1. Collect market data, such
as demographics, needs, trends, growth, buyer behavior, customer segments,
competition, collaborators, and macroeconomic forces etc.
“A number of contributory factors are behind the
region’s phenomenal growth in bottled water: an exploding population, high
disposable income, easy market access for suppliers, a rise in health awareness
thus shifting consumers from tap to mineral water, a thriving expatriate
community and a fast-expanding hotel and F&B scene.” http://www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/12378-the-regions-bottled-water-market-is-exploding/1/
2. Meeting with manager for Company investigation,
such as tangible assets, intangible assets, capabilities, areas of
advantage, key success factors and key weaknesses and so on.
3. Collect objectives data, such as financial, nonfinancial (e.g.
customer satisfaction, perceived quality, loyalty)
4. Prepared interview questions:
- What differentiates your product from your competitors'? (weaknesses, strengths; examples: water quality, bottle design, human capital)
- What is your company's vision for the future?
- What is your pricing policy?
- Who is your target market? (demographics)
- What entry modes do you prefer to use? (Joint Ventures, Exporting, etc.)
- In Saudi Arabia, would you probably use direct or indirect investments?
- Can you talk about the process of entering your existing foreign
markets and what it may be like when entering Saudi Arabia? (differences)
- What means of promotion/advertising do you use?
- Have you considered expanding distribution to luxury department
stores? (beyond Harrod's in London)
- Who are your main competitors?
5. Email feedback: “On Saudi situation, we don´t have distributor there
yet but try to find it in coming year. Saudi is quite difficult market ´cause
you have to find trustful partner who has good connections to royal family. We
don´t have any hotel chain contracts yet but have clients like Park Hyat, JW
Marriot Hotel & Shangri-la hotel.” –Mikko Nikkilä, Director of Operations
6.
Possible competitors in the global luxury bottled water market (difficult to
find information on which brands are present in Saudi Arabia)
- Voss
- Finé
- Bling H2O
- Elsenham
- Lauquen
- Karoo
- Iskilde
- Fiji
- Cloudjuice
- Fillico
- Evian
- 10 Thousand BC
- Hildon
- Aqua Panna
- AntiPodes
- SanPellegrino
- Blu
- Kona Nigari
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Working hard. Taken by Abby.
I suggest to do in the Macro level the following analysis: CAGE, Pestle and National Competitiveness on Saudi Arabia. At the Meso Level: 5 forces analyses on industry and SWOT Analysis on the Micro level.
ReplyDeleteAlso, since the you guys are meeting with somebody from the company, you should ask him all the details about the different entry modes that the company has used in the past and find out what has been the most successful.
I'm also considering Saudi Arabia to be a very interesting marketplace, yet it is often quite challenging as well, particularly from HR and communication perspective. For example, it is often quite difficult or even impossible for female representatives to engage in dialogue with the saudi partners, and communication oftentimes revolves around equal standings (e.g. similar ages, only CEOs get to speak with CEOs or otherwise you're ignored, etc).
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind, it might be interesting to review whether the company has a specific marketing communications strategy for the Saudi Arabian context. It would be favorable if there's a well-laid plan on who exactly does the communication and how it is intended to be done, as it can be a "make or break" sort of issue for markets such as Saudi Arabia. You likely touch on that with your interview questions regarding market entry, yet this represented something that immediately came to mind.
The company cooperate with local agent,the latter one use its marketing source,such as reputation,social status and network to do sales promotion and PR management.The biggest investment for company is advertising.
DeleteAs you and the Veen Water Operational Director Mr. Nikkilä mentioned, it can be very challenging to find information about Saudi Arabia's competitive environment and business culture overall. Finding a good partner must be the key conducting business there.
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion for your would be that you could focus more on collecting data of possible clients (like the hotel chains) who could offer the Veen water at their own locations. For instance, I was at Helsinki airport last week and went to Starbucks and I saw Veen water sold there. I think that was a great place for Veen. So maybe you could investigate which cafes, hotels, luxury brands etc. are "famous" in Saudis and that way get more info how the company could enter the country on a larger scale.
Veen brand is closely connected to culture, art and design of Finland. Thus, you might find it interesting to look at your product as encompassing the "Finnish art" aspect and as such develop a value-added (Finnish art brand) offer to the international markets. Interest towards design and art related to Finland has been gaining more awareness and prominence in the world. Main challenge - to find the right market to start with the concept.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carita, It will be good for you guys to find specific places that can be popular to sell the Veen Waters. A very easy way to get info from Saudi Arabia customers is to look a your facebook friends' list and find if any of your friends has moved there. If you find one, you can ask him/her to ask more friends about what are the popular places in the city that you guys are considering to target. However, you can always contact the Saudi Arabia embassy here in Helsinki http://www.embassy-saudi.com/finland.html and get more info about the business enviroment in that country. Also, you can use the embassy to create a survey for people from Saudi Arabia that live here in Helsinki. The embassy should have some info and they can distribute the survey or help you to organize a focus groups. For example , I am registered in the Mexican Embassy here in Helsinki and I get a surveys/ or invitations to events all the time through the Mexican Embassy.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your advice!
Delete