7BSP1085-Marketing Plan: Hertfordshire Business School Across Cultures

This report outlines a comprehensive marketing plan for Hertfordshire Business School's expansion into Chile, emphasizing the critical role of cross-cultural management. It begins with an external analysis using the PEST tool, assessing Chile's political, economic, social, and technological landscape. An internal SWOT analysis identifies the school's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then delves into the cultural differences between the United Kingdom and Chile, utilizing Hofstede's cultural dimensions to highlight key variations in individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and other factors. Based on these analyses, the report proposes a marketing mix strategy, focusing on the seven P's: product adaptation to local needs, strategic placement considering accessibility, a price skimming strategy reflecting high-quality service, targeted promotion through various channels, maintaining high physical evidence standards, efficient processes for service delivery, and careful selection of multilingual personnel. The report concludes that managing cultural differences is paramount for successful international marketing and business operations.

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MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES
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1-9-2019

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Contents
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
2.0 Marketing plan.....................................................................................................................3
2.1 External analysis..............................................................................................................3
2.2 Internal analysis...............................................................................................................4
2.3 Cultural difference...........................................................................................................6
2.4 Marketing theory..............................................................................................................7
3.0 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................11
4.0 References..........................................................................................................................12
5.0 Appendix............................................................................................................................14
SWOT Table........................................................................................................................14

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1.0 Introduction
International marketing is conducting the business across the border, which needs to develop
a well suitable and structured international marketing plan. There are various aspects that
need to be decided and analyzed for entering into the international boundaries. The initial
step to conduct is environmental analysis, where the business is to be done, that can be done
through a tool, which is the PEST analysis tool. Next step in developing the plan is to analyze
the internal analysis (businessjargons, 2018).
For going international, an organization must have specific strategies related to every aspect,
and for which it is necessary to understand the cultural differences of the home and the host
country. Therefore, the report for this marketing plan will focus on margining the cultures of
the two different nation. The organization for this report, for detail understanding of cultural
difference and the marketing strategies, while entering into another nation is Hertfordshire
Business School entering into Chile (Alvesson, 2016)
Hertfordshire Business School is a section of the University of Hertfordshire, based in the
United Kingdom. Due to the stability in the product life cycle of the organization, it decided
to expand the business in another nation, Chile, which this report will consider to develop an
marketing plan and understand the cultural difference (herts, 2018).

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2.0 Marketing plan
2.1 External analysis
The initial stage of the plan is to assess the external environment of the nation where the
organization is entering. This is an essential stage, as the company will be existing and will
affect the external environment of Chile. For this purpose, the PEST tool would be applied
2.1.1 PEST analysis
The four factors to consider to analyze the environment of Chile is:
Political
The political environment of Chile is supportive and favorable in terms of education. This
would be a plus point for Hertfordshire Business School to invest in Chile for the education
sector (Chung, 2015)
Economic
The society of Chile is majorly focused over education as a base for economic growth of the
country. Moreover, the expenditure on education is very high by the nation

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Figure 1: Expenditure on education for all levels of education combined, EU-28 and Chile, 2002–12 (Source: (ec.europa,
2018)
Social
For higher education in Chile, only local community takes the responsibility. This could be a
challenge for the organization to enter (Ho, 2014)
Technological
Use of advanced technology is there, even in the education sector. Therefore, the organization
has to be upgraded in order to sustain (Trivedi, 2016)
2.2 Internal analysis
2.2.1 SWOT analysis
2.2.1.1 Strengths
 Customer database – the existing customer base of the organization is very large,
which means the company is good in building relationships as a strength
 Profitable industry – the educational industry has political and social support, which
makes it a very profitable industry, and favorable for the school to invest further
(Bull & Sitas, 2016)

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2.2.1.2 Weakness
 Cultural difference – the cultural difference in two countries that is the United
Kingdom and Chile is very much, which makes the business difficult to run in the
host nation
 Market knowledge – as already noticed, the difference in both the nations, is high and
the school has great knowledge in the United Kingdom, but when it comes to Chile,
the organization does not have a great market knowledge. This will make the process
time and cost consuming (Bach, 2017)
2.2.1.3 Opportunities
 Competitive advantage – the organization can gain a competitive advantage because
until now, there is no school who has entered into Chile (Burdo, 2018)
2.2.1.4 Threats
 New entrants – the threat to the new entrants from the local community of Chile is
another threat to the company. This could become a large competitor in the future, as
this could create a favorable selection by the residents from Chile.
 International educational laws – the educational system and laws of all the nations are
different, and it can be changed for the international market any time, which tends to
be one of the threats to the company
 The first mover – since the organization is the first one in this industry to invest in
Chile, it could be difficult to sustain. The first mover can be advantageous but it has
cons as well associated with this feature that is the organization cannot learn from
other’s experience, it has to face all the uncertain problems itself (Ang & Rusli,
2018)

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2.3 Cultural difference
Another aspect is to understand the cultural difference of Chile and the United Kingdom, for
this purpose Hofstede’s cultural model would be used. The facts related to the six dimensions
of this model of the United Kingdom and Chile are in the figure below
Figure 2: Source: (Hofstede’s-insights, 2018)
 The society of Chile is very much interested in life quality, which means education
sector would be strong, and caring nature is there for each other, this can be said due
to the low score from the figure in the dimension of individualism, whereas United
kingdom score for the same is very high
 The need for the rule and regulations, and strictness in the legal system is essential in
Chile, this can be said through the high score of uncertainty avoidance cultural
dimension (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016)
 The society of Chile is more towards the group that is they are concern about their
relatives, friends, and family other than just themselves. This can be said by the
individualism dimension, which is low from the figure (hofstede-insights, 2018)

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2.4 Marketing theory
After analyzing the external and internal environment of Hertfordshire Business School, and
understanding the difference in the culture of both the nations, it will be structured to decide
on the most suitable strategies of Hertfordshire Business School, based on a marketing mix
theory (Forwardfocusinc, 2018). Seven P’s of the marketing mix will be discussed in order to
understand the entering strategies of the Hertfordshire Business School, which comes under
the service industry
2.4.1 Marketing mix
1. Product
The first and most important aspect is a product, which includes what the organization
is offering to the customer. In this case, providing education to customers are the base
of the product factor of Hertfordshire Business School. The product line of the
Hertfordshire Business School includes various courses like graduate courses running
in the United Kingdom are nine, postgraduate course are fifteen in number, and three
research or doctorate degrees. For Chile, the courses would be similar in name,
although the organization to make the courses suitable for their nation, add the
Spanish language other than the English (Chari & Feng, 2018)
Moreover, considering the product strategy for the same will be as follows:
Product adaption – this strategy of marketing suitable for the Hertfordshire Business
School is adaption strategy instead of the standardized strategy. The reason for the
same is the cultural difference. There is a large difference in the cultural value of both
the nation. The language is different, religion is different, beliefs are different.
Therefore, it would be suitable for the organization to adopt the local values of Chile.
Chile is an education focused nation where for the postgraduates, only the local
community is indulged. This would be the first time an international company is

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investing. The reason was the difficulty in adopting the standardized strategy for the
organization. Therefore for Hertfordshire Business School, it is recommended to
adopt the adaption strategy while providing the educational services. This would
include the detailed understanding of the requirement of the students and their
preference to gain the education, and the same will be adapted by Hertfordshire
Business School (business.qld.gov, 2018)
2. Place – another aspect in the marketing mix is to decide on the location of the
physical premises of the school and where the product or service will be served.
Considering the location, the decision of the location will be decided through the
transportation approachability and infrastructure of the nation. This means that a
centralized location, where it is not difficult for the student to reach.
Another approach to distributing the service is through online. The location of the
premise was fixed for the traditional method of gaining knowledge, and another
approach that will be used is the use of technology. The reason being the
technological environment of the nation is upgrading and utilized very often. And for
sustain the competitive advantage in Chile it is important to reach out to students
online (chiefoutsiders, 2018)
3. Price – the price includes the annual fees by the students, this would be set a bit high
from the local communities, the reason being the high cost in investing in another
country and providing high-quality service. Therefore it can be said that it is
beneficial for the organization to adopt a price skimming pricing strategy. Moreover,
another reason for the same is that Hertfordshire Business School will be the first
organization to invest into Chile in the education sector in international organization
and the product differentiation, the organization can demand a high price, and can
target high-income group students (CultureWizard, 2018)

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4. Promotion – next is promoting the organization in the new market and create the
customer base. The promotion has to be initiated well before entering into the nation,
the reason being creating the brand positioning as high quality education for the
residents of Chile. The promotional tool is to be attractive and extensive promotion
must be done to attract the customers. The tools could be the sales promotion which
could include the scholarship exam for the students and provide less amount for
education, due to the capability of the student. This will help in students and their
parents to indulge in the school and it will promote the school name. moreover, other
promotional tools could be the advertisement, through social media platforms, which
are most popular especially in a nation with high technological use, through printed
media, that is hoardings and newspapers, and through pamphlets (Adam & Kotler,
2014)
5. Physical evidence – this is the physical appearance of the service provided. This could
include the premises, which needs to be maintained to a high level as the perception
created for Hertfordshire Business School is of high quality and luxury in the study.
Moreover, additional facilities like library, sports education, and co-curricular
activities are to be focused by the school as well (Allen, 2017)
6. Process – the process is the system to provide the services. As already discussed the
medium is the traditional system, where the students have to be attentive to the school
to gain an education, and other was through online or distance education. The
management system and another process of work is different for both the nation,
which makes it more difficult (Burdo, 2018)
7. People – people is the factor which is most important in the education industry as it is
the service for which the students are paying. This could include the teachers,
directors, principals, and so on. Moreover, deciding on this factor is difficult due to

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the language difference of both the nations. The teacher must have the capability to
teach in English and Spanish, which makes the recruitment process more difficult for
the organization to enter into Chile (Allen, 2017)

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3.0 Conclusion
From the report, it can be said that for international marketing and managing the business, it
is important for the leader and the organization to manage the different culture that is the
culture different from the home country. For this purpose, Hertfordshire Business School
cultural difference in UK, and Chile, where the company is expanding was taken into
account. Marketing plan was prepared for Hertfordshire Business School to serve into the
international market that is Chile. The PEST analysis was done to assess the environment of
Chile for education industry to expand. It can be concluded that the political system is stable
in the Chile, and people expenditure is high in case of Education, which makes the project of
expansion feasible for Hertfordshire Business School. Moreover, the company will consider
the technological fast moving environment of Chile while developing marketing strategies.
While developing marketing mix for Hertfordshire Business School in Chile, it included
product adaption strategy, centralized placing and online providing services strategy, price
skimming strategy, adaptive process strategy, and local recruitment strategy, who is able to
speak and understand English and Spanish language. Moreover due to high quality product,
the target customer would be high income group. Lastly, for understanding the cultural
differences, Hofstede’s theory of culture was utilized.