Global Marketing Case Assignment

GLOBAL MARKETING CASE ASSIGNMENT

1. Is Mary Kay an "international firm", a "multinational firm", or a "transnational firm" as defined in this course and based on its marketing strategy? Why?

To define Mary Kay an “international firm”, a “multinational firm”, or a “transnational firm”, the priority is to look at this company’s marketing strategy. If the company is an “international firm”, it simply extends its domestic marketing strategy into other different countries where they operate. If the company is a multinational firm, their multi-domestic marketing strategy involves multinational firms that have as many different product variations, brand names, and advertising programs as countries in which they do business. If the company is a transnational firm, they apply a global marketing strategy, which involves transnational firms that employ the practice of standardizing marketing activities when there are cultural similarities and adapting them when cultures differ. From the video about how Mary Kay entered India market, we can define that Mary Kay is a multinational firm.

About the market entry in Asian, compare to America market are dominated by makeup product, consumers are more interested in skin care product, especially in Chinese market. Also because of the different appreciation of beauty between Western and Eastern, Like Chinese more prefers the lighter skin while American prefers tan skin. After the market research showed the different needs in Asian market, Mary Kay adjusts their product lines and brands. “Within the skin care category of the Chinese cosmetics market, the main product claims being made were prevention and removal of wrinkles; reduction of premature aging; absorption into and the effect upon functions of the skin; environmental protection; making skin snow-white, smooth and more elastic; healing acne; and purifying pores (Quelch, John A., June 2009)”. Mary Kay built up relationship with ingredient suppliers and manufactures in order to keep produce its major products to wet and dry foundation cake and whitening cosmetics. Besides the change of product strategy in China, Mary Kay also made changes on the funding principles. For instance, Mary Kay set the funding principles as “faith first, family second and career third” in China rather than “god first, family second and career third” in America.

        In conclusion, Mary Kay is a multinational company that apply themselves in different countries under different cultures with appropriate marketing strategies when doing business in the world.  

2. What global market-entry strategy did Mary Kay use when it entered India?

Mary Kay used direct investment global market entry strategy when it entered India, a domestic firm actually investing in and owning a foreign subsidiary or division. According to the lecture video, there were three things for Mary Kay entering India market: build a brand, build a sales force, and build an effective supply chain to support the sales force. They noticed that Indian population was similar to China, but the development status of infrastructure in India was slower than China. And the economic situation was not as good as China. These leaded Mary Kay decided to focus on offering basic skin care to the average middle-class Indian consumer with affordable price, which also called “masstige pricing” strategy. As they set the price low, they used a lower cost of skin care and color makeup. These not only attract more middle class or young people to buy their products but also developed exclusive products that are sold only in India. The way Mary Kay built up a sales force by combining the traditional person marketing and online marketing: “ Beauty consultants typically start with family members and friends, offering free makeovers and facials and then letting the products sell themselves through these promotions” and “Mary Kay has their own website and users can get a list of beauty consultants in their area by typing in their location”(Kate McFarlin, Mary Kay Marketing Strategy). They put more human resource into training the local retail stores in order to keep the market growing.         After all of these, the last but not least part is Mary Kay’s effective supply chain process, which import products from China, Korea and then shipped into regional distribution center in India. This is the key process that contributes to strong sales forces.