Transnational Firm

Case Study Assignment #2

Name: Furong Ning

Course: MKTG-1110

Instructor: Dr. Jacqueline Bolton

Date: 10/15/2017

Transnational firm

    In my opinion, Mary Kay is a multinational firm because it uses different strategies and develop different markets in different nations. If A firm is international, it uses the same marketing strategy and sell the exactly identical products in other nations as in its home nation. On the other hand, a transnational firm focuses on the similarities in customers around different countries and develop a strategy according to it. Thus, I believe Mary Kay is a multinational firm.

Mary Kay not only analyzes every society that they are in but also make some changes for it. In this case study, Mary kay is trying to enlarge the brand in some countries of Asia, so it gets to understand the culture first and then sell the products based on the culture or the habit. The first example, since there are lot of differences between western and eastern countries such as cultures, climate and physical etc. “From my experiences, I have noticed that Korean makeup brands try to utilize the dewy, no makeup look whereas the American beauty market goes for the heavy contour and matte style. Additionally, Korean skincare products mostly focus on moisturizing and replenishing skin by using natural ingredients, where American skincare lines prioritize eliminating and drying out bacteria from skin.” Thus, Mary Kay needs to analyzes what type of products will be popular in Asian and then promote that type of products to Asian people. The second example, the slogan plays a significant role in the market. Mary Kay uses the “God first, family second, and career third” as slogan, but when it tries to do the business in India, it changes its slogan to “Faith first, family second, and career third”. Since people in American and India have different customs of their religions, it needs to adapt the different people. In America, a lot of people believe in a single god so it is fine to say God. In India, people don’t have a single god, and there are a lot of religions in India so faith is better than saying God in India. Hence, the new slogan proves that Mary Kay has analyzed the culture of different countries.

Global Market-Entry Strategy In India

The major global strategy that Mary Kay used to enter India is an exporting market-entry strategy. Based on the experience of producing and making products in other nations, Mary Kay decided to change their production line and keep original corporate goals intact. There are a lof of expense on the shipping. Once it exports the products to India then the sales associates pick the product up and then sell the product independently. A benefit for exporting products to other nations is that there is less risk to exporting when it comes to licensing, joint venture and investments. Mary Kay is going into a not very well known market and they to sink that much money into the Mary Kay brand in India and this is good because they don’t have to waster money in India if Mary Kay is a flop in the India culture and India. They also get to try their product in India without having anything invested in the Indian market so their entire company doesn’t depend on the Indian market.