Key Firms
In its quest to transition from a mainly agrarian to a more industrialized economy, New Zealand boasts of various startups that can compete with other firms in the European Union, Asia, and the Americas, despite the country’s geographical isolation from the most regions across the globe. Ash Hilton Jewelry is one of the new Zealander small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that can compete on a global front (Ash Hilton, 2020). The company makes handcrafted jewelry out of materials sourced locally using ethical means and involves low technology. The production specifications enable Ash Hilton Jewelry to come up with affordable products that have excellent designs compared to those of leading jewelry manufacturers in the different parts of the world (Ash Hilton, 2020). The startup plans to focus on offering quality products to increase its revenues and to outdo its competitors. Ash Hilton Jewelry aspires to venture into the global market and increase its interactions with worldwide customers. Ash Hilton is at the forefront of ethical sourcing and jewelry manufacturing for its new Zealand target market (Ash Hilton, 2020). The organization also treats its employees with fairness, love, and support that would enable it to perform well on an international scale of business operation. Therefore, the ethicality of Ash Hilton gives the organization an upper hand, which would be useful to the global competition in jewelry making.
Away from the jewelry industry in New Zealand, logistics in the country have been focused on by entrepreneurs who have reinvented third party logistics. First Global Logistics is an end to end provider of logistics for the e-commerce firms in the country (First Global Logistics, 2020). Based in Auckland, the company has a unique and competitive strategy that would enable it to compete against startups in other parts of the world. First Global Logistics provides a twenty-four-hour availability in shipment tracking for the customers, which competitively defines the interaction between the business and its target customers (First Global Logistics, 2020). A globally competitive strategy that the organization utilizes is the offering of logistic services from the warehouses to the picking and packing points, and lastly to the delivery stations, which many SMEs in the logistics sector are unable to provide (First Global Logistics, 2020). Therefore, First Global Logistics can grow and compete internationally.
An analysis of the fintech industry of New Zealand features Moola.co.nz, a short-term financial lender for business and personal reasons. The credit scores usually restrict commercial lending in New Zealand that companies and individuals have and thus disqualifies many customers. Moola spotted an opportunity to bypass the regulations and provide customers with short term finances to improve their cash flow (Moola, 2020). The competitive strategy that Moola utilizes and one that would be essential in its multinational future is the lending without the requisition of credit score details. The organization, therefore, allows entities to borrow some amount of money based on their need. The organization also considers the regulations of digital lending in New Zealand (Moola, 2020). Moola can grow in and out of New Zealand to compete with financial lenders for SMEs in the other regions of the world, such as the EU and the US. Moola’s business model is akin to that of san Francisco based Brex, a brainchild of two Brazilian founders, that offers short term lending solutions to fintech startups in the US (Brex, 2020). With the aspired expansion of Moola, the organization is set to compete in short term digital lending for business reasons and hence attract an increase in the number of customers.
Deep Analysis of Selected Firm
Global Marketing Challenges
As capable and formidable Ash Hilton Jewelry is, the organization may face global challenges that may reduce its efficiency in attracting customers on the multinational level. One of such challenges is the stiff competition from manufacturers who use humanmade materials such as diamonds in the misrepresentation of real diamonds (TFL, 2020). The problem presents an ethical dilemma in the jewelry manufacture sector of the world. Such manufacturers may implement ways to increase their sales and customers by lowering the prices of jewelry made from humanmade diamonds. With the presence of humanmade and more affordable materials in the market, it will prove a pitfall as Ash Hilton Jewelry attempts to promote its jewelry made from the authentically mined materials in the global market (TFL, 2020). In the case of the organization’s competitors dealing with humanmade diamonds having more established marketing efforts that may involve convincing their clients that they sell authentic diamonds, the market share of Ash Hilton will be at stake.
The other global marketing challenge that Ash Hilton may face in its international scope of production is the loss of market share of the jewelry industry to the other luxury products. The older generation in the world was immersed in the realization of the value of jewelry gifts, which had given the industry a much-needed boost to the increased sales of the companies involved (Hill, 2018). In the twenty-first century, the attention of the millennials is gradually shifting from the value of jewelry gifts to promote the other luxury products, including mobile phones, handbags, and clothing (Hill, 2018). The shift in consumer preference presents a setback for Ash Hilton as it aspires to serve the global market with a wide range of its jewel products. The demand for jewelry is declining along with the constricting sales by the players of the jewelry industry, as Hill (2018) reports. The challenge may affect the profitability of industrial players.
Recommendations
The misrepresentation of humanmade precious metals as authentic ones is a prevalent trend among many manufacturers in the jewelry industry. The extent of the problem touches on the ethical aspects of manufacturing in the field while propagating immoral marketing practices that promote unfair competition with organizations such as Ash Hilton that design their jewelry from authentically mined precious metals such as diamonds. The short-term recommendation for the challenge on the side of Ash Hilton is to prove the ethicality of its diamonds by taking the customers through the process of manufacturing their jewelry right from the mining of the precious metals (Fried, 2017). The organization could run advertisement videos on its social media profiles such as YouTube to ensure that customers trust the authenticity of its diamonds. The solution is to ensure that Ash Hilton will be in a favorable position to gain and retain global customers. They are more fascinated by natural diamonds compared to the artificial ones (Fried, 2017). The effectiveness of the solution will promote Ash Hilton’s just marketing practices by incorporating its ethical values such as transparency and honesty by communicating the expected value of its products to its target customers, alongside promoting fair competition with the firms in the other parts of the world (Fried, 2017). Part of the recommendation will touch on demonstrating how Ash Hilton can distinguish the natural from humanmade diamonds, which will be aimed at ensuring the customers trust the organization’s jewelry (Fried, 2017). The recommendation will, therefore, place Ash Hilton in a more favorable position to contest for the international market against its competitors across the EU, US, and Asia.
In the quest to become a globally recognized brand in the jewelry industry, Ash Hilton will have to come up with state-of-the-art solutions to counteract the advancement of the problem involving the reduction in the demand for their products. One of the recommendations that will enable Ash Hilton to implement its solution to address the pitfall effectively is to elevate their brand and increase the consumers’ perceived value of jewelry (Dai & Kesaprakorn, 2018). Despite the millennials looking for alternative luxury products to satisfy their expectations in gifting, a large number of consumers are still in the search for valuable pieces of jewelry to meet their demands and expectations. Ash Hilton needs to come up with various strategies to increase the customers’ knowledge and involvement with the brand and to ensure that the customers still regard jewelry as valuable (Dai & Kesaprakorn, 2018). Ash Hilton will excel in the same by establishing meaningful emotional and individual connections with the customers. The organization will learn the different customers’ perspectives of jewelry and aestheticism in general. As Diktaş and Tekin (2018) explain, Ash Hilton will then lay out customer loyalty initiatives by customizing its products to meet the demands and expectations that the market has. The elevation of the brand and an increase in the perception of the value of jewelry will reverse the trend in the preference of substitute luxury products by the millennials. Also, the strategy will place Ash Hilton in a more favorable position to compete internationally with other jewelers as well as organizations that manufacture other luxury products, in line with the argument presented by Diktaş and Tekin (2018). The recommendation will assure the organization of successful market entry and sustainability from a worldwide perspective.
To further secure its spot on the global market, Ash Hilton will need to formulate strategies to prolong the life of its jewelry as it targets to change the perspective of the millennials regarding its products. In other words, the organization will need to prove the value of jewelry by providing long-lasting products. According to the India Today Web Desk (2019), The prolonged life will reduce the company’s excessive dependence on its local markets in new Zealand by focusing on new markets across the globe. The recommended strategy will lead to an increase in the amount of revenue that will be used to improve the business’s shortcomings in the jewelry industry of new Zealand and other regions of the world.