MKT4801 Individual Report
Market Analysis Report: Citizenship, and Residency by Investment
Executive summary
The purpose of this paper is to carry out an analysis of the external marketing environment and internal marketing environment and will evaluate their impact on the marketing mix of the organization. The organization, Citizenship, and Residency by Investment is providing a solution to second citizenship passport by investment to high-net-worth individuals.
The paper has carried out a PEST analysis to evaluate the macro factors of the external marketing environment. The micro factors of the external marketing environment are also looked at, mainly focusing on customers and competitors. The strength and weaknesses part of the SWOT analysis is conducted to analyze the internal marketing environment.
Toward the end, the impact of the internal and external marketing environment on the product mix of the company is evaluated. The marketing mix includes the 4ps, product, price, promotion, and place. In paper helps the company design a long-term marketing strategy to be successful in the market. The paper also shows the significance of analyzing the marketing environment for the company.
1. Introduction
The marketing landscape is constantly changing, as the needs and wants of the customers are changing, particularly dues to technological advancements. The covid-19 pandemic changed the dynamic of the world. Therefore, it is important to monitor the marketing environment closely, so you can promptly respond to these changes before it is too late. Closs examination of the external and internal marketing environment enables you to make strategic marketing plans, that guide your organization is in hard times.
Our company, Citizenship and Residency by Investment, is providing solutions to people who are looking for citizenship or passport through investments so that they can get visa-free access to countries. The target customers of the organization are high net worth individuals and people from sanctioned countries, like Iraq, Libya, Syria, and so on, who cannot get the visa to many countries. Getting a visa is not an easy process it takes months, or even visa applications are rejected usually. People who have many want to move around the world for business purposes and entertainment as well. Due to these hard visa processes people hardly go to other places. The purpose of the organization is to get people second citizenships or passports in countries, like Schengen Countries (St Kitts and Nevis, Commonwealth of Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Vanuatu, Saint Lucia, Grenada) which have visa-free access to many countries especially to European counties
In this paper, we will analyze the marketing environment of the organization. The paper will focus on the analysis of the external marketing environment and internal marketing environment and will evaluate their impact on the marketing mix of the organization.
2. Analysis of external marketing environment
The external marketing environment includes factors outside the company which can affect the performance of the company (Udoagwu, K., 2021). The external marketing environment is divided into two categories macro and micro marketing environment. These macro factors are political, economic, social, technological, legal and regulatory, and environmental factors (PEST). The macro factors cannot be controlled by the company however, they can be managed. On the other, the micro factor can be controlled by the company, which include suppliers, customers, vendors, competitors and so on. To manage and control these factors companies must establish and keep track of the changes and follow trends to remain in competition (Udoagwu, K., 2021).
2.1 Macro marketing environment
As discussed above, these are the factors outside of the company’s domain and they cannot be controlled by they company, so it is very important to manage them efficiently and effectively to avoid any harmful impact on the company. We will go through each factor in this section.
2.1.1 Political Factors
The most important factor for our organization is the political environment. Changes in the political environment can change everything like if the European Union banes Caribbean passports or restricts them from getting visa-free assess, the whole purpose of the company will shake. Or if all of a sadden EU countries start issuing visas to sanctioned countries, they will no longer need to avail the services of the company. A very recent example is Brexit, the UK exit from the EU. This means now things will not be the same as before, the visa requirement will be treated the same as other countries (ETIAS, 2021). There are many countries under restriction and citizen of those countries can get a visa to other countries especially to EU, or the visa application process is so difficult that it is nearly impossible to get a visa. These countries include Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, and many others (sanctionsmap.eu, 2021). The Taliban take over in Afghanistan is a very recent event in global politics, many people are fleeing Afghanistan out of fear but countries don’t issue them visas (Aljazeera, 2021). This is a good opportunity for the company to cash upon, many wealthy families want to get out of the county. These people have both the money to invest and strong will or wish to leave the country. This is the job of sale and marketing team to reach out to these people.
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2.1.2 Economic factors
These are the factors that influence the buying behavior of people and businesses, consequently affecting the performance of the company. Economic distresses are not frequent but they can be very deadly. The great depression of the 1930s and the economic recession of 2008 are examples that hurt not only companies but also the entire economy of countries like the US (Ohanian, L.E., 2017). Other economic factors are interest rate, inflation, recession, income, tax rate, exchange rate, and employment.
Getting a second citizen passport is very easy in Caribbean countries, the investment requirements are the lowest in the world as low as $100,000. This means that you can get visa-free access to at least 130 countries for $100,000 only. Secondly, this investment can give you good returns as well, for example, investment in real estate can give you more than 3% returns annually (immigrantinvest.com).
Many people want to get rid of huge taxes, these people are looking for tax heaven – countries that are tax-free or have very little tax. People from around the world get second citizenship by investing in Caribbean Island to avoid taxes through the legal channel. Caribbean countries are known for being tax havens (Maverick, J. B., 2021).
These economic factors show that the Caribbean is the best to get the second citizen by investment and this is a good sign for the company.
2.1.3 Legal factors
The most significant factor in the case of our company or services is the legal requirements. Other factors like political and economic can be managed but legal factors restrict you to follow them. The good news for the company is that the legal requirements for getting a Caribbean passport by investment are the easiest in the world. One can get a passport within a month in some of the Caribbean countries like Vanuatu, and it takes two months in St Kitts and Nevis (van Fossen, A., 2018). The legal requirements are very easy to fulfill in these countries like minimum requirements to applicants, fast processing times, and no interviews and personal presence during or after the application process. Therefore, people prefer Caribbean countries over to the places.
2.1.4 Other factors
Other factors include Social, Technological, and Environment. These factors also influence the performance of the company. Social factors like the openness and freedom in the Caribbean countries attract people to migrate to these countries to live freely. Secondly, technological advancement has made the world a global village, making it easy for the company to reach out to people more easily, through the internet. Finally, environmental factors like the blue ocean and clean beaches of Caribbean islands attract people from outside the world especially from landlocked countries like the middle east.
2.2 Micro marketing environment
The micro marketing environment consists of the factor like customers, and competitors which are most relevant in this case. These factors can be controlled and managed by the company. In this section, we will discuss how these factors influence the performance of the company.
2.2.1 Customers
Customers are the center of attention of every company or organization, the whole marketing strategy of a company revolves around them. It is very important to understand the customers before planning a marketing strategy. The target customers of the company are high-net-worth individuals who belong to sanctioned countries and they want second citizenship by investment to get visa-free access to different countries. There are wealthy people in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and so on who can’t get a visa to many European countries and other western countries. The only option they have is to get second citizenship by investment in Caribbean countries and get visa-free access to more than 130 countries of the world (Fieser, E., and Wyss, J., 2020).
The aim of the marketing and sales team must be to reach out to these people. People from these countries are not very educated so they do not know about these policies. To influence the customers, you need to tell them about the benefits of these policies and how easily they can get them passports through low investments. Covering these countries efficiently and effectively will generate a handful of demand, consequently, high revenue for the company.
2.2.2 Competitors
For our company there are two types of competitors, first, the one who provides the same service like a solution to second citizen passport in Caribbean countries, and second are the one who provides this service for other countries who also accept citizenship by investment like many European countries.
In this case, we are aiming to provide service to people for sanctioned countries the second type of competition is minimal. In European countries process of getting citizenship by investment is very hard, time-consuming, and there are many legal requirements to get passports (imperiallegal.com). Therefore, it is difficult for people from these countries to get a European passport.
There are many companies like Citizenship and Corporate Service Ltd (CCS), Citizens International, La Vida, and Immigrant Invest, to name a few, who are assisting second citizenship by investment for high-net-worth individuals. Many new companies are opening up who are offering services at a lower rate, this might take away the market share from the company.
3. Internal marketing environment
The internal marketing environment includes the factors that are inside the domain of the company. These are the unique factors that differentiate your company from its competitors. Analysis of the internal marketing environment is the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the company (Cherkasov, A., 2019).
3.1 Strengths
The major strength of the company is its flat organizational structure, which reduces the hierarchical gap between subordinates and executives. The biggest advantage of this type of hierarchy is clear and smooth communication between executives and subordinates, decision making becomes effective and efficient, cost-saving on as there are few high paid middle managers, and autonomous and empowered employees.
3.2 Weaknesses
The weakness of the company is the lack of a clear marketing strategy. The company can only make an effective marketing strategy, after a proper analysis of the marketing environment. The target market is mostly people from countries where the English language is not very commonly spoken, communicating through social media and SEO is mostly in the English language. This means there is a communication gap between the customers the company.
4. Impact of marketing environment on marketing mix
The marketing mix consist of mainly 4ps, product price, place, and promotion (Twin, A., 2021). Figure 1
(theintactone.com)
4.1 Product
Product in this case is the services the company is offering to the customers. For the above analysis, it seems there is a demand in the market and the service is fulfilling the demand. Companies need to understand the product life cycle, and must adjust the marketing strategy accordingly. Like in this case the sanction on this country will eventually reduce or other things like tax rate, the interest rate of countries will change. These changes will change the demand; therefore, companies must keep an eye on these factors and adjust their marketing strategies accordingly.
4.2 Price
The prices must adjust on a timely basis as well, you must keep an eye on your competitor. They could outperform you with a huge price cut before you know. Therefore, it is important to keep track of the prices of competitors’ offerings and the customer is willing to pay. The payment methods hesitate most of the customers, as international payment is difficult and the customer cannot trust unknown people. Therefore, design a payment method which the customers are comfortable with – through local banks.
4.3 Promotion
As for now, the company is only promoting through social media and SEO content. But there is a communication gap between the customer and the company. The company must focus on creating content that is relevant to the customers and understood in the local markets of the mentioned countries.
The company must also promote through local TV shows, in this way most of the local clients can be engaged. Secondly, email marking can be used to promote in person. Another effective marketing strategy is through telemarketing, but this must be local language so the customer understands the communication.
5. Conclusion
The marketing environment analysis provides a complete picture of where the company is standing. This analysis helps the company design its long-term marketing strategy to counter the threat, avail the opportunities, overcome the weaknesses, and cash on the strengths. Toward the end of the paper marketing mix is evaluated based on the external and internal marketing factors. In a nutshell, the company must always keep an eye on these factors to design an effective and efficient marketing strategy.
6. References
Caribbean passport: key tax benefits. imperiallegal.com. https://imperiallegal.com/media/articles/caribbean-passport-key-tax-benefits/
Cherkasov, A., 2019. Strategic Marketing: Internal Environment Analysis. marketing-psycho. https://www.marketing-psycho.com/internal-environment-analysis/
EU Sanctions Map. sanctionsmap.eu. https://www.sanctionsmap.eu/#/main
Udoagwu, K., 2021. What Is a Marketing Environment? wrike.com. https://www.wrike.com/blog/what-is-marketing-environment/
ETIAS, 2021. How Will ETIAS & BREXIT Affect UK Citizens? etiasvisa.com. https://www.etiasvisa.com/etias-news/etias-visa-how-will-it-affect-uk-citizens
Fieser, E. and Wyss, J., 2020. Caribbean Nations Selling Second Passports Are Slashing Prices. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-10/caribbean-nations-selling-second-passports-are-slashing-prices
Maverick, J.B. 2021. Top 10 Offshore Tax Havens in the Caribbean. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/100715/top-10-caribbean-tax-havens.asp
News, 2021. UN chief slams ‘broken’ Taliban promises made to women, girls. Aljazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/11/un-chief-slams-broken-taliban-promises-made-to-women-girls
Nine reason to get Caribbean passport or Vanuatu citizenship. immigrantinvest.com. https://immigrantinvest.com/en/blog/9-reasons-to-get-a-caribbean-passport-or-vanuatu-citizenship/
Ohanian, L.E., 2017. The Great Recession in the Shadow of the Great Depression: A Review Essay on Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses and Misuses of History, by Barry Eichengreen. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(4), pp.1583-1601.
Twin, A., 2021. The 4 Ps. investopedia.com. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/four-ps.asp
The Marketing Mix. theintactone.com. https://theintactone.com/2019/09/14/mm-u3-topic-1-marketing-mix/
van Fossen, A., 2018. Passport sales: how island microstates use strategic management to organise the new economic citizenship industry. Island Studies Journal, 13(1).
