Developing A Marketing Plan

Question: Discuss about the Developing A Marketing Plan. Answer: Introduction: International agreements make global expansion and business of companies between countries possible. The assignment is a study of international trade agreements citing Australian Dairy, an imaginary Australian company and its prospective international market, India as examples. The assignment first deals with international agreements with emphasis on Australia and India followed by the international business factors, particularly the ecommerce scenario and a study of the risks in international business marketing. The final section is a study of opportunities of ecommerce marketing considering cost, risk and benefit factors. International trade patterns, Free Trade, Trade policies, Agreements and Opportunities: International Trade Patterns: India and Australia are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, UN, Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation and ASEAN Regional forum meaning they can trade to enjoy mutual benefit (Patterson 2015). The multinational companies are increasing their presence in India to profit from the market. Free Trade: India and Australia want to enter into Negotiation on free Trade Agreement (FTA) to trade freely towards economic development. Australia wants tariff reduction in dairy products, fresh fruits and pharmaceuticals. India is demanding for duty abolition on automobile parts, textiles and fresh fruits. Australian Dairy, being a chocolate dairy company should use the agreement to enter Indian market (Dai, Yotov and Zylkin 2014). Trade policies: World Bank points out at Indias emergence into a booming economy and an active participant in free trade policies ("International Economics Trade - India: Foreign Trade Policy" 2017). India and Australia are members of the UN and Common Wealth and also has relations with countries like the USA, the UK, Germany and many other countries. This can help Australian Dairy to open an Indian subsidiary and also benefit from her influence over South East Asia (Baccini and Dr 2015). Resultant opportunities: India has a huge market and already has companies like Nestle and Cadbury proving its profitability. India has a huge cattle population to provide with milk used in chocolate confectionaries. Moreover, it is connected by road, air and railways which will allow easy transportation of raw materials and finished products. There is high demand for chocolate products like bars, ice creams and drinks in the country. Moreover, Australian Dairy can enter into other milk product categories like butter milk and milk spread like Amul. These areas are not explored by Nestle or Cadbury, which will allow Choc Bite to gain a strong market foothold ("Press Release: Amul - The Taste of India" 2017). Factors affecting international business and electronic commerce: Economic: The economic condition of a country has profound effect on the technological development of the country. India is well linked through internet which allows people purchase goods and allows the companies to promote their products and services. Ecommerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart allow online purchase of products even in the villages. Inflation and trade barriers pose real threat to international business since it causes fall in the purchase power of customers. Australian Dairy must explore other markets to spread its losses over a huge customer base. Political: The political situation and government policies determine international trades and bilateral trade agreements between countries. Australian Dairy should take advantage of the trade ties between India and Australia. The governments in all countries keep a strict control over the operations of foreign companies since they are big revenue earners. Australian Dairy must follow Indian tariff and other tax laws to enjoy the profits from India market. Social: India is home to people of various cultural backgrounds just like Australia. Australian Dairy must not take to any business strategy which will hurt the sentiments of any group or race. Ecommerce is used by Indians all the year round to make purchases due to their interest in variety of products which may not be available in the stores. The trend of online purchase gains momentum during the festivals and can be exploited to earn huge profits. Amazon, the American ecommerce giant launches new offers suited to the India customers and has even designed its website keeping Indian themes in mind (Padhy and Mishra 2017). Australian Dairy can also apply the same strategy so that the Indians are able to associate with it. Cultural Australian Dairy must design products to suit the needs of the India markets. The company can also produce butter, ghee, margarine and spiced milk which have deep association with the culture and festivals of India. The risk factor involved here is that the products should not have any symbol or feature which insults the sentiments of any group. Market Trends: The market trends in the India market show a positive movement towards globalization. The company must promote itself through an official website of the company with online purchase facility (Deng and Wang 2016). The market can be segmented as per age, lifestyle and economic strength of the consumers. There can be traditional high calorie variant with nuts, raisins and other ingredients and a low calorie variant to appeal to the health conscious people. The company can also make low price variants of ice creams and chocolate bars. Australian Dairy can follow Kwality Walls and design its website (Kwalitywalls.in, 2017). Risk factors of international marketing opportunities: Political and corruption risk factors: Political factors like a countrys trade policies, foreign policies and tax laws have deep impact on the marketing opportunities.The company also has to incur huge expenditure to gain permission for trade and other allowances (Wild, Wild and Han 2014). Legal and Regulatory bodies: Every organization has to frame business policies keeping the rules laid down by international and national regulatory bodies. An infringement of the laws can attract penal action against the company and result in heavy loss. International and electronic commerce marketing opportunities: Cost and benefits: International marketing through ecommerce demands huge initial investments by companies. However, a well designed website helps international promotion, thus earning it a competitive advantage. It helps in selling products and also contact the dealers and suppliers through its website. Thus, though the initial investment is huge, the return is high (Savrul, Incekara and Sener 2014). Risk: Risk is associated with every business but increases in case of international business. Ecommerce allows a multinational company to sell its products internationally and spread its risk to increase its revenue and profits (Forsgren and Johanson 2014). Conclusion: It can be summed up that emerging economic super power like India can be a profitable market for multinational companies. International marketing is affected by various factors and risks. These risks can be mitigated by adapting to the market and framing suitable strategies. References: Baccini, L. and Dr, A., 2015. Investment discrimination and the proliferation of preferential trade agreements.Journal of Conflict Resolution,59(4), pp.617-644. Dai, M., Yotov, Y.V. and Zylkin, T., 2014. On the trade-diversion effects of free trade agreements.Economics Letters,122(2), pp.321-325. Deng, Z. and Wang, Z., 2016. Early-mover advantages at cross-border business-to-business e-commerce portals.Journal of Business Research,69(12), pp.6002-6011. Forsgren, M. and Johanson, J., 2014.Managing networks in international business. Routledge. Hamilton, L. and Webster, P., 2015.The international business environment. Oxford University Press, USA. Kwalitywalls.in. (2017). Cornetto | Frozen Desserts in India | Kwality Wall's. [online] Available at: https://www.kwalitywalls.in/cornetto-frozen-dessert-types-of-desserts [Accessed 28 Jan. 2017]. Padhy, P.C. and Mishra, A.K., 2017. E-COMMERCE: PROMOTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA. Patterson, G., 2015.Discrimination in International Trade, the Policy Issues: 1945-1965. Princeton University Press. Press Release :: Amul - The Taste of India. (2017). Amul.com. Retrieved 28 January 2017, from https://www.amul.com/m/press_release Savrul, M., Incekara, A. and Sener, S., 2014. The potential of E-commerce for SMEs in a globalizing business environment.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,150, pp.35-45. Web.worldbank.org. (2017). International Economics Trade - India: Foreign Trade Policy. [online] Available at: https://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSARREGTOPINTECOTRA/0,,contentMDK:20592520~menuPK:579454~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:579448,00.html [Accessed 28 Jan. 2017]. Wild, J., Wild, K.L. and Han, J.C., 2014.International business. Pearson Education Limited.