International marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

International marketing - Essay Example As regards its regional competitors, Carrefour is currently Migros’ biggest threat. By 2005 it was operating 12 mega, or hyper-markets in Switzerland, with net sales totalling â‚ ¬ 402 million. Added to that, there is significant incoming competition from Germany’s leading retailers, Aldi and Lidl, who announced their intention to expand into the Swiss market. The implication here is that both present and prospective competition are expanding and intensifying, with it being incumbent of Migros to design a strategic marketing plan, based on a careful and critical study of the market situation and environment, should it want to retain its leadership position in the Swiss retail market. The intent of this report is to draw on strategic marketing and communications theory for the design of a marketing plan as would allow, or enable, Migros to maintain its leadership position in the Swiss retail market. An analysis of an organisation’s market and its external environment function as the building block for the design of any marketing strategy/campaign. This section of the report will, therefore, present a brief overview of Migros’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). On the intra-organisational level, Migros has several exploitable strengths, not least of which its decades-long history in the Swiss market and the resultant bond forged with consumers; its ownership structure in that it is owned by its customers, by the Swiss people themselves; its highly competitive prices; its strong market presence in more than one industry/sector, implying high visibility; consumer perceptions of it as an ethical company which only carries goods which are ethical/produced within strict ethical guidelines; and the fact that its suppliers are, ultimately its consumers all function as strengths unique to Migros. The primary intra-organisational weakness confronting Migros, as