Size of the market and growth rates
The report helps in the analysis of the critical evaluation of the international marketing opportunities along with the marketing analysis of the company in an effective manner. The size of the market and the rate of growth is required to be analysed in an effective manner which helps in discussing about the market barriers and market drivers of the respective company.
The company which will be analysed in the report is Coles Supermarket which is based in Australia and the company will be expanded in Hong Kong which is in Asia. The marketing mix along with the competitor analysis of the company is required to be done in an effective manner wherein the strengths and opportunities of the company is required to be done in an appropriate manner to gain competitive advantage.
The positioning map along with situational analysis of the company is required to be done along with various other theories and approaches such as Porter’s Five Forces and SWOT along with Value Chain analysis which will be effective in nature to gain competitive advantage.
Market analysis is essential in nature as this helps in studying the attractiveness along with dynamics of the special market with the special industry. The global environmental analysis is required to be done in order to understand and analyse the different kinds of global environmental analysis effectively. The global market analysis is required to be done for Coles Supermarket which will help in managing the entry of the supermarket into the other international markets in an effective manner (Al-Dmour et al., 2016).
The main aim of the Coles Supermarket in order to expand their market in Hong Kong is to provide the different customers in the market with best quality products, values along with services. The circle for the success of Coles is such that wherein this has been able to help Coles in moving forward in direction of their mission which is to serve their customers with appropriate quality products and services and gain more competitive advantage in the entire market (Ortega et al. 2015).
Figure 1: Circle for Success of Coles
Population
(Source: )
The market size of Coles Supermarket has raised from 0.8% points to 12.1% in the entire Hong Kong market and this will help Coles in gaining competitive advantage. Furthermore, in the year 2017, this has been analysed and seen that there is huge rise of about 28.8% of the entire market share in Hong Kong market and this will assist Coles in gaining huge market share in comparison to the other competitors. For Coles, there will be moderate growth in the entire Hong Kong market as the growth of the supermarket in Hong Kong is less in nature.
The population in the Hong Kong country is 73.5 lakhs and the Coles can create a unique position in the market of Hong Kong. In regards to the population, the Coles supermarket can gain huge profit and market share in the country by targeting the different individuals of different age groups who can be the buyers and this will increase the entire profitability of the company effectively as well. Furthermore, Coles needs to analyze the culture of Hong Kong which will assist them in focusing on preferences of the customers and this will help in managing the sales of the company effectively as well.
There are different market barriers which can be faced by Coles Supermarket while expanding their market to the Hong Kong market. The different market barriers are as follows:
- Tariff Barriersis the first issue which has to be faced by Coles Supermarket in which this was seen that Coles can face and indicate various taxes and duties which are being imposed on imports. Coles will find it difficult to promote the different products as there are different tariff policies which restricts the international marketing activities in a negative manner.
- Administrative Policiesis the second issue which can be faced by Coles as it has been seen both host and guest countries make the international marketing harder in nature. There are different lengthy formalities in Hong Kong market along with in Australian market which can create problems for Coles to expand their business.
- Political Instabilityis the other issue in which this has been seen that government in Hong Kong have different philosophies and priorities for the international trades. The approach which is being used by Hong Kong government is restrictive and these dominants the position of the international business operations as well.
- Place Constraintsis the last barrier which is required to be analyzed in which this has been seen that in Hong Kong, both export and import of the different products via sea route is challenging and there are different risks such as segmenting the market in an effective manner (Ellickson, 2016).
There are different market drivers which is required to be analyzed by Coles while entering into the Hong Kong market and this helps in maintaining the different kinds of factors which has to be ascertained:
- Consideration of the local situation is the first driverwhich is required to be ascertained by Coles in Hong Kong market as the culture of Australia and Hong Kong is different from one another. In Hong Kong, the customers prefer the quality products at lower prices unlike Australia and this can be a challenge for Coles (Choi, 2017).
- Financial Resources is the other factor which is required to be ascertained by Coles in Hong Kong as the company with high equity capital are successful in abroad. The reliable financial resources of Coles in Australian market will help them in being successful in nature in the Hong Kong market.
- Personal Resources is the other factor which is required to be analyzed by Coles in Hong Kong market. The personal resources include experienced and skilled staffs in Hong Kong market can be difficult in nature to find such reliable staffs in the respective market.
Coles Supermarket is Australian Supermarket which was founded in 1914 and the company is operating in more than 800 locations. The number of employees working in the organization includes 100000 and the key people of the company is John Durkan who is managing director of Coles (Coles.com.au, 2018).
The current strategies which are used by Coles is to bring back the unhappy customers by improving the quality of products and gain competitive advantage. The expertise of the company is to provide the customers with quality products at a cheap rate and the management of the company is strong (Kasiri et al., 2017).
Market Barriers and Market Drivers
John Durkan and Curtis Stone manage the different activities of Coles effectively by introducing different kinds of services and products which will be efficient to gain competitive in nature. The market share of the company in Australia is huge and there has been more than 0.2% increase in the same (Huhman, Kelly & Edgar, 2017). The performance of the company has become effective and the profitability which has been gained by the company has helped them in managing the activities efficiently.
Figure 2: Performance and Profitability of Coles
(Source: Cameron et al., 2016)
Refer to Appendice 2
Product- Coles helps in offering fresh food and groceries to customers along with financial services. There are different kinds of product segments such as general merchandise, liquor and financial services. The company tries to sell fashionable clothes to the different customers in the market (Noyan & ?im?ek, 2014).
Price- Coles is the cost-leader and this helps in offering the customers with different kinds of products with the best quality and at lower rates as well. This helps the customers to gain the quality products at a lower price (Izogo & Ogba, 2015).
Place- The Coles has more than 2300 outlets and with the help of the same, the company tries to reach to the different customers with the different products at different central location. Coles has tried to create better store network which has helped them in targeting different customers (Lien, Cao & Zhou, 2017).
Promotion- The advertising strategy helps the company in becoming more popular and this helps the supermarket in highlighting the different kinds of offers to attract customers (Orel & Kara 2014).
There are different competitors of Coles Supermarket which are Tesco, Aldi and Walmart.
Competitors |
USP |
Walmart |
Strengths- Offers the customers with similar kind of products however the promotional strategy is effective and better than Coles Weaknesses- Walmart pricing strategy is not effective and is high in nature |
Tesco |
Strengths- The everyday low pricing strategy helps the company in becoming more competitive in nature in comparison to other supermarkets (Hegner et al., 2017) Weaknesses- The quality is compromised at times which is being sold to the customers |
The main unique selling proposition of the company Coles Supermarket is to bring the different middle-class products and services into the working-class homes and this helps the company in gaining competitive advantage in comparison to the other competitors in the market (Dhar, 2015).
Customer Audit and Buyer Behavior
Figure 3: Positioning Map
(Source: Hamari, Hanner & Koivisto, 2017)
With the help of the positioning map, this can be analysed that the Coles is in the low price and brand product range in which this helps the company in managing the different kinds of the needs of the customers (Mardani et al., 2015). Furthermore, the Tesco and there are other competitors like Coles in which this has been seen that Coles is performing in an effective manner. The market opportunities which are being adopted by Coles is attract more customers.
Political Factors – The government creates a direct impact on supermarket industry in regards to the trading hours and there are different kinds of other political instabilities such as tariff barriers in Hong Kong market which can affect the entire market share of Coles (Ferguson, Brown & Johnston 2017).
Economic Factors- There are different economical factors such as low spending in the Hong Kong community and this has affected bargaining power of the suppliers in a drastic manner.
Social Factors- There can be different social factors such as helping and improving the overall society for the well being of the people in Hong Kong. The Coles company can introduce themselves with different social organizations which will help in managing the different activities effectively (Blut et al., 2015).
Technological Factors- The usage of cloud infrastructure helps in managing the different customers in Hong Kong community. The self-checkout services in Hong Kong help in managing the different kind of customers.
Environmental Factors- There are different kinds of environmental factors such as usage of sustainable products and eco-friendly supermarkets in Hong Kong in keeping their position.
Legal Factors- There can be different legal factors such as mandatory codes in Hong Kong which is required to be followed effectively in Hong Kong to held their position firmly.
4P’s (note: is it is a service – 7P’s)
Threats of new entrants – Wherein the other new entrants bring innovation and this puts pressure on Coles as they use lower pricing strategy effectively.
Bargaining Power of the Suppliers- Suppliers have a dominant position in the market and this can be a threat for Coles as the suppliers are already with different other supermarkets which are based in Hong Kong (Al-Dmour et al., 2016).
Bargaining Power of Buyers- This is wherein the best offerings are received by customers from other companies and this is affecting them in a negative manner.
Threats of substitute products and services- There can be different companies in Hong Kong which provides similar kinds of products to customers and this can affect the products provided by Coles.
Rivalry among Existing Competitors- The profitability can be affected for Coles as there are different other sustainable differentiation in the company in an ineffective manner.
With the help of value chain analysis, this can help in managing the different kinds of value chain in which this has been seen that the value chain is effective in nature and the processes which are included in Coles supermarket value chain are the different transport along with packaging of the goods and services in an effective manner.
From the above, this can be analysed that Coles is the star helps in generating the large amount of cash and there is strong relative market share of Coles in the market as well. The growth rate of Coles is high and this has helped the company in gaining competitive advantage.
The SWOT analysis has helped the company Coles in analysing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The strengths of the company include the attractive pricing techniques which is being used to be immensely successful in nature. Furthermore, there are different weaknesses such as the margin is lower in comparison to the other competitors. There are different opportunities such as the geographic expansion can help in boosting their business effectively. Lastly, the threats include intense competition has led to decline in sales of Coles.
Conclusion:
Therefore, this can be concluded that the international marketing is essential in nature which has helped in managing the different kinds of factors such as macro and micro environmental factors which has affected the entire market share of the company Coles in an effective manner. Furthermore, with the help of value chain and SWOT analysis, this has helped the company Coles in managing the differences and tried to improve their efficiency in the market effectively.
Competitor Analysis
References:
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