International Marketing

Posted: January 6th, 2014

Robert Williams reluctantly decided to attend the screening of the movie on the condition that he would not linger around to discuss the subject of the film at the screening’s reception. He and his wife were attending the screening of the film Are you Nuts?, a documentary film about developing countries peanut farmers. The farmers struggled to build a global market for the commodity through World Bank loans while the peanut farmers in the United States enjoyed government subsidies from Washington. The end result, the movie suggested, is that free-trade economics and the uncertainty it generated in a global marketplace were actually driving many developing countries further into poverty. Bob, as his close friends liked to call him, did not feel comfortable going to the screening of a film he considered biased and antibusiness. However, his wife’s parents had offered him the screening tickets during a family reunion. He later wondered if his in-laws were sending him a subliminal message.

Bob had just been promoted to brand manager in his dad’s gourmet coffee distribution business located in central Michigan. His father had developed a successful line of gourmet coffee brands, which had been developed over a period of 20 years and are marketed across the Northern Continental United States. In essence, the business imports raw coffee beans from growers in Colombia and Brazil into the United States through the ports of New Jersey and New York, roasts the beans to specification, grinds them to predetermined sizes, custom-packages the coffee, and distributes it as a private brand to its clients.

After the end of the film, Robert felt a knot in his stomach. He knew he had to start doing things differently from the way his father conducted business. He was especially concerned about the well-known fact that coffee growers in Colombia did not receive an adequate payment for their hard work. He could not help but recognize the premise of the film at the screening and that the so called  in international trade was the exception rather than the rule. In addition, the economy in Colombia was not getting any better and the U.S. government was in the process of renegotiating a trade agreement with Colombia that promised positively affecting the import of coffee under a preferential tariff rate.

Robert knew that market prices for coffee were highly volatile and, at times, below costs of production. Some coffee cooperatives in Brazil and Colombia were going bankrupt because prices were not high enough to cover operational costs. He decided to investigate the possibility of marketing Fair Trade brands. He knew there were organizations promoting the marketing of a growing number of agricultural products from developing countries to a highly conscious, developed country’s consumer market that want to do something about the perceived inequalities in the global marketplace. He was also aware that this strategy might mean losing profitability in the short run as well as sour the relationship with some of the company’s valuable retail clients.

Bob was determined to speak to his father about his newfound approach to doing business and incorporating the idea of Fair Trade in a new line of coffee brand. To soften his father’s stance on the new approach he was going to suggest marketing the new brand to the nearby Canadian provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick; Bob thought that if the product line flopped, it would not affect the established business in the United States. Moreover, he wanted to consider the possibility of internationalizing his father’s coffee business and aggressively pursuing other Fair Trade conscious markets in the developed world. Finally, he needed to start working on a marketing plan that would impress his father and the company’s board of directors. As a result of Bob’s promotion to brand manager, the company has gone through a mild restructuring.

You have been with the company for several years and gained some seniority over the marketing staff. Bob has asked you help him in the next few weeks. He’ll be asking for your assistance in developing the marketing plan to enter the Canadian market.

Task Name: Phase 4 Individual Project
Deliverable Length: 4000-5000 words
Details:
You and Bob are eager to present a detailed proposal of the marketing plan for the introduction of the new brand of gourmet coffee to the company’s board of directors. Before you do that, Bob wants you to develop product policies and create a measure of customer satisfaction that will help you exert some control over the formulated marketing strategy.

Include the following topics in your final proposal:

Title page
Executive summary
Introduction
Environmental factors
Definition of population
Demand estimates
Product strategy
Distribution strategy
Communication strategy
Pricing strategy
Product policies
Customer relationship marketing
Conclusions
References
Appendix
Please submit your assignment.