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For your information, in music center, you can both enjoy the CD player and radio for basic functions; and outputs for surrounding sound quality for video watching, and tape listening. Categories: LifeStyle 30 & 25 & 20 & 12 & 8 & 5 & 3 *Below is the Picture of Bose LifeStyle 25 Home Theater System a) Market needs and wants: Many people may think that in Argentina, the economic may not be that well since it is between underdeveloped and developing country. However, after I talked to my friends, who has ever lived in Argentina for a while, I know that in Argentina, there are still many people who are rich. The situation in Argentina may be extreme disparity between the rich and the poor, however, that doesn’t means that people there does not have marketing needs and wants. I believe that for those rich people, they might want to have the best quality of music and sound. Besides, the restaurant and disco club owners may want to have a better sound quality in order to attract more guests and customers. I guess most of people would know that most of Argentines love music, and they think music is one of the most important thing in their lives. Therefore, I believe marketing needs and wants is one of the forces. We may see from the following article that I picked up from the web that how Argentina accepts business of imports and exports of electronics: “Argentine companies involved in the appliance and electronics industries produce primarily for the domestic market. Exports are shipped mostly to Mercosur countries. Products include refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, air conditioners, television sets, radios, and video cassette recorders (VCRs). In recent years production of refrigerators and washing machines has been about 700,000 units each. Little Argentine production is exported outside Mercosur, although certain niche markets are served by high quality Argentine manufacturers. These include specialty high-fidelity equipment designed for audiophiles willing to pay in the range of US$10,000 for equipment and for concert halls, theaters, and other buildings in need of high quality audio equipment. The target market of these firms is international.” b) Technology: I believe that the technology would be one of the most important driving global forces for Bose to market their products in the worldwide. Because in LifeStyle Systems, it produces a natural blend of reflected and direct sound, similar to the sound quality in live concert. It’s a sound experience that gives customers the feeling of being in the middle of the action. And with five-channel availability, customers can enjoy music in 2-speaker stereo, 3-speaker front channel performance, or full 5-speaker surround sound(1). From the roar of a runaway train to the sweet song of a cello, bass creates much of the excitement customers expect from a home theater system. The Bose LifeStyle Home Theater System uses a powered Acoustimass module to make customers the right amount of the bass. During the movies, customers will feel bass effects that bring them to the edge of their seat(2). c) Communication: One of the most important points and conditions of doing business or marketing in another country is communication. According the demographics of Argentina, the languages they speak are mostly Spanish, English, Italian, German and French. Therefore, I believe that it would be a good point for Americans to do business and marketing in Argentina. In Bose LifeStyle, there is a manual with English, Spanish and French instructions. Besides, there is a test CD instruction used for testing the sound quality in nine languages like English, Spanish, French, German and so on. Also, the transportation in Argentina in main cities is very convenient. Just like the United States, there are subways, taxis and others, which are very convenient for corporation managers to do business with them(3). d) Product development: In LifeStyle, the award-winning Jewel Cube speakers contain a Neodymium Iron Boron magnet with ten times the magnetic density of conventional speaker magnets. Swivel them with a twist of your wrist to re-create a lifelike balance of reflected and direct sound, for more spacious sound throughout listeners’ listening area. Proprietary Videostage steering logic decodes surround soundtracks and enhances performance. The seek aluminum music center contains a six-disc CD changer, an AM/FM tuner with 50 presets, and inputs for additional sources. It also provides advanced multi-zone capabilities. When used with additional Bose powered speakers, listeners can play music in one room and surround sound for home theater in a different room, simultaneously. Easy-to-use remote operates on radio waves allows listeners to control the system without pointing the remote at the music center. They can use it around corners, through walls, floors, and even from outside – up to 65 feet away(4). From above, I also believe that the product development is in very high-tech; therefore, I believe this would be also one of the forces. e) Quality: What is a “Home Theater System”? I bet this would be the question that the most people will ask for. A Home Theater System basically designed to make listeners to hear higher highs and lower lows. The combined result is the reproduction of the same clear, dynamic sound originally created by the filmmaker(5). From movie theater, thrilling multichannel surround sound used to be the exclusive province of movie theaters. Then Bose extended its film sound technology into the home as Dolby Surround. For myself, I personally owned a Bose LifeStyle 25 Home Theater System, so I can say that the quality is good that everybody would say so. I am very satisfied with it after I have used it for almost two years. (See the pictures above, knowing how the sound wave goes in the room space) As mentioned, Argentina is in the section between underdeveloped and developing country; therefore, social statuses there are disparity between the rich and the poor. I may think this as one of the competitive settings that effect the selling and marketing Bose LifeStyle in Argentina. However, the imports of Argentina in 1997 were $30.3 billion, and there is about 20.7% with the partner of US(3). Excluding the economic condition, other competitive settings may be other brands such as Sony, Yamaha, or Aiwa. However, Bose corporation was founded in 1964 with the goal of developing high fidelity audio systems for the home and others, capable of reproducing a level of lifelike sound, unmatched by conventional speakers. Since then, the BOSE name has become one of the most widely recognized in the hi-fi industry(6). I can not say that the Bose products are much better than others, however, I can say that at least, it is listed in the front of name brands in the world. Argentina is a civil law country, meaning that its courts rely on laws complied in codes, such as the Commerce Code and the Civil Code. Judical decisions are typically based on code provisions rather than on precedents set by past judicial decisions. For the law of foreign investment in Argentina, it was revised extensively in 1989, again in 1993, and now essentially provides foreign investors with the same status and rights as local investors(10). For business purposes, I believe there is no conflict of marketing the Bose product with political and legal factors. Since the Bose LifeStyle Home Theater Systems are belonged to consumer goods, I believe there should be no social or culture conflict with it. Oppositely, as we talked before, the Argentines love music, I believe they will be no problem too with the cultural factor. However, I believe the social factor in Argentina may refer to the hierarchy in Argentina. What I mean by hierarchy refers to those people who have great distance between the rich and the poor as we discussed above. Besides, the point of language is also important. In Argentina, the official language is Spanish; therefore, if the managers who distributed for doing business in Argentina are able to speak Spanish, I believe it would help a lot. Although there are many people who can speak English in Argentina, it would be much easier to understand what is going on anytime if speaking Spanish. 3A. Demographic segmentation variables Below is the target market that I selected for Bose LifeStyle Home Theater Systems: Sex: Male and Female Family Life Cycle: Empty Nest Children Age: At Least One Is Over 18 Social Class: Middle Class or Above The reason that I target on those people who are in middle age or above is because they may have ability to earn money by themselves and probably have savings in the bank. Middle class or above may refer to those people who have enough purchasing power for those consumer goods like Bose products. And since there is no special request of male or female to use LifeStyle, I would target on both male and female. For the Empty Nest in family life cycle, at least one child is out of home, it may means that the social responsibility and economic burden for them could be reduced. The situation may be different for each empty nest family. Some may be that no children staying at home and parents are in half-retired condition, then, they would have more purchasing power than before and would be able to have more free time to improving their life quality and think of promoting their demand for consumer goods. Therefore, I chose those for my target market. 3B. Psychographic segmentation variables The Bose Home Theater System named “LifeStyle” that we can clearly see that it means “lifestyle” is very important of psychographic segmentation variable. As stated above, our target market is on those who is middle class or above; parents whose children left home and are in half-retired condition. I would also make the hobby included. Because I believe that music lover would love to listen and enjoy better quality sound of music. For the music, Bose LifeStyle also offers the best timbre of CD. “Just make you feel in the center of concert.” This is a slogan of Bose’s advertisement. Similarly, for those who love to watch movies at home, they can find better surround sound not only in movie theaters but also their own house. Therefore, I believe that these two should be two of the most important psychographic segmentation variables. 3C. Behavioral segmentation variables I believe that the brand loyalties for Bose’s products and service should be the most for behavioral segmentation. As we mentioned before, the Bose corporation earned very good credits and sales during thirty years. The report of Bose corporation in 1998 estimated that annual sales for entire year of 1997 was around $250 million; includes sales from international business. There are over 1500 employees as of April 2nd, 1998; company reported no employment change in the year prior to interview; no employment change projected for the next fiscal year(7). And for service, there is a warranty accompanying with it. If the consumers mail the warranty card back to the Bose corporation, they will be covered warranty for one year. After one year, the consumers can make a phone call and extend their warranty for free. Under the warranty, consumers do not need to have any responsibility of fixing the products. Besides, the Bose corporation does not sell their products only in store, but they also accept the orders online, by phone or by catalog. Consumers can only order it in anyway they prefer, and wait for delivered home. Therefore, I believe that the brand loyalty as for behavior segmentation variable. Since the Bose LifeStyle Home Theater Systems are consumer goods, the benefit of using it is different from those practical goods. Consumers would buy it because it offers one of the best quality sounds in the world as we keep saying. There are many other stereo brands such as Sony; Panasonic; Yamaha and so on. They might have much more categories of products in different prices; however, they may not be able to offer the quality that those upper class people required. The other benefit segmentation variable I believe is that for those input and output jacks. There are two sets of input jacks for TV and VCR sound to have surround sound that we mentioned; auxiliary input jack for another audio source; in/out jacks for cassette deck. Each of these jacks can make the surround sound of those five speakers. Besides, there are also zone one and zone two speaker jacks which make consumers be able to enjoy it in two different spaces. For example, consumers may operate the music center by two different remote controls to play CDs in two different areas. While they are in the sleeping room, they can operate it without going to living room, and vice versa. It considers of the convenience for consumers(4). However, the segments we discussed above may not be in large size in current days. But from the world trend, I believe that there is a great of growth potential. Because in Argentina, there are still many people who is rich and time freely, besides, people are most of gathering in the cities, shopping malls or streets are still popular for shoppers. In my personal opinion, I believe there is a great potentiality of economic growing. Although the economy in the late 1980s was plagued with huge external debts and recurring bouts of hyperinflation, I still believe so. Because the benefits from their industries in Argentina are not as good as its from rich natural sources; therefore, I believe that there is still much space for others to go in for industrial business(3). For potential competition, since the economy in Argentina is not that well as developed countries, the products with low priced and low quality may be popular for most of people. It may bring the competition in the future for Home Theater Systems of Bose corporation. Because people who use to buy those low-priced product may not be aware of higher-quality products such as Bose Home Theater System. For example, Sony products are famous in the world, they have any audio equipment, whether CD or MD players, or home theater system; whether in high and low priced. Everybody in the world knows about Sony, because its product line is wide. However, talking about the home theater system, Bose has much better quality than Sony’s. But some customers may choose to purchase Sony because they are familiar with the brand name. Then it may bring the competition for Bose corporation. Talking about the compatibility and feasibility, Bose may get a weakness of doing marketing in Argentina. It may need a longer time to enter to the markets in Argentina, because the ranges of middle class are not wide. Besides, the price of a Bose LifeStyle Home Theater System is not low. It is about US$ 1,000 ~ 2,500 depends on different LifeStyles. Therefore, it may still need some time to allow the middle class or above in Argentina to accept the Bose products as their first choice for audio systems. Of the country's inhabitants, 93 percent are nominally Roman Catholic; yet only 7 percent of the population in Benos Aires, the capital of Argentina, regularly attends church. In rural areas church participation is only slightly higher--around 18 percent. The constitution guarantees religious freedom, although Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in 1977. Freedom for most other denominations is a fragile thing, as the power of the Roman Catholic church, with some government support, remains quite strong. All other religions must be registered -- or pronounced illegal. Protestants have grown to 900,000 or approximately 3% of the population. Major denominations include: Methodists, Baptists, Mennonites, Reformed, Disciples of Christ, Pentecostals and Seventh Day Adventists. Argentina is home to the largest Jewish population in Latin America, numbering 450,000. The Argentine Evangelical Lutheran Church, partner church of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, has 30,000 members - one tenth of one percent of the population. The total Lutheran community, including several Scandinavian churches, is about 150,000 worshippers(8). According to this information, we can understand how important of a religions are in Argentina. Therefore, if we want to do business in Argentina, we will need to know more about the Roman Catholic religions. Talking about the religions in Argentina, it may effect of doing marketing for Bose. If the managers know much about the main religion of Argentina ~ Roman Catholic, then he or she may be able to take some advantages from this point. Most of the religions in the world may tell their adherents that not to indulge with profligate life. However, if we can make them understand that the Bose LifeStyle may not be only for personal enjoyment, but also for church use, then it may be marketable. For example, if they have the Bose LifeStyle in church, then they can use it instead of choir, or they can use it for religious advertisement by playing their religious songs and music. Therefore, I believe that to use the point of religions in Argentina is also important. As we stated above, we may do marketing in two different directions, and they are individualism and collectivism. For an individual person, we may market the Home Theater System on those people we have in our target market. Because in our target markets, people are having much more time and money then others who is still young and working. Nevertheless, talking about the collectivism in Argentina, we may need to think about it more. In Argentina, we may need to include people into groups in many ways, such as religions we mentioned; ethnic groups such as whites, mestizos, Amerindians or others; language spoken regions such as Spanish, English, German or Italian. Since Argentina is a mixed society, we may need to consider all above for collectivism. For political point of view for business, I do not think that it would be a problem, although there is no international agreement for Argentina and US. Since the economy in Argentina is not still in developing status, the Argentina Republic government is welcome for other industries to enter to their country to make their economy go up. However, for security and crime in Argentina, there is little threat to U.S. business people from indigenous terrorist organizations in Argentina. There are no known violent domestic groups currently active in this country that are specifically targeting U.S. interests, but given the presence of members of and support for extremist terrorist groups in the tri-border region of Argentina, visitors to Argentina cannot discount the possibility of terrorist activity, to include random acts of anti-American violence(9). For Bose Home Theater System competitors, I believe that it should also be differentiated into two different groups. One is by quality and price, as we said before, the Bose may have a selling impacts simply because of its high price. Competition would happen between the Bose and other brands such as Sony; Aiwa; Panasonic; Kenwood and others. However, if the consumers are not thinking of price as their first consideration, then they may think quality as their first consideration to purchase the product. In global markets, there are several brands of home theaters such as Polk’s “RM5400” model; Sony’s STR-DE625 model; Kenwood’s VR-2080 model and so on. Although there are so many competitions for Bose LifeSttle Home Theater System in the global market, they never try to reduce their price in order to fascinate more customers. That means that the Bose is not afraid of the competition in the global market, because they are confident of their quality and experience in three decades. In Argentina, corruption is surely illegal. I believe that not only in Argentina, but in most of countries in the world, even in America. In my opinion, I think the corruption or bribery in Argentina should be happening very often. Because I think that although there are laws of prohibiting bribery in Argentina, some government or business organizational officials may still accept for illegal rebates or other briberies. Not only in Argentina, I bet that it happens in all other countries in this earth. But we surely do not encourage these kind of actions, oppositely, we hope that the governments would attack this crime. Therefore, I think the first step to reach the concept of a clean world is that in global enterprises or corporations, they should not do bribery, and lead all others in the world to the clean world. Counterfeiting, meaning that some unworthy companies steal the copyrights; patents; trademarks or intellectual properties of the original name brands in order to defraud the huge and sudden profits. It is shameful and surely illegal; however, there are still many imitations in the markets. For Bose corporations, there are still chances of imitations in the market although it may not be that much. Because the trademark of Bose is clear and easy to be recognized. Besides, the price of LifeStyle does not change whether selling in any country. Below is the trademark of Bose corporation: Intellectual property is the idea from those innovators firstly consider of that product. For example, the idea of the trademark design; the idea of how the products run in the market; the idea of how the product looks like. It is the product of intellectual activity by inventions or other discoveries, and have registered in the government. Gray market is the market source for those unauthorized groups who buy products in lower price without taxed from other countries. Because the price on each country may be different, they may be able to lower their cost and earning more profits. It may be also the reason why the intellectual property is always stolen. In Argentina, I believe that there is a big gray market in it. Also, I believe that for music CDs, CD-ROM disks and software may be likely to possess gray market. Because it is about the intellectual property. People can steal the ideas or programs of those CDs, and make imitations or sell the original products in higher price. Global Marketing Information System(GMIS) is to provide managers and other decision makers with a continuous flow of information about company operations. GMIS provides relevant data including external environment such as customers and competitors. Since the technology today is very modern, companies need to find out the newest information about their business; not only in their country, but also global. Therefore, GMIS is quite important for business organizations nowadays. In my opinion, I think that the Bose corporation must be having GMIS in order to compete in this competing world. First, they will need to set out their objectives and subjects. Second, they will need to search whether primary and secondary data of it. Then they will analyze those data and find out which may be the most helpful for them. Finally, they can make decisions. Because the Bose corporation is a global company, they will need to use GMIS in order to make correct decisions, whether in USA; Europe; Asia or South America. Because each environment and culture is totally different, they will need to have GMIS to find out what to do for marketing. For preparing this exam, I tried to find out my secondary data mostly from the search webs in the internet. Because in the internet, I just need to type a keyword, and the search web will search anything about it in 10 seconds. It is convenient and fast. Comparing with going to library, it saves time for me since I would need to check if they have the source in the library and even it has in computer, sometimes it is not in library. There are tons of search web in the internet such as Yahoo; Infoseek; Excite; AltaVista search web and so on. This time, Yahoo and Infoseek search webs helped me the most, because I found that their webs are more complete than others. Therefore, I used it. If I had really worked in the international marketing development of Bose, I would try to find out more information about other similar products from other competitors. For example, I would find out some information about other home theaters of Sony; Yamaha; Pulk; Kenwood and others. I will try to gather it as a consumer. Because as a consumer, I will be more objective about their products and analyze it in order to find out what we can do to improve our quality. It may take time and money, but I think it’s worth. Moreover, I may also try to discover more about the technology. If there is any other way that technology of my side can be much better forward than others? Can I find a technological way that competitors can not find? Last, I would also find the information about the marketing. For instance, how do I introduce Bose Home Theater Systems to those who do not have experience? How can I make them feel about our quality? Where should be the best locations for our dealers? I think those are the information that I would try to gather if I had really worked in the international marketing development of Bose. Bibliography: 1. http://www.bose.com/products/home/home_theater/systems/ls25.html 2. http://www.bose.com/products/home/home_theater/speakers/am15.html 3. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ar.html 4. http://www.bose.com/products/home/home_theater/systems/ls30.html 5. http://www.hometheatershop.com/front.htm 6. http://www.wn.com.au./hi-fi/bose2.htm 7. http://www.elibrary.com/getdoc.cgi?id=130166118x0y18458w3&Form=EN&Button=MEM&OIDS=0Q001D002&pubname=Argentina_Business&puburl=http~C~~S~~S~www.worldtradepress.com&querydocid=1469749@library_b&dtype=0~0&dinst= 8. http://www.lhmint.org/facts/argentin.htm 9. http://travel.state.gov/argentina.html Word Count: 4567
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