BAE Systems: An International Sales and Marketing Strategy Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the international sales and marketing strategy of BAE Systems, a British multinational defense and information security company, as it aims to expand its cybersecurity services into Germany. The report covers key economic terms related to international marketing, different types of overseas representative arrangements, and the role of culture and ethics in international selling. It identifies and justifies an international sales and marketing strategy for a specific product or service, discusses governmental forces and trading restrictions, and evaluates the effect of worldwide sourcing and buying alliances on the organization's export marketing activities. The analysis incorporates online marketing, social media strategies, and ethical considerations, providing a comprehensive overview of the factors influencing BAE Systems' international expansion.

INTERNATIONAL SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY
ABSTRACT
With the advent of different technologies and
typologies to run a business, the business
operations have drastically changes according to
the market situations and the capabilities of the
business. Here, with the aim to understand the
international sales and marketing strategy of a
cyber security company is highlighted with
relevant topics and a deep knowledge to
understand the aspects involved. The document
involves the BAE Systems which is a British cyber
security company and is planning for growth
internationally with the motive to serve people all
around the globe.

Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2
BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY AND CASE SCENARIO................................................................3
LO1 CRITICALLY COMMENTING ON THE KEY ECONOMIC TERMS RELATING TO INTERNATIONAL
MARKETING AND SELLING FOR BAE SYSTEMS................................................................................4
LO2 ANALYSING AND CRITICALLY COMMENTING ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF OVERSEAS
REPRESENTATIVE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SELLING FOR THE ORGANISATION
.........................................................................................................................................................6
LO3 EVALUATING THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND ETHICS IN INTERNATIONAL SELLING FOR THE
ORGANISATION................................................................................................................................8
LO4 IDENTIFYING AND JUSTIFYING AN INTERNATIONAL SALE AND MARKETING STRATEGY FOR A
SPECIFIC PRODUCT OR SERVICE FOR THE ORGANISATION...........................................................10
LO5 CRITICALLY DISCUSSING GOVERNMENTAL FORCES AND RELEVANT TRADING RESTRICTIONS
THAT MAY IMPACT THE ORGANISATIONS SALES AND MARKETING EFFORTS..............................15
LO6 EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF WORLDWIDE SOURCING AND BUYING ALLIANCES ON THE
CHOSEN ORGANISATION’S EXPORT MARKETING ACTIVITIES.......................................................17
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................20
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Table of Figures
Figure 1: GDP of Germany...............................................................................................................6
Figure 2: Novel Technology..........................................................................................................12
Figure 3: Product Dimension.........................................................................................................13
Figure 4: Product Decision Process................................................................................................15
Figure 5: Factors affecting the International Sales and Marketing...............................................16
Table of tables
Table 1: Laser Incident Data..........................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
With the initial steps of the 21st century, the globalisation has been increased tremendously and
the present businesses are emerging with new business trends and concepts to make a more
effective market value among others. International sales and marketing strategies are the
concepts that are generally used by the large established companies so that they can explore
new markets and eventually expand their business. there are several economic terms that are
related with the international sales with the different types of representative arrangements.
Whereas, there is also a major role of the culture and ethics in this concept so, this particular
assignment will be going to include all these aspects of international sales and marketing with a
detailed marketing strategy for a product or a service of the BAE Systems. In addition to this,
the effectiveness of the worldwide sourcing will also be analysed at last.
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BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY AND CASE SCENARIO
BAE Systems is a British multinational defence and information security company which also
works in aerospace systems. The company is headquartered at London, UK and is amongst the
top 10 cybersecurity companies and the world’s largest defence companies. In terms of
revenues, it stands on 3rd position, it also operates in the UK with its subsidiaries and also
present in India, Australia, Saudi Arabia which helps the company in attaining around 20% of its
revenue from outside UK (BAE Systems, 2018). The company has partnerships with the industry
and academic leaders to innovate and come up with future technologies, they have products
and services for air, land and sea defence systems with cybersecurity and intelligence
operations.
International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox under the government of UK and allies has launched
on cyber securities and export strategy so that they can promote their world-class capabilities
and expertise in defence mechanisms. After the recent cyber-attacks in the NATO countries has
raises the concerns regarding the integral data security, and hence they want to ensure the
best possible safety in their and allied countries. Fox also described that this strategy will help
UK's cybersecurity companies to deliver better systems for their international buyers. The past
year’s cyber exports were able to make £1.5bn which are directing to increase by £759 billion
by 2021 (Gov.UK, 2018). The Cyber Security Export strategy has made 3 commitments for the
Department of International Trade (DIT); pursue, enable and respond. With this strategy, the
BAE Systems is aiming at increasing its market share and serve a new country initially which is
decided to provide the international cyber securities in Germany as it is also very fast and
focused in increasing its technology and protect cyber-attacked in their country.
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LO1 CRITICALLY COMMENTING ON THE KEY ECONOMIC
TERMS RELATING TO INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AND
SELLING FOR BAE SYSTEMS
For any business, the international sales and marketing strategies should be accompanied with
several theories, concepts and strategies that can drive their path successfully and make them
valuable in international markets. With the aim to serve the German people and industries and
save them from the dire cyber attacks and save the data breaching of the country. The UK
government has made a very firm internal growth strategy for their intelligence businesses and
cybersecurity providing businesses like BAE systems. At present, the economy of the UK and
Germany are quite stable and hence there is a great opportunity for the BAE systems to expand
their business in Germany. In this notion to expand the business in Germany, the government
of the UK is helping them by making effective international trade strategies which make the
operations of the companies easier with simple policies and norms.
In addition to this, the German government is also very helpful for those businesses which can
help them in attaining some specific benefits for the government or their people. Here with the
facilities to protect the data from cyber-attacks, BAE systems has to deal with some economic
terms that are related with the international sales and marketing of the products and services
like technology to protect pilots from laser attacks, military aircrafts, digital railway, geospatial
intelligence capabilities etc. (BAE Systems, News, 2017). These economic factors are shown
below:
Supply and Demand – this is one of the most important economic factor that is related with the
international sales and marketing as even a company like BAE systems is able to plan their
business expansion in Germany, without an effective supply chain the business cannot be
performed successfully and the flaws that might occur would have been severe for the overall
strategy of the company. the present supply chain of the BASE systems is very impressive as
they are serving major countries with the defence and intelligence systems like India, Australia,
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Saudi Arabia. Now, in Germany with the aim to trade internationally, they should focus on more
effective supply chain management and strategies.
Financial transactions and Banking – the current scenario of the banking and financial systems
in UK and Germany are very advanced and hence there will be no issues regarding this
economic factor that might hinder a list of businesses. With the effective transaction systems,
Bae systems can easily trade with Germany with very low risks.
Per Capita Income – at present, the per capita income of the German people is around the US
$46750 (Trade Economics, 2018). According to the facts and figures, the graph of the GDP of
Germany is continuously increasing and hence it would be great for the BAE systems as they
can provide the amount BAE is looking for in exchange of the best cybersecurity systems.
Figure 1: GDP of Germany
Source: [Trade Economics, World Bank, 2018]
Forex – The Foreign Trade and Payments Act Germany is very effective in welcoming the new
businesses and for the case of cybersecurity systems in the country it will be more beneficial for
the people and the government also (GTAI, 2018).
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These are some of the major economic terms that are related to the international sales and
marketing of the BAS systems.
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LO2 ANALYSING AND CRITICALLY COMMENTING ON
DIFFERENT TYPES OF OVERSEAS REPRESENTATIVE
ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SELLING FOR
THE ORGANISATION
For analysing the different types of overseas representative arrangements that are using in the
international selling purpose in a different organization, we have to evaluate the direct and
contemporary sales and marketing strategies (Brandenburg, 2016). Also, the tools that are used
in direct and online marketing techniques need to be analysed. Following are some of them
that are used by BAE systems are as follows:
Online marketing: it can be defined as the technique in which marketing is done over the
internet with the help of various tools and techniques. BAE systems are marketing online
through its website which is helpful in providing a platform to reach its customers. Through its
website, the marketing executives are promoting online advertisement through which the
overseas customers can be attracted and focused (Brandenburg, 2016). Emails, online videos
and blogs are also posted on the website in order to promote the products and services that
are offered by the BAE Systems. The marketing website of the company is also helpful in
making proper interaction with different customers as they are helpful in identifying the needs
and demands of the customers. Online websites are also helpful in moving the customers
towards direct purchase. In the modern ear, online marketing is preferred over traditional
marketing because it can save the cost and time of visiting different clients and countries (Urry,
2016).
Social commerce is one of the most common and useful aspects of online marketing and is a
subset of e-commerce. In this process, social media are used for buying and selling of different
products and services (Hajli, 2015). Social commerce policies of Germany are helpful here in
BAE systems to get security products and services developed in that place.
Social Media: in order to expand the services in Germany and to provide security services like
weapons and military technologies to the BAE systems are using social media, which is a tool
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and service that is using the internet to facilitate conversations to overseas customers. Social
Media are also helpful to the company to connect to Germany and identify their requirements
properly (Hudson et al. 2016).
Social Media tools and platforms: the consumers like BAE systems are using Social Media like
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Technorati for social networking, photos and videos sharing,
communicating and blog tracking. Social Medias are also allowing the consumers to connect
with each other, share options and collaborate on new ideas according to their individual
interests. This is also the same for the BAE systems as it is also allowing its marketers to have a
conversation with the overseas consumers that are also engaged in the military services. Social
Medias also develop deeper communication with them and build brand loyalty in the
customers' mind (Ngai et al. 2015). BAE systems are using social Medias in their business
environment as it is having the following objectives:
 Building string relationship with customers
 Building awareness in the mind of customers
 Helpful in promoting military services and products in the market
 Managing the reputation of the company (Tuten and Solomon, 2017)
 Helpful in improving overseas’ customer services
Medias sharing sites are also helpful in international selling as it is allowing the users to upload
and distribute multimedia content such as photos and videos through online websites.
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LO3 EVALUATING THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND ETHICS IN
INTERNATIONAL SELLING FOR THE ORGANISATION
Culture and ethics both are playing a very essential part in international selling for an
organization. This is because; company’s employees mainly the managers and representatives
have to deal with a large number of people with different culture and ethical values. For
example, the managers have to manage the supply chain of different countries every month
and for that, they have to master themselves in cross-cultural competencies (Deresky, 2017).
This is helpful in providing a sustainable competitive advantage to the companies like BAE
systems.
Following are the major roles and importance of ethics and culture in international businesses
and their selling procedures:
Ethical behaviour combines skills and professionalism in selling which is able to ensure a
sustainable development at the workplace which is more beneficial than the short-term profits.
Ethical behaviour in selling ensures awareness and concern for future development and
advancement; this is because it is helpful in taking a right action in the right time.
Ethical behaviour and culture are helpful in establishing a healthy and pleasant cooperative
climate at the workplace. This is helpful for all the parties that are participating in the dealing
process (Kumar and Steinmann, 2015). For example, BAE systems have to focus on different
cultures and ethical values of different countries to which it is selling its military services and
products. In order to develop services in Germany, it needs to analyse Germany's culture as the
first priority which will be helpful to feel them comfortable with each other.
In order to focus on a diverse range of clients and to get their attention and support, it is very
important to understand their values and culture. This is also helpful for BAE systems to achieve
a competitive advantage in a particular market segment in the international market (Hummel,
2012).
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A proper understanding of the culture and ethics of a particular place id helpful in limiting the
possibility of ethical issues at that be observed by BAE systems in selling its products in
international markets:
 Employment practices: it is very important to apply home and country’s standards in the
business, but it is only possible if the work conditions between both of them are clearly
determined and understandable to each other (Chang and Lin, 2015).
For example, the expansion of BAE systems in Germany is only possible if the employment
practices are implemented in a systematic manner.
 Human rights: in the international selling procedures, freedom of association, speech,
assembly and movement are taken into consideration.
 Environmental regulations: these issues arise in international selling procedures when
the environmental regulations of the host nations are far inferior to that of the home
nation. Because of the production of military and security products, BAE systems need
to focus on the environmental regulation in its international selling techniques.
 Corruption
 The moral obligation of multinational companies (Byju, 2015)
There are various philosophical approaches to ethics and culture that can be used in the
international selling processes of BAE systems. For example, Straw men approach, Friedman
doctrine, Cultural relativism, the righteous moralist approach, the naïve immoralist, Utilitarian
and Kantian Ethics, right and justice theories, etc. (Hendry and Dickson, 2018).
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