Marketing Plan for Bjorn Borg in the Indian International Market

This report provides a comprehensive marketing plan for Bjorn Borg (BB) to enter the Indian market. It begins with a comparative analysis of adaptation and standardization strategies, highlighting the importance of understanding consumer needs. The report then delves into BB's internal strengths and weaknesses, such as brand recognition and potential weaknesses like tangled organizational structure, followed by an analysis of external opportunities and threats, including a PESTEL analysis of the Indian economy. Competitor analysis, focusing on rivals like Zara and Marks & Spencer, is also included. The report emphasizes the need for effective target positioning and marketing mix strategies, including entry mode strategies. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and recommendations for BB's successful market entry and brand establishment in India.

MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MARKETING PLAN OF BB..........................................................................................................1
1) Comparative analysis of the adaptation and standardisation strategies in international
marketing.....................................................................................................................................1
2) Analysing BB's internal strength and weaknesses in Indian international market.................3
3) Analysing BB's external opportunities and threats in Indian market......................................4
4) BB's competitor analysis in Indian market.............................................................................6
5) Effectively implementing an appropriate target and positioning strategy..............................8
6) Critical analysis of entry mode strategies...............................................................................8
7) Implementing an appropriate international marketing mix strategy for BB...........................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing can be described as a source of communication between the organisation and
the target consumer. It provides the company with a big platform to promote and launch its
product in an effective and impressive way in the hyper competitive corporate environment. In
today's era of globalisation and tough competition, it has become a growing and mandatory
phenomenon to apply exotic marketing strategies in order to maintain winning edge in the global
business scenario (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2010). It helps the business unit to gain the highest
level of customers satisfaction thereby beating the line of its core competitors in a significant
way. With this context, the present report highlights the crucial aspects of marketing strategies
adopted by Bjorn Borg (BB) to enter into new international market, India. The report deals with
creating an appropriate marketing plan for BB which will help the company to successfully
establish its brand in Indian market.
MARKETING PLAN OF BB
1) Comparative analysis of the adaptation and standardisation strategies in international
marketing
It is important for every business organisation to develop effective marketing strategies in
order to enter into new international economy. With this regard, the company lay their significant
concern over applying either the adaptation strategy or the standardisation strategy to gain
competitive image in the new frontier. Adaptation strategy simply reflects the vital aspect of
analysing the essential needs and demands of its core customers in the new economy and
thereafter manufacturing products which helps the company to gain the highest level of customer
satisfaction, trust and loyalty in a significant way (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2010).
However, standardisation strategy emphasises on producing premium and high class products for
standard customers. By applying such strategy the organisation tries to build a strong and classy
brand recognition in the eyes of its audience and focuses on creating a monopolistic market share
by developing innovative products in an exclusive way.
With regard to the present case scenario, BB drives its major concern over entering to
Indian market because of the tactical adaptation of its harmonic culture, competitive
environment, immense scope of market development and high level of integration in context
with international standardisation and adaptation. Global brands usually finds it easy to make
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their step into Indian market through e-commerce. Top leading foreign fashion brands are
entering into the Indian market segment by developing their significant presence in the electronic
and online market segments (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). Leading Indian online retailer,
Amazon has tied up its knot with BB in order to provide it with an exotic platform to sell its
products and gain immense market share in an exotic way. With this context, the concerned
company significantly focuses on adopting effective marketing and strategic measures which
benefits it to enter into Indian market in a successful way. In lieu of this fact, it emphasises on
either building a standardised strategy to gain strong brand image in the eyes of its target market
or maintaining adaptation strategy by producing customer oriented products to gain the highest
level of satisfaction from its core customers.
The recent study on BB reveals the fact that the crucial reason of this UK company to
enter into Indian market is to gain global exposure. The company focuses to market its products
on a global basis thereby producing the products which satisfies the demands of its local
customers. Even if international standardisation and global adaptation tactics brings essential
benefits to the company, the decisions taken on tactical behaviour is not divided into complete
customization and standardisation. Therefore, there exist a matter of concern over these two
separate positions (Hair Jr and Lukas, 2014).
The mention diagram clearly illustrates the reason as to why BB adapt and standardize its
vital elements of marketing mix in the new international frontier.
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2) Analysing BB's internal strength and weaknesses in Indian international market
With a view to establish a strong brand recognition and gain competitive edge in the
Indian international economy, it becomes essential for the said company to gain insight
understanding about its major strength and weaknesses. Doing this will assist the company to
consider its strength with a view to overcome its weaknesses in an exclusive way.
In this regard, the organisation has gained tremendous strength to acquire huge market
share in Indian economy. It posses experienced and skilled business units which will help the BB
to enhance its production and performance in the new international market. Furthermore, the
company is one of the leading foreign retailer brands in the field of designing fashion clothes and
expensive accessories in an impressive way. This strength will assist the said entity to gain high
level of customer satisfaction thereby attaining its strategic position in the fast changing global
environment (Gummesson, 2011). Apart from this, the company has a strong and positive brand
recognition in UK which successfully helps BB to gain an exotic brand image thereby beating its
tough line of competitors in a significant way. Also, the concerned corporation posses high
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Illustration 1: Standardization reasons of BB company in India
(Source : Malhotra, 2010 )

market growth along with immense market share in UK. This develops a strong goodwill for the
company and helps it to build customer loyalty, trust and commitment in Indian economy.
Even though BB have all these strengths in a significant way, the company still have to
consider its major weaknesses before implementing a strategic change in its organisational
structure. The crucial weaknesses which BB posses includes low investments in research and
development programmes, tangled tax structure and small business units (Hair, 2010). All such
weaknesses may lead the organisation towards the sudden downfall in the new international
market. Therefore, it is highly advisable for the company to lay its significant concern over its
weaknesses and thereafter takes a major decision to invest abroad.
As the Indian market posses a cultural and diversified environment, it is important for BB
to consider these elements before establishing its business in India. Since the company deals with
products based on fashion outlets and expensive garments, it tries to build its image in the top
fashion retail company in India. The company's major strength like its mission, values and
vision, its brand recognition, high quality products along with high buying power helps the
organisation to beat its line of competitors in Indian economy. However, its weaknesses like its
lack of existence in India and tangled organisational structure should be taken into consideration
while entering into Indian market segments (Wilson and et.al., 2012).
Apart from this, BB is highly recommended to focus its significant concern over the
market size and development of India. For this, it should clearly understand the Indian market in
a significant way and manufactures product which satisfies the core demand of its customers
impressively (Under Armour: A Short SWOT Analysis, 2015). Since the said market highly
contributes middle class people, therefore BB should focus on designing its products in
accordance with the needs and requirements of the concerned group of people in a systematic
way.
3) Analysing BB's external opportunities and threats in Indian market
With a view to gain a strong and fascinating competitive edge in the international
economy, BB should lay its major concern over critically analysing and evaluating its external
opportunities and threats in a significant way. The vital opportunities that BB may grab in India
includes the interest of Indian population in western brands, the popularity and craze for fashion
outlets, huge market for the western products along with the diversified and broad features of
Indian citizens. However, the company also posses some vital threats which broadly includes
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high barriers to entry, tangled global norms, developed competition with major retail brands like
Zara, Debenhams, Marks &Spencer etc.
With regard to such external opportunities and threats, the company also lays its concern
over analysing the political, social and economic factors of India in order to avoid the downturn
in its new business frontiers (De Mooij, 2013).
PESTEL analysis of Indian economy Political factors- There exist a structural and democratic government structure which
shows positive signs of stability in its political environment. The exotic and impressive
government policies serves tremendous opportunities for the overall growth and
development of an organisation. It also gives positive vibes to foreign brands to invest in
India with a view to increase its overall revenue and foreign currencies in a significant
way. Such a fascinating government policies opens gate for BB to successfully establish
its brand within the country (Assignment%20#1 under armour pest industry analysis,
2011). However, terrorism and unfair relations with its neighbouring countries have
always been a dilemma, which makes India an unsafe country from the business point of
view (Sheth, 2011). Economic factors- The economic conditions of India shows a stable sign in terms of its
Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A recent study disclosed the fact that the country's
public debt constitutes to around 57% of its GDP which is almost closer to the statistics
of US economy that is 54% of its GDP. However, its poor infrastructure is a major threat
to the country's growth and development. The country is ranked 6th for maintaining an
appropriate and huge reserves of gold and foreign exchange. It reflects that India provides
a significant platform to foreign brands to continue their operations in Indian territorial in
a systematic way. This phenomenon helps BB to launch its new outlet in the Indian
international market in an impressive manner. Social factors- The social factors broadly includes the culture, preferences and tastes of
its audience. In this regard the company posses a diversified and traditional culture but
somewhere the taste and preferences of its young generation tends towards western
fashion and outfits. Considering this fact the company should focus on establishing
exclusive range of its product for teenage group impressively.
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 Technological factors- India is slightly backward in technological aspect as it does not
maintain its pace with the technological advancements. The country lacks in such factors
and therefore, it can prove to be a major threat to BB to launch its stores in Indian market.
Figure 1: PESTEL Analysis Environmental factors- There exist a highly sustainable environment in India.
Considering this fact, the concerned organisation should significantly focus on the flora
and fauna of the economy in order to maintain its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
activities and gain customer satisfaction in a significant way (Hartley and Claycomb,
2013).
 Legal factors- BB should lay its concern over getting in total compliance with the legal
and regulatory framework of Indian economy in order to avoid the government
intervention thereby gaining customers trust and loyalty impressively.
Apart from conducting such analysis, the mention firm is highly recommended to gain in-
depth understanding about the market size of the economy. The rising purchasing power and
growing impact of social media have led the audience of India to maintain high standards and
focus on good things. The Indian consumer market has shown a rapid growth between 2005 to
2015 at an annual rate of 5.7%.p.a (Hollensen, 2015). This fact benefits BB to establish its brand
and manufacture customer focused products to gain immense share in Indian market thereby
attaining global exposure effectively.
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4) BB's competitor analysis in Indian market
BB faces a tough and fierce competition from many rivalry firms in India some of which
includes Zara, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer. In order to beat its line of competitors and
gain winning edge in the new international economy, BB focuses on conducting a critical
analysis of its rivalry firms in a significant way. For this the company takes into account the use
of Porter diamond effectively. It is a model which is crucially adopted by the companies in their
stage of strategic analysis of the strategic planning measure (Murphy, 2010). It helps to identify
the crucial determinants of international competitive advantage. According to this model, there
exist four essential factors which identifies the competitiveness of the firm and expresses them in
a diamond form. The diagram below helps to gain clear understanding of the porter diamond
model.
Figure 2: Porter Diamond
As per the above diagram, factor conditions usually include human resources to
infrastructural resources. With regard to the present case, India posses tremendous range of
factor conditions which broadly includes low labour cost. Therefore, BB can take potential
advantage of such factor condition to gain competitive edge in the said economy. Another factor
which constitutes Porter diamond includes demand conditions. These includes analysing the
crucial needs and demands of its core customers along with evaluating the overall growth rate
and capacity of the company in a significant way. In this reference, BB should focus to improve
its design in the Indian market segment. The third element of the model includes related and
supporting activities (Chen, Wang and Wang, 2010). According to this factor, the cited firm is
highly advised to focus on innovation, creativity and differentiated products to gain global
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exposure in an effective way. The last element of Porter diamond model includes the firm
strategy, structure and rivalry. It is important for BB to examine and monitor the strategic
measures adopted by its rivalry firm in order to implement an innovative strategy which will lead
the organisation towards the direction of achieving the desired targets in an appropriate time
frame.
5) Effectively implementing an appropriate target and positioning strategy
In order to gain immense market share in Indian economy, it is mandatory for every
business organisation to implement appropriate target and positioning strategy in an effective
way. With regard to the present case scenario, Indian culture is diversified and posses exotic
opportunities for companies growth and development. The traditional aspect of the country is
rapidly changing towards the modern aspect. India is crucially on the path of becoming a
developed nation from a developing country (Kotler, 2011). Here the population develops its
core interest towards western outfits and fascinating fashion trends. Almost around 60% to 80%
of the country's population have their interest in western clothes. This highly benefits BB in
expanding its business activities successfully in the Indian frontiers.
Figure 3: Targeting and Positioning
(Source: Grönroos, 2011)
The recent study on the tastes and preferences of Indian consumers regarding western and
modern culture, revealed the fact that around 75% to 80% of the Indian teenagers highly
contributes in fashion and retail outlets. Considering this fact, BB should lay its significant
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concern over the teenage group and should target them in an appropriate way. For this the
company is highly advised to develop competitive strategic measures in order to gain deep
understanding of the market share of its core competitions (Stelzner, 2011). This will enable the
said firm to implement a differentiated and innovative target strategy in order to build a positive
brand recognition in the eyes of its new customers.
After targeting its market share, BB should develop its concern over positioning them in
a significant way. Here the company should establish such strategic measures which enables it to
retain its existing customers and attract huge crowd of target market in an impressive manner.
For this, BB ought to establish effective sales promotional techniques and need to develop
strategic alliance with one of the most famous and leading brand in India. This will allow the
organisation to maintain competitive edge in the tough trading business environment of India.
6) Critical analysis of entry mode strategies
Selecting an appropriate and suitable entry mode is one of the most essential aspect
which the organisation must consider while entering into new international market. There exist
tremendous ways through which BB can make a successful entrance in Indian markets. Some of
the most crucial way which the said organisation can undertake are explained below- Exporting- It is one of the most established and traditional form of conducting business
activities in international markets. It simply reflects the phenomenon of selling the goods
manufactured in one country to other parts of the world (Grönroos, 2011). Implementing
such an entry mode strategy will assist BB to expand its business outlay across the globe
by reducing its overall risk of operating overseas. However, using this strategy lacks the
control factor over the overseas agents.
 Licensing- Using this entry mode, a company in one country agrees to give suitable
permission to a firm in other country with a view to make substantial use of the
manufacturing, trademark, processing and know-how. With the help of such an entry
mode, BB can effectively start its international operations with low risk in building
manufacturing relationships. However, using such a mode may lead the company to lose
its prospective returns from manufacturing and marketing process.
7) Implementing an appropriate international marketing mix strategy for BB
With a view to launch its products and services in the Indian market, BB focuses on
implementing and appropriate international marketing mix in an effective way. This allows the
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concerned organisation to gain higher economies of scale thereby attaing global exposure within
the standard time frame.
The international marketing mix strategy for BB is explained as follows- Product- The company lays its concern over developing innovative, differentiated and
creative products in the light of achieving customer's satisfaction in an impressive way.
To do so, BB focuses on the crucial needs and demands of its target market and
manufacture products which closely accomplish the requirements of its core customers in
the new international frontiers (Huotari and Hamari, 2012). Price- The concerned organisation develops such strategic measures which assist the
company in establishing prices which satisfies the range of its target market significantly.
For high class and standard group of its target customers, the company tends to adopt cost
plus pricing method, however for the middle class customers, BB emphasises on setting
competitive prices in an effective way.
Figure 4: Marketing Mix
(Source: Hollensen, 2015) Place- In order to gain customer satisfaction and comfort, the said organisation
effectively implements an impressive distribution network which allows ease to its
customers impressively. It focuses on using online retail mode, stores and home services
effectively (Hartley and Claycomb, 2013).
 Promotion- In order to launch its new products in Indian economy, BB significantly
makes use of attractive and exotic sales promotional techniques to gain huge crowd of
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