The Best Marketing Strategies for Xiaomi and Roy Choi

Any large and developed business has a long history of development. The number of challenges that this business has to pass depends on the start it had – either a capital financial investment or some minimal expenses, but a bright idea of creating something innovative. Xioami and Choi did not expect how successful their companies would become. Xiaomi’s smartphones and Choi’s restaurants are two bright examples of the proper business strategies. However, the more profitable the company becomes, the more issues it has to solve, namely the problem of choosing a marketing strategy. Adaptation and multi-domestic strategy for Choi’s business and standardization and global strategy for Xiaomi are the most effective tendencies for the companies’ development.

A Possible Strategy for Roy Choi’s restaurants

There is no doubt that Roy Choi has developed an innovative type of a snack bar in the form of a food truck. Nowadays, food trucks of different companies are popular all over the world. As Choi’s business grows, it becomes very important to choose the correct strategy for expanding his business on an international level. The chef plans to develop a new restaurant brand – Logo: “He’s starting a restaurant chain with Daniel Patterson, chef-owner of Choi in San Francisco, intended to rival fast food giants McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell” (Frausto, 2014, para. 3). Choi expresses his views in the interview and builds the correct business strategy himself. He states that his new restaurants will focus on food quality. Choi is sure that people are tired of other cafes and snack bars, influencing them with their low prices and forcing them to buy cheap and low-quality food. The chef says that his new menu will be “aimed at correcting the diet of fast food regulars” (Frausto, 2014, para. 4). Therefore, Choi should prefer a competitive strategy, not based on low cost (Jeyarathnam, 2008). It would be better for his business to compete with other international companies, stressing on the quality of Choi’s food that conditions a higher price.

Adaptation of Choi’s Restaurant Business

Entering the international market requires Choi to make one more important choice – he has either to adapt his business to the traditions of different countries or follow one standardized line. Herbig (1998) discusses the advantages and disadvantages of both adaptation and standardization and states that: “Traditional consumer non-durable products are most likely require customization [adaptation] due to national tastes and habits” (Herbig, 1998, p. 39). Therefore, an intention of Choi to make his Loco’s food quality the best may stay international and standard, but his products, advertising, restaurant interiors should be adapted to the needs of customers too. If the chef is not going to save money on the recipes and resources, his business is recommended to apply to adaptation (localization) to satisfy any market.

Multi-Domestic Strategy for Choi’s Restaurant Empire

Choosing among multi-domestic, transnational and global marketing strategies, the best option for Choi will be a multi-domestic direction. In case of using it, “company views itself as a collection of relatively independent and localized operating subsidiaries, each with its own focus for its specific localmarkets” (Steers & Nardon, 2006, p. 206). The process of localization directly reflects the offered strategy. Those companies that follow a multi-domestic strategy, transfer their goods and professional skills developed at home to the international market. Moreover, this option will be chosen by the enterprise, which is ready for high pressure for local responsiveness and low pressure for cost reduction (Jeyaranthnam (2008). According to Jeyarathnam (2008), many big companies function as decentralized and autonomous units and gradually lose the necessity to exchange their skills and experiences. Therefore, multi-domestic strategy is what can make Choi’s business successful at the international market.

A Possible Strategy for Xiaomi Smartphone Company

The growth of Xiaomi’s business has been significant in the recent years. Thus, in 2013, the company sold 160% more smartphones, as compared to 2012. Xiaomi does not limit the company to producing the phones only. They already sell 3D smart TVs in China (Larson, 2014). The company’s owner is used to being called “China’s Steve Jobs” (Larson, 2014, para. 3). However, Xiaomi has his own firm opinion about the main difference between his products and Apple devices: “The mission we’re trying to accomplish”- selling hardware at razor-thin margins – “is very different from what Apple’s trying to achieve” (Larson, 2014, para. 3). Thus, it is possible to recommend Xiaomi to follow the business line that he already has and choose the strategy of making the quality of its products accord with their affordability. Steers and Nardon (2006) correctly state that a company cannot work on all the components of its business simultaneously and should prioritize certain things. In case with Xiaomi, it will be reasonable to put priority on a combination of price and quality of the products at the international market, as this option will help the company to be competitive.

Standardization of Xiaomi Smartphone Company

The best possible option for Xiaomi company, when entering an international market, is applying to standardization and not localization, like Choi could do. The thing is that the products of Xiaomi are popular, because of the acceptable quality of its hardware, combined with the accessible software. Therefore, such a product can easily become standard for any country and does not need to be adapted to the local conditions. Herbig (1998) supports this idea and states that “in general, industrial goods are most likely to be successful in any globalization [standardization] strategy as are modern technologically advanced consumer durables” (p. 38). Therefore, Xiaomi has a chance to develop and implement all innovations in China and then just transfer a read-made product to other countries.

Global Strategy for Xiaomi Smartphone Company

As opposed to Roy Choi’s empire, the best overall strategy for Xiaomi is global. As mentioned above, Xiaomi does not want to make users of its phones spend great sums on the software. He is ready to establish reasonable prices for his products. Cost reduction in a global strategy is more important than local responsiveness. The character of all production and marketing activities in the discussed option depends on a few favorable locations (Jeyarathnam, 2008). Xiaomi defines these locations and states that he is focused “first on expanding into Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2013 and [has] plans to begin selling phones in Southeast Asia in 2014” (Larson, 2014, para. 5). Therefore, a global strategy will be the most reasonable for Xiaomi, as it will bring maximum profit to the company with minimal expenses, and national markets will be satisfied.

Conclusion

It is worth noting that Roy Choi and Xiaomi’s companies have become successful because of brining some innovative ideas to their customers. Choi’s clients quickly saw the benefits of having a snack on their way to work or home without entering a café and waiting in line. Xiaomi’s users can enjoy Android software installed in cheaper but good-quality devices. Thus, Roy Choi should enter the global market, localizing his restaurants and using multi-domestic strategy. Xiaomi can just standardize his devices for the international market and apply it to the global strategy. If both companies keep in mind that customers want to see the goods that satisfy their quality requirements and are either produced according to the world standard or fully adapted to their national traditions, their businesses will successfully develop in any part of the world.