International marketing case study: The mineral water MOUZAïA

Résumé du document

Within the framework of our course, Marketing Internationally, we were invited to realize a group work on "which marketing strategy could Mouzaïa adopt in order to establish its products in French speaking Western Europe countries?" From the beginning, we felt involved in the topic as we are students in International Management; we consider this work as a great experience to have a better understanding of the challenges that we will have to face when marketing internationally. It is important for us to master the strategic dimensions to put into practice in foreign markets. Therefore, this work will enable us to be creative and strategic oriented when developing a marketing plan that has to be adapted to international environment.At first sight, we had the idea, as a lot of others, to change every single detail of the product. After struggling on too many details, we thought about changing our marketing strategy into a simpler one. That is how we came to the idea of reaching the local "maghrebian" population. Concerning our methodology, we mainly based it on documents coming from the Internet, on the marketing book of mister Vandercammen and on the course of our professor Mr. Derive, Marketing Internationally. This paper is divided in two main parts: The objective for the first part is to try to analyze and to understand the domestic market (Algeria) characteristics better, the product specificities and the host market (Belgium) opportunities. The objective of the second part of this group work, is to develop a strategy to penetrate the Belgian market. To do so, we will analyze the company's swot analysis, the competitive advantage that will derive from it, the market segment to use and the differentiation elements. From this point, we will set up our strategy and the tools we will use to penetrate the Belgian market as efficiently as possible.

Extraits

[...] Concerning the channels of distribution[13] through which waters are put on the Belgian market, we can consider those kinds of channels: Supermarkets (400-2500m²): Super GB, Supermarkets Delhaize Le Lion, Match, Champion but also dealerships such as AD Delhaize, Super GB Partners/GB contact, Spar supermarkets and other isolated self- employed channels, which are not affiliate to a network. Hypermarkets the main hypermarkets in Belgium are Carrefour and Cora. Discounter: it is important to make the distinction between soft- discount and hard discount. [...]

[...] Then we will move on to the analysis of the local market in which Mouzaïa evolves, and the study of the product itself focusing on the tangible and intangible elements, the packaging, and the components from a marketing point of view. The SIM group[1] The big Algerian group, SIM, is a company specialized in several and different fields such as the agribusiness, the real estate, the health and is in charge of industrial, commercial and financial activities. SIM is a well known company in Algeria and its products are present throughout all the national market. [...]

[...] The material used for mineral sparkling water is a bottle made in glass, lightly green, that represents the natural character of the water, no treated, such as the bottle. The label gathers different information such as the brand, the components, the quantity, the origin, the flavor and the barcode. Everything written on the label is written in Arabic language. Besides, the whole packaging, which is to say, the color of the bottle, the label, the graphs used on it remain to be coherent. [...]

[...] We can name the subsidiary AquaSim, responsible for the mineral water field, created after the repurchase of Mouzaïa and Ben Haroun in 2005, two important brands of mineral water in Algeria. Concerning the drink sector in Algeria, it is one of the most important sectors of the country. Indeed, it represented a turnover going beyond the 35 million of dinar in 2004. The total consumption of the Algerian market for 2008 can be estimated at 19 million of hectoliters. The Product We are now going to analyze the product, its specificities and characteristics. [...]

[...] The first one is characterized by the lowest prices, a limited assortment composed mainly by the distributors' own brands while the second one is characterized by a larger assortment with industrial brands and by higher prices. Lidl and Aldi represent the hard discount in Belgium. Regarding the soft discount, it is represented by Colruyt, Central Cash, Intermarché and Profit (Louis Delhaize). [...]