International Marketing plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Marketing plan - Essay Example South African food market has been a market on the rise especially after the apartheid times dating back to 1994. McDonald's has had to adapt to the South African market in respect to its political, legal, and economic as well as the social environment. A firm wishing to operate in an international market must have the understanding that different nations exhibit different systems of operation (Kotler 1997). These systems include taxation laws, government policy, a country's inflation, interest and exchange rates, culture of the people, level of technology among others. The first consideration in this paper is the SLEPT analysis of McDonald's in South Africa. As earlier highlighted the end of apartheid in South Africa brought forth a great deal of developments in South Africa and in particular increased interest by foreign investors (Kotler 1997). In the lead was McDonald's which set its first restaurant in November 1995. The factors that have come to affect McDonald's under SLEPT analysis are legal, political, economic, technological as well as social ones. There are those factors related to language, ethnic background(s), religion of a people and values that they hold as well as perceptions. These factors are known to force firms to adopt completely different approaches to the market especially in the way the firm advertises its products. There are certain values and beliefs, societal norms and cultural orientations that the firm must put into consideration in conducting its day to day business. In the South African context, McDonald's faces a culture that is not too liberal like that of its mother country, USA. For this reason its products and their adverts must conform to the accepted norms under the African culture. There was also the perception that firms like McDonald's were established in South Africa to serve the white population (Kotler 1997). Due to the just ended apartheid regime, the black population had resented white affiliated facilities, goods and amenities. For this reason McDonald's had to take this market from a totally different perspective from that of maybe, China. The names and symbols of the products have to conform to the linguistic connotations or manifestations of South Africa. The firm in its adverts includes South African language so as to attract and make customers feel that McDonald's is part of them. Legal/political factors In all countries of the world, businesses are operated within the legislation frameworks set. In South Africa the adverts must conform to moral standards upheld in the law. Scenes that appear provocative for example nudity are outlawed as well as language use in adverts which should fall within the realms of social conformity. Failure to uphold these standards results in legal suits against a firm and as well as other harsh measures like license cancellation in more deviant cases. As highlighted earlier, the political changes that occurred in the early 1990s made McDonald's to view South Africa as a viable market (Kotler 1997). The political atmosphere has been quite stable as compared to many of its neighbours and this has enabled the firm to thrive. Corruption on the other hand has been relatively put to check which has made McDonald's and many other multinationals to have a better

Assignment 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Assignment 6 - Essay Example The all serve purpose of advertising with difference in approaches and content of the messages. This is the initial stage where consumer is made aware of the product and forms a vague idea of the product/service. The marketer needs to ascertain the level of awareness the customer has and act fit towards clearer understanding of the product/service (P.J., 2010). Explanation and use of sample displays at this point will drive the point home increasing the chances of making a sell. At this point, the consumer is well aware of the product or service but probably misses the actual benefits or offers the product or service will accord him. By learning what the target market have an understanding and the depth of the knowledge, the best foot forward here is increasing the spread of the detailed knowledge of the product/ service. A stage is reached when the customer has started relating with the product and develops special connections to it. This is the liking stage and the marketer is to understand the feeling of the consumer about his product /services. When the marketers get a hint of the feeling, they take an appropriate action towards putting campaigns or communication into design. In cases where the market has different other products, the market will seek to unearth the preference of the customer. Getting a glimpse of the priority listing the customer has, the marketer tries a concerted effort to improve preference and bringing it up the priority list. At this stage, the marketer has come along way to give up. The consumer should be given the strongest reason possible to strengthen his belief in the product/ service being offered. The marketer at this point needs to choose the right words that will strongly recommend the product to the consumer to drive conviction of the good or service. The above stages make no sense if it does not culminate at the purchase level. This stage succeeds the conviction stage where