The Company's entry into the Canadian market - An International Marketing Plan for Carolina Honest

Author

Batthyany, Gyula
Dai, Yiru

Abstract

The world is in constant change since it is more globally connected than ever before due to the internet and advancing technology. In this rapidly transforming world, today's businesses must adapt their business strategies to the new environment in order to remain competitive. Besides, this globally connected world can also induce unplannable threats for companies such as the previous two years have shown with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic in combination with worldwide supply chain issues. Companies, however, must focus on the plannable and manageable things that they can control. Therefore, a Business Plan in form of a Marketing Plan is essential to be able to be a successful player in the challenging markets. Consequently, this Master thesis created a Marketing Plan for the Spanish cookie brand entering either the Canadian or the South Korean market in order to increase their sales opportunities. It is thus the objective of this thesis to give recommendations to Carolina Honest so the company can compete with other existing cookie brands in the respective markets by implementing a strategic international marketing plan.
Hence, in order to establish a Marketing Plan, the business and their objectives must be understood in the first place. The methodology of the thesis follows the structure of a situation analysis with reference to academic research and market data. The methodology begins with an internal analysis of various aspects of Carolina Honest business performance that help us understand the internal structure of the company in order to identify their strengths such as their high product quality and their appealing packaging format and their pain points such as their limited financial resources and webpage. This is followed by two PESTEL analyses directed at South Korea and Canada that reveal in depth information about the market opportunities and potential threats from external factors, which will be examined in more detail. We eventually recommend Carolina Honest to enter the Canadian Market since a market entry would prove easier in Canada than in South Korea. One of the major factors was that the cultural and therefore language barriers are in Canada in comparison with South Korea way lower. Besides, the South Korean consumers are not as open to organic products as the Canadians. For those reasons we choose the Canadian market. In further consequence, with the support of the TOWS analysis, it was possible to develop a Marketing Plan that includes the objectives and the tactics which need to be used to achieve these objectives. Referring to the objectives established in the previous section, a marketing mix was developed that assisted us in determining the right positioning, the appropriate price as well as an effective communication and distribution channels for Carolina honest in order to enter the Canadian market. Last but not least, the paper will end with the Finance section. The estimated budget for the marketing plan 30,744.68€, and the detailed information would be given in the last part of the thesis.

 

 

Director

Derqui Zaragoza, Belén

Degree

IQS SM - Master in International Marketing in a Digital Environment / International Marketing & Sales Management

Date

2022-06-06