A Case Study Of Harvey Nichols Departmental Store Report Example

Report: International Marketing Strategy

Introduction
The internationalizing of the market provides an opportunity for a business to expand its operations through sales and construction of manufacturing plants. The decision to take either option depends on the objective the firm intends to achieve after a stipulated period. Operating global creates a chance for a firm to exploit the market niche available in other countries as well as provide products that customers demand.
The decision to go globally needs caution especially if a company has decided to offer its products in a jurisdiction it has never operated in prior to establishing itself in the area. This is because it will be operating in a new territory that is not familiar with, and this may lead to losses. The rules and regulations that the company may face can lead to its downfall due to high losses that may be incurred. The hostility of the local companies, as well as government policies, tends to be the most challenging hurdle for the company.
A company that decides to diversify its operations to international market should consider vital factors such as target market, the market share, the competition, the country's policy and finally the strategy to enter the market. These factors determine the success of the company in the country since they will determine how the firm is going to operate.
This report aims at analyzing the market potential that Harvey Nichols has if the company decides to form a partnership with Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Company. The partnership store will be based in Doha Festival City shopping area, and this store will be the ninth international store for Harvey Nichols. The report will focus on the strategies for the entry of the firm into the market, the market share as well as analysis, challenges that will face the company and finally marketing mix strategies considering the situation that the company will operate in.

Harvey Nichols

About Us
Harvey Nichols opened its doors to customers in Knightsbridge in 1831and it can provide cutting-edge designer products for its customers. In United Kingdom, the firm is well known for its premier products that suit the customer needs from all aspect of life. It is the best retail store in the UK hence has a competitive edge over all the other firms in the jurisdiction. The desire of the company to operate globally has been enticed by its ability to utilize market niche to its advantage. The firm has interests in luxury restaurants, fashion and beauty and food and wine as the major areas of its operations.
Harvey Nichols has managed to operate in areas such as Turkey, Riyadh, Dubai, Kuwait, Baku, Hong Kong and Azerbaijan. All these areas have a store, if not two, that help the retail giant to sell its products to customers who are loyal to the brand as well as attract other prospective customers.
The store offers a variety of fashion labels that coincide with the day to day collections of products that customers require for their wardrobes. The retail store performance in the United Kingdom as well as other eight stores in great such that the company has decided to diversify its operations further to cover other areas. In business, when a company can succeed in its mother country, it will also succeed in other countries if better strategies are implemented.

Situation Analysis

The environment that the company will operate is divided into three areas of analysis. These areas are:
Macro analysis
Micro analysis
SWOT analysis
The three analysis concepts will help in understanding the exact situation of the store in its decision to form a partnership with Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Company. The primary aim of choosing this company as a partner is to help the store in establishing its products with ease in the market. The company is well established in the jurisdiction, and it is only fair for Harvey Nichols to associate itself with the best company.

Macro analysis

The macro environment that a business operates in considers the factors that may face the firm due to the factors that may face the industry. The fashion industry faces a lot of changes due to its dynamic nature and operations capabilities. Some of the macro factors that may affect the performance of the firm and hinder it from achieving its goals are the factors that may be associated with the industry. Some of these factors are legal, political, ethical, social-cultural, environmental, economic, technological and Demographic factors.
In one way or another, these factors interfere with the operation of the industry to which a firm is operating it and in turn affects the activities of the company. The consideration of these factors before making a decision to partner with another company is crucial to the success of the organization. Each factor should be analyzed by the stakeholders to determine the exact course of action to be undertaken to help the company achieve its goal with many hindrance.

Micro analysis

Micro analysis is the evaluation of the factors that affects a firm directly with the aim of developing strategies that are vital to the success of the com. Harvey Nichols will be faced with these micro environmental factors that will dictate how the firm will shape its operations to match with the expected situations of the industry. Some of the factors that are to be considered in the micro analysis of an environment are customers, employees, competitors, media, suppliers and stakeholders. These six factors are vital to the success of the company despite it forming a partnership. The monitoring and evaluation of these factors will help the store in determining the actions to take to ensure it succeeds in its operations. Developing strategies that will ensure that the micro factors favor the activities of the firm is essential to the success of the store in Qatar.

SWOT Analysis

Analysis by use of SWOT is essential to the store since it will help in determining four factors that are critical to the firm. These factors are Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The strengths of the company will help the firm gain the much needed competitive advantage while the weaknesses will lead the management to the development of strategies that ensure the competitive survival of the store.
The opportunities will give the store a chance to expand its operations while threats provide the company with an opportunity to strengthen its strategies to ensure it protects its market share. The SWOT analysis helps in the analysis of the conditions that the competitors are faced with and ensure that their weaknesses are exploited. The strengths can be minimized by developing strategies that will help in achieving this goal.
The opportunities for the competitors can be minimized by venturing into them while the threats to the competitors can be increased by maintaining the market share through tougher strategies. SWOT analysis is essential to the growth of the store since it gives an opportunity to understand the environment that the firm is established in.

Company challenges

Harvey Nichols operations in Qatar will not be simple despite its partnership deal since the store will have to contend with various challenges. The challenges that the firm will face are Competition from local stores, choice of marketing strategies to use and integration of ethics with products . The competition that the store will receive from the local market will lead to its low penetration into the market.
The already established retail stores have an upper hand compared to the store since they have established loyal customers in the market. The cost of attracting new and prospective customers into the store will be quite high since it will entail taking drastic actions like reduction of prices. Competition is the primary challenge facing any firm that intends to operate globally. The government can set the rules and regulations that aim to protect local. This can be through taxes subsidies and quotas predetermined by the trade agreement. In operating in a foreign, the store should be aware of the trade agreement signed by the host country since this may affect the operations of the firm.
The choice of strategies to use to ensure that departmental store gains a considerable percentage of market share is a challenge. The partnership deal that the firm entered into will not help a lot in ensuring the company achieves a significant number of customers that will guarantee its sustainability. Marketing strategies that will be used by the company should meet the country’s ethical practices and government policies.
The market research is the only way to ensure that the firm makes a better decision on the best marketing strategies to use to promote the store. The prosperity of the store and increase in its sales depends solely on the market strategy that the store adopts in the long or short run.
The integration of the stores products with the country’s ethical practices is essential to its success. Qatar is an Arabic country with tight ethical practices and cultural requirements. The ability to increase the sales of the store will depend on the capability or capacity to produce products that can meet the cultural or religious expectations of the country.
Harvey Nichols will have a challenge in determining the fashion line, labels and products to sell in the country due to its diverse, strong religious practices. Harvey should come up with fashion products that meet the expectations of the customers in order to establish a market share for its products.

Strategic options for international growth

Investing in a foreign country may due to various reasons that the firm may have analyzed and decided to take due to its viability to the goals of the organization. Some of the reasons that a firm may decide to invest in another country are: learn from the lead markets, competitive defense or attack, scale the economies and increase the sales of the company. The expectations of a company with the real situation on the ground are two different scenarios that require analysis.
The expectations of the firm may not be exactly on what is on the ground, and this raises concern over the decision made to invest in the international market. Investing in an international market may be done by use of a number of strategies. These strategies include mergers and take-over, acquisition, individual investment, franchising and partnership like the one to be used by Harvey Nichols.
Investing in a foreign country is seen as an opportunity to increase the sales of a firm but this is not normally the case. Investing in another country is introducing a new product in a market that the company does not know.
Merging occur when two firms combine to form one company that will cater for all their interests. The name of the new company may be new or adopt a name that has a considerable market share. A takeover is a term used to describe the process of taking-over a firm with the aim of reviving its operations in a particular area. Mergers and takeovers are strategies that can be used by a firm to operate in the international market.
The acquisition is the buying of a brand or business that is operating in a country of interest. The acquisition is normally done to ensure that a firm can meet the demands of the customers. Individual investment is the decision to establish a company in a country of interest by developing the plant in a desired location. This strategy is the most expensive since the company will have to start from the research of the market all the way to establishing strategies that will ensure it makes sales.
Franchising is the lease of a name by a company so that it can sell its products under the name. The leased brand name has to be doing well in the market for the firm leasing it to benefit. Partnership occurs when two companies come together to form a new company that will be used to sell the common products that the two firms produce.

Market potential

The market available in Qatar is prospective and can help increase the sales turnover of Harvey Nichols if the store adopts the best strategies. A market niche can provide positive results if a firm is capable of utilizing it to the maximum. In Qatar especially the Doha Festival City, has the potential of a good market for its products.
The fashion styles adopted by people in Qatar are diverse, and that is why the company is better placed to ensure that it provides the best products to customers. The fashion industry in Qatar is not fully utilized, and this provides a chance for Harvey Nichols to exploit it hence benefit through increased sales turnover.
The partnership deal between Harvey Nichols and Qatari Business Group will ensure that the company is capable to utilize all the machinery available in the Group to grow. The Qatari Business Group is in a position to ensure that the store’s operations succeed through offering its advice on how the region operates.
A potential market may be available for a firm, but it may never be utilized due to the inability develop good strategies and also the lack of infrastructure platforms to ensure its success.

Marketing mix

A marketing mix is a tool that is used in business by marketers for marketing purposes. Marketing mix makes use of 4 P’s which are: Price, promotion, product and place. The 4P's were proposed by Jerome McCarthy in 1960 and from that time marketers have been using the 4P's as their marketing tool. The addition of Physical evidence, People and process to the 4P's is meant to cater for the products that are not physical in nature. Price is the amount a customer pays to ensure that he acquires a product from a seller/firm.
The price strategy is the lowering the cost of product or service to attract more customers to the product. The product's price elasticity will affect the sales and demand for a product. Price setting will ensure that it meets the consumer perceived value of a product. The basic price strategies that a firm can use are; market penetration pricing, market skimming pricing, and neutral pricing. Before the prices of a product are determined, the firm must consider the reference value and also the differential value of the products.
Promotion is the advertising process of a product with the aim of increasing the sales turnover of a product. Promotion entails elements such as advertising, sales promotion and public relations that will develop the reputation of the product to attract customers. A Product is the item or service that a firm sells to a customer for predetermined price.
A product is subject to a life-cycle that includes growth phase, maturity phase and decline in sales. Marketers should do research on the life-cycle of a product to ensure strategies are available to ensure competitive survival. Place or distribution is ensuring that a product is available to the customer every time. Physical evidence is the availability a proof that a service occurred. People are the employees or staffs that perform a service while the process is the systems that limit the execution of a service.

Conclusion

Operating in the international market comes with various challenges that a business needs to consider before entering into such as a market. The market is a source of revenue through increased sales but the macro and micro factors that the business may be faced with can lead to its failure in the worst way possible. The international marketing strategies that Harvey Nichols should adapt should be quite efficient to match with the objective it aims to achieve while operating in the market. The partnership that the company is entering into with Qatar Business Group seems to be of benefit to the company since the Qatar Business Group will provide the required advice to Harvey Nichols to ensure its sales increase considerably. To operate in a global market, it is wise to form partnership or mergers to ensure that you sell with little effort when it comes to marketing of a product. The cost that may be saved due to low expenses on marketing will be used to ensure that the company inventory is maintained.

Recommendations

Harvey Nichols should use the best marketing strategies when it comes to it products. The challenges that the company faces in its operations can be sorted out by adopting effective strategies. The strategies will ensure that the company can not only have a competitive advantage over the competitors but also competitive survival. The diversification of products sold by the company in this market can also act as a good option for the company since the fashion line face challenges in its acceptance in Qatar. The issue of religion is one limitation that Harvey products will face and the developing a new product line will help in its sustainability in the region.

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