International management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International management - Essay Example This will call for development, implementation and control of marketing strategies needed to attain and sustain firm’s competitive advantage through analysis and evaluation of contemporary issues in the marketing practice and development of a strategic marketing plan. The purpose of competitive strategy is to achieve sustainable competitive advantage to enhance business financial performance and recognizing relationships between elements of marketing mix and assessment of the competitive aspects of the market and industry structure. Firms competing in foreign markets may choose to adapt their products to fit local market needs or to standardize their offer so as to keep costs low, and to understand principles and behaviors underlying appropriate methods and effective performance I project based teams. Introduction Hewlett-Packard Company is a multinational information and technology corporation that provides hard ware, software, and technological services to final end consumer s, small and medium enterprises and large enterprises including governments, health and education sectors. It has a significant global market share specializing in developing and manufacturing networking hardware, computing networks and software, data storage and delivery of innovation and technological services to its clients. The firm sells its products and services directly to the consumers via online distribution, retail outlets such as consumer electronics and office supply, partnership production and consulting with major technology vendors. With a wide range of products in its line the company boasts diversification in enterprise security services such as network security, information security and information assurance compliancy, wireless access points, mobile applications, analytics and portfolio management software (HP.com). Whenever firms go international, major marketing decision to be made is what marketing program is to be devised; choice between development of a globa l product and creation of adapted product that satisfies foreign market’s consumer needs while meeting the global efficiency goals and responsiveness (Qian & N.B.E.R, 2012, 4). This paper will seek to evaluate the international marketing strategy by Hewlett-Packard Company [HP] and evaluate the effectiveness for its products and the impacts of the strategy in its global standards and market share. International Marketing Strategy As an international corporation HP Company has applied several international marketing strategies in a bid to acquire significant market share and coupled by the industry it is in, its innovative strategies of production gives it market sustainability. The logic behind this is formulation of competitive marketing strategies such as relationship marketing which serve as a moderator for sustenance of positional advantages (Peterson, 2007, 2) coupled with the production competitive advantage gives the firm positive impacts of competition and market cond itions on the formulation of other marketing strategies. Literature Review Standardization is selling of the same products in all markets regardless of the economic, socio- cultural and economic backgrounds; a driving force of globalization trends in the market due to higher convergence of consumer needs, tastes and preferences, more technological uniformity and

Focus group Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Focus group - Assignment Example This paper however used extensively qualitative data from primary sources. By definition, a focus group is a research in which qualitative data is obtained from a small group of people usually between 4 and 15 (Litosseliti, 69). The people in the group are asked about their opinions, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions towards a concept, a service or a product. Since the purpose of this research is to evaluate the Extra Gum with respect to why it is a popular gum and the peoples beliefs about chewing the gum, a focus group therefore appears to be the best way to go about the inquiry (Stewart, 51). This research used primary data from five participants from the engineering departments. The participants were conveniently selected to participate. All of them signed a consent form before engaging in the research. They were all above the age of 18 years with the range of their ages being between 23 years and 36 years. The results obtained from the focus group indicate that all the participants liked chewing gum. Further, all of them liked Extra Gum due to its many flavors (60%) and long smell time (40%). Regarding the shape of the gum, it’s simple and attractive shape was the most likable characteristic of the gum being indicated by 4 of the five participants. From the perspective of the focus group, all the participants indicate that Extra gum faces competition majorly from Mentos. Its major quality that keeps it competitive is the wide area of the breath smell when chewing the gum which was indicated by 4 of the 5 participants. Using wrap gum appeared to be less popular that using can gum with a 2:5 popularity ration between them. All the participant consumers did not mind the price of the gum, but the place of manufactured mattered to all the participants. With 4 of the 5 participants indicating that the gum need change, their advice is varied. Three of the participants suggest that providing wraps that can be used when getting