Ashanti Marketing Solutions: Strategic Marketing Report for Scotland

This report provides strategic recommendations for Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS), a British company aiming to expand into the international market, specifically Scotland. It begins with a PESTEL analysis of Scotland to understand the macro environment, covering political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. The report then explores various market entry strategies suitable for AMS, including joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and franchising, weighing the benefits and limitations of each. Furthermore, it identifies potential market segments within Scotland that AMS should target for successful business operations. Finally, the report applies Porter's Generic Strategies to determine the most appropriate competitive approach for AMS to adopt in the Scottish market, ensuring a well-informed and strategic entry.

Strategic Marketing
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Executive Summary
The main aim of the report is to bring out recommendation for the Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS), which has its headquarters in Britain and wants to enter the in6ternational
market, so that the organisation is able to expand its business. The report analyses the macro
environment (PESTEL analysis) of Scotland in order to recommend a particular country for
the organisation to enter the international marketing.
The report has also described the different market entry strategies for the Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) with which the organisation will be able to enter the international market of
Scotland. In order to start up the business in Scotland, the report analyses the segments of the
market of Scotland for the Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS). Lastly, the report with the
help of Porter’s Generic Strategy, analyses the suitable approach applicable for the Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS) to enter the international market of Scotland.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
PESTEL Analysis.......................................................................................................................5
Market Entry Options.................................................................................................................9
Market Segmentation...............................................................................................................13
Porter’s Generic Strategy.........................................................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
Reference List..........................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) has its headquarters in Britain. The organisation is
willing to increase its organisational boundary and the profits margins by entering the
international market. The report evaluates the macro environment of Scotland, so that the
organisation is able to understand the environment of Scotland in the context of politics,
economy, society, technology, environment, and legislations.
In the second part of the report, different marketing options are enumerated regarding to the
entry of Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) in the international market of Scotland. Then
the report is able to come up with possible market segments of Scotland upon which the
organisation needs to focus in order to successfully operate its business in the international
market. Finally, the report proposes a suitable generic product strategy that is essential for the
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS).
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PESTEL Analysis
Elements
Scenarios
Political Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) operates in the
international market and has stores all around the
national boundary of Britain. Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) has its headquarters in Britain and
want to expand its business in other countries in UK.
Therefore, there are certain political factors of the
countries, including the countries in European Union
(EU) that influences highly the performance of
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS).
The political situations within Scotland are stable. The
government is concerned mainly about crisis in
finances due to which the economies are affected all
over the globe, so that the economic position of the
nation becomes stronger (McLaverty
et al., 2015).
In context of employment, the government of Scotland
has provided opportunities to the retailers. The job
opportunities offered are flexible and mixed that
includes lower-paid, locally-based, highly-skilled,
highly paid, and centrally- located jobs. Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS) will be able to employs
workers in larger numbers in Scotland that will
generally include students, disabled as well as elder
people.
The main political concern that affects most of the
organisations in Europe is Britain voted for its
separation from European Union (EU)-Brexit.
Economical Despite of the fact that the economy of Scotland is
strong and has able to avoid downturn in 2008, there
are still existence of uncertain situations in
employment and economic conditions. The banks in
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the national boundary of Scotland have also increased
the interest rates by the end of 2013 so that there are
able to save their interests (Dekhtyarev, 2014).
These economic conditions have influenced highly the
demand, costs, and profits of Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS). The increase in unemployment
ratios due to the economic disorders in the nation also
has led to greater unemployment within Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS).
Social According to the current research, it has been found
that the population of Scotland is decreasing and due
to this shrinkage will certainly lead to lack of labours
in the market along with the increase in the expenses
such as medical services, educational services and
others (Hine
et al., 2017).
The government have decided to cut down the benefits
such as pensions and increase the taxes, so that the
people will have to pay higher contributions and
health insurances.
The marketing trends of the national population of
Scotland has been changes from
“One-Stop” to
“Bulk”
shopping due to changes within the societies in
Scotland. This has made Ashanti Marketing Solutions
(AMS) to put some specific items available for sale.
There has been increase in the number of female
workers in UK that have made Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) to focus on the value-added products
and services due to the declining of home-prepared
meals.
Technological The consumers within Scotland are demanding for
new, convenient and innovative technological
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products. Technology is responsible to enhance the
user’s experiences along with making the products
more cost effective (Hakansson, 2014). Ashanti
Marketing Solutions (AMS) has installed self
checkout systems in their stores, intelligent scales and
shelves and electronic advertisements displays for
promoting their products and services.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) is attracting the
customer from all over the market with the help of
internet via e-commerce and web 2.0 services.
Environmental The rate at which Scotland is using renewable energy
in its national boundary, by the end of the year 2020, it
will rise to 31%.
With the help of CSR activities, Ashanti Marketing
Solutions (AMS) is able to gain consumer’s trust.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) has contributed
lot for the sustainable consumption of resources along
with low generation of wastes (Dai
et al., 2015).
Legal The European Commission has made it mandatory for
the retail industries to display proper service and
product information (Jondle
et al., 2015). Distortion of
facts is highly prohibited according to the
advertisement regulations of Scotland. This nation
also has several employment regulations and others
are should mandatorily complied by businesses
operating in its soil. This organisation should consider
such legislations in order to avoid legal complications.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) should give
specific care of such regulations.
Table 1:
PESTEL Analysis of Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS)
(Source: created by the learner)
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Opportunities
 It is an opportunity for the organisation that the Scotland’s government is able to
provide supporting them to operate their business in the international market and gain
huge profit margins since Brexit and stable political conditions has positive impacts
upon the business of Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS).
 Scotland still has good economic conditions within its national boundaries and this
serve as an opportunity for Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) (Mason
et al., 2015).
 Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) is adopting new and innovative marketing
technologies to serve the needs of its consumers and through this the organisation will
have the opportunity in raising the quality of the products along with cost effective
production through machines.
 Scotland is known to have stronger legal structures and the organisation strictly
follows the legislation enabling them to have systematic business structure as an
advantage.
Threats
 There are chances that the Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will able to lose its
business after the final decisions on Brexit (Mackenzie, 2017).
 Since the business jurisdictions in Scotland are strict, if Ashanti Marketing Solutions
(AMS) do not structures its business framework in accordance to national legislation,
it may pose threat upon the organisation.
Recommendation
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) needs to think about Brexit and shall plan accordingly
so that the business does not get hampered post Brexit. Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS)
shall continue in bringing new and unique products in the international market, so that they
will be able to differentiate with the leading retail industries in Scotland. It will be convenient
for the organisation to properly maintain and exercise its business operation in the future in
accordance to the national legislation of Scotland.
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Market Entry Options
Nowadays, most of the organisations in Scotland are aiming to establish their local business
in the international market. This is not possible without make strategies to enter the
international market and therefore, the organisations make extensive researches upon the
different market entry options and choose only one with which they will to operate their
business successfully in the international market. Some of the major market entry options are
as follows:
Joint Ventures
The organisations that are aiming to enter the international market, often chooses
Joint
Ventures market entry strategy, so that by collaborating with one or more investors in another
nations, they will be able to share the ownership and control over the resources and the
operations and rights associated with it (Johanson
et al., 2015). The entry strategy is the most
common among the others where collaboration can be done in two ways: foreign investors
showing interest in local company and local company attaining interest in an existing foreign
industry. Joining the business together, the foreign and the local company tend to create a
new, large and single enterprise. The major benefits and limitations of Joint ventures are as
follows: Benefits
Limitations
The collaborating companies will be able to
share the risks incurred in the business.
The control of the business is distributed
therefore, limiting the partners to have full
control on the business.
The single enterprise formed after
collaboration will have good financial
strength and control will be distributed
among the partners.
Each of the partners will have their
individual beliefs upon the benefits and this
may be regarded as a limitation (Johanson
et
al., 2015).
The entry method is advantageous for the
partners in some of the countries where joint
ventures are the only option.
If there is a loss of capital in the market, the
recovery of the lost capital becomes difficult
for the partners.
Table 2:
Benefits and limitation of Joint Venture Strategy
(Source: created by the learner)
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Merger and Acquisitions
The
Merger and
Acquisition market entry strategy are adopted by those companies, who aim
to expand their businesses in international market. This particular strategy is often considered
to be the most important and powerful strategy for globalization. Most of the companies that
have adopted merger and acquisition entry strategy have able to develop instant access to
markets and distribution network with the help of new technologies and patent rights
(Lebedev
et al., 2015). This particular strategy has more number of benefits than compared to
limitation and are shown below:
Benefits
Limitations
The merger and acquisition entry strategy
adopted by the organisations is the efficient
way to attain talent and intellectual work (IP)
that are considered to be the latest trends of
modern business.
There are chances that the companies
adopting the particular strategy will have the
limitations due to the clash of cultures of
different firms.
The entry strategy is able to provide the
organisation to fill decisive gaps in offered
services and clients lists.
The merged and the acquired organisations
will have the limitation of diluting its brand
and competitive advantage.
The organisations that adopt the strategy as a
core need of growth, will be able to generate
synergies that will benefit the organisation
with real value for acquired as well as the
acquiring ones.
The organisation may have confusion related
to the marketplace and scope of losing brand
strength where they are expanding their
business.
The strategy benefits the organisation to cut
the costs with the help of overlapping
operations, resources and combine both of
them in a single entity.
Companies with the help of the strategy will
benefit themselves with reduction in
competitions, establishment of new
territories, accessing new markets, expansion
of new markets and develop more sales
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opportunities for their products and services.
Table 3:
Benefits and limitation of Merger and Acquisition Strategy
(Source: created by the learner)
Franchising
The industries that aim for rapid growth of their business in the international market are often
the ones that choose franchising as the strategy to enter the international market. The strategy
is considered to work efficiently for those industries that has repeatable business model, so
that it becomes easy for them to transfer their business in the new global market (Madanogluet al., 2017). Benefits
Limitations
The industries have an advantage to offer
great employment freedom.
There are risks that the potential returns
achieved from the global market may be lost.
The products that are manufactured after
choosing this particular strategy are proven
ones with proved trade mark on the services
and the products.
The strategy can be applied for shorter
duration and requires substantial fact finding,
planning, investigation, and interpretation.
There are reduced risks in failure of the
business to the organisation adopting the
particular strategy.
Table 4:
Benefits and limitation of Franchising Strategy
(Source: created by the learner)
Recommendation and Justification
It will be convenient for Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS), to adopt
Merger andAcquisition entry strategy since with the help of this strategy the organisation will be able to
increase its power in the international market of Scotland with the use of technologies and
optimum use of resources. This will help the retail company to minimize the probability of
generation of risks and will provide Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will tax benefits.
Ashanti Marketing Solutions (AMS) will have the advantage in building great organisational
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size in the global market of Scotland in small duration with the help of adding a new business
plan to operate its business in the global market. The only disadvantage that the organisation
will have on adopting strategy for expanding their business in the international market of
Scotland is that the cost that is incurred while acquisition may be unrealistically high.
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