Introduction
By achieving some of China’s lost industrial capacity, Vietnam has become a primary beneficiary in the trade war between the U.S. and China. Vietnam is inclined to be a middle-income country, and its economic growth rate is currently significantly higher than China’s. The manufacturing sector in the country was the backbone of its economic endeavors, and domestic deregulatory measures, trade liberalization, and investments in physical and human resources reinforced it. Due to the rising labor costs and political instability in China, many companies are targeting to diversify their operations away from the country. Vietnam has developed into an attractive alternative due to its more relaxed investment and trade policies. In May 2020, Apple said it would shift production of around 30% of Air Pods from China to Vietnam (Vu et al., 2022). Several multinational firms relocated part of their activities to Vietnam as tensions rose between the U.S. and China.
Discussion
Vietnam was able to manage and maintain its public image, especially in the harmonization and combination of global and regional brands. For 2020-2030, the Vietnam National Brand Program, backed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, will work to elevate the ranks and value of the Vietnamese brand (ISIK and Tung, 2021). This strategy will be achieved by turning over a thousand products into formidable national brands. As part of its “Vietnam Value” nation-mark initiative, Vietrade takes extra effort to administer national trademarks (ISIK and Tung, 2021). Additionally, the majority of U.N. member states have made diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Trade and Industry, in charge of the Vietnam Value project, has actively helped Vietnam citizens’ enterprises increase their capacity. This has been done by advising them to increase their branding expertise and set up information systems and business development (Vu et al., 2022). These strategies and actions have helped raise domestic and worldwide consumer awareness of the Vietnam Value program through a wide range of international and media links.
Fewer economic effects have been felt in Vietnam than in most other countries due to the country’s success in preventing the spread of the virus and its effects on its supply chain. Since the start of COVID-19, demand for manufactured goods has continued to rise (Tuan and Hue, 2022). Vietnam did all it needed to fix the economy-wrecking and pandemic-related business problems. For instance, Vietnam presented a financial aid package of US$10.8 billion at the start of March (Tuan and Hue, 2022). Tax reductions and payment deadline extensions for the affected enterprises are included in the two budget relief packages presented by the government, which amounted to $1.3 billion (Tuan and Hue, 2022). Due to its assistance to businesses during the economic crisis, Vietnam may be the potential general merchandise power.
Despite Vietnam’s spectacular economic progress, it faces some current developmental challenges. The country has a smaller population than China, presenting smaller potential consumer markets. The country specializes in low-value-added manufacturing products, which limits its manufacturing capabilities. Vietnam requires investment in connectivity and infrastructure and establishing a cooperation framework. Additionally, the country faces deteriorating international environments and should embrace a shared prosperity agenda and sustainability if it aspires to become a modern economy.
Government laws and continued environmentalist attempts to reduce automobile carbon dioxide emissions have resulted in a competitive venture of electric vehicles. Overall, combined registrations of electric vehicles by the end of 2019 were approximately 1.8 million (Hu et al., 2020). European Free Trade Association and the European Union take the second-largest position in the world’s electric vehicles market. Comparison research is needed to find the best place in Europe to build an electric vehicle assembly plant for Spain, Romania, and Germany.
Spain: The country has advanced in the electric vehicle industry as an initiative for lower pollution. In 2019, one percent of all vehicles on Spanish roads were electric (Team, 2021). With the introduction of the “MOVES” incentive scheme in 2019, participants in a car scrap page program gained up to EUR 5,500 in compensation (Team, 2021). The program boosted its rebate to €4,000 in June 2020 (Team, 2021). Furthermore, battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and conventional hybrid cars are exempt from registration fees and pay reduced commercial vehicle taxes. Several of Madrid’s autonomous regions, including the Canary Islands and Catalonia, have strongly adopted electric vehicle technology.
Romania: Romanian is still a young market and is in its initial stages of shifting to electric vehicles. Electric vehicle purchases in Romania are increasing and have been promoted by the country’s initiative to minimize carbon emissions. The new cooperation between Autonomy and the European investment bank has promoted the use of low-carbon and electric automobiles across Romania. The demand rate is increasing rapidly, however, on a smaller scale. In 2020 1407 electric automobiles were registered in the country (Barbu, 2022). Renault was the highest registered brand, followed by Volkswagen and Skoda. In 2022 Bucharest announced that €15 million in financing would be offered to assist in transforming to use of low-carbon emission vehicles in Romania (Barbu, 2022). The demand for the electric vehicle market is expected to rise from 2022 to 2027 and result in US1290 million dollars, with the market unit sale of 24478 vehicles (Statista, n.d.). These statistics indicate a potential for a rise in the demand and manufacture of electric vehicles.
Germany: The country is second after China in the electro-mobile market. 19% of its core market is accounted for by battery-powered automobiles and plug-in hybrids (Hecht et al., 2022). Analysis shows that the annual growth rate of revenue in the country is projected to hold a market volume of 97.93 U.S. dollars by 2027 (Statista, n.d.). The country plans to spend 6.3 billion to increase charging points for electric vehicles (Person and Markus, 2022). This industry for electro-emobiles has high levels of significance in Germany as it is one of the significant contributors to the overall economy of Germany.
From the comparative analysis of three countries, the multinational Korean electric company would achieve a high significance level if it established its headquarters in Germany. The country has a prosperous economy which will maximize the potential for profits. The growth of the electro-mobile industry is higher in Germany; hence the country’s process capabilities to deal with advancement. The company’s relocation to Germany will increase the anticipation of more outstanding production and higher output. Germany has higher advantages in market growth, government plans, and business environments where the company can thrive.
Given the nature of their businesses, Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack in 2021 was one of the most unexpected agreements. Slack is an instant messaging program designed to offer professional and organizational communications. The program has been adapted as a community platform powered by Slack technologies (Case, 2021). The company was responsible for connecting managers with the required information, making it easy for them to meet professionals with different skills to work together as a team. Through the messaging app, Slack was able to transform the way the organizations that sought its services used to communicate.
The main issue that led to the development of the acquisition was the change in the work environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The issues linked to the changes in the work environment, so the organization took advantage of the situation to obtain slack for strategic reasons and to meet its strategic needs. The company was acquired for $27.7 billion, and the deal was closed in July 2021 (Case, 2021). Salesforce offers customer relationship management software and applications focused on marketing automation, sales, customer service, application development, and analytics. The acquisition was considered a strategic issue by Salesforce, as they needed more software to enable the organization to become a leader in providing workplace technology.
Slack’s acquisition was prompted by Salesforce’s need for the software, which has been experienced over the years. According to the case (2021), Salesforce wanted to develop similar messaging technology for years, as they thought it would significantly benefit their business. The opportunity to acquire Slack was highly acknowledged, as the company got not only the software but also its customers, as Slack had developed a market share for itself as an independent company. This issue is viewed as a strategic move allowing Salesforce to become the market leader in providing organizational communication. The combination of Slack and Salesforce was considered to enable the delivery of “slack-first customer 360,” which is presumed to give companies a single source of truth for their ventures (Case, 2021). Salesforce will be able to provide all their services with the ones that Slack delivered under the same platform. In this case, the new company could connect customers, partners, and employees through the apps they use daily.
Other individuals perceive the acquisition to be overpriced, indicating that the process would lead to disruptions in the operation of the sales force. According to Forbes, the acquisition of Slack in a $27 billion industry led to the development of curious strategic questions left unanswered (Case, 2021). Among the concerns raised was the deal’s relevance, given that Salesforce is dominant in delivering customer service and marketing. The value of any company is always subject to scrutiny by different parties including investors and critics. People seek to understand why business agreements are valued at a certain amount of money in order to achieve different objectives which may involve investing in the firm or scaling their strategies for competition. Furthermore, it is assumed that Salesforce had a similar death in the past with another similar app in which the company did not realize the value of the acquisition (Case, 2021). Slack’s services are currently being used even in the private section.
Walkers Crisps are widely sold worldwide and on most supermarket shelves. The product has a global demand, which makes the company one of the most profitable UK-based food companies (Coyne, 2021). Due to the demand for Walkers Crisps, the production of the product has been highly consumed in the U.K. and Ireland (Coyne, 2021). Since the company does not operate in South Africa, it would have a significant impact if it started operations in the country. The only way that South Africans would have obtained Walkers Crisps was through ordering online, but the breakdown of PepsiCo makes the process impossible.
The cause of the shortage is attributed to the development of supply chain issues where the company was considered to experience an I.T. breakdown. The issue results from the updating of critical information in the system, leading to a lack of critical resources that enhance the production and sales of the products (Coyne, 2021). According to a report on the issue experienced at PepsiCo, the problems led to a reduction in production, causing the product to impact all markets where it is sold. These aspects have made most of their customers shift to the consumption of a similar product from competing companies, as they have no choice.
Based on the case, the company will have to resort to different aspects of the marketing mix to stay reasonably standard. In this case, the company will need to undertake measures such as price, place, promotion, and product, which are the most critical elements of marketing based on the current situation (Coyne, 2021). Since the availability of the product in the market is the underlying cause of product shortages, there is a need for the company to ensure that the product is made available. The development of the product will ensure consistency of its availability at a level consistent with the demand. The company can develop a variety of flavors to ensure that customers have different choices (Wichmann et al., 2022). In addition, the firm can issue more licenses to local producers to ensure that the product is effectively tailored to meet the customers’ needs in the market.
In addition, the company should consider the element of place to learn about the impact of the deficit in the market and the various stores where the product is entirely out of stock. Such information is critical as it will enable the product to be taken to the places where there is a deficit and be restocked. Such practices will ensure that the product is available in the market for easy access by the customers (Wichmann et al., 2022). The company should resort to promotion to enhance customer awareness of the product’s availability. This aspect is necessary since the shortage of the product has made people adjust their needs and attitudes toward the available products (Wichmann et al., 2022). For prices, the company should ensure that the product is valued in consideration of its perceived and real worth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a strategy, such as lowering the price can lure more customers to buy the product. The price should be determined by evaluating competing products to avoid overstatement and assess the appropriateness of discounting (Wichmann et al., 2022). Such elements will ensure that the product gets to the market and maintains its sales as before the shortage’s development.
Reference List
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