Vege Chips’ Business Expansion Strategy In Singapore

Question

Task: your team is required to choose ONE of the countries and ONE of the products that you worked on in Assessment 2 and explain the rationale for your choice.You will then outline your marketing strategy, providing  recommendations for the following:

• Market selection and entry strategy
• Competitive strategy
• Pricing strategy
• Promotion strategy
• Distribution strategy
• Concluding recommendations

Answer

Introduction
Business expansion strategy in foreign markets enhances the profitability of organizations in the global market. In context to the growing attributes of globalization, businesses seek to expand in new areas for ensuring brand recognition and customer attraction. The following study would provide insight in the procedures Vege Chips, an Australian brand has to consider and implement while engaging in business expansion strategy in the Singaporean market.

Founded in 1990, Vege Chips had acquired immense popularity in the domestic Australian market for its unique product portfolio, constituting of gluten-free, plant-based snacks for the Australian consumers (Vege Chips, 2020). The study will identify the type of market entry strategy, competitive strategy, pricing, promotion and distribution strategies the brand should consider while expanding their operations in the Singaporean market.

Market selection and Entry strategy
Singapore is considered to provide ideal business environment as well as quality of life for the citizens. The country ensures assured logistics operations, advanced shipping procedures and effective legislative norms for business operations. As observed by Chang & Nguyen (2020), Singapore is a growing market for healthy food options and people consume 3.2 kg snacks every year. Vege chips’ business expansion strategy implementation in the Singaporean market would be profitable for the company as the healthy snacks industry of the country develops by 9% annually and valued at $166 million in trade revenue (Williamson et al., 2020).

Figure 1: Joint Venture and partnerships
(Source: Black, Delichatsios & Story, 2020)

Since the youth in Singapore is leaning towards healthy eating options and snacking on low fat, gluten-free, vegan snack options, Vege Chips would be able to garner better profits by catering to the diverse yet specific needs of the customers in the foreign market (Black, Delichatsios & Story, 2020). Adopting joint venture market entry method or partnership with any Asian healthy snacks developer would ensure better performance for Vege Chips in the Singaporean market as it would provide the company with insight on the customer demands and psychology regarding snack options. As opined by Chang, Wang & Bai (2020), international joint ventures and partnerships provide businesses with the scope of generating better profits due to the shared knowledge and resources that these market entry tactics present to the firms while expanding their operations in foreign economy.

Competitive strategy
It is essential for businesses to establish an effective competitive strategy while operating in a business environment to ensure better sales and profitability. Considering the economic situation in Singapore with the GDP growth of 5.2% in 2017, it can be noted that the market condition in the country is competitive especially for healthy snacks provider (Riley, 2018). Thus, Vege chips have to establish a cost leadership and product differentiation strategy while entering the foreign business environment. As observed by Dai, Delpachitra & Cottrell (2017), application of cost leadership and product differentiation strategy would be beneficial for businesses operating in the healthy food industry due to the growing demand for better food options and meals in the South East Asian countries.

The most popular healthy snack providers in the Singaporean market constitute of BoxGreen, OatBerry and SnackFirst as the major market shareholders in the healthy snack industry (Samsudin, 2019). Vege Chips would have to integrate an intensive competitive business expansion strategy through cost leadership and product differentiation in the Singaporean market to garner better profits. Considering the economic prices and diverse products that the competitive brands provide to the Singaporean consumers, Vege chips has to develop their business strategy effectively in order to garner better profits.

As opined by Nasri & Ikra (2017), adoption of cost leadership and differentiation strategy in business especially in the culinary industry enable firms to generate better revenue and attract more customers. In addition to these tactics and business expansion strategy implementation, companies also need to focus on their product variety, quality, availability and marketing for generating better business performance in the competitive market scenario.

Pricing strategy
It is essential for new entrants to develop effective pricing strategy for their products in order to attract consumers to the brand. Through the establishment of an appropriate pricing tactic, international brands are able to establish their brand recognition and value in foreign markets (Grzegorczyk, 2017). Considering the economic condition and presence of international student population in Singapore, Vege chips would benefit by adopting economic pricing for their products in the business environment. As opined by Brunelle et al. (2019), establishing high food prices for snacks and healthy food items could result in negative brand value in the Asian markets due to the presence of large number of international students living in the country with nominal budget. Thus, brands such as Vege chips need to integrate economic pricing that would incite more sales and better brand image in the foreign market.

Considering the pricing strategy that the competitive brands have adopted for the market, it is essential for Vege chips to provide healthy snacks options to the customers at lower rates. Developing a snack delivery or subscription strategy would be beneficial for the brand as well. According to the views developed by Hartmann et al. (2016), adoption of low prices and great quality in healthy snacks would increase sales for brands since understanding the consumer requirements and purchasing power is essential for gaining competitive advantage. Since Vege chips are targeting the youth of Singapore, it is necessary for the brand while initiating business expansion strategy to consider the living expenses and budget that the international students and employees acquire. Providing target consumer groups with cheap, easily available and healthy snacks would ensure better brand recognition and profitability for the Australian firm.

Promotion strategy
Promoting products and services is an essential aspect for brands in their marketing operation. As a new business entity in the Singaporean market, Vege Chips has to develop effective business expansion strategy and promotional tactics for generating consumer awareness for the brand and gain profits through sales. As a technologically advanced market, Singapore provides businesses with the opportunity to develop their marketing and operational tactics digitally (Wang, 2018). The growing aspects of digital marketing and promotional attributes in business using social media are evidenced in the growth of Singaporean businesses digitally. Thus, Vege chips would have to adopt an aggressive social media promotion strategy and business expansion strategy to garner the target consumers’ attraction to the brand.

As suggested by Pang et al. (2016), adoption of social media marketing and promotional aspects would benefit foreign firms in generating consumer appreciation. Increased presence in the digital platform would also be effective for the firms’ sales and profitability due to the advanced nature of digital marketing and online shopping facilities available to consumers in the Singaporean market (Yamashita et al., 2019). Adopting digital and social media promotional techniques would be beneficial for the company as it enable firms to ensure maximum reach at minimum price. Expenditure in online promotions is low and ensures wide audience due to the wide availability of digital platforms.

Distribution strategy
Adoption of an effective distribution strategy and business expansion strategy is beneficial and profitable for the businesses in expanding their operations in a new market. As observed by Hosseinpour (2018), establishment of an intensive distribution strategy in foreign expansion is beneficial for food enterprises since this technique of distribution enables companies to provide consumers with daily necessity products at bulk amount from variety of sources.

Figure 2: Distribution strategies
(Source: Gan et al., 2018)

Since the implementation of an intensive distribution system is effective for new firms in foreign markets, it can be noted that growth in profits and sales is possible through this strategy (Gan et al., 2018). Vege Chips would be able to develop better profits from their business expansion strategy in Singapore through the adoption of intensive distribution for their products as the healthy snacks sector is a lucrative business idea in the country. Increased availability of healthy snacks by Vege Chips would allow consumers to purchase more products from the brand and increase the organisation’s scope of profitability.

Recommendations
Vege chips would have to follow the necessary strategies in gaining competitive advantage in the international market of Singapore and develop their brand image as a foreign business entity operating in the competitive market scenario. Additionally, the brand has to consider the following aspects in conducting their business expansion strategy for generating better results in trade aspects:

• Development of better communication channels within the market for understanding the various nature of customer demands and requirements.
• Maintaining better social media presence through extensive advertising and customer interaction tactics.
• It would be effective for the Australian brand to conduct comprehensive market survey to consider the cultural differences within the foreign business environment and develop their marketing tactics.
• Maintaining clarity in their supply chain and internal operations for generating better results in the business environment would be beneficial for Vege Chips for ensuring better profits through improved brand image.

Conclusion
It is evidenced through the study of business expansion strategy that Vege Chips would be able to gain greater market share in the foreign business environment of Singapore through the integration of a Joint Venture or partnership, market entry strategy in the business environment. Application of differentiation and cost leadership competitive strategy would be beneficial for Vege chips in gaining competitive advantage within the business environment. It is noted through the study that implementation of economic pricing would be beneficial for the brand as well as using tenets of social media promotion for their healthy snacks. Integrating intensive distribution strategy along with the business expansion strategy for their healthy snacks would be effective in generating better profitability for the company in Singaporean business environment.

References
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