Riassunto analitico
In 2011 China became the world’s largest grocery market, surpassing the United States of America. With its rapidly growing middle class demanding diverse goods including anything from consumption products to luxury products and sophisticated technology, it is also expected to become the world’s largest importer by 2014.
The purpose of this study is to examine what potential the Chinese market offers the Italian coffee company Lavazza. In order to gain a profound understanding of the chances and challenges the market offers Lavazza the thesis in hand has analysed the market from an macroeconomic, socio-demographic, and cultural perspective.
The empirical part of this thesis further contributed to a thorough understanding analysing what strategies have been chosen by companies operating in the same or a related industry which have established themselves successfully on the Chinese market. The cases were selected based on the successes and failures each of them experienced following different strategic approaches. Companies included in the study are Starbucks, Häagen-Dazs, and Illy while the current activities of Lavazza have been analysed as well. Additional insight knowledge was obtained by interviewing a company operating on China’s coffee market and conducting a survey among university students.
The results of this study indicate that there is a large potential for the Lavazza coffee company on the Chinese market that will, however, only be realised if the Italian enterprise considers and adapts to the specific characteristics of the Chinese market regarding localisation, long-term commitments, cultural sensitivity, and branding that this thesis has revealed.
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