Engelbert Strauss’s Marketing Plan for Canada

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Engelbert Strauss’s Canada Marketing Plan
1.0 Introduction
Engelbert Strauss (ES henceforth) is a German-based organization specializing in workwear. According to the organizations, workwear refers to any form of clothing and accessories focused on ensuring the comfort and safety of individuals within different work environments. In the current business strategy, ES relies on various products in safety and workwear enhanced by high product quality, large selection, customized embroidery or print, and fast delivery. The organization seeks to expand and venture into the Canadian market as part of its growth and expansion plans. With the increasing rate of globalization, the scale of foreign investments increases. However, the success of foreign entities in a local market requires a clear understanding of the local market and the subsequent forces that shape it. For an organization like ES, while specific forces may influence the market dynamics faced in Germany, such forces may or may not be critical factors in the Canadian market. Therefore, the current paper develops a Canadian country notebook that will guide the development of an initial marketing plan for ES as it expands into the Canadian market. This will be addressed by investigating three core areas of the Canadian business environment: cultural, economic, and market audit & competitive market analysis.
2.0 Cultural Analysis
Cultural diversity is a crucial descriptor of the world when looking at human societies. In trying to establish the total number of cultures worldwide, researchers and scholars are yet to agree on the total number of global human cultures. For instance, while Ethnologue records suggest over 6900 extant languages, the Price's Atlas pf Ethnographic societies suggest 3814 distinct cultures (Foley and Lahr pr 8). Such estimates are challenging based on the fact that even within cultures, there can be numerous subcultures. On average, one must travel 78 km from a given central zone to encounter language barriers. Due to this diversity in global cultures, there is an attempt with the business domain to generalize diverse cultures within a country into a national culture (Kaasa and Minkov 8). In other words, the culture that shapes the business environment in Germany is not necessarily the same as those which shapes business in Canada. Determining and understanding these differences makes it easy for foreign entities to successfully venture into foreign markets and remain competitive against local and foreign companies in the same business line.
2.1 Canada’s Relevant History
A national culture is a generalized kind of culture with individual and unique characteristics developed and created during historical development (Gamlath 922). In essence, a national culture refers to the beliefs, behavior, customs, values, and norms shared by the population of a specific country. The national culture has a significant influence on success and sustainability. It influences the purchase & and consumption of material goods or services. It shapes approach leadership styles, managerial decision-making, how communication is carried out within and without the organization, and practices in human resource man...