Paper Example on Wal-Mart and What It Means for the Foreign Market

Introduction

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is a multinational and world's largest retailing corporation operating several stores and clubs across the globe in 28 countries. This company was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton with its headquarters based in Bentonville, Arkansas and it is a family-owned company. Bentonville was the first place Walton's family had settled after he had retired from the army in 1945. Over the years, Wal-Mart Company has recorded significant growth and development which forced the company to spread to other regions. Wal-Mart needs to extensively invest its marketing efforts in cultural training in order to win its stake into the foreign market.

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Cultural training is a critical element of equipping Wal-Mart's employees and stakeholders with adequate knowledge and skills on how to deal with different cultures across the globe which will, in turn, allow smooth growth and development of the company stores in the foreign market. The training program will significantly aid the Wal-Mart employees in dealing with cultural diversity challenge which will significantly help the company to spread to its marketing strategies.

Training Outcome

Providing cultural training will help the company to understand the role of culture in influencing the organization's whole process which ranges from production to marketing. In this case, the cultural training will significantly help the management and the employees of the organization in producing culturally relevant products. Existing literature indicates that culture influence how people behave which includes consumers shopping behaviours (Ferraro & Briody, 2013). Therefore, a clear understanding of the market culture significantly helps an organization to produce goods and services that match the specific market cultural factors and shopping behaviours. Additionally, the literature indicates that consumers are more likely to be attracted to an advertisement which is culturally relevant as opposed to a general advertisement that does not feature the specific region cultural beliefs, values and practices (Ferraro &Broody, 2013). It is also important to understand that culture influences organization processes such as designing, production, packaging, distribution, and marketing. Therefore, cultural diversity training will significantly lead to incorporation of cultural values, practices, attitudes and believes in the day to day operations of the organization which will help the company thrive in different cultures.

Importantly, training on culture will also enable Wal-Mart to realize the need for understanding the culture of its market before investing in foreign market. Different cultures have different ways of life which significantly influence how the individuals consume different products; therefore, understanding the culture of a market helps an organization to produce goods and services that meet the people's cultural needs, taste and preferences (De, 2011). For example, Wal-Mart Company faced significant challenges while investing in German due to cultural differences between Wal-Mart which is an American based industry with the German population (Gupta, 2018). In this case the training will reveal the importance of studying the targeted market culture in an attempt to establish whether or not the company will be in a position to produce goods and services that meet the region's culture.

Development of Social Communications Platforms

The company is one of the most prominent organizations around the globe. Various firms as marketing channels have used social media platforms to pass their messages to customers widely. Social media provides unique opportunities for companies to communicate with customers. Getting the strategies involved in social media has not been an easy task. Companies that get the best results include those that take risks of trying something new. Wal-Mart should publish its marketing and customer shopping forms by use of Twitter, Google, Pinterest, and Facebook platforms.

External and Internal Environments (SWOT analysis)

Wal-Mart should use SWOT analysis in providing a detailed investigation of its external and internal environment on the international market. In this case, SWOT analysis acknowledges the presence of external influences (opportunities and threats) and internal factors (strengths and weaknesses that have one of the biggest forms of impacts on the company. Performing SWOT analysis identifies the strengths Wal-Mart should use so that it overcomes any of its weaknesses so that it can be able to maximize the different opportunities.

References

Gupta, A. K. (2018). Walmart: a roadmap for globalization. The Business & Management Collection

De, B. S. (2011). Managing cultural diversity. Maidenhead: Meyer & Meyer

Ferraro, G. P., & Briody, E. K. (2013). The cultural dimension of global business. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.