Global Marketing Entry Strategy

Introduction

Entering into global market is not an easy task especially when an organisation has almost no experience to penetrate the international market (Powers and Loyka, 2010). The global market always has its own marketing fundamentals and business strategies, which are needed to be followed to generate better results in terms of growth in market sharing and increasing the customer base (Schlegelmilch, 2016). In this report, the focus has been laid down on developing the global marketing plan for G4S to enter the Russian market. It includes internal as well as external analysis of the company. Moreover, the report discusses the market entry strategy and target segments along with the comparison between standardisation and adaptation strategies.

G4S PLC also named as Group 4 Securicor is a British company headquartered in London and is active into the business of multinational security services. The company was established in the year 2004 after the result of the amalgamation of Danish business Group 4 Falck and London based company Securicor. The company has its operations in around 90 countries and into the field of providing security services the company is considered as one of the largest companies in terms of revenues. The number of employees in the company is 570000, and it is the world’s third-largest private employer. The company is active in the range of security services, which include supplying the security personnel, monitoring equipment, response units, and secure prisoner transportation and providing security to the government projects as well. Figure 1 shows the overall share of the UK market that G4S has been able to capture. While figure 2 presents different types of customers, G4S has in the UK according to various services provided by the firm. The UK government extensively used services of G4S. Apart from awarding the company with contracts for security in Afghanistan and the UK, the company was also running and managing a major prison in the country. However, recently the UK government took over from G4S in managing and running the prison, as the company failed to perform its side of the contract (Holton and Young. 2018).

At the domestic level, the company has a highly effective and aggressive marketing mix strategies. At product or service level, the company has high-level innovation and deliver quality and satisfactory security services to its customers. It is evident from the website of the company that they provide a wide range of services to its customers that increase their capacity to deal with various business requirements of clients (Who we are, 2018). To put an impact on clients, the company has built its strong reputation that allows them to build a business relationship with B2B clients and acquiring new clients. Primarily there are two types of security services provided by the company – secure solutions and cash solutions. Out of these, secure solutions is the most popular product in the company. This can be supported through the fact that 82% of the company’s total revenue comes through sales of the Secure Solutions product. Such services are provided for both commercial and government use. The commercial sector includes the likes of manufacturing and services industries such as major financial institutions, private energy and utilities, etc.

The goal of the company is to becoming a pioneer into their field and providing best services with the aim of incorporating trust and integrity within the services. Achieving excellence and innovation is another major goal of the company which they exhibit in their work on a regular basis. At the UK as well as at the global level the company has a core value of respecting the clients and setting high organisational values as it is essential for the service sector organisations. The target market for the company is the business entities operating in the UK and Ireland. Around 10000 customers along with 59 FTSE 100 companies rely on the services of G4S in improving the quality and safety and security of their services. With high-end technology the company provides security services to private prison companies and is even active into the cash management solutions.

The company is active in 90 countries, and they have a vast amount of experience in terms of catering a huge customer basis in a variety of security services. They have expertise in delivering health as well as employment services to their clients. G4S is founder signatory for the international code of conduct for private security providers, and in the year 2010, the company becomes a signatory to the UN global compact which is responsible for promoting the socially responsible behaviour in the area of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption. The company is also active on the board of the international security Ligue, The Confederation of European Security Services, the European organisation for security and International Aviation Security Services Association (What we do, 2018). Thus, internally the company had a strong position and aligned effectively with marketing mix strategies.

In terms of Physical securities market, Russia is ranked third, only after countries such as Germany and Italy. On the other hand, it is ranked second in terms of CCTV segment volume. This has been shown in Figure 3. This indicates that the growth rate in the Russian market is very high along with its market potential. The growth rate of the market has been shown in Figure 4. In addition to this, the level and intensity of competition in the Russian securities market are also very high, and it is increasing at a very rapid rate. Today there are numerous companies working in the securities market. On this basis, it can be said that the Russian market possesses the capability to create a competitive advantage for companies.

By 2020, Russia is likely to become the fifth largest economy in the world and in terms of achieving sustainability and growth the country has worked different dimensions of their economy. In terms of demography, the population of the country is declined from 148 million to 141 million in the year 2009 due to low birth rate and high mortality rate (Guzanova, 2018).

Politically, the country is highly stable under the regime of Vladimir Putin, and this is the reason that political stability can become a positive scenario for the companies (Guzanova, 2018). However, it is also clear that the hold of the current president in Russia is very immense and he just controls all the business decision making that may affect the functioning of businesses. The current political environment cannot be considered to be apt for the company and thus can act as a barrier to its entry. In the global context, the need for security for the country is high as the interference in global politics is high from Russia. The country has so many enemies who can cause some damage to the local public in the form of terrorism (Mironova, 2019).

Economically, the country has huge stability, and GDP rate of the country is also increasing rapidly. The service sector industry in Russia is one of the largest sectors which contribute 62 per cent in total GDP. In terms of industrialisation, the country is investing in various aspects of business and manufacturing.

In terms of technology, the country is growing rapidly and using new dimensions of technology in order to stay ahead of this world. The internet users in the country are 73 per cent of the total population. However, the technological infrastructure in the country is yet to be developed to its full potential, and for the same purpose, corruption and bureaucracy need to be controlled (Guzanova, 2018). Thus, the external environment analysis of the country explains that Russia has stabilised the external environment and proper understanding of the local market and industry growth can help in designing and determining better entering strategies in Russia. Currently, the country is not facing any threats in terms of terrorism. However, in recent some years, it has been observed that the country has been associated with different terrorism-related activities, due to which the level of threat in the country is very high. Companies are at great risks, and therefore there is a need for securities companies that help in protecting firms and the general public alike.

It is expected that Russian security market will grow to 2.89 billion dollars in the year 2019 from 1.82 billion dollars which were in the year 2013. During 2013 to 2019 the CAGR was 7.30 per cent and it happens because of the bilateral relations between Russia and the US. The market potential for the growth of the security market in Russia is very high. The major reason behind the same is that at the international level the interference of Russia is very high and they have to ensure internal safety for the residents of their country. In this direction, they need to ensure that security measures and surveillance system in the country should be highly effective. The level of competition within the industry is not very high. There are very few big companies who provide better surveillance system in the country. The companies like Suritel, Axxon Soft, Ammertex and Intelligent security systems, Vicon industries and Hikvision are some of the major companies that specialise in providing CCTV related security services. The product ranges for GS4 are highly innovative and can enable them to sustain within the territory of Russia.

In Russia, the need for security equipment is increasing rapidly, and the country has planned to install various equipment that can help them to improve the internal securities. In both private as well as public sector, the demand for the security equipment is increasing, and G4S can definitely get the advantage of same (Butkovic et al., 2014). The need for security solutions or services is going to be increased as Russia has become a major tourist destination where the people from all around the world enter on a regular basis. To ensure the safety of tourists and local domestic people country has to have smart and safe security services. The following figure shows the contribution of the travel and tourism industry to Russia’s GDP.

According to these regulatory policies, maintaining safety and security should gain priority by the businesses. Overall, the situation in Russia supports the need for such a company that provides excellent and effective security services to maintain national security. The major regulations in this direction are government decree number 385 on Federal fire service, Federal act number 16 on transport safety and Federal act number 537 to strategise the national security as a major priority. These regulations automatically increase the chances of generating the need for for effective security solutions that may strengthen the marketing mix elements (Badi, 2015). With the growth in a number of manufacturers, oil and gas producers, and business magnates the need for the security devices are enhancing. The video surveillance is mostly used by public sector organisations or people active in the government. The size of the Russian security market is increasing, and key growth factors are a rise in the number of tourists, political interference of the country in international politics and rise in the number of industries and businesses. Physical as well as technological security measures in the country are needed to be strong as they have stabilised an economic environment that needs betters security solutions in terms of remaining sustainable and stabilised for the long term. In the current scenario, every other industry like banking, oil, and

gas and so on needs strong technological security solutions in order to provide safe and secure services to their customers. Under these circumstances, the need for companies G4S is increased highly. Thus, Russia is an ideal market for the company to penetrate and providing services to the customers within the country.

Standardisation Vs Adaptation

The strategy of standardisation refers to the situation where the company provides the same set of services to its clients without making many changes to the range of services and innovativeness. On the contrary, adaptation refers to the situation where the company has a different kind of strategies and provide the services as per the actual requirements of the clients (Doole and Lowe, 2008). It is evident on the website of the company that they have adopted the adaptation strategy in order to provide their services to the clients located in different parts of the world. In the current scenario also, while entering into the Russian market, there is a huge requirement of focusing upon the actual requirements of customers. In the security solution business, every client has different needs and requirements in terms of ensuring safety and security at their workplace (Meissner, 2012). By keeping such thing in mind, adaptation into the range of services is needed then only the company can be in a position to attract a maximum number of clients. The product or service mix development should be influenced by the adaptation strategy then only the uniqueness in the service range can be introduced by G4S.

The major strategy for G4S is that while entering into Russia, the company should focus on conducting the extensive market research so that the major security issues faced by Russian companies can become clear (Tielmann, 2010). Afterwards, the company and its team responsible for setting up the establishment in Russia can prepare the range of service and innovative security solutions to its clients. Thus, standardisation could not help in yielding positive results in Russia. Through an adaptation strategy, the company can bring changes in its price structure as well. In the services sector, the standardisation is not appropriate as every client has different business needs that can minimise or maximise the complexities of services.

However, through adaptation, operational capacities can become flexible and can align as per the business goal of customers (Nagel, 2012). Furthermore, when it comes to the place mix, then also adaptation strategy is highly effective. It is clear that every client has different technological infrastructure and scalability of business is also different. Under these circumstances, the company cannot be standardised in their services as they have to be adapted as per the technological capacity of an organisation. Accordingly, the price mix or product/ service mix can also be determined.

G4S is active in the service sector, so they have to focus on extended elements of marketing mix (Min, Kim, and Zhan, 2017). Proper knowledge about the process can help in setting the budget of the entire service. It can become possible only in the case of an adaptation strategy that may enable to understand the time to be needed to implement the project or services. Moreover, in terms of people also there is need of hiring experts for every type of security service solutions (Wu, 2016). Overall, the various dimensions of the marketing mix are affected by the standardisation and adaptation strategies and in Russia; G4S should rely on the adaptation in marketing mix strategies.

Conclusion

The above discussion helped in understanding that the opportunities in the market for technology-based security solution services is very high and among them, Russia should be penetrated by the cited company. G4S is a pioneer in its field and provide innovative services to its customers and operates in almost 90 countries. In Russia, the chances of growth for the company are high as their technological environment is improving, and the economic environment is also supportive of establishing security services. At last the adaptation strategy should be adopted by the company as it can support product differentiation as well as customised pricing strategy and G4S can align to the actual business requirements of clients in Russia.

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