HRM 13: Marketing in South Africa: A Cultural Analysis Report

This report analyzes the challenges and strategies for cross-cultural marketing, focusing on the Hertfordshire Business School's planned expansion into South Africa. It addresses key issues such as creating cultural awareness, establishing effective communication, and conducting a SWOT analys...Read More

MARKETING ACROSS CULTURE
STUDENT DETAILS
STUDENT DETAILS

HRM 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Marketing across cultural related issues....................................................................................4
 Failure in creating critical awareness..............................................................................4
 May face failure in establishing effective communication among the targeted audience
4
SWOT analysis and its implication in the cross-cultural marketing..........................................4
Action plan.................................................................................................................................6
Action Area 1: Consultation and participation.......................................................................6
Action Area 2.........................................................................................................................6
Action Area 3: Study of external environment analysis of the given country.......................7
Strategies formation based upon the SWOT analysis................................................................7
Understanding educational cultural assumption of Africa because wrong cultural
assumption may mislead the Hertfordshire Business School................................................7
Hertfordshire Business School restricts the entry into their business management school
through the entrance test, they should continue the same methods in another demographic
region also..............................................................................................................................7
While cross-cultural marketing, the National department of the country will support the
Hertfordshire Business School because of its foreign investor profile..................................8
The feedback system is the real way of dealing with the lack of cultural understanding......8
Evaluate the programs as per the different economic and social culture...............................9
Strategy for culture amalgamating.........................................................................................9

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Standardization and adaptation..............................................................................................9
Integrated marketing communication strategy.....................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

HRM 3
Introduction
In this report, the discussion will be done regarding the Hertfordshire Business
School. This business school is planning for incorporating its operations into South Africa.
Hertfordshire Business School is the part of the University of Hertfordshire. The University
of Hertfordshire (UOH) is a state-funded college in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. Its
precursor establishment, Hatfield Technical College, was established in 1948 and was
recognized as one of 25 Colleges of Technology in the United Kingdom in 1959 (Chekima,
et. al., 2016). In 1992, Hatfield Polytechnic was allowed college status by the British
government and in this way renamed the University of Hertfordshire. It is one of the post-
1992 colleges. In this assignment, there will be a discussion about the marketing across
cultural issues, SWOT analysis of the business school and its implications, strategies for
successful cross-cultural marketing will be formed.

HRM 4
Marketing across cultural related issues
 Failure in creating critical awareness:
Currently, the college is operating in the United Kingdom and the management is
planning to incorporate its business in South Africa. Here, marketing management
may face various critical challenges in creating awareness in the different
demographic areas due to cross-cultural marketing. However, the marketing manager
can overcome this scenario if they incorporate effective modes of delivery such as
lectures, seminars, workshops and group projects (De Mooij, 2015). Currently, in
collage not all the students belong from the UK or other European country but this
college welcomes students from all parts of the world. As the entry in the collages is
restricted to certain exams and entrance tests (Cummins, et. al., 2015).
 May face failure in establishing effective communication among the targeted
audience:
The management of the institute may face challenges in establishing an effective
communication process among the targeted audience. This is common which mostly
arises when any business tries to incorporate their business in a different culture. For
example: While expanding the business in Japan, The Coca-Cola Company had to
rename its product to capture the market size of Japan. They had to change the "diet
coke" name to "coke light" (De Mooij, 2015).
SWOT analysis and its implication in the cross-cultural marketing
This is the internal analysis which will guide the institute about their internal strength
and weakness points. This analysis will also describe the positive and negative attributes so
that management can take effective and efficient action while incorporating the cross-cultural
marketing norms (Farny, et. al., 2016).

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 Strengths:
Hertfordshire Business School has the certification from the British Accreditation
Council. They also have a multicultural student population which will help them in
making the strategies for their upcoming projects (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2016). They
also have quality and affordable programs for the students which include Economic
Development Course, Management professional courses, etc (Hsu, Xiao and Chen,
2017).
 Weakness:
The management of the Hertfordshire Business School revealed that they have limited
data to accurate data due to various factors. Apart from this, it is also noted that an
external funding facility is non-existent in the Hertfordshire Business School. Past
incidents also show the challenging incidents due to the miscommunication and lack
of clarity among the departments. In Hertfordshire Business School data collection
instrumentation, analysis and reporting procedures are not standardized by the British
Accreditation Council (Piperopoulos and Dimov, 2015).
 Opportunity:
The institute has the opportunity to expand their network by incorporating its
institutional setup in other regions also (Rosendo-Rios, Ghauri and Zhang, 2016).
Currently, the students from other regions are approaching the institute but now the
institute has the opportunity to expand their network in the other regions as well.
From the future perspective, the institute has the opportunity to also online MBA
degree programs with the increasing availability of international collaborations (Rana,
Salwan and Anand, 2017).
 Threats:

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The external political and economic condition of the country process the threat for the
institute. When any particular industry process declines results than its process threat
to the management because of management panic about the placement of their
students. Low industrial growth results in low employment opportunities. Apart from
this, the increased competition also creates a threat to the nation in various ways
(Rosendo-Rios, Ghauri and Zhang, 2016).
Action plan
Action Area 1: Consultation and participation
This action area requires the management to focus on three key methods that are: data
analysis, consult staff and strategic decision-making process (Safin, et. al., 2016). The
responsibility for this action area lies in the hands of executive directors, DVC Education,
Human Resource department, marketing managers (Scott, et. al., 2016).
Action Area 2: Cultural staff retention and progression
This action area will help the marketing team to hire a talented professional who will work
under the Autocratic leadership of the Hertfordshire Business School’s management. In this
action area, it is suggested to the management to incorporate the norms of the autocratic
leadership, not the democratic leadership. As autocratic leadership trait will enable the
management to give immediate orders to the team (Chen and Houston, 2018). The reason
behind suggesting autocratic leadership is that cross-cultural marketing is the dynamic
marketing form that influences from various external factors, in this case, immediate and
effective response from the management is expected.
Action Area 3: Study of external environment analysis of the given country
In this action area, it is suggested that marketing management should conduct the external
environment for the given country (South Africa) (Sunder, 2016).

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Strategies formation based upon the SWOT analysis
Understanding educational cultural assumption of Africa because wrong cultural
assumption may mislead the Hertfordshire Business School
Africa also consists of the population of the Indigenous people, thus these community groups
always empower to teach their norms to their generation. The marketing management of the
Hertfordshire Business School needs to understand about the specific perspective of the
Indigenous people towards their educational structure belief (Verger, Lubienski and Steiner-
Khamsi, 2016). However, it is noted that South Africa is largely influenced by the foreign
education culture but still the management needs to incorporate the correct educational
culture norms in order to establish its operations effectively and efficiently (Valaei, et. al.,
2016).
Hertfordshire Business School restricts the entry into their business management school
through the entrance test, they should continue the same methods in another
demographic region also
In South Africa, there is two educational government department which governs their
education process in the systematic direction. National Department of Basic Education
(NDBE) and the National Department of Higher Education and Training (NDHET). The
Hertfordshire Business School has to take permission from the NDHET for incorporating its
norms (Farny, et. al., 2016). As the management of the school should take the entry of the
students through the entrance test, it is advised to them to continue the same methods in the
South Africa region also. They can also utilize this approach in their cross-cultural marketing
markets also because it will enhance their reputation in the educational market of South
Africa in a positive directive way (Cummins, et. al., 2015).

HRM 8
While cross-cultural marketing, the National department of the country will support
the Hertfordshire Business School because of its foreign investor profile
The management can take advantage because of their foreign investor profile. South Africa is
the country that always welcomes foreign direct investment, in this same way the marketing
management of the Hertfordshire Business School can incorporate the major benefits while
marketing in the cross-cultural environment. FDI in South Africa is increased by 17024 ZAR
Billion in the third quarter of 2019. Foreign Direct Investment in South Africa averaged
5791.31 ZAR Billion from 1985 until 2019, reaching an all-time high of 52712 ZAR Billion
in the second quarter of 2001 and a record low of -13910 ZAR Billion in the first quarter of
2015. Thus, the management of the institution can incorporate many benefits such as tax
subsidiary, etc due to their foreign investor profile (Piperopoulos and Dimov, 2015).
The feedback system is the real way of dealing with the lack of cultural understanding
In order to sustain in the different markets, the feedback system is the key to sustain in the
industry. The strategy is that the company needs to develop a systematic process for
incorporating feedback about their performance. For incorporating the feedback system, the
institution has to set the various key performance indicators (KPI) to judge and evaluate their
performance standards (Rosendo-Rios, Ghauri and Zhang, 2016). The parameters for these
KPIs should be the marketing management team should keep the time frame low for each
loop in order to obtain the appropriate results for the cross-cultural marketing dimensions.
The associate's risk parameter with each loop should below as much as possible. Apart from
this, the team also needs to decide about how much feedback they can welcome in each loop
because it will guide them in conducting an optimum number of approaches (Safin, et. al.,
2016).

HRM 9
Evaluate the programs as per the different economic and social culture
While setting the operation in South Africa, the management of the institute needs to develop
their norms as per the social-economic culture in the region. In other words, this strategy
implies that the rate of management courses or the fees for the study courses should be set as
per the economic culture of South Africa. Currently, the course fees are set as per the norms
of the European culture but now they need to set their course fees as per the social-economic
culture of South Africa. This will help the management in a fascinating large number of
students. Apart from this, it is noted that the students of South Africa are well aware of the
reputation and systematic working of the college (Scott, et. al., 2016).
Strategy for culture amalgamating
Education culture all over the world is amalgamating and getting seminars through various
norms but still, the style of teaching the norms and theories is different. The management
should incorporate this point while marketing in South Africa. In their seminars and
workshops, they can convey to the students about their unique teaching style and methods so
that students can grab knowledge early (Sunder, 2016). This will help the institute in setting
up the appropriate learning method and it will be held beneficial for both students as well as
for the management (Chen and Houston, 2018).
Standardization and adaptation
This cross-cultural marketing strategy implies the changing product standard strategies in
order to cope up with the international market. However, in the case of cross-cultural
marketing for the Hertfordshire Business School, their core education cannot be changed.
Thus, as per the perspective of standardization and adaptation is suggested that they modify
their other approaches to reach and influence the audience of the market in an effective and
efficient possible way. The other approach indicates in this strategy are segmentation,
targeting and positioning (Valaei, et. al., 2016).

HRM 10
Integrated marketing communication strategy
Through this strategy, the management needs to incorporate professional promotional tools to
cultivate and deliver their purpose for cross-cultural communication. The need for the
promotional tools changes as per the influencer condition of the external environment. For
example: the industry of the Business School Management is likely to be majorly affecting
the economic and political condition of the given country (Verger, Lubienski and Steiner-
Khamsi, 2016).
The best way to deal with the cross-cultural common cross issues is that the
management of the institute should avoid stereotypes, discover new ways to bridge the
culture gaps, they should empower their marketing team to discover the ways for active
listening and they management can also take the help from the agent/interpreter for
communication clarity. Apart from this, in managing cross-cultural difference the marketing
manager should take care of the communication styles, attitude towards disclosure, decision-
making styles, attitude towards conflicts, etc (Chekima, et. al., 2016).

HRM 11
Conclusion
It is concluded that the management of the Hertfordshire Business School may face
critical issues while incorporating the marketing norms across different cultures. They may
face issues such as failure in creating critical awareness, may face challenging issues in
establishing effective communication among the targeted audience, etc. In order to sustain in
the new market, the marketing manager of the institution has to incorporate various methods
to overcome the critical issues. Apart from this, in this study, it is also concluded that strong
teaching attributes, affordable programs, etc are the strength of the institution. Moreover, data
collection instrumentation, analysis, and reporting procedures are not standardized this
implies the major weakness for the institution. Apart from this, three major action areas are
also discussed. This action area will help them the marketing management team of the
company to sharp the effective action plan. These action areas are consultation and
participation, staff retention and study of the external environment.

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Summary
Marketing across culture is the systematic form of marketing that incorporates different
marketing norms as per the different cultural prospects. Marketers of the company
incorporate the kind of marketing where they promote a marketing message to the targeted
audience as per their cultural aspects. Two action areas are discussed in this report. Action
area 1 that Consultation and participation action area will resultant in giving establishing
evidence-based interventions so that the marketing management team can take immediate
action over the cross-cultural marketing issues. Action area 2 describes that the reason behind
suggesting autocratic leadership is that cross-cultural marketing is the dynamic marketing
form that influences from various external factors, in this case, immediate and effective
response from the management is expected.

HRM 13
References
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Sustainable consumption: the effects of knowledge, cultural values, environmental
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Chen, H.A. and Houston, M.B. (2018) When marketing strategy meets culture: the role of
culture in product evaluations. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46(3), pp.384-
402.
Cummins, S., Peltier, J.W., Pomirleanu, N., Cross, J. and Simon, R. (2015) Evaluating
educational practices for positively affecting student perceptions of a sales career. Journal of
Marketing Education, 37(1), pp.25-35.
De Mooij, M. (2015) Cross-cultural research in international marketing: clearing up some of
the confusion. International Marketing Review, 32(6), pp.646-662.
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Hsu, C.H., Xiao, H. and Chen, N. (2017) Hospitality and tourism education research from
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Piperopoulos, P. and Dimov, D. (2015) Burst bubbles or build steam? Entrepreneurship
education, entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, and entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Small
Business Management, 53(4), pp.970-985.

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Rana, S., Salwan, P. and Anand, A. (2017) IMRPs and advancing international marketing
education. Journal of International Business Education, 12(1), pp.267-290.
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