Question

Imagine that you work for an innovative Australian beverage company, in 600-700 words evaluate the most important things that your company can do to promote success when expanding into emerging markets. Use evidence and examples where possible.

Answer 1

Before expanding to any particular market a crystal clear entry strategy should be made defining each and every step for the entire organization or the team taking care of the project. Clear goals should be set for a product, for example, quarterly sales target (expected), annual targets, price, ways of distribution, logistics, tie-ups, etc., this will ensure that a team is moving in a specific direction and not trying to achieve their goals via hit and trial method.

The organization should do proper research with the help of consulting firms in order to understand the market dynamics and what is the choice of consumers. According to the statistics provided by a consulting firm, an organization should decide how to approach the market and the way they can position their product for better reach.

The unique features of the beverage should be highlighted while advertising, allowing the consumer to build a connection with the product. For example, In India 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola'; such jargon should be used to trigger the emotions of consumers while planning a marketing campaign for a new country/state.

In order to promote success while expanding into emerging markets following things should be kept in mind and worked upon:

1. Brand Positioning: It will be very important to create a positive brand image and send out a clear message to the consumer about what your brand stands for. The company's products should clearly explain what value addition or what kind of feeling will a consumer gets after taking the company's beverage. The local market should be studied and clues from that market should be used to get the product positioned at the most appropriate point for better revenue generation

2. Affordability: The product offered must be priced in a decent manner so that it can be bought by masses for gaining more market share in less time. This factor will play an important role in getting an edge over the competitors

3. Distribution Network: Tie-ups should be done with large retail chains such as Walmart, Costco, etc., in order to provide a better reach for the product, this will make the product visible to a large number of consumers in a short span of time creating a better opportunity for building high revenues for the company. Discount offers or combo packages should be provided initially to the consumers, this will attract them to buy our product providing value for money to them

4. Be Local: Beverage provided will be advertised in the local language and also, it will be produced according to the local taste. For example, people like 'Mountain Dew' in West but that's not the case in India. Things change according to region. So, the local factor must be taken into consideration for winning the market in a short time

5. Compliance: We will make sure the beverage being launched complies with the regulatory authority guidelines and fall under their purview before actually entering the market. This will save us a lot of costs, this should be done by a different team altogether for making things normal with the government in order to smoothen the further process

6. Unique Selling Point: We will focus our entire marketing campaign on innovation provided in beverages which will be acting as our unique selling point (USP) and will provide more grounds to interact with consumers and building a good brand image in a long run.

The beverage industry is a highly consumer intensive market, the local competition in the market will be very high and various steps must be taken to beat the local players and emerge out as global players. Market entry strategies should be decided such as franchise, licensing, exporting, partnering, joint venture, etc., before moving to a new market

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