Section 1: Introduction
World became smaller due to globalisation in all the sectors including economy, corporate, cultural as well as even public services (Karl Homann, at. al., 2007). Private corporations are transforming from local to global perspectives of their business operation to get benefits of different national economic environment (Hutchens A., 2009). According to my views, globalisation of private corporations brings more stable and competent strategic structure of an organisation that result in the growth of the organisation as well as the development of respective nation's economy.
This report is a kind effort of understanding and analysis of the current strategic potential and tactics for any organisation wishing to expand their operations in the global market. This report achieves this aim through creation of an imaginary organisation offering financial solutions. I will use the name of that imaginary company as Savaliyas Finance Ltd., which will be taken an account as the reference frame for entire discussion. Outcomes are achieved through this work as it critically analyses various strategies, models and theories for international market as well as market research techniques in respect of Savaliyas Finance Ltd.
This paper is divided into 9 main sections. Section 1 introduces the report. Section 2 and 3 describe the company structure and its objectives. Section 4 demonstrates market environment in the different countries. Section 5 and 6 focus on the marketing strategy and the marketing mix approach of Savaliyas Finance Ltd. Section 7 evaluates regulation strategy of Savaliyas finance. Moreover, section 8 concludes the report. Finally, section 9 includes all the referred material that supports the evidence for the analysis of the report.
Section 2: Company description (Savaliyas Finance Ltd.)
Savaliyas Finance Ltd. is a multinational company offering financial solutions. The headquarter is located at a small town of Gujarat state, Sarsai, in India. The company possesses the motto of satisfying financial need of public through public.
Products line includes mostly of various loans like, Payday loans, Unsecure loans, Personal loans, Business loans, Mortgage, Student loans and so on. The company products also diversify in the field of insurance as like; Life insurance, Home insurance, Possession insurance, Credit insurance, likewise. Products line also includes safe deposit plans.
The company is operated mainly in the developed countries like; USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Australia, and other countries. It focuses on Internet based decision making and fast processing system. The reason of considering developed countries as a starting point of business expansion is the awareness and high usage of Internet in the public. The operation of the company is also intended to expand in the other developing nations. Savaliyas Finance Ltd. intends to involve as many as countries to operate because of the potential market and the need of the financial solutions.
After covering the market of India, the company endeavours the expansion of their boundaries in the other countries market and economy. The main reason to go international is to maximise the profit and to stabilise the business. It is apparent that the expansion of the business is directly proportional to the increased turnover and that results increased profit. Michel Bruno and co-workers (1991) explained that business gets stabilised if that is operated in more than one country because different countries have different economic environment and diverse effect on the business operation. In simplest words, if there is an economic crisis in one country, there may be economic progression in another country.
Section 3: Country specific marketing environment
Marketing environment commonly means the set of the all the factors that influence the behaviour of organisation in negative or positive aspects (Fitzen L., 2009). There may be internal and external factors as well as external factors involved in the marketing environment. As the organisation operates in many countries, there are different economic environments in the respective countries. Different countries have different marketing need, marketing culture and resources, etc.
Indian market is developing for the financial solutions, therefore there is great potential (IBEF, 2011). There are many competitors in the market like, Financial Technologies Group, Broadridge, Ocwen Financial Solutions Pvt Ltd, Inspire India Financial Solutions Pvt Ltd, etc. these all system is manual and time consuming. So, we overcome that drawback and made our system Internet based and Instant decision making. That is how we differentiated from the tradition agenda to modern trend in the financial service processing.
Marketing environment in USA for financial solution is highly competitive but more rewarding (personal-writer.com, n.d.). The main competitors are USA Financial Solutions LLC, Siemens, AXLE Financial Solutions and many more. Our company beat the competition through better service of providing the fast and internet based operation. The customers can be from the wide variety of the people from the diverse background. Middle class as well as rich class also could be the customers since everybody could face financial uncertainty.
UK market for financial service is also potential. There are also several competitors as usual. Wonga.com operates in the very similar way as ours, but we are distinct in the range of products that we offer. Wonga.com only focuses on Payday loans while we have so many other products. There are other couple of competitors out there as like; Integrity Financial Solutions, Hilton-Baird Financial Solutions, Abacus (Financial Consultants) Ltd, Gambit Financial Solutions UK Ltd, Baker and Company, and so many more. We become distinct from all these providers in the fast internet based procedure and in the diverse range of the products.
Australian market is booming due to high awareness of Internet and need of financial solutions (Internet World Stats, n.d.). Competitors are vitally influencing the financial market. They are Total Financial Services, Prowest Financial Solutions, Solar Shop Australia Pty Ltd, Wealthtrak Financial Solutions, Heritage Financial Solutions, and many more. There is no market without competitors. In fact, competitors enhance the quality of the products and services. Here, differentiated products of next generation financial solution makes us more stable in the Australian financial market.
We also expand the boundaries of our business in the Japanese market. Japan is believed as Asia's developed and most potential market for financial services. Japanese market is also full of competitors like; Japan Finance Corporation (JFC), Volkswagen Financial Services, Okamoto & Company, Loginet Japan Co Ltd, Japan-PNB Leasing & Finance Corporation, LEOC Japan Co. Ltd, and so on.
Apart from above referred countries, Savaliyas Finance Ltd operates in many other developing countries as well as many undeveloped countries. The business strategy would be apparently slightly different from country to country. The reason is there are several different factors exist in the country to country. For instance, developing and undeveloped nations might have lack of the resources like Internet access and other payment processing system. As a result, strategy definitely should be changed according to the circumstances and market situations.
Furthermore, marketing strategy of our organisation is developed in such a way that adopts the change in the environment instantly where needed. Different country's environment changing situations and factors may influence the strategic direction of our organisation. If this kind of situation detected, board of directors instantly decides proactively the appropriate way for organisation change and thus leads organisation forward.
Section 4: SMART objectives
Objectives of any organisation should be very clear because they guide all the stakeholders for the level of involvement in the organisation. It also serves as a feedback mechanism for the employees in respect to performance. Objectives should be determined by the senior management as well as individual employees. Employees should be given the certain area/subjects and require to formulate the goals from it (Frey B., Osterloh M., 2002, pg 234).
There is a perfect characteristic is defined to measure the level of efficiency of the objectives. That is called SMART objectives which are elaborate as below:
S = Specific, i.e. individual target objectives to be achieved by each employee;
M = Measurable, i.e. the expected performance must be measurable on the basis of concrete, operational criteria, e.g. sales, number of transactions, number of suggestions for improvement to reduce costs;
A = Achievable, i.e. the level of performance agreed on with an employee must also be achievable within a given period of time in accordance with the framework of a standard industry job description;
R = Relevant, i.e. the objectives must be achievable by individual employees in relation to their specific function, and must not be determined by external, non-controllable factors;
T = Time bound, i.e. the timeframe within which any identified objectives should be achieved.
SMART objectives guide the organisation's behaviour and operations and lead it to the specific desired goal (Frey B., Osterloh M., 2002, pg 235). Savaliyas Finance Ltd possesses the policy that insures the objectives followed strictly and smartly. Following is the description of the objectives of the Savaliyas Finance Ltd.
Section 5: Marketing strategy
Strategy in marketing involves harnessing an organisation's resources to meet customers needs through market analysis, an understanding of competitor actions, government actions and globalisation, together with consideration of technological and other environmental changes. The management of these complex interrelationships needs a more lateral approach rather than the linear approach often applied in conventional strategic marketing thinking (Ranchhod A. & at. al., 2004, pg 1).
Savaliyas Finance Ltd operates based on the (1) excellent strategic structure, (2) selection of potential strategic options and (3) utilising various resources. There is detailed illustration below about all these three strategic factors influencing the organisational existence.
Efficient strategic structure is reflected through effective strategy construction. The process of strategy construction process starts with defining the organisation's mission. Here mission is to satisfy the need of financial solution and provide a better financial life to the public. The further step is to define the Aim and objectives of the corporation which is already discussed in section 4. These two things build the base of the organisational existence and have vital importance in the future progression. The next step in the strategy construction is to formulate the strategy which includes the planning of the way of operation, beating the competition, something innovation, etc.
Company is not independent in strategic planning, as it needs to depend on various marketing factors. There are many options for strategy has been evolved, among them Michel porter explained four forces that determine the success or failure of marketing strategy. There are mainly three options; cost leadership, differentiation and focus.
Cost leadership involves the lowering the cost against the competitors. Savaliyas Finance Ltd always operates as low priced services. This results in lower profit margin but increased business. Cost sensitive customers can be attracted by this approach. Basically, this benefits to the customers and therefore growth of organisation becomes possible.
Another option, differentiation, is also critical factor which means development and innovation in the products / services. Our services of fast, instant and internet based processing system enable us to come out of the competitors. Customer can apply online for loan, insurance or whatever products. Decision is made instant through online decision making system. And customer is served online instantly means, customer get money in his account within few minutes if he is approved. This feature is innovative and novel among competitors which benefit us in possessing monopoly in the financial market.
Third, option in strategic planning is focus. Savaliyas Finance Ltd operates by creating the niche of customers and focussing on the prospective customer targets.
It is important to consider the players involved in constructing the management strategy and the resources implications of carrying out the strategy. Resources ( human, financial and physical ) are required to perform the strategy. Human resources are the man power or work force that makes change possible. They are key components of changing process. Financial resources of an organisation are financial assets that are used to achieve the financial goal and play key role in changing process. Physical resources are the physical assets like machinery, building, raw material, etc. that needed for production of goods, required to achieve the goals.
Section 6: Marketing mix
After deciding on its overall marketing strategy, the company is ready to begin planning the details of the marketing mix, one of the major concepts in the modern marketing. The marketing mix is the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. The marketing mix consists of everything the firm can do to influence the demand for its products. The many possibilities can be collected into four groups of variables (known as the four Ps): products, price, place and promotion (Kotler P., Armstrong g., 2010, pg 76).
(Source: Kotler P., Armstrong g., 2010, pg 76)
Products line includes financial products like; loans, mortgages, insurances, etc. loans includes Payday loans, Unsecure loans, Students loans, Mortgages, Business loans, etc. Insurances involve Life insurances, Home insurances, Credit insurance, Possession insurance, and so on. Apart from this, we also offer microfinance which is the provision of small amount of credit particularly for small business (Allderdice A., Rogers J., 2000, pg 7). As described above, products are different than other competitors as they include fast and online methods of operation overcoming manual tradition methods. Customers pay interest for the loan they take and thus we get the profits.
Pricing of the service at Savaliyas Finance Ltd is very reasonable. And this is part of our company strategy. We don't want to be beaten on the price. In other words, we apply coast leadership to beat the competition. Implementing this strategy, we can attract the price sensitive customers. There may be the problem with fewer profit margins, but on other hand, this also can increase the business and thus making equal balance in the profit. This strategy could give us a great satisfactory and loyal feeling from the customers. There would be discount and allowances if in the bulk or referring the friend and likewise. The discount also would be provided if customer pays loan earlier.
Place of operation for Savaliyas Finance Ltd would be diverged. There is hierarchical model of operation in which, there will be headquarter, regional centres, local centres, etc. Financial products do not require any big place like warehouse, but there is a good office would be fine. And the location preferred is the high streets or the city centres.
Promotion is the most dynamic and vital part of any business. We also frequently start promotional campaigns to generate awareness in the public. First of all, most emphasis is given to the online promotion and advertisement because our system is fully automated and internet based. Online advertisement includes Google Adwords, People string, Facebook advertisement, Gumtree, and other online advertisement companies. We also support other form of advertisement like in the newspapers, banners, etc. to promote our products; we also give promotional bonuses, refer a friend bonus, and so on. We also can think to start the campaigns of leaflet distribution in the houses or at the high streets. Direct door to door selling also can be done for our products promotion.
Section 7: Control and evaluation methods
Organisation control refers to the process by which a corporation influences its subunits and members to act in ways that lead to the accomplishment of organizational objectives (Arrow, 1974; Flamholtz, Das, & Tsui, 1985; Ouchi, 1977).
Savaliyas Finance Ltd is consists of senior management or board of directors who is responsible for evaluation and control of an organisation. It is responsible to set performance standards in respect to the planning objectives, to design feedback systems, to measure up to actual performance in compare with predetermined standards, to evaluate any deviations and calculate its significance, to take action in response to any organisation misbehaviour and to monitor the organisational resources utilisation. Thus, it ensures all these actions taken in response the appropriate situation that influence the achievement of organisational objectives.
According to the types of stimulation, three types of control can be applied; feedforward, concurrent, and feedback. Feedforward approach focuses on the regulation of input (human, material, resources, etc.) to ensure that they meet the necessary standard of the process. Same way, concurrent approach applies while activity is going on, For instance, regulation of employees to ensure their standard performance. Finally, feedback control is implemented on the output of any transformational process.
Section 9: Conclusion
Corporations are transforming from local to global operations. And, this report critically evaluates the global marketing strategies and tactics in relation of an imaginary multinational corporation, Savaliyas Finance Ltd. The company offers wide range of financial solutions and possesses transformable way of strategic approach in country to country. This report thoroughly analyses the global marketing environment, need of SMART objectives, marketing mix, marketing strategic model, control/evaluation models in respect to imaginary corporation Savaliyas Finance Ltd. Thus, the report provides deep understanding of global marketing management.
Section 10: Referred material
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Hutchens A., (2009), Changing big business: the globalisation of the fair trade movement, Edward Elgar Publishing, UK & USA, ISBN 978 1 84720 971 9.
Michel Bruno & et. al., (1991), Lessons of economic stabilization and its aftermath, MIT Press, ISBN 978 0 2620 23245 5.
IBEF (2011), Financial Services, Available online at: http://www.ibef.org/industry/financialservices.aspx [accessed on 03/04/2011].
Personal-writer.com (n.d.), Economics of Starting a New Cellular Business - Research Paper, Available online at: http://www.personal-writer.com/sample /business-analysis/economics-of-starting-a-new-cellular-business-research-paper [accessed on 03/04/2011].
Internet World Stats (n.d.), Australia: Internet Usage Stats and Telecommunications Market Report, Available online at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/sp/au.htm [Accessed on: 03/04/2011].
Fitzen L., (2009), Marketing Environment: What Factors internal to an Organisation Can Have an Influence on the Way it Perceives and Responds to Its External Environment? GRIN Verlag, Germany.
Frey B., Osterloh M., (2002), Successful management by motivation: balancing intrinsic and extrinsic incentives, Springer, pg 234.
Ranchhod A. & at. al., (2004), Marketing strategies: a twenty-first century approach, Pearson Education, pg : 1.
Kotler P., Armstrong g., (2010), Principles of marketing, Pearson Education, pg 76.
Allderdice A., Rogers J., (2000), Renewable Energy for Microenterprise, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, pg 7.
Arrow K., (1974), The Limits of Organization, Norton.
Flamholtz E. G., Das T. K., Tsui A. S., (1985), Toward an integrative framework of
organizational control. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 10.
Ouchi, W. G., (1977), The Relationship Between Organizational Structure and Organizational Control. Administrative Science Quarterly.
