Coca-Cola, Qantas, Huaweis International Marketing Strategies - Case Study Example

International Marketing Introduction This report is a compilation of cases that depict successful and failed strategies applied in international marketing. The first section of the report discusses three excellent examples of international marketing strategies to show approaches that have been successful in an international marketing context. The second section discusses three examples of unsuccessful or failed international marketing solutions. Three excellent examples of international marketing strategies 1. “Share a Coke” by the Coca-Cola Company (Australia) “Share a Coke” is a marketing campaign that was developed in Australia to promote the sales of the Coca-Cola brand of soft drinks manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company (Moye, 2014). Although the campaign initially targeted people in Australia when is started in 2010, it was later used in many countries across the world. The “Share a Coke” campaign invited Australians to nominate people’s names to be printed on Coca-Cola (Coke) bottles (Mason-Jones & Zeeng, 2012). It involved the use of the mainstream media as well as social media, and received more than 65,000 suggestions and stories from people across Australia within less than one week (Mason-Jones & Zeeng, 2012; Moriarty et al., 2015). In addition to having people’s names printed on Coke bottles and cans, the company also had an iconic digital sign showing different names and the Coca-Cola brand name in Sydney, Australia (Moye, 2014). The “Share a Coke” campaign personalised the Coca-Cola brand to its consumers and is one of the marketing campaigns that show how personalising a brand can create brand loyalty. This is because the strategy was so successful in Australia that the company sold over 250 million cans and bottles in a country of less than 23 million people (Moye, 2014). Part of the success of the campaign is attributed to the fact the company had realised the need to talk directly to young people (most of whom liked the concept of having their names on Coke cans and bottles) (Moye, 2014). Also, the company realised that in order to sell in a developed country like Australia where market growth is low, it had to be very innovative in regard to its marketing strategy (Moye, 2014). The advantage of personalisation is that it makes consumers have a feeling that the personalised brands recognise them better (Davis, 2010). 2. “I still call Australia home” by Qantas “I still call Australia home” is a marketing campaign that features a song by the Australian Boy and Girls Choir (Mason-Jones & Zeeng, 2012). The use of the song has been intrinsically linked to the Qantas brand through the use of Australian children, attractive music, emotional lyrics and beautiful scenery (Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown & Armstrong, 2013; Mason-Jones & Zeeng, 2012). The song sends a message to Australians across the world that wherever they are, they are still Australians. Since 1998 when the campaign was first released, it has been recreated and re-released several times (Kotler et al., 2013). The focus of the “I still call Australia home” campaign can be said to be focusing on ethnocentrism, since the advert also features the Kangaroo, which is part of the logo of Qantas and the unofficial symbol of Australia (Solomon, Hughes, Chitty, Marshall & Stuart, 2014). The combination of different themes in the “I still call Australia home” campaign can undoubtedly make an Australian want to fly home using Qantas. As noted by Kotler et al. (2013), millions of people have fond memories when they see the Qantas advertisement, and the emotions stirred by the advertisement imply that some of those people (both Australians and non-Australians) will be likely to use Qantas. In addition, ethnocentric consumers who are Australian are likely to feel that it is ethically wrong to use other airlines to fly to Australia after seeing the advert in the “I still call Australia home” campaign (Solomon et al., 2014). As a result, such people are more likely to fly Qantas. 3. Huawei’s international marketing strategy Huawei’s market penetration strategy has seen the company transform itself from a local Chinese company to an internationally-recognised information and communications technology company. Over the years, Huawei’s international marketing strategy has involved geographic segmentation of the market, price differentiation and diversification of products. Huawei’s geographic segmentation of the market is seen through the fact that the company has always capitalised on areas that are not adequately served by the products and services that it manufactures. The company first focused on the telecommunications switch market in China by targeting rural areas that had not been reached by international telecommunication firms (Chong, 2015). The rural areas had poor conditions as well as poor profit margins, and were thus neglected by international telecommunication firms operating in China. Thus, while global telecommunication firms focused on the large and economically developed cities in China, Huawei focused on serving the less developed areas that included smaller cities and towns (Chong, 2015). Upon international expansion, Huawei also adopted the strategy of “the easy way first” by investing in emerging markets such as Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa (Yihua, 2009, p. 187). This helped the company to avoid the stiff competition in the developed markets. Later, the company started focusing on the market in the developed countries. Along with geographic segmentation of the market, Huawei is involved price differentiation and diversification of products. The company initially sold low-priced products such as feature phones and smartphones that targeted the developing countries. But presently, it also manufactures high-end smartphones and other technologies that target the market in the developed countries like Australia and the United States (Shepard, 2016). Three examples of unsuccessful or failed international marketing solutions 1. Barbie’s failure in China Barbie is a fashion doll that is produced by an American company called Mattel. Mattel has been successful in other markets in addition to the United States such as Buenos Aires in Argentina. However, when the company opened the world’s biggest doll store in China called “House of Barbie” in 2009, it did not get the success that it has expected (Kühne, 2016, p. 153). “House of Barbie” was a 36,000 square foot shop in a six storey building on a high-end street in Shanghai. The store had other features such as a restaurant, a spa, a cocktail bar and a beauty salon. The store targeted women in their twenties and young girls and was intended to act as a lifestyle brand for the targeted consumers. However, despite the efforts that were put in creating an “ultimate Barbie experience”, sales considerably failed to reach the expectation and the store had to close down in March 2011 (Kühne, 2016, p. 153). The reasons why Barbie failed miserably in China are as follows. First, Barbie was yet to become a lifestyle brand in China even though dolls are popular in the country (Guffey & Loewy, 2017; Kühne, 2016). Second, there was a big difference between the tastes of consumers in the United States and those in China (Kühne, 2016). Third, the company was using the wrong pricing strategy (i.e. the items were too expensive going by the market rates in China (Kühne, 2016). 2. Starbucks’ failure in Australia Starbucks is well-known for its coffee drinks in the United States, where the company runs a very successful business with thousands of stores. However, when the company ventured into the Australian market, it failed to gain the success that it had expected, and as a result, it was forced to close some stores after a few years. The first Starbucks store in Australia was opened in 2000 (Johnston, 2010). But in 2008, the company closed 61 out of the 84 stores that it was operating in the country. The company closed the stores because of what its CEO, Howard Schultz called “challenges unique to the Australian market” (Johnston, 2010, p. 109). In particular, Starbucks had overestimated its popularity in Australia, and its distribution method and level of service could not match that in Australia. While Starbucks was riding on the popularity that it had in the United States, it was perceived as just another company in Australia (Johnston, 2010). This is because Australia already had a well-established coffee culture, with small independent cafés offering high-quality coffee as well as service and providing a warm and welcoming environment through skilled baristas (Luke, 2014; Solomon, Russell-Bennett & Previte, 2013). On the other hand, Starbucks was operating a chain of stores and its level of service could not match what was already entrenched in many coffee stores in Australia. Therefore, Starbucks could not attract many customers and this forced it to close some of its stores in Australia. 3. Pepsi’s translation problem in China As part of its marketing efforts in China, Pepsi, an American food and beverage company, attempted to translate its slogan into Chinese but got disastrous results. The slogan used by Pepsi at the time was “come alive with the Pepsi generation” (Keillor, 2007, p. 100). But when the same slogan was translated into the Chinese language, it brought a totally different meaning in that the message became “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave” (Keillor, 2007, p. 100). This undoubtedly negatively affected Pepsi’s brand image in China. The marketing strategy failed spectacularly especially because ancestor worship is a notable cultural phenomenon in China (Chan & Zakour, 2014). Therefore, the blunder in communicating Pepsi’s slogan can be related to a language problem as well as to failure to understand the Chinese culture. As noted by Baack, Harris and Baack (2013), language is the system that is used in communication between people. Further, the movement of services and products across different countries may require translation as well as adaptation of advertising. Thus, it can be noted that Pepsi failed to adapt its marketing slogan to fit the context of the Chinese market. Ideally, marketing activities such as translation often require the services of a cultural assimilator – that is a person who is familiar with the host country’s culture and language (Baack et al., 2013). Conclusion The six cases that have been discussed show that international marketers need to understand the market in which they are venturing and also be familiar with their own capabilities to be successful in that international market. The attributes that marketers have to be familiar with include the international market’s culture, language, demographics, level of competition and others. 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