Marketing Across Cultures (details see instruction) Essay

Marketing Across Cultures (details see instruction) - Essay Example The company, prior to Turkish entry, must be considerate of religious practices of Turkish consumers, the available infrastructure for distribution, the prevalence of competing food producers, the cultural characteristics of the society, economic conditions in the state, and available mediums in the country for promotion. 2.0 Expansion strategy In current Turkish society, 98 percent of consumers are Muslim, representing 73.6 million consumers in the country (Pew Forum 2009). This is a very large market and adherents to the Muslim religion have extremely strict food consumption expectations that are aligned with the divine teachings of the Quran. Muslim consumers consider certain foods to be najis, which means an inability to purify and make suitable for consumption against religious doctrine (Bearman, Banquis, Bosworth, Donzel and Heinrichs 2005). An example of banned foods in the Muslim diet include pork, as this animal is considered a scavenger and harbours known pathogens that, wh en consumed, would defile the body with its lack of cleanliness (Riaz and Chaudry 2004). It does not matter in the case of pork-containing products whether the animal has been slaughtered according to religious doctrine or processed as a secondary ingredient in any food product, it will not be consumed by Muslim adherents, which in the case of Turkey is nearly the entire available market. Alcohol is also banned from the Muslim diet, including any products that contain small volumes of alcohol in production or as an ingredient to produce a final food product. Muslim consumers also will reject products that use gelatine as a stabilizer or a main ingredient, which has implications for preserving or ensuring the integrity of a complex food product. Because of the dietary restrictions identified in Turkey, the most viable expansion strategy for this new market is vertical expansion. Under this strategy, the business will seek out companies that produce the intermediate goods that assist the company in distributing and marketing its finished products and acquire them. There is a pre-existing commercial infrastructure in Turkey and many surrounding nations that support large volumes of Muslim consumers that assist in distribution of halal products (those that are considered clean and appropriate for consumption) as well as manufacture of suitable food products under religious doctrine. Through acquisition, the business will gain the knowledge and expertise of existing staff and management post-purchase and will not have to incur the high costs of asset development by constructing its own, wholly-managed production and distribution centres from the ground up. The business should also consider lateral expansion, which is the acquisition of smaller firms that produce like products. This allows the business to achieve the necessary economies of scale that will bring the business model more cost efficiency whilst also establishing the framework for production, distributio n and allow the business to capitalise on the potential brand strength of these smaller acquired firms. Since this company does not have an established brand presence in this mostly Muslim market, there would be considerable time investment and expenditure to utilise appropriate promotions and build a