A-Level Edexcel Business Market: Decision for adopting a polycent

Question

Decision for adopting a polycentric approach

• Polycentric approaches consider each host country to be unique. Businesses adapt their marketing mix to these individual markets to maximise sales.

• Taco Bell has adapted to local tastes by including Brazilian drinks such as maté on the menu. This is aimed at encouraging Brazilian consumers to visit their restaurant by providing something familiar to their tastes.

• As well as product, Taco Bell could adapt other aspects of the marketing mix, such as place. This might involve focusing on city center locations, rather than the side of major roads as Taco Bell do in the USA. Brazil is an emerging, developing country and being convenient to customers could help to maximise sales.

• This approach is often expensive because extensive market research may need to be undertaken in order to identify specific consumer tastes rather than transferring what worked with Taco Bell in the US.

Decision for taking an ethnocentric approach

• This approach is where a business such as Taco Bell approaches the world primarily through the lens of its own culture. Products and marketing are not adapted.

• Taco Bell decided to sell the same Tex-Mex dishes, such as Crunchwrap Supreme® and the ‘XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito,’ which are sold in their US outlets. If these have been a success in the USA, then Taco Bell may judge that they are likely to be a success in Brazil.

• In a ‘crowded’ market like Brazil, Taco Bell could differentiate itself from competitors such as McDonald’s, which sell very different products.

• The ethnocentric approach could also be more profitable, more quickly, as there may be less need to design new flavours and adapt production methods to provide these.

• Taco’s could have lower fat and salt content than other fast food, meaning that they are more likely to comply with Brazil’s laws on fast food.

Potential judgement:

• Polycentric models have worked well for businesses such as McDonald’s, and because Taco Bell want to expand it could be beneficial to adapt products at least, to reflect local tastes. This may help to maximise sales, rather than put off potential customers unsure about the Tex-Mex products.

• Tex-Mex is Taco Bell’s USP and should therefore be the central feature of their marketing in Brazil. There is no need to adapt the US model, because customers may want to purchase something different to what is currently available in Brazil.

Decision for adopting a polycentric approach • Polycentric approaches consider each host country to be unique - Edexcel - A-Level Business - Question 2 - 2022 - Paper 1

Worked Solution & Example Answer:Decision for adopting a polycentric approach • Polycentric approaches consider each host country to be unique - Edexcel - A-Level Business - Question 2 - 2022 - Paper 1

Decision for adopting a polycentric approach

Decision for taking an ethnocentric approach

Potential judgement

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