If I was in charge of Asian operations for McCain Foods Limited, the first thing I would do is look into what I can do to get my product famous among the Chinese people, by finding out what their likes and dislikes are and how I can make my product appealing to them. This can be done by carrying out market research and surveys. Granted this costs a lot of money, but to succeed in any foreign market, one should first be aware of their cultures, factors that can offend them or intrigue them to buy your products. Without proper preparation and research, I would not step into a foreign market.For example, with proper research you can find out that the Chinese people feel more comfortable with the color red, as it symbolizes good luck to them, so I would make sure the packaging used is of the red color.
On the other hand, they displeasure the color white as it symbolizes death to them, so I would make sure that anything such as the packaging, or logo, or anything very visual is not of the color white for my products. The next step to be would to set up the plant in China, I would advise the company to locate in a place that does not cause any problems to the Chinese people and does not affect them in any negative way.Starting in any country with a negative image can be very costly to any foreign business and can reduce future sales drastically. Furthermore, overcoming such an image can be very hard for a new company, so location of the company matters too and should be taken seriously. Another thing that can benefit the company’s image greatly is to hire local people for work, this way the company is creating a lot of jobs and coming forth as a good thing for the people of China.
This can also create some awareness of the company by word of mouth through all the workers.Once the company has been set up, the next step would be to market it through advertising. Once again, this can be quite costly, but can create a lot of awareness amongst the local people. Without any advertisement, no one would be aware of the product and sales would be very low. A good way to advertise would be using local Chinese celebrities to endorse the products. This can be a good way to create demand for the company’s products as people see someone they like and look up to talking about the products and endorsing them, so they want it too.
Lastly I would look into setting a perfect price which would settle well in the Chinese economy. If the prices for the products are set very high, compare to local brands, no one would pay extra to buy a foreign Western brand. Therefore at first I would set prices lower than the usual so the Chinese people would buy the products. Once the demand for the products has increased and the company has started to become famous in the Chinese market, then I would suggest increasing prices as the brand has become well aware and there might also be some brand loyalty.
