Impact of localization strategies on the Belgian Soft Drinks Market: A Comparative Analysis of American Products
Born, Tony (2024)
2024
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024051713074
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024051713074
Tiivistelmä
The objective and aim of this research based study on localization strategies of American brands on the Belgian market was to understand which strategies the most successful companies are using and if they are also truly effective towards the Belgian consumers. The research findings can be used by smaller companies wanting to expand as bigger companies, this will also give a good foundation knowledge for any business wanting to expand abroad.
The answers to this research questions were acquired first by a theoretical part gathering known information about growing a business to more specifically expanding a American soft drink business in Belgium. The focus of the theoretical part was to give a foundation upon everyone would be able to build upon and adapt depending from the product or country they want to expand too. Those theoretical findings are they supported by empirical findings that were made by analysing the different American brands that were the most successful on the Belgian market and by interviewing Belgian consumers about their perception of the brands and product while giving recommendations on key points that the companies could improve to be more appealing to the Belgian consumers. This two parts allowed us to understand which strategies where the most effective from two different points of view, the theoretical one with the acquired knowledge on the long term and the empirical part where Belgian consumers where explaining their way of seeing things.
The research findings show that preparing as much as possible before entering the market is important but the most important part is the company’s ability to adapt to the market once they enter it. Through the thesis we have seen a lot of different strategies companies can use and that their effectiveness can really depend from numerous factors but we have also seen that the best strategy is to combine strategies and not only use one. The empirical part showed us that American soft drink brands have their image darken by the thinking that their soft drinks are bad and that those brands are not sustainable this is an important part when expanding to Belgium changing how the persons perceive the brand will have a big impact on the successfulness of the brand.
The answers to this research questions were acquired first by a theoretical part gathering known information about growing a business to more specifically expanding a American soft drink business in Belgium. The focus of the theoretical part was to give a foundation upon everyone would be able to build upon and adapt depending from the product or country they want to expand too. Those theoretical findings are they supported by empirical findings that were made by analysing the different American brands that were the most successful on the Belgian market and by interviewing Belgian consumers about their perception of the brands and product while giving recommendations on key points that the companies could improve to be more appealing to the Belgian consumers. This two parts allowed us to understand which strategies where the most effective from two different points of view, the theoretical one with the acquired knowledge on the long term and the empirical part where Belgian consumers where explaining their way of seeing things.
The research findings show that preparing as much as possible before entering the market is important but the most important part is the company’s ability to adapt to the market once they enter it. Through the thesis we have seen a lot of different strategies companies can use and that their effectiveness can really depend from numerous factors but we have also seen that the best strategy is to combine strategies and not only use one. The empirical part showed us that American soft drink brands have their image darken by the thinking that their soft drinks are bad and that those brands are not sustainable this is an important part when expanding to Belgium changing how the persons perceive the brand will have a big impact on the successfulness of the brand.