StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Culture at Wal-Mart - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Influence of national culture on the success of Starbucks in China In the article “Starbucks Tightens Focus on China”, Burkitt (2011) informs us that Starbucks is concentrating on its full expansion in mainland China by gaining full ownership of Starbucks retail outlets in six Chinese regions…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.6% of users find it useful
Culture at Wal-Mart
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Culture at Wal-Mart"

Download file to see previous pages

In fact, John Culver, president of Starbucks International is categorical that the organization wants to make China its largest market outside Europe. This can be realistically construed to mean that the organization is succeeding in China. Furthermore, there is still room for growth in China considering that its single-store sales are on average 40% less in China Starbucks than in the US shops. This paper seeks to explore the influence of national culture on the success of Starbucks in China.

The success of any new product introduction in a foreign market is dependent on several factors, some of which are fundamentally controllable, while others are not. Culture is one of the significant, uncontrollable, intrinsic factors that affect new product introduction in a foreign market. Starbucks too had to overcome these market entry barriers posed by the Chinese cultural influences with the commonly cited being the Chinese tea culture. The majority of China’s one billion-plus population is tea drinkers who did not know what coffee was until Nestle introduced a powdered version on store shelves in the 1980s.

Nevertheless, Starbucks has been able to overcome this and other barriers through the following three strategies: market segmentation, and localization. According to Yeniturt and Townsend (2003) globalization has created progressively a more homogenized world market, with an increasing number of consumers from diverse geographic locations and cultural backgrounds sharing the same preferences. With the opening of the Chinese economy, Western cultural influences have continued to permeate the Chinese.

Globalization has nurtured a new generation of Chinese that is upwardly mobile and has higher disposable income. This new youthful generation, referred to as “Chuppies”, ranges from 20-somethings to 40- year-olds. Chuppies are after sophistication and are very willing to embrace behaviors that demonstrate change. Starbucks therefore used this cultural shift in China to sell coffee, like Golf, as an emblem of change and sophistication. The careful identification and segmentation of this market has proven to be a key factor for Starbucks success in China so far.

Another factor that has indirectly helped Starbucks is China’s one-child law. This law has spawned a generation that is not interested in the collective goals that their ancestors were renowned for. Instead, these children of post one-child law have embraced the Western belief in individuality that Starbucks embodies. This assures Starbucks that its target market is not about to reduce considering that the one-child law generation has just reached its targeted market segment age, income and attitude bracket.

The second strategy that Starbuck used to succeed in China is to carefully study the Chinese culture and then to offer a localized value proposition. Starbucks conducted a survey of Chinese consumers and compiled a list of the top reasons why they go to cafes. They identified that the number one reason was to socialize with friends and family while drinking coffee placed sixth in the hierarchy of reasons. On realizing that the Chinese lacked places to congregate because of their small and cramped living spaces in their expanding cities, Starbucks took the idea of making a place to gather and gave Chinese city residents a “third space” beyond work and home.

Starbucks utilized the localization strategy to offer more

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Culture at Wal-Mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/sociology/1429443-culture-at-wal-mart
(Culture at Wal-Mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
https://studentshare.org/sociology/1429443-culture-at-wal-mart.
“Culture at Wal-Mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1429443-culture-at-wal-mart.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Culture at Wal-Mart

Strategic Cultural Interventions at Wal-Mart

Finally, there is an assumed and supposed servant leadership Culture at Wal-Mart whereby it is said that Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart said that “"It's more important than ever that we develop leaders who are servants, who listen to their partners – their associates – in a way that creates wonderful morale to help the whole team accomplish an overall goal,”” (Wal-Mart, 2011).... Strategic Cultural Interventions at wal-mart Introduction Most people pay attention to the organizational culture of an organization or a company merely for the sake of using the organizational culture to identify or describe the company....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Cross-Cultural Perspectives of Wall-Mart

wal-mart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 (Frank, 2006).... states the managers of the company today did not realize that the American wal-mart culture cannot be replicated in foreign marketplaces.... During the nine years that wal-mart operated in Germany the company loss billions of dollars as a consequence of its ill advice expansion of 85 stores in a market that the company was not penetrating adequately due to its lack of cultural adaptation....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Cultural Dimensions of Wal-Mart

This game was being marketed by wal-mart.... The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations urged wal-mart to stop retailing this game.... The group reminded wal-mart of its corporate social responsibility to take along people of all culture and faith (UPI Security & Terrorism, 2006).... Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas wal-mart Stores (wal-mart) is the largest retail chain in the world.... wal-mart has its footprints in many big markets like US, UK, Canada, Brazil, Japan, China and Mexico....
3 Pages (750 words) Case Study

Organizational Behavior Concepts Of Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart has the image of a friendly, all-American company employing happy workers and smiling greeters who are eager to help and grateful to work at wal-mart.... This essay discusses several organizational behavior concepts, that are currently used by wal-mart, that are known for the company's relations with the associates, that are based upon respect, high expectations, close communication and effective incentives.... hellip; wal-mart the brain-child of Sam Walton started in 1962 as a family-owned discount store with an innovative business strategy....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Workplace Observation Paper

The corporate Culture at Wal-Mart is very different from the individual cultures In each store location.... Dress at wal-mart is casual with the blue aprons worn by many customer service employees.... wal-mart uses its Connect portal for its employees to sign in and keep up with the latest news in the company.... wal-mart uses its Connect portal for its employees to sign in and keep up with the latest news in the company....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Leadership and Management at Wal-Mart

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how the leadership and management practices at wal-mart enabled the firm to achieve global dominance.... wal-mart is the most successful retailer in the world and also the largest corporate employer in the world.... The founder of wal-mart was Sam Walton.... He opened up the first wal-mart store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962.... In the fiscal year, 2009 wal-mart generated $401 billion in global revenues while serving nearly 200 million customers per week (Walmartstores, 2009)....
8 Pages (2000 words) Case Study

Organizational culture

organization Culture at Wal-Mart.... This is the one that has led to wal-mart success.... This has been… wal-mart has maintained a culture of teamwork.... This is the one that has led to wal-mart success.... Leaders in wal-mart have maintained a close relationship with subordinates by upholding a culture where all members of staff are free to consult the leaders in case of any issue that is of concern....
1 Pages (250 words) Assignment

Organizational Culture

As such, the organizational culture that one envisions to emanate would parallel those of Danny Meyer of Union Square for encouraging a conducive work atmosphere through the creation of warmth and fuzzy energy (Spreading His Gospel of Warm and Fuzzy); the culture of great enthusiasm and genuine drive at Wal-Mart Stores (Organizational Culture at Wal-Mart); and Tony Heish's culture at Zappos where he promoted “world-beating customer service” (Zappos.... Organizational Culture at Wal-Mart....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us