A Cross Cultural Research Of Multinational Enterprises On Strategies Of Localization And Its Implications

Both coffee and tea are popular in the world, and they have a long history and can bring spiritual enjoyment. With the process of the globalization, China has the deeper economic and cultural exchanges with the western countries. Starbucks, as a multinational enterprise, enters into China, which is a priority for the spreading of the coffee culture. In the hometown of tea, Starbucks is still developing rapidly in spite of confronting the cultural differences. The secret of success lies in the basis of keeping the unified enterprise core values. Starbucks is facing the challenge of cultural differences and positively formulating a series of localization strategies.This thesis includes four parts. First, under the guidance of 4P marketing theory, namely, product strategy, price strategy, place strategy and promotion strategy, the thesis summarizes Starbucks? business strategies in the market of China and the United States. Then based on the comparative analysis method, it analyzes the results of a questionnaire survey conducted by the author. By comparing consumers? reception from two countries, the author discusses the effectiveness of the Starbucks? localization strategies in China. After comparison, the thesis analyzes the reasons for the differentiation strategies by using Hofstede?s cultural dimensions theory, which includes the dimension of individualism, power distance and long-term orientation. Finally, the thesis analyzes the development status of Chinese teahouses and summarizes the successful experience of Starbucks from which the Chinese teahouses can learn. These experiences can help the teahouses better inherit Chinese tea culture and spread it to the global market after prospering in the domestic one.