development of an international marketing strategy for ZEVIA on the Soft-Drink market in Germany

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 9,2, , language: English, abstract: This thesis represents an in-depth market insight on the German beverage market for the American company Zevia. Considering the theoretical background particularly focusing on the issue of standardization or adaptation of an international marketing strategy, the author suggests in the event of entering the German market to especially adapt 3 out of the 4 marketing mix elements, namely price, promotion and place. Special attention should be drawn to an alteration of Zevia's promotion and price policies. However, the German beverage market constitutes a tough external environment for the realization of a market penetration and awareness creation for Zevia's soft drink. Overall the German market can be described as saturated, diversified and one conferring high bargaining power to supermarkets. All these factors represent an obstacle for Zevia to enter this market, despite the German food and beverage industry being highly receptive to new and innovative products. This openness derives from the trend detected in Germany (and globally) towards the increased request for health and wellness products. However apparently despite this trend the German market for low calorie lemonades is declining and the perception of stevia as a sweetener is rather negative. These facts have also been proven in a thesis intern online survey. Zevia is recommended to only penetrate the German beverage market under specific circumstances named in this thesis while considering the author's proposals in reference to its marketing mix elements.