Global Marketing and Strategy Practice (Essay Sample)

Global Marketing and Strategy Practice
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Introduction
This paper presents research on international business mainly on how to establish a business in Poland. The research involves establishing a business in Poland. The research will present the business opportunities in the country. There is also research of the investment environment in the country. The report also involves the analysis of the country’s economy in the past 25 years and the current situation in the country. The paper also involves identifying the most suitable market mode of entry into the international market. The investment environment in the country will be analyzed so as to identify the opportunities that a company can take to prosper in the country. The country analysis will also help a company in identifying the challenges and regulations in the country of the investment. The changes, which arise as, a result of these components will be analyzed in the report. The culture of the people of Poland is also very important in this research because culture is an integral part of investment. It presents a critical analysis on regional investment in the European Union decisions and the impact it creates, once a company ventures into the international business.
The report involves the environment that should attract investors venture into the international market specifically Poland. It also involves discussing how social, legal, economic, political and technological factors contribute to countries attractiveness.
Political environment
Political factors are the changes that arise as a result of government influence. These include policies passed by the government of Poland. There is freedom of movement in the country and therefore, investing in the country will be very important in investment. The reason behind this is that a company should invest in a country where there is freedom of movement (Brouthers and Nakos, et al., 2009). This will enable the company to use their resources freely including human capital to strengthen the new ventures. Freedom of movement and other favorable factors increase competition, which will, help a company, penetrate the market freely without any discrimination from international government (Lee and Carter, 2010). After the country gained its independence it has moved away from communism and has embraced democracy as rule of law in the country. Democracy is very important in the international business because the government does not interfere with the business community. Since gaining independence the country has been having a stable political system that is attractive to the business community. A democratic country attracts a lot of investors and aid from the international community so as to promote development of the key sectors of the economy.
The cultural factors
These relate to behaviour, lifestyles and tastes of consumers. The company should consider the consumer behavior because, their changes in cultural practices will lead to changes in their fashions and styles (Thomas, 2008). They should also consider the population structure, that is, the age structure. This will help plan effectively on current market situation and to predict the future (Hill and Hill, 2011). McDonald’s should invest where there are a lot of young people because they form a large base of their customers. The company should work towards identifying the social changes that might occur in future (Thomas, 2008). This will help them plan for the future market situation.
The legal factors
There is need to have the required licenses to operate in the country. The legal factors should also be considered. These are the laid down rules and policies that companies should follow. There is need to identify such policies in their areas of investment. The legal frameworks include consumer protection, environmental legislations, health and safety and employment law (Blithe, 2009). A company should work to understand the policies in time of their investment. The company should take proactive measures to ahead of such changes in case they occur. The company should, therefore, follow the laid down policies to the letter to avoid disturbances in the market. The company should ensure that they follow the set labor policies in the EU region.
The economic factors
The country practices a mixed economy where there are some elements of capitalism together with those free markets. Economic factors are factors that directly affect investment and the company’s profits. They are to be considered before any international venture. They include interest rates, which is the cost of borrowing money. A company should invest when investment rates are low to avoid making losses when it comes to the time of payment (Hill, 2010). A boom is a time when company or a business is earning high profits. It is not advisable to invest during such a time because; it does not reveal the real image of the market (Ghauri and Cateora, 2010). A slump is a kind of economy fluctuations when most businesses make huge losses and close down. A company should not, therefore, invest in such a time but should wait when the conditions are favorable (Hill, 2010). Levels of demand at this time, is the consumers’ willingness and ability to buy. It should be highly considered during investment. The company should invest in a market where there is a rising demand. This is because; the company will be assured of a ready market which can be exploited. The rate of inflation, which is, a general hike in commodity prices, should be considered during investment. This is because; it could lead to collapse of the market when it causes the prices to rise beyond affordability of consumers (Hollensen, 2010). It will also make it expensive for the companies to do business leading them to losses. Wage rate is the pay that is going to the companies employees. The company should consider a venture where wage is low (Keegan and Green, 2010). The reason behind this is that, low wage rates means cost of production is low, and the company will make large profits while selling at a low price. During the world economic crisis the country was not affected and actually it is the only country in Europe to have registered growth in its economy. This means that the country’s economy is very stable to an extent it cannot be destabilized by shakeup in other dependent economies.
Nature of the country’s international trade
After the country gained its independence its involvement in the international trade was minimal because there were no structures to govern the nature of this trade. The independent government worked to put down structures that will enable the country to compete in the global arena with the already stable economies. The involvement of the country at this stage was mainly as an importer for most of its goods. This means that the country did not have a lot of goods to export to other countries. The products that the country mainly exported were at their raw form and comprised raw materials. This was a loss to the country because it gained less foreign currency and it spent a lot of foreign currency to buy products that were made from these raw materials. This led to deficit in its balance of payment because it had to use money from the other sources of the government. This drained the country’s resources and made it dependent on the international market for its essential products while it was gaining less foreign currency. This has since changed because after the country changed into democracy a lot of countries from Europe and the USA started investing in the country and offering aid to construct infrastructure that would help growth of the economy. This helped the country to earn a lot of foreign exchange that was reinvested in the economy. This increase in earnings and the stability of the country made Poland a haven for investment for international companies. This was also attributed to country’s high population which was ready market for the produced goods. The country’s economy was market driven because the companies produced for a ready market. This led to stability in the economy because these companies employed the local people and this meant that the government was gaining a lot of revenue from taxes. The country had a very strong cooperation with other countries and this created a market for its processed goods which it had a competitive advantage on. In the current years the country has joined other countries in international cooperation which have made the country very attractive and marketable in the international market. This has also helped the country to attract of investors as well as foreign aid from the developed countries.
Technological factors
Technological factors are the changes that arise from advances in communication (Egan, 2007). McDonald’s should be aware of technology used in the fast food industry. This will enable the company to be in competition with rival companies in the market and industry. They should invest in technology which will make the company outstanding and favorable to consumers. They should also use modern forms of technology to do marketing. This can be done through the social networks and other types of media. The modern technology enables companies to share information. McDonald’s should also invest in technology to cut down costs and improve in service delivery (Baines, Fill and Page, 2010). The company should highly invest in research and expansion in order not to remain behind its competitors.
McDonald’s should go global after having considered all the above factors. The information will enable the company to realize the best time to invest in an international market (Hill, 2010). The company should also analyze the social, legal, economic, pol...