Bulgaria: Economy, Culture and Society

This assignment provides a detailed overview of Bulgaria, encompassing its economic performance, cultural identity, and societal aspects. It examines the country's banking sector, highlighting online banking penetration and housing loan growth. The analysis extends to tourism, immigration trends, particularly the influx of Romanians and Bulgarians into the UK, and a glimpse into Bulgarian folk music, national symbols, and flag.

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Table of contain
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………3
SOSTAC…………………………………………………………………………………………4
PESTEL……………………………………………………………………………………………5
Hofstede Insights …………………………………………………………………………..6
Objectives……………………………………………………………………………………….7
Segment………………………………………………………………………………………….7
Porter’s generic Strategy…………………………………………………………………8
Ansoff Matrix…………………………………………………………………………………..8
Marketing entry mode……………………………………………………………………..9
Tactics……………………………………………………………………………………………..9
Actions…………………………………………………………………………………………….10
Control…………………………………………………………………………………………….10
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Introduction
This assignment provide an explanation of how Barclays company can be introduced to the Bulgaria
country market. Also, a SOSTAC plan has been illustrated of how the company will enter successfully
in to the target country.
Company background
Barclays is a British bank operating internationally. The company has branches in 50 countries
counting Europe, Asia, America and Africa. To satisfy their customers and cover their needs, the
company provide wide range of products and services such as: privet banking, wealth advisory,
investment services, investment and credit solutions.
(Anglia Ruskin,2020)
SOSTAC Planning
SOSTAC is a marketing planning model, developed originally in the 1990 by PR Smith to help
companies to have an overview of where the company is at the current time.
SOSTAC provide a logical order to start a marketing business plan, and to be used it to assess
the progression critically .
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(Pinterest,2020)
Bulgaria it is a South-eastern Europe country with neighbourhood Romania to the north and Serbia,
North Macedonia to the west and Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. The
capital of the county is named Sofia and the population of the country is seven million inhabitants
(Statista,2020).
Politically, the country is a democratic republic and is part of the EU. As a EU member has the
benefits of the free movements of capital and individuals. Financially the country is stable and has
been posting strong development. In the banking sector is similar to UK. For example, online banking
most operating in the country.
The World Bank classifies Bulgaria as an upper-middle income nation. Its economy is fuelled by
construction, mining, services – which incorporate tourism and agriculture sectors. The word wide
financial downturn ended a run of strong economic growth for the country. Bulgaria has a well-
educated workforce, but unfortunately they receive a low payments (Usnew,2019). According to
Statista, the country’s growth in real GDP in 2019 grew by 3.37 percent, compared to previous years
(Statista,2020).
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The Bulgarian culture it is established on an interesting mixture of Thracian, Slavic and Bulgar
traditions, alongside with the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The population of the
country is seven million, and the middle age for men and women is 43 years old (index mundi,2019).
Development of collection of online financial services. RFID and NFC technology applied in
contactless payments. Widespread E-commerce internet network allocated with max. usage.
Bulgaria claimed the third highest speed of Internet - 1,611KBps8 (Pando Networks, 2011). Also, the
county have computer science and engineering graduate with lower cost and high
performance(Hope,K.,2016).
( Hofstede Insights, 2020)
Comparing the two countries, there are many differences in their culture and the way of
thinking and acting.
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Comparing to UK, Bulgarian country accept power distance, it means that the manager Barclays hire,
must be experienced and take good decisions and the employee will follow his orders. With a score
of 30 is considered a collectivistic society. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the
member ‘group’, be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships (Hofstede Insights,
2020).
.
United Kingdom is considered as a more individual culture, where the employee is feeling
free to say and do things differently (Hofstede,2020).
The objective of the company are created used the SMART tool, so this will give a clear view
to the company and make them achievable by specific time.
The company will focus on the demographic segment and the reason of that is Bulgarians
individuals who are working, are taking loans state the National Bank Statistics (Novinite,2019).
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To achieve its goals Barclays will use Porter Generic Strategies, because the country is a middle-
income nation and the market it is competitive (Banks in Bulgaria,2018).
Cost leadership will allow to the company to target the individuals who are sensitive with the price
of a product or service.
Differentiation will allow to the company to satisfy its customers by creating value and attain brand
reputation.
Because the company is expanding in a new country but with the same product , on its best interest
is to use market development from Ansoff Matrix.
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With Internationalization entry mode Barclays will enter in the country in hierarchical mode
because of the high control advantage (Anglia Ruskin,2020).
Price differentiation Barclays will position its self, because even in UK the bank its offering
competitive prices and great product.
Barclays will use the three P’s of marketing in its tactic.
Barclays choose to have same products, because the immigrants Bulgarian in UK are familiar with
the bank and this is an advantage for it. According to the PEST analysis of the country the price will
adopt low price. Also, the bank will have brick and mortal and online banking as the population have
a developed technology, but still some individual prefer face to face banks (Statista 2019).
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This actions will help Barclays to compete its objectives.
Looking at company’s data collected from the specific department, will help analyse if Barclays has
meet its objective target (Barclays,2019).
The reason for choosing Bulgaria country, after the PEST analysis, discovered the cultural bias of the
country to have a loan or credit card it is widespread in the country (Bulgarian National Bank,2019).
Also, Barclays, as a bank, always has offered variable prices to its customers, so there is a need for
high value at low prices (Barclays,2019). Also, the country is economically stable, with potential
growth for the future. Moreover, the country is technologically developed, and this is an advantage
for Barclays company (Hope, K.,2016). Barclays company has an excellent reputation in the UK, and
the Bulgarian migrants might be happy to make international payments from the Barclays app with
no charge to its own country (Barclays Reviews,2020). Besides, in the country, English is widely
spoken, so this will be a plus when it comes to communication. Finally, the low operating cost and
the skilled staff will help the company to keep its cost low and to invest in other parts of the
business. All these reasons above are giving a high potential to Barclays company to expand in the
country and achieve its objective and goals and receive profit (Gov.UK,2020).
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