MARKETING STRATEGIES TO ENTER THE EUROPEAN MARKET

(Qu?nh Anh)

To Head of European Marketing Associates, Mr. David Wright

From: CEO of Hudson Corporation, John Thomson.

Subject: MARKETING STRATEGIES TO ENTER THE EUROPEAN MARKET AND SUGGESTED TIME TO HAVE A MEETING.

Dear Mr David Wright,

My name is John Thomson, CEO of Hudson Corporation. Recently, our company’s market share has decreased because of the increased competition from Asian companies selling similar products at a lower price. We don’t want this bad situation to continue anymore, so our corporation has been preparing to boost sales by entering the European market, focusing initially on Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy. In the first steps, we have difficulty approaching new customers from different culture. Thus, we spent 3 months researching new marketing strategies and we finally found 2 directions to solve our problems. (B?o) We suppose that repositioning the brand and developing a wider product range are two options most likely to succeed.

(Qu?nh Anh) We conducted a survey to find out how consumers perceived the Hudson brand in the USA six months ago. In the results, 72 percent of people who were interviewed said that our products were too expensive for them. However, we would like to approach more market segments, so we decided to go down-market. (Bích) To pursue this direction, we need to manufacture the products in a country with a low-cost labour force (e.g. India or China) because it will save us a lot for long-term expansion. Besides that, we realise that Europe is a potential market where we can find more target customers. (B?o) We hope our strategy will be successful in three factors: reducing production costs by using low-cost labour in developing countries, achieving high turnover by meeting the demands of target customers and securing our stable business by investing in Europe. I believe that the European market will meet our expectations. We are going to launch a campaign to promote our new products in a new way. We won’t promote our products as “Made in America” anymore. (Châu) By using a high-volume and low-cost strategy for Hudson’s core products, our corporation can attract upmarket and middle-income customers, even a part of low-income customers. We want most of the population to experience our high-quality products at an affordable price.

(Qu?nh Anh) The proposal above is good but it is not enough to help us boost our sales. We decide that we must innovate our products to be better versions which can get consumers to feel excited with our qualified goods and diverse designs after receiving consumers’ comments from our survey . (Bích) As a result, we will combine the rebranding and the development of a wider product range by selling products at a lower and more competitive price. When customers are confused between two similarly priced products, they will prefer the more qualified product to the other. We are confident that we offer products that are good enough for customers to choose from one at a lower price. Moreover, selling at a lower price also helps the products reach many new customers. The lower the price is, the more people know about and buy Hudson's products. (Châu) Selling a wider range of products under the Hudson label, such as trolley-backpacks, document cases, briefcases, name-card holders, and shoulder bags for men and women makes our range of products various. Therefore, customers can have more chances to choose the products that they want to buy. Diversifying products helps to spread brand awareness to customers, so they may continue to buy our products and become loyal to our brand.

(Tu?ng Vy)

In conclusion, there are two options we offer you to approach the European market. Each of the options has pros and cons itself. However, these options we talked about are supposed to be successful. To get more details about our proposals, we hope to have an appointment with you next Monday at 9 a.m. Please let us know if the time is suitable for you.

We are looking forward to your reply as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

John Thomson

CEO of Hudson Corporation.