Essay: Marketing Mix, Brand Equity, And Integrated Marketing Communication For Dorothy Perkins In Chinese Market.

After submitting your initial marketing report, the company is now convinced that the suggested country’s market is the best market to do business and has commissioned you again to produce a report on their behalf advising them on how they can gain successful entry with the new product/service you suggested in your initial report. Your task now is to write a group report by answering the following questions:

1. To what extent should the different elements of the marketing mix be standardised or adapted for your chosen country. Give a full justification for your ideas.
   
   
2. Applying the Customer Based Brand Equity model, critically analyse how your client could build and manage a strong brand in this new market.
   
   
3. Applying the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC) critically evaluate three effective marketing communication methods your client could incorporate within this market. 
   
   
4. Critically assess how your client could measure its marketing success in this market and how it could improve in the future.

Marketing Mix Strategies for Dorothy Perkins in China

Contemporary business organizations should have proper business and marketing strategies in order to operate in the host countries. This is important due to the reason that home and host countries will have different business factor and environments and business organizations should have to change or modify their existing business strategies in operating in the new country based on the domestic social and other factors in that country (Prajogo 2016). This is leading for the contemporary business organizations to have different strategies in different countries. Dorothy Perkins is one of the leading retailers in the United Kingdom and they are considering entering in Chinese market (Helm and Gritsch 2014). This report is being evaluated from the perceptive of the consultant. This report will discuss about the marketing mix strategies to be followed by Dorothy Perkins in the Chinese market. In addition, the brand equity model for the Chinese customers will also be discussed in this report along with discussing the effective marketing communication methods to be implemented in the Chinese market.

The proposed marketing strategy for Dorothy Perkins should be standardized in large with the implementation of adaptive strategy to a little extent. Thus, the core objective of implementing the proposed marketing mix strategy will be to offer standardized products with having adaptive approach. Standardization refers to the process of offering universal and standardized products across all the markets (Mintz and Currim 2013). Furthermore, the advantage that will be gained by Dorothy Perkins from having adaptive approach is effective targeting of the Chinese customers. Adaptive strategy refers to the strategy of offering products in accordance to the taste and preference pattern of the customers. this strategy also involves localization of the products in different markets.

It is suggested that the product portfolio should remain same in offering in the Chinese market. In this case, standardization strategy should be initiated (Montgomery 2017). However, the approach of the products can be changed such as using the Chinese designs and couture in the clothesline. In this case, adaptation strategy should be initiated. The major advantage will be the increase in the attractiveness of the global product line of Dorothy Perkins.

Currently, Dorothy Perkins follows the premium pricing strategy in their global business operation. In the case of doing business in China, it is suggested that they should initiate the similar pricing strategy. Thus, standardization strategy should be initiated. This is due to the reason that, China is having huge number of higher end customers who are having the requirement of higher end premium brand (Liozu and Hinterhuber 2013). Thus, initiating the global approach of premium pricing strategy will help Dorothy Perkins to maintain their global brand value in the Chinese market along with targeting the higher end customers. This will also enhance the profitability of Dorothy Perkins in operating in the Chinese market. These are major advantages for Dorothy Perkins from standardization strategy. 

Brand Equity Model for Dorothy Perkins in China

Currently, Dorothy Perkins is having extensive and holistic set of marketing strategies that ranges from email marketing to celebrity endorsements. This helps them to enhance their market exposure among the target customer segments (Gangwar, Kumar and Rao 2013). It is suggested that in the Chinese market, they should implement their global promotional strategy as well as implementing the localization strategy. Thus, in this case both the standardization and adaptation strategy should be initiated in well balanced manner. This will ensure the maximum level of market penetration for the Chinese market. Another advantage of this strategy will be attracting customers with having both global and local preferences. 

Dorothy Perkins is having both offline and online stores and thus they are following Omni Channel distribution strategy. They should implement the same strategy in the Chinese market also (Ailawadi and Farris 2017). Thus, standardization strategy should be initiated. This is due to the reason that Chinese market is also having higher set of internet penetration that will help to have favorable marketing opportunities for the online mediums. In addition, it will help in cater to customers from all possible mediums. 

This policy should be standardized and the same approach and ambience should be maintained in the Chinese market (Huang and Sarigollu 2014). This will help them to provide the same global standards to their Chinese customers also. In addition, Dorothy Perkins will be able to maintain the distinctive image in the Chinese market. These will be their major advantages.

Currently, Dorothy Perkins is having the outsourcing policy of sourcing their products from the developing countries at lower cost. Thus in the case of operating in the Chinese market, they should maintain the same approach that is standardized approach including sourcing also from the Chinese vendors. This will be beneficial for them because cost of production is lower in China and they will be benefited from lower cost of sourcing. 

In case of selecting people for the Chinese operation, geocentric approach of staffing should be initiated. This is due to the reason that geocentric approach will enable Dorothy Perkins to recruit employees from both their home and host countries (Plakhotnik et al. 2015). Thus, both the standardized and adaptive approach should be initiated to an extent. This is beneficial because having people from both home and host countries will help Dorothy Perkins to provide the service in accordance to the local culture along with meeting their global organizational standards. 

Integrated Marketing Communication for Dorothy Perkins in China

Customer based quality brand also known as Keller’s brand equity model states the factors that should be considered by the brands in creating strong connection with the customers. Thus, this model helps the organizations in creating strong branding of their products. The first and basic element of this model is salience that refers to the identity of the brand among the customers. Dorothy Perkins is known among their target customers as a premium fashion retailer offering high street fashion line. Thus, having this identity of premium retailer will help them to market their products and enhance their brand value in the Chinese market (Lim and Weaver 2014). The next element is brand meaning that refers to the performance of the particular product about its ability to meet the requirement of the customers. Brand meaning is having two main factors of performance and imagery. Performance refers to the extent to which the products of Dorothy Perkins are meeting the demand of the customers and they are efficient over their competitors. Another factor is imagery that defines the extent to which the brand is meeting the social and psychological needs of the customers. Thus, in order to have a stronger brand value in the Chinese market, it is important for Dorothy Perkins to maintain their global positioning strategy that will enable them to provide both product quality and premium user experience (Liu, Liu and Lin 2015).

Products of Dorothy Perkins are the women garments and customers of Dorothy Perkins expect the products will be reliable, durable and stylish. In accordance, products of Dorothy Perkins are also known for their reliability and quality. This will help Dorothy Perkins to have the favorable market share in China in the initial stage by meeting the requirements of the customers properly (Seric, Gil-Saura and Ruiz-Molina 2014). In addition, the premium positioning of Dorothy Perkins is enabling the customers to meet their social needs of denoting success and achievement.

The next element is the brand responses. This refers to the factors under which the customers respond to a particular brand. Dorothy Perkins should majorly focus on quality and superiority. This is due to the reason that customers will prefer Dorothy Perkins over their competitors only for their superior quality and brand identity. Thus, pricing should not be the determining factor for Dorothy Perkins in doing business in China (Buil, Martinez and De Chernatony 2013).

The last element in this model is brand resonance. This refers to the connection being built between the customers and the brand (Jung Jung et al. 2014). It will also help Dorothy Perkins to gain the feedback from the side of the customers. Thus it is important for Dorothy Perkins to have favorable brand resonance due to the reason that they are new in the Chinese market (Seric, Gil-Saura and Ruiz-Molina 2014). The more will be the brand resonance of Dorothy Perkins in the Chinese market, the more will be their market penetration and generation of positive word of mouth in the host country. 

Integrated marketing communication refers to the process of designing the communication strategy in order to reach out to maximum number of customers involving all the available communication channels in coordinated manner. In the case of launching a new product, this is important due to the reason that effective process and approach of integrated marketing communication will help to create the favorable market for the new product with having the maximum brand exposure and identity (Mulhern 2013).

China is having favorable penetration of internet and social media and thus it is recommended that that online marketing including the social media marketing should be initiated (Bauer and Lasinger 2014). This will help Dorothy Perkins to initiate two ways communication channel with their target customers. Social media marketing will also help them to gaining the feedback of the customers regarding their products and in accordance to that, they can further design their product strategies. However, on the other hand, the major disadvantage that will be faced by them is generation of negative word of mouth. Negative review of any customer will spread and cause loss for Dorothy Perkins. Another medium to be used for advertisement is electronic media. In the electronic media, television channels should be included due to the reason that television channels are having more market penetration compared to the online mediums. 

Dorothy Perkins already practices personal selling by the way of email marketing. In the Chinese market also, they should initiate email marketing that will help them to personalize the marketing approach for different customer segments (Park, Mishra and Wozniak 2014). This will also enable Dorothy Perkins to create brand awareness among the target customers and also the probability of closing the sales is more.

Sales promotional activities including rebates, customer loyalty programs and promo codes should be offered to the customers. These strategies are already being practiced by Dorothy Perkins. This will help them to enhance the customer attractiveness for their products. In addition, Dorothy Perkins will have the advantage of higher rate of customer retention and more revenue from the existing customers. On the other hand, the coverage of sales promotion is less compared to other tools of integrated marketing communication. 

It is recommended that Dorothy Perkins should identify a few key performance indicators in order to measure their performance in the Chinese market. The identified KPIs are acquired market share, profit margin and inclusion of new customers. Market share refers to the increase in the market share for Dorothy Perkins, profit margin refers to the increase in profitability for them and inclusion of the new customers refers to the effectiveness of the marketing strategy in attracting new customers. Measuring market share will help Dorothy Perkins to determine their standing in the market compared to their competitors (Masood, Jahanzaib and Akhtar 2013).

Conclusion 

Thus, it can be concluded that Dorothy Perkins should initiate both standardization and adaption strategies to get the maximum output from the Chinese market. In this report, it is also being discussed about the recommended marketing mix strategies that should be followed in doing business in China. Marketing communication mix strategies and evaluation and measurement indicators are also being identified in this report. Effective implementation of the recommended strategies in this report will help Dorothy Perkins to have favorable operation in the Chinese market.

References

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