Marketing and Strategy Essay

Strategic Thinking

The author of this report is asked to answer several questions relating to globalization, strategic thinking and brand identity. The first part of the paper will focus on the first two questions which both relate to brand visibility, brand identity and the sales that can or cannot be garnered by the different levels and types of the same. The second part focuses on a test case in the Middle East. Based on the fact that stepping on toes in that part of the world culturally or religiously is exceedingly unwise, the best and worst case scenarios as well as the best practices and concepts to be covered will be described. While there is no single way to create and maintain a brand and/or to remain culturally and ethnically tolerant in different areas of the world, there are some general habits and practices that are better than others.

Analysis

When it comes to globalization and localization, visibility and presence can both be the genesis of a sales boom but it can also lead to a bust in many other ways. The main reason for this, and something that correlates with the globalization vs. localization dynamic is that some groups and people embrace international brands while others actively shun and reject them. For example, many people of Iran are extremely thirsty for American pop culture and brands while the leaders of Iran are largely against its entry and presence in their country and they actively try to block and impede its importation and consumption by the populace.As far as whether success would be something realized for a less visible brand, it really depends. If a brand only has a regional impact but it's strongly ensconced in that region as a trusted and known name, than it will probably do quite well even if people outside of the region don't know it exists. Similarly, a brand that is a "store" brand and is simply offered as a budget alternative to the big names, then brand visibility is not all that important because people are gravitating towards the price but there still has to be a name on the bottle to indicate who makes it. To achieve stellar success with a lesser known brown, it is all about getting a good niche of people who try the product, like the product for whatever reason and then come back to the product. That is really all that is needed to get solid sales from a product and massive spending on brand image and identity is not always needed (Priestly, 2014).

As for the talk about the Middle East business venture, the political, religious and ethnic climate in that part of the world is extremely dicey. Indeed, several countries are involved in active conflicts and/or have had military/government overthrows in the last few years. Three hotspots of note are Israel, Egypt and Libya. However, not all areas of the Middle East are in such a state and forging….....