Meenal Malhotra 1.

Minolta Camera Company

Assignment 1

What do you think of Minoltas international marketing activities?

Ans: In my opinion, Minoltas international marketing activities were not good as they were conducting their complete marketing activities from the central location of Japan and everything was standardized. If some distributor asked for some changes in product or packaging, his feedback was never incorporated. Even though product, its packaging, advertising, etc everything was standardized, its price across the countries was not standardized, leading to grey markets. 2. What do you think of Mr. Izuharas proposed solution to the grey export problem?

Ans: Mr. Izuhara proposes a 50-50 joint venture with Goddard to get more control of Minolta in Hong Kong. I do not think it is a good idea because Goddards founder is an important and well connected person and a friend of Minoltas founder. Having a JV might sabotage their relationship and Minolta might lose their Hong Kong market which accounts for 4% of their international sales. 3. Do you agree with the tactical changes proposed by Mr. Kusumoto?

Ans: I agree with the tactical changes proposed by Mr. Kusumoto i.e. having different model names in Far East and in the West and also changes in the current warranty policy. These changes of product and service differentiation would stall they grey market penetration from Hong Kong to the Europe and the US. 4. Do you see any other alternatives for Minolta in solving grey market problem?

Ans: Other alternatives for Minolta would be: Strategic Pricing: Minolta can re-evaluate their complete pricing structure across all the countries they sell their products to. Narrowing the pricing and discount structure will reduce the incentives for authorized distributors to order excessive inventory with the intent to divert the extra inventory to unauthorized distributors. Advanced tracking and IT systems: They can have advanced systems to track their product in the channel. This way they will come to know from which channel the products are moving in the grey market. 5. What should Mr. Nakamura do?

Ans: In my opinion, if Mr. Nakamura should go with the tactical changes proposed by Mr. Nakamura to take care of the grey market problem. There will be an investment involved in having different model names in Far East and in the West. If they want to tackle the grey market problem without any investment, then they should go for strategic pricing but the implementation of the same will be very difficult across all the distributors.