Marketing Across Culture: Hertfordshire Business School in Chile

This report presents a comprehensive marketing plan developed for Hertfordshire Business School to facilitate its expansion into the Chilean market. The plan begins with an introduction outlining the university's objectives and the rationale for targeting Chile. It then proceeds with a detailed external analysis, employing the PEST framework to assess the political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing the business environment. An internal analysis, utilizing SWOT analysis, evaluates the school's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A crucial component of the report involves an in-depth examination of cultural differences between the UK and Chile, leveraging Hofstede's cultural dimensions to inform marketing strategies. The report concludes with a discussion of the marketing mix (7Ps), including product adaptation, promotion strategies, place considerations, pricing, people management, physical evidence, and process optimization, all tailored to the Chilean context. The report aims to provide a strategic roadmap for successful market entry and sustainable growth for Hertfordshire Business School in Chile.

MARKETING ACROSS
CULTURE
Running Head: MARKETING ACROSS CULTURE 0

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Contents
A. Introduction.....................................................................................................................2
B. Marketing plan................................................................................................................2
I. External analysis.............................................................................................................2
II. Internal analysis...........................................................................................................3
III. Cultural difference.......................................................................................................5
IV. Marketing theory.........................................................................................................6
C. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................10
D. References...........................................................................................................................11
E. Appendix...........................................................................................................................13
Marketing mix......................................................................................................................13

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A. Introduction
Hertfordshire Business School is a United Kingdom-based education center, which is part of
Hertfordshire University. The school is providing various courses related to graduation and
post-graduation. The organization is dealing in this stream since years, and now wishing to
grow their business and enter into the global world, for which the country to enter and to
expand the business is Chile, a country of South America (herts, 2018).
Entering into an international market is not that simple, as the legal rule and laws, the
political system of the country, the cultural relevance, and foreign currency is not always
similar, and need to be considered before going international. For this purpose, a marketing
plan will be prepared for Hertfordshire Business School to enter into another nation (Burdo,
2018)
.

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B. Marketing plan
Marketing plan for Hertfordshire Business School is developed in a structure, which includes
the following four stages
I. External analysis
The first stage is to understand the different political, social, economic, and technological
factors of Chile, before deciding on going international. It is essential to analyze what all
environmental factors will affect the investment decision and way to perform certain
activities in Chile. The external analysis will be conducted through PEST analysis:
1. Political factors of Chile include the support from the political party towards the
education industry.
2. Economic factors in Chile include education spending, which is very high. therefore,
it will be beneficial to invest in Chile in this industry for Hertfordshire Business
School
3. Social factors, the language used in the nation is Spanish in general. Moreover, the
responsibility of postgraduate education is of the local community and no other
international company has invested before (Ho, 2014)
4. Technological factors of Chile is one of the reasons for use of technology in this
industry as well, which Hertfordshire Business School also recommended following
(Trivedi, 2016)
II. Internal analysis
The internal analysis is the second stage to develop a marketing plan. The SWOT analysis is
a tool, which is very helpful to identify the organization plus and negative points which will

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be responsible either to take advantage of the available opportunity and to minimize the risk
or threats. A SWOT analysis of Hertfordshire Business School are as follows:
Strengths
 Attractive industry – the educational industry is very attractive, and get a lot of
support from the society and the political part, in order to promote the importance of
education in Chile. this is beneficial for Hertfordshire Business School to invest in
this sector in Chile
 First mover advantage – since Hertfordshire Business School is going to expand
business in a nation which not has been exposed to international education, it will be
beneficial for Hertfordshire Business School as no international competition (Allen,
2017)
Weakness
 Customer knowledge – the knowledge about the customer and market is very less to
the organization due to cultural difference
 Monetary transfer – the transferring of money is another issue for which an
intermediate payment organization is to be arranged by Hertfordshire Business School
to receive the payment in form of fees from student and pay salaries to the employees
like teachers (Adam & Kotler, 2014)
Opportunity
 Further expansion – through entering into one international market, it will open the
gate for new opportunities in new international boundaries for Hertfordshire Business
School.

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 Profit gaining – since this is the first organization to enter into Chile in the education
industry, it has an opportunity to gain high profit in the nation while serving the
students of Chile (herts, 2018)
Threat
 Sustainability – one of the threat is to sustain into the market, domestic and
international. The reason being an increase in competition, and the influence of the
local community in Chile. Moreover, the management could be disturb due to change
in process and business, which could harm both the nation’s business of Hertfordshire
Business School
 Legal issue – the legal system of both countries are different regarding the educational
system, which can be changed at any time and disturb the management process (Bull
& Sitas, 2016)
III. Cultural difference
The culture is a factor which is majorly affecting the investment decision and success or
failure of any organization. Due to this organization, it is important to understand the culture
of the nation in which the organization is planning to invest. The cultural difference of Chile
and United Kingdom is huge (Alvesson, 2016). This could be understood and identified by
dimensions provided by Hofstede’s cultural theory.

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Figure 1: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of UK and Chile (Source: (hofstede-insights, 2018)
From this fact and figure related to the six dimensions of the Hofstede’s culture, it can be said
that the power distance score of Chile is much high than the United Kingdom, the lower rank
indicates that the relevance of inequality must be lowest or reduced to the minimum and vice
versa. In the case of individualism, the score of Chile is very low as compared to the United
Kingdom, higher rank indicates the masculine society, who is focused over practical aspects
of life like success, and achievement. Whereas the lower and indicates a more emotional
aspect like feminine society, which indicates caring nature people and high quality of living
focused. Indulgence level of both societies is similar in the scoreboard. The uncertainty
avoidance is very high for Chile and lowers in the case of the United Kingdom. Lower
uncertainty avoidance indicates that people like to live in uncertainty and not think over
controlling the uncertainty to a large extent, and vice versa. These difference in both the
nation affect the services, process, and management. The organization after analyzing these
culture will develop marketing strategies accordingly (hofstede-insights, 2018).

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IV. Marketing theory
The marketing mix is the strategy of the company to gain the market share through its
products and services. From the appendix, the seven P’s are as follows
1. Product – the organization is working in an educational sector, therefore the major
product category is study material and availability of various courses. As already
discussed the organization is providing numerous courses in the United Kingdom,
which it will continue to offer in Chile. Although, some alterations according to the
education system of Chile will be made, and additional language that is the Spanish
language will be part of the courses.
Considering the marketing strategy of this aspect which will be approachable and
suitable to the organization is the product adaptation strategy. After understanding the
cultural difference of both the nations that is the home and host. It is been cleared that
the standardized strategy would not be working in such a case, therefore a suitable
product strategy seems to be adaption. This means that the company will be adapting
itself and the product or service according to the host country and its requirements of
the local specification. There are certain problems faced by the organization while
adopting such a strategy, which is knowing your customer culture, perception, needs
and expectations in detail in order to alter the product that needs to attract the
customer. Some of the positive aspects about this strategy are that the local
specification is considered in detailed, which will create more value to the local
culture of the host country, attracting more customers, as they believe that their
culture has given important even by the international organizations(chiefoutsiders,
2018) (business.qld.gov, 2018)
.

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Another strategy for the product will be product differentiation, as the services or
product that the organization is making available to the students have not yet targeted
by any other organization. Therefore, product differentiation is the competitive
advantage for the organization, and for which the company can gain high profits. This
could be beneficial to the organization in Chile (businessjargons, 2018).
2. Promotion – this could be the most important aspect because the company is the first
organization, who is willing and will be entering into a nation, where no other
educational organization has invested. Therefore, the promotion has to make
previously for a time span before establishing the actual premises in the nation. Some
of the most popular ways to promote is creating a brand positioning of Hertfordshire
Business School as a well-known international brand and promote quality service in
the education field. For promotion, some of the tools that can be used are
advertisement through some of the most popular media that is television, newspaper,
journal, and magazines. Moreover, another way to promote is social media, the nation
is full of technological advancement, which means the use of social media is high,
therefore the mail marketing or through other social media platforms. Moreover,
another tool is scholarship program, for children who have extraordinary knowledge
regarding their courses can study in nominal amount for their particular course (Ang
& Rusli, 2018).
3. Place – placing strategy include the strategy through which the services will reach up
to the customers that are students in this industry. The courses can be done either in
the traditional or regular way or distance courses. This will make the centralized
location of the nation for the traditional way of education, the premises will be
approachable to all the students while considering the transport and road connectivity
to the school. Moreover, for distance education, the availability of the study material

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and examination will be conducted online, which also shows the use of intensive
technology, which will promote more customers in the nation (Bach, 2017)
4. Price – pricing is an essential aspect to decide on as it is the base for many people to
decide whether the students will be able to take admission in the school or not. For
this the strategy is price skimming strategy, the reason is the quality of the education
provided to the residents of Chile. And the product and service offered is product
differentiation, which can gain the advantage of keeping their prices high. Moreover,
the organization to get the return to the investment it is important to charge high price
being the first international organization in the nation (Alvesson, 2016).
5. People – people are another significant factor to decide on because education is a
service provided to the students, which needs the human resource at the highest
priority. Moreover, the adaption strategy is adopted by the company for which the
training to the human resource after analyzing each and every aspect about the
students and requirements. The trainers, staff, educators, lecturers and many more
people are involved in the business, who have to be ready to handle cross culture
(Allen, 2017).
6. Physical Evidence – this is another thing, which is physically present, in this case, the
school premises is to be advanced in the process and designing due to product
differentiation and brand positioning created by the organization. Various things are
to be provided to customers like the availability of sports education, and appliances,
availability of the reading material, and health and safety tools and space .
7. Process – this is managing all the activities and the system, which will be according to
the host country requirement. This is the way through which the service will provide
to the students. The process to deliver the services will be according to the
requirement of the education system of Chile, the examination will be the base for

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student’s growth in the semester. The examination could be in the form of report or
research in the particular field. moreover, the training will also be the part of the
curriculum (Adam & Kotler, 2014)

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C. Conclusion
From the report, it can be said that the Hertfordshire Business School to enter into the
international boundaries, it was essential to develop an action plan which will analyze
relevant aspects before the implementation of the plan and actually investing in the nation.
For this, the political aspect of Chile observed was the supportive political parties for the
education industry, which found to be beneficial. Similarly, the economic factor was also
favorable.
Considering the strength of the organization, it was identified as an attractive industry and
first mover advantage. The weakness identified was lack of customer knowledge, and money
transfer system. The opportunity that can be gained were further expansion and profit
gaining. Lastly, the threats for the company could be sustainability and legal issue.
The marketing strategies for the company were product differentiation, product
standardization. And for the price factor, the strategy suitable was price skimming strategy.
Moreover, for reaching out to the student’s traditional method and online courses will be
offered by the company

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D. References
Adam, S. & Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Australia: Pearson Australia.
Allen, D., 2017. Recruitment and retention across cultures. Annual Review of Organizational
Psychology and Organizational Behavior, p. 153.
Alvesson, M., 2016. Organizational culture. New York: Sage.
Ang, C. & Rusli, H., 2018. The Impact of Marketing Mix 4Ps and Consumer Behavior
toward Purchase Decision of Adidas Products. iBuss Management, 6(2).
Bach, C., 2017. Demystifying McCarthy’s 4 P’s Of The Marketing Mix; To Be Or Not To
Be. Industrial Marketing Management, 26(1), p. 1.
Bull, J. & Sitas, N., 2016. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT
analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem Services, 17(1), p. 99.
Burdo, H., 2018. What Are the Five Principles of Marketing?. [Online]
Available at: https://bizfluent.com/about-5084578-five-principles-marketing.html
business.qld.gov, 2018. Implement a marketing plan. [Online]
Available at: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/marketing-sales/marketing-
promotion/marketing-plan/implement-plan
businessjargons, 2018. International Marketing. [Online]
Available at: https://businessjargons.com/international-marketing.html
chiefoutsiders, 2018. Expert Marketing Strategy Implementation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.chiefoutsiders.com/strategic-services/marketing-strategy-
implementation

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herts, 2018. schools-of-study. [Online]
Available at: https://www.herts.ac.uk/study/schools-of-study/business
hofstede-insights, 2018. country-comparison. [Online]
Available at: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/chile,the-uk/
Ho, J., 2014. Formulation of a systemic PEST analysis for strategic analysis. European
academic research, 2(5), p. 6478.
Trivedi, M., 2016. PESTLE technique–a tool to identify external risks in construction
projects. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 3(1), pp.
384-388.

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E. Appendix
Marketing mix
Figure 2:( Source: (Adam & Kotler, 2014)