Global Marketing Strategy Report: Assael Architecture in China

This report analyzes the global marketing strategy for Assael Architecture Ltd, a UK-based architecture company, aiming to enter the Chinese market. It begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by an introduction discussing cultural influences on marketing and consumer behavior. The report provides a company description and then delves into market research theories, including consumer and B2B marketing research, and qualitative and quantitative approaches. It explores market selection procedures, emphasizing the importance of growth potential. A significant portion of the report examines the macro environment of China, including political, economic, social, technological, and cultural factors. It highlights cultural differences using Hofstede's model and discusses their impact on consumer behavior. The report concludes that the Chinese construction market is promising for Assael Architecture Ltd, recommending strategic adjustments to marketing approaches to align with Chinese culture. The report stresses the need for online marketing, sales, and branding to successfully penetrate the Chinese market.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY
MARKETING STRATEGY
Name of the student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to analyse the global marketing strategy apt for an architecture
company based in the UK. After getting numerous appreciation from the various
organisations in the home country, the company decided to enter the global market. The
report has discussed the market research theories and found effective approach of marketing
in the target market. It also analysed macro environment including cultural differences that
influence the consumer behaviour as well as segmentation. The report concluded with the
identification of the shortcomings in the company’s marketing strategies which need to be
altered for entering the global market.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Company description:............................................................................................................3
Findings analysis........................................................................................................................4
Market research theories:.......................................................................................................4
Market selection:....................................................................................................................5
Macro environment:...............................................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................8
Recommendation:......................................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................11
Appendices:..............................................................................................................................13
Introduction:

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The report aims to discuss different social as well as cultural conventions that
influence the marketing approaches of the company and the buying behaviour. It discusses
the operations of the company briefly then critically evaluate the global marketing strategies
with support of various theories and approaches. The report finds and analyses the reason of
selecting the market of China for having great potential, all the factors affecting the consumer
segmentation and behaviour. The report finally concludes with the recommendation that the
company must bring changes in its strategies to adjust the different culture of Chinese
market.
For such a company like Assael Architecture Ltd, forming global marketing strategies
has been proved to be easy (Sui and Sun 2016). After serving many companies and
organizations as well as government in planning and designing construction, this company
has decided to enter the global market. For this reason, it has found China to be a potential
country with having great prospect for the urban development planning to prosper. Therefore,
the company needs to have strong and efficient marketing strategies that will attract
its intended audience.
Company description:
Assael Architecture Ltd has been providing architectural services for more than 20
years in the UK. The company offers a range of urban design and master planning. This
company is 70th largest architectural practice out of the 100 largest architecture companies in
the UK. The principle studios of this firm is located in London (Assael.co.uk, 2018).
Operating from the modern design studios located in London, this firm works nationally as
well as internationally in the leisure, residential and mixed-use sectors. The company is
certified with internationally recognised quality as well as environmental management
system. Assael Architecture Ltd offers full architecture support services starting from
preparation, designing and construction. It offers concept designing and technical designing

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in forming the master planning services. This firm employs lead consultants, contract
administrators and employer’s agents who assist the lead designer as well as architect.
Findings analysis:
Market research theories:
Before the company makes any move to its marketing strategies, it needs to introduce
an effective market research. This will help the company to support budgeting and decision
making for its new products and services. It will also help in identifying efficient market
entry modes, marketing communications as well as customer initiatives (Li and Liu 2014).
There are various marketing theories on marketing research. It is often segregated into two
sets of definite pairs, either by the target market or, alternatively using the methodological
approach. In analysing the target market the company needs consumer marketing research
and Business-to-business (B2B) marketing research. The methodological approach includes
Qualitative and Quantitative marketing research.
The qualitative approach is adapted to suit the psychology of the market research.
Through this approach the marketers and the advertisers realise the actors affecting the
consumer behaviour about a product. This approach includes identity theories in which the
companies can identify the trends and needs of the consumers. There is a practical
implication of this theory that helps the markets to construct consumer profiles which is the
base of market segmentation (Babin and Zikmund 2015). Applying cognitive theory to the
qualitative market research makes it easy for both the research participants as well as the
marketers because this allow them to frame questions that provide relevant answers instead of
superficial.
On the other hand, the qualitative marketing research theories help the companies to
utilise easy techniques for marketing. Quantitative approach has positivist view that combines

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with the modern marketing perspectives and involve the seller and the buyer in an interactive
process through which they reach a substantial agreement. This theory supports the validity
of four Ps such as price, product, place and promotion. However, the critics like Sekaran and
Bougie (2016), have argued that this method may lead to different types of errors originated
from random sampling, research designing and hypothesis errors.
Thus, marketing research can be described as systematic as well as objective
identification, assortment, analysis finally dissemination of the information for assisting
management of the companies in their decision making process related to identify
opportunities in marketing and find solution to various problems (Watson et al. 2018).
Market selection:
Selection of market is an important step for identifying the market entry modes and
then invest. One of the major criteria that greatly influence the marketing and sustenance of
the company in global market, is the proper judgement of growth potential of selected market
(Chang, Luo and Ren 2014). This will help the company to grow its revenues by investing in
that particular market. Market selection procedures can be conducted by
following some steps:
1. Determination of the objectives of market selection
2. Determination of the parameters used for the market selection
3. conduction a preliminary screening of the selected markets
4. A thorough investigation of screening will help on short listing best
markets
5. Evaluation of the shortlisted markets then selection of one or two
The limits for selection of market is either the company related issues
or the market related one. Company related issues chiefly depend upon the

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company’s strategies and objectives in one hand. On the other hand, the
market related issues include analysis of market environment especially
demand, supply, distribution chain and competition level (see appendix C). In
addition to these factors, the companies’ marketing research for apt selection
gets influenced by the country’s economic policy, business regulations,
ethnic factors. In addition to this, there are political factors like currency
stability, infrastructure and the country’s bureaucracy.
Macro environment:
As the company aims to enter the Chinese market, it needs to judge the macro
environmental factor of the market. China is a developing economy that attracts foreign
investment through brilliant market opportunities (Ngai et al. 2015). It offers considerable
savings in the labour costs, but the companies must aware of the differences in factors that
often create risks and pose indecision for the foreign investors.
Political factors:
The people’s republic of China is a socialist country led by the working class. The
government is encompassed with the systems of congresses of people and political party
system under the political consultation of the country’s communist party (Yang et al. 2014).
They participate in country's basic policies as well as take responsibilities in important
matters in economic, political, cultural as well as social affairs before adoption of any
decision and their implementation. Therefore, there has been a high growth in economy since
1978 and offered huge opportunity for educational sector, employment, job as well as
housing choices and cultural pursuits along with access to information. However, in recent
years, riots have taken place in various parts of the country that has created an unstable
condition for the foreign investment (Yu and Liao 2017). However, the government has taken

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firm measures for preventing such situation and create safe environment for the foreign
investors.
Economic factors:
China has an open market since 1978 and it has converted its economy into market-
oriented one. This method has positive impact not only on one particular country’s market
but all the markets over the world. The financial reforms that China has executed over past 2
decades, have intensely affected both the individual initiatives as well as entrepreneurship
(Lien and Cao 2014). As the result average income of the people has reached to the highest
level reducing poverty level. The government of China has promoted more self-management
for the state-owned enterprises to increase the competition in markets. This steps have created
opportunities for its domestic enterprise to contact directly to the foreign ones. In addition to
this, there has been a sharp growth in the foreign exchange reserves for increased import
export. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) manage the FDI
investment in Chinese economy (see appendix B).
Social factors:
China has a population over 1.3 billion which has concerned the government. The
Chinses government has attempted to stabilise the growth and utilise this population for the
growth of the country. Aiming to use the population prudently, the government has decided
to provide necessary training and education so that this population may help the companies to
build a huge and efficient workforce (Van Wormer and Besthorn 2017). The economy of the
country has been influenced through the consumer lifestyles, education, collectivistic culture
and surging disparity between the rich and the poor as well as between the urban and the rural
areas. This factor can be one of interesting factors for the country’s economic growth.
Technological factors:

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Due to high population, the country has built a huge market for the foreign investors.
There are 420 million internet users which is still growing. In addition to this, the science
strategists have realized that China can gain the greatest opportunities in the technology fields
which creates a scope for innovation in these areas (Luo et al. 2015).
Cultural factors:
The culture of the UK and China is completely different from each other. In this
section, the Hofstede’s cultural model can be used to judge the deep drivers of the Chinese
culture in respect to those of the culture of another country. In power distance dimension and
uncertainty avoidance the county score high which means that there is a gap between the
leaders and the employees of an organization and people of China are not comfortable with
the unknown situation but need assurance (Beugelsdijk, Kostova and Roth 2017).
The culture supports the idea of collectivism where the people promote relationship
and high long term orientation (see appendix A). They show capability to adapt traditions to
the changed situations. China unlike western countries has restrained society and provide less
support on the leisure and entertainment. All these factors have affected the consumer
behaviour greatly. The Chinese people are cynic, pragmatic and aware of the new products
(Bakir et al. 2015). Therefore, marketing modes influence their knowledge and regulate their
decision making before buying. Demographic as well as geographic segmentation of the
Chinese market will help the company to attract specific groups.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that the construction and designing market of China
can be a potential market for Assael Architecture Ltd which is based on UK. The analysis of
the findings of the market research reveal that there is a huge scope for the company to
flourish. Moreover, the company has ample experience in conducting a successful business in

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the home country and know approaches of market research. This paper has discussed the
macro environment of the selected market which support foreign investment in the
construction industry. However, there are some cultural differences between the target market
and home market of the company, which can be managed by adopting some strategic changes
of the firm.
Recommendation:
Chinese construction market is one of the largest construction markets in the world.
Therefore, Assael Architecture Ltd can have a good prospect of flourishing in the
international market. In order to penetrate Chinese market, it needs to bring changes in their
marketing strategies but what strategies they have applied on other western countries cannot
be applied on China because the culture and consumer is completely different here.
In entering the market, the company must imply for the online marketing, sales
and branding. As the Chinese people get knowledge about the product they decide to buy
therefore perfect branding is very necessary. In that case the company must have a Chinese
name which will influence the buyers mind and build long term relationship.
In order to understand and reach the Chinese platform the company must assign with
the unique digital ecosystem effective in China. These have active, large and impressionable
audience that will help the firm to reach the consumers easily.
Diversification strategies can be a good choice for the firm to increase its competence,
reduce costs therefore gain a better control over the supply chain. Capital along with labour
productivity can be increased because the firms have opportunity to transfer skills and
developed expertise in one business to another.
Collectivism leads to higher labour productivity and vertical Integration that involve
the firm’s investment in the activities of supply chain. Strategic segmentation of the market

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will help in gaining more control over the market environment and increase knowledge about
the client’s resources.
The company must utilise the belief and iconizing tendency of the Chinese market
where the people believe in perfect competitive tools that help the company to get
recognition, on the other way financial success in China.
Most importantly the company must take assistance from a mediator so that they can
understand all the cultural differences of the home and the Chinese market. This will help the
company to penetrate new market successfully and earn trust of the market to sustain.

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References:
Assael.co.uk (2018). About us | Assael. [online] Assael.co.uk. Available at:
http://www.assael.co.uk/content/about-us [Accessed 3 Mar. 2018].
Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015. Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning.
Bakir, A., Blodgett, J.G., Vitell, S.J. and Rose, G.M., 2015. A preliminary investigation of
the reliability and validity of Hofstede’s cross cultural dimensions. In Proceedings of the
2000 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 226-232). Springer,
Cham.
Beugelsdijk, S., Kostova, T. and Roth, K., 2017. An overview of Hofstede-inspired country-
level culture research in international business since 2006. Journal of International Business
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Chang, E.C., Luo, Y. and Ren, J., 2014. Short-selling, margin-trading, and price efficiency:
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Hofstede-insights.com (2018). Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights. [online] Hofstede
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Mar. 2018].
Li, D.Y. and Liu, J., 2014. Dynamic capabilities, environmental dynamism, and competitive
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