MARKETING PLAN – WOOD’S INTERNATIONAL

TITLE PAGE TO BE COMPLETED

INTRODUCTION
TO BE COMPLETED

ENVIRONMENTAL & INTERNAL ANALYSIS

Economic statistics and activity - ERIC

* Q1: Is the market economically viable and sustainable?

Political System – CHEN – REFERENCES!

* Q 2: Is the political environment supportive of the venture?

a) Political structure: the government of Malaysia comprises the federal, state and local government. Malaysia is a federation of 13 states operating within a constitutional monarchy using the Westminster parliamentary system and is categorized as representative democracy. The federal government adopts the principle of separation of powers and has three branches: executive, legislature and judiciary. The state governments in Malaysia also have their respective executive and legislative bodies. The judicial system in Malaysia is a federalized court system operating uniformly throughout the country. The federal government of Malaysia adheres to and is created by the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, the supreme law of the land. b) Political parties: Malaysia has a number of parties in operation, while there is only one party holds the true power of the nation. c) Local government: local government of Malaysia is the lowest level in the government system. The local authority has the power to collect taxes, create rules and to grant licenses and permits for any trade in certain areas. d) Stability of government: Since has been introduced above, Malaysia is a one party dominated country, compared with other democratic countries, it has more stable policies (governing party never changes) and has predictable policy trends in the future. e) Summary analysis of domestic, foreign and international political environment: Malaysia is a well trade partner with Australia and has positive trade policies with each other, those policies would have been maintained by the stable Malaysian government in the following 2 to 3 years while Aussie and Malaysia could continuous benefit each other. f) Risk assessment: From the reactions the Malaysia government has taken from its airlines incident, i.e. no reaction, furthermore, no tends to fix any of its systems, we could say that the government proceeding speed is pretty slow, therefore, slow changes would make better stability and lower the risk from policy changes for western traders.

Legal Forces – CHEN – REFERENCES!

* Q 3: Are there any significant legal and/or regulatory impediments to the venture?

Malaysia is a common law system country, which is same with Australian legal system, which will provide a better understanding for Australian companies to operating in there. The same legal system would also make better protections furthermore, easy adaption for Australia traders and lower the risk of legally injustice in there.

Cultural environment – EMILY

* Q.4: Is the product culturally acceptable?

a) Values and belief systems
Malaysian values are deep-rooted and are quite different from the Western values. Malaysian values involve respecting the elders, group orientation of 'we more than I' or emphasis on belonging to an in-group, a harmonious relationship, a concern for face saving, and a religious orientation.
From an international perspective, some characteristics that distinguish Malaysian and other Asians from dominant Western culture are the importance of extended family, shame and face-saving reactions, pressure for academic achievement, authoritarian and patriarchal family structures. However, the most important dimension is individualism versus collectivism. Generally, the collectivist prefers relationship-based activity as compared to the task-oriented approach. Clearly, another important value of Malaysians is trust and relationship-building as there is a strong preference for a relationship-based orientation rather than a task-oriented approach in performing tasks. Developing trust and understanding are far more important than the obligation of getting the task done.
Another important trademark of Malaysians is their value of harmony. The viewpoint of superior is less likely to be conflicting, as conflict is often not expressed verbally. Personal conflict is often apparent and attempt is made to preserve the 'face' of the others especially seniors or the elderly, especially those with authority figures. Open public criticism and outspokenness are to be stayed away from at all costs because they undermine harmonious relationships (Talib, 2010).
Understanding Malaysian culture and traditions is also helpful in approach market and practise in Malaysia. Hofstede (2001) concluded that Malaysia could be considered an Alpha culture with a key characteristics of large power distance societies as in family, school and workplace.

b) Religion Although Islam is the official religion, it has a multiethnic, multi-religious society, which affects its consumer market. Malaysia's total population in 2000 consisted of 94.1 percent citizens, of whom 65.1 per cent were Bumiputeras (ethnic Malays and other indigenous peoples), 26 percent were Chinese and 7.7 percent were Indians, with a small minority of Eurasians and other indigenous tribes from East Malaysia. Religion is highly correlated with ethnicity. Islam was the most widely professed religion with its proportion increasing from 58.6 per cent in 1991 to 60.4 per cent in 2000. Buddhism is the main religion of its Chinese population at 19.2 per cent while 2.6 per cent profess to practise Confucianism or Taoism or other traditional Chinese religions. Most of the Indian community are Hindus at 6.3 per cent. There is also a sizeable Christian minority of 9.1 per cent (Leong and Yen, 2007). c) Language * Offical language
Malaysia's national language, Bahasa Malaysia, is the main language used in schools and institutes of higher education, as well as in the civil service. The Malaysian Government places great importance in promoting the national language as a means to maintain national unity across the different racial groups. * Spoken languages
According to the Malaysia My Second Home (2013), English is widely used, particularly in the corporate sector. Business in Malaysia is conducted in English and examinations are based on British English. Spoken English in Malaysia is heavily influenced with American English because of television influence. Its proficiency is encouraged as the government sees it as a necessity in the drive towards achieving modernisation and an industrialised status by 2020. * Dialects
Mandarin is generally spoken by the Chinese in Malaysia, but Hokkien is the biggest Chinese dialect in the country, followed by Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Fuzhou, Hainanese and Foochow.
Besides, the majority of Indians in Malaysia are Tamils, and they speak Tamil.
Manglish is English with influences from the Malay, Chinese and Indian language. It is a unique dialect of English in Malaysia.

SWOT Analysis
Opportunities Wood’s Tomato Relish
In terms of culture:
The Malaysian market for meat consumer is strong and the Malaysian culture is accessible to a differentiated and high quality product such as Wood’s Tomato Relish.
According to Brewer (2007), Malaysia is at average level to Australian culture in terms of psychic distance with 10 nations being closer. Besides, Malaysia ranks 7 out of 25 main export markets of Australia. It implies that an Australian firm with a suitable education and adaptation could do its business successfully if being placed well in Malaysia.
Malaysian value pursues a high standard of living and culture is quite open and diverse which makes a new foreign product easy to be adopted.
Business language in Malaysia is English, hence it is a great opportunity to Edlyn for negotiation and processing contracts.

Technology – YET TO BE ALLOCATED

Q5: Is the level of information and communications technology (ICT) sufficient to support the venture?

Geography and Infanstructure – RAK – REFERNCES MISSING

* Q 6: Are there any geographical or infrastructure issues that would render the venture infeasible from a communication/distribution point of view?

Topography
According to Australian Government website, Malaysia is located in the southeast of Asia continent where is covered by 329,758 square kilometer. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei, has maritime boundaries with Indonesia, Singapore and Philippines. Malaysia consists of two regions that is Peninsular Malaysia where is located between Thailand in the north and Singapore in the south. Another part is Sabah and Sarawak where are located on Borneo. Borneo is the large island that is sharing with Indonesia and Brunei.Its population is totally amount 28.3 million and Kuala Lumpur is the capital city. The ethnic groups consist 62.4% Malay and indigenous, 22% Chinese, 6.6% Indian and 8% others. The official language is Bahasa Malaysia or Malay and English, Chinese and Tamil are also widely used for communication.
Climate
According to weatheronline website, Malaysia is a tropical holiday destination because the weather temperature are averaged between 25 and 35 degree Celsius all year round. Malaysia can be described as high humidity and copious rainfall area. There is 28°c on average in the coastal area, 26 °c averaging in the inland and mountain part, and 23°c in the higher mountain area. The main variations of Malaysia rainfall are linked with the monsoon. In fact, in June to September is a dry season; moreover, on December to March is a rainy season in this country.
Natural resources
There are many varieties of natural resources in Malaysia. It is well-enriched with natural resources country; for example, minerals, agricultures as well as forestry. In agricultural term, Malaysia is the one of primary exporter of natural rubber and palm oil ; moreover, Malaysia has dominate the growth of the sector in exporting saw log and sawn timber, cocoa, pepper, pineapple and tobacco. Palm oil is a significant main revenue of exporting products. In addition, the main natural mineral resources are Tin and Petroleum which are the key significance in Malaysian economy. Other important minerals include copper, gold, bauxite, iron-ore and coal.

Surface transportation and communication
The main mode transportation in Malaysia are busses, trains, car and airplanes. Malaysian has provided with convenient facilities in roads, railways, ports and harbours, airports and aielines. In fact, railroads connect all major cities and towns on Peninsular and East Malaysia itself. The northern tip of Bukit and Johor in the South are basically connected by The North-South expressway. It is also connected into Thailand and Singapore. * The intercity telecommunication service is provided on Peninsular Malaysia mainly by microwave radio relay. International telecommunications are provided through submarine cables and satellite.

STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION – JELENA * Q 7: Are supply channels and distribution network structures adequate for the planned venture? * Q 8: Are we able to compete successfully in the proposed market, if we chose to do so?

STATEMENT AND OPPORTUNITIES
TO BE COMPLETED * SWOT analysis

MARKET CHOCE
TO BE COMPLETED

REFERENCES

EMILY
Brewer, P. 2007, "Psychic Distance and Australian Export Market Selection", Australian Journal of Management, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 73-94.

Leong, P. & Yen, Y.S. 2007, "Malaysia", Media Asia, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 156-170.

Malaysia My Second Home 2013, Languages in Malaysia, viewed 04 May 2014, <http://www.mm2h.com/article-languages-in-malaysia.php>
Fontaine, R. & Richardson, S. 2003, "Cross-cultural research in Malaysia", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, vol. 10, no. 2, pp.75 - 89.

Talib, M.A. 2010, "Cultural Influences and Mandated Counseling in Malaysia", Asian Culture and History, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 28-33.