A Report on Best Buy Culturally Sensitive Marketing & Advertising

Questions: 1. What are the advantages for Best Buy doing business in China? 2. What are the barriers for Best Buy entering Chinas CE market? Which assumptions did Best Buy revise to adapt to China market? And what do you think are the main reasons that Best Buy just opened seven stores in China? 3. Why do you think Best Buy picked Shanghai as the test market in China? If Best Buy would like to learn about Chinese consumers more accurately, would you recommend them to choose Beijing or other cities due to the culture differences in different regions in China? Answers: 1. Best Buy Company is considered to be the largest consumer electronics retailer in the world, which went bankrupt few years earlier due to various causes. However, the company has been striving hard to get back its old reputation and fame to which it became successful to a great extent. One of the reasons behind this is considered to be marketing or more specifically advertising of Best Buy. The company understands the need to create effective advertising in the present competitive market environment (Balmer Illia, 2012). No doubt a company needs to improve its product line and quality of those products to capture customers and potential market. Besides this, it is equally important for firms to focus on the advertisement strategies to highlight own potentials and effectiveness and represent theses to the world by means of improved advertisement. The Company understands the local culture of the two nations and therefore develops its advertisement strategies according to it. This g ives the company a competitive advantage of satisfying customers deeply-rooted to their culture (Balmer Mukherjee, 2006). 2. While adopting advertising strategies, the company Best Buy pays great attention to some of the key requirements like that of command for attention, showcasing the product benefits extensively, proving the benefits, persuading people to grasp the benefits, and finally call for actions (Dawkins, 2005). The advertisement strategies are such that customers pay increased attention to the ads and within them inculcates the demand for the products. It clearly represents the benefits of the products so that customers may easily relate to the requirements. The company has made good use of the mobile marketing (Gandini, 2006). It has been undertaking all it can for better connection with the target customers through the mobile channel. The company has explored the increasing use of smart-phones and 3G services; so it seeks the opportunities to connect in a better way with the customers. As per research it has been identified that the company has made several changes within its advertisemen t strategies in a way that it emphasizes more on the cultural aspects of the countries where it advertises its products. Basically in the United States, the company is well aware of the type of cultural background that is prevalent there. Apart from its origin in the US, the company Best Buy operates internationally in Australia and UK. The Company understands the local culture of the two nations and therefore develops its advertisement strategies according to it (Ingenhoff Sommer, 2011). This gives the company a competitive advantage of satisfying customers deeply-rooted to their culture. 3. As a part of the human resource department, I need to send out a communication to the employees both in the United States and that of Australia. The communication comprises of some important information regarding some desirable changes in the corporate strategies to attract and retain global customers. The communication is a sort of message and relevant corporate strategy to be communicated to the organizational employees in US and that of Australia (Janssen, 2012). However, the communicative information may be same but the versions are needed to be adopted differently for US and Australia. This is on account of the differences in the cultural and social aspects of both the countries. The language of communication would be similar that is English. However, the employee motives, interests, and organizational environment and processes may vary in both the locations (Muir, 2007). Thus, being an integral part if the human resource department of Best Buy, it is important to realize the different employee interests at both the locations. For instance, the Australians are quite punctual in their deliverances, and so corporate strategies are such that saves their time and opt for the maximum outcome within the specified time. The people of the United States are object-oriented, and so the corporate strategies for them must be direct and related to the core essentials of the company. It is better to predict the market of both the locations before setting the sales and marketing targets (Simonsen, 2009). Research shows that the sales of the company products are better in the US than in Australia. So, the sales target must be more in US as compared to that of Australia. Finally, though information are similar, the company needs to pay great attention to the manner the information are communicated to the employees at both the locations (Yamauchi, 2001). The advertisement strategies are such that customers pay increased attention to the ads and within them inculcates the demand for the products. 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