing company which support in getting up a larger market share gradually by integrating the knowledge, skills and resources of both the countries. This in turn help in brining innovation practices which support in performing operations in efficient manner. The main benefit of adopting this strategy is that the profit and loss will be shared which help in reducing the risk as well as burden of the company. But on the other side the drawback of this strategy is that there may be a coalition of the objective among different companies which leads to the inefficiency in term of working of a new venture. This may also create conflict among the employees which in turn affect the performance and productivity of the company. Direct exporting:-It is basically defined as the selling of product or services within another country by making use of own resources. Under direct exporting strategy the main aim of the business is to perform their sales program in the foreign market with the support of distributors as well as sales agent as well as distributor that are available at the that particular marketplace. In order to adopt this strategy for entering into the market of India, waitrose is required to hire suitable agents within India who will sale the ethnic wear on behalf of the
company. This will be advantageous for the company as it support in increasing the sales performance of the company which will be a greater income source as well. But on the other side the disadvantage of adopting this strategy is that selected agents for selling the product in the market may cheat over the company. This may negatively influence the brand image within new country as well as also within the nation where it maintain its existence. Franchising:-As compare to other entry mode, franchising is consider to be the best strategy for the Waitrose this is because it is a process within which an organisation provide the right to the another person belong to different geographical location to make use of organisations management style, product or services as well as the name of the company for offering the commodity to market(Feskens and Hox, 2018). The main benefit of implementing this strategy is that the profitability level of the company get increased more speedy as compare to other methods as the brand image will work best asset for success of this strategy to Waitrose. On the otherside the drawback of this strategy is that higher initial investment for providing training and setting up the branches. In addition to this it also require formalities and legal paper work which is time consuming process. Hence, as per the above mentioned strategies it has been analysed that the Franchising is best suitable strategy for Waitrose that it required to be adopt for expanding business in India for offering ethnic wear. This has been assumed that Indian market is good for ethical dresses which plays a crucial role in enhancing the goodwill as well as brand image of Waitrose. In addition to this the level of control is relatively higher in this strategy as it deals with customer directly. Despite of this the level of risk is also lower for Waitrose as the responsibility of particular brand is wholly depend over the franchisor and it perform effectively as it uses the capability and managing style of the company as well which ensures greater success. CONCLUSION From the above performed study it has been identified that the business expansion is consider to be a most favourableapproach for a business which help in increasing the profitability as well performance of the company. This is because the business expansion help in getting excess to advancement of resources and knowledge. In addition to this the Hofstede culture model is an essential technique which support businesses in determining the culture of a country in which it want to expand the business so that appropriate actions can be undertaken.
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