Eric Botton created the Bexley brand and concept, a French footwear institution 30 years ago without any knowledge of the sector in Lyon, France. He remains president of the company to this day. But, in December 2017, the brand was bought by the LBO France group (Group owning the IKKS and The Kooples brands) and a new general manager has just been appointed, Bruno Luppens (ex-CEO of Lacoste). Say no. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay The company now has 15 sales outlets, 14 in France and 1 in Belgium, as you can see on the map . More precisely, 3 in Lyon, the city of origin, 7 in Paris, and after 1 in each city of Annecy, Marseille, Aix en Provence and Nice. And that of Belgium is in Brussels. Not all stores are franchised and are fully owned by Eric Botton, the president. This fact explains the small number of stores. The brand in figures has an annual turnover of €35 million for more than 250,000 pairs of shoes sold each year. The brand sells a wide range of products like casual and dress shoes, shirts, sweaters, belts or accessories and many more as you can see below. The company's unique selling point (USP) is the best value for money in the market. The brand sells products with discounts on each product all year round. For this, products can be purchased individually but also in packs, and the more you buy, the cheaper the product becomes. All products are developed in-house to ensure customer needs are met and prices are kept as low as possible. Despite the fact that the prices are low, the team searches for premium raw materials so that each Bexley product is a high quality item. So Bexley actually targets men looking for luxury shoes at great prices. More than 60 points of sale worldwide (France, Belgium, Morocco, Tunis and Switzerland). More than 65 points of sale worldwide (France, Switzerland, Poland, French West Indies, Morocco, Algeria, Slovakia and Czech Republic). For the moment, we can say that the company has two export experiences. First with the point of sale in Belgium then by having the possibility of purchasing the products worldwide via the brand's online store. Despite the wide product range, we will focus on dress shoes for this marketing strategy. In order to choose the four countries, I first use the Comtrade site. On this map, we can see the countries where France exports the most shoes. Using this map, I chose 4 potential target markets: Japan, Germany, Sweden and Morocco. Japan because from the articles I found they have a real interest in dress shoes. JM Weston, a well-known brand is established there and the Japanese come to France to learn more about dress shoes and the manufacturing of these products. Therefore, competition is tough in Japan; they already have a large number of stores. Even though there is a huge cultural difference, the country is safe and people have good purchasing power. Transportation is therefore complicated due to the situation in the country. I choose Germany because the country is very close to France; in terms of transportation, it is very easy to export products. They also have very good purchasing power and it is a safe country. There is no real difficulty regarding the language since they speak English and the culture is not really different. But as we can see in Appendix 1, dress shoes only represent 20% of the German shoe market. Sweden becausethat it has very high purchasing power; they speak English very well (Annex 2) and the country is very safe. But the price of labor is high compared to other countries and the culture is different: in winter people wear dress shoes only for indoors and boots all the time. And Morocco because of its position, low labor prices and the fact that Moroccans spend money on dress shoes and there are also a lot of tourists. For the choice of country I made a graph with criteria, we can use to see which market may be the best. Using this chart and all the research I did, the country I decided to select is Morocco. Political - Fitch Rating: BBB - Coface Country Risk Rating: A4 (appendix 3) - Transparency International: rank 90/176 Economic - The leather shoe industry is an important component of the consumer goods sector. - Investments made in the leather sector in 2010 amounted to 147 million dirhams, which corresponds to an increase of 30% compared to 2009. 85% of these investments are made in the shoe industry.- Moroccan exports of leather shoes have decreased in volume (FAO source) at an average of 4.3% per year. year while imports increased by a CAGR of 11.6% between 2001 and 2011.- Maritime transport accounts for more than 95% of foreign trade transport. Social- The leather shoe sector benefits from the increase in population income, allowing consumers from different socio-professional categories to spend more on clothing. Technological- Fight against counterfeiting (The company may be faced with problems of counterfeiting of its products). Legal - Apart from import duties, the leather shoe sector is not subject to any particular standards or regulations. - The judicial language is Arabic but French is often used in business. - The inefficiency of administration and corruption are, in fact, the two main obstacles to the movement of foreigners. trade (BTI 2016) Environmental – Implementation of the Environmental Upgrading Strategy (MANE) and the National Human Development Initiative (INDH). Labor prices: We see that the average salary in Morocco is low, so it is an opportunity to have cheap labor. And afterward, Japan, Germany and Sweden are roughly in the same salary range and the workforce is well paid (Annex 4). Market data: Source: World Bank For the entire period 1960-2016, we note an annual average of 30.78%. Imports of dress shoes into Morocco in 2012 Competitors: Many local industries produce inexpensive leather shoes and the sale of dress shoes goes through two types of distribution networks: Specialized networks: - Specialized supermarkets - Branches - Independent retailers General networks - Clothing stores - Food supermarkets - Distance selling (I could not find any relevant and recent data here.) Customers: The purchasing decision of the average Moroccan consumer is most often based on the price applied by the retailer. Thus, the local market, with its 32 million inhabitants, presents a significant demand for low-cost shoes. Which is good for Bexley who offers shoes at a very low price when he buys my pack. And there is also a growing demand from a wealthier class. Target market and positioning: As in France, the brand's positioning will be that of a seller of inexpensive but quality dress shoes. We will target the Moroccan consumer but also tourists very present in the country and as in France, men looking for shoesluxury at very good prices. Licensing- Ideal for small businesses that are under-resourced- Faster access to market- Licensee may not be committed- Lack of enthusiasm on the part of the licensee- Risk of opportunism- Licensee may become a future competitor Franchising- Overseas expansion with minimum investment - Franchisees' profits from their efforts - Availability of knowledge from local franchisees - Limited franchise opportunities abroad - Lack of control over franchisees' operations - Cultural issues - Local joint venture - Higher rate of return and more control over operations - Sharing of resources - Access to a distribution network - Contact with local suppliers and government officials - Lack of control - Lack of trust - Conflicts arising over issues such as strategies, resource allocation, transfer pricing, ownership of critical assets (like technologies and brand names) Ultimately, I decided that the most adaptable mode of entry was franchising. I found an article that states that the macroeconomic trends of Morocco are ideal for developing a franchise. Due to the stable GDP growth rate over the years and the fact that Moroccans are now entering the middle class where brand awareness really becomes important. I also found that 55% of franchises in Morocco are dominated by retail franchises. Furthermore, French franchises are in first position in the country and American franchises in second position. These facts show that it is a good opportunity for Bexley to open a franchise there. A study also shows that the most attractive sectors for opening a franchise in this country are catering in first position and clothing in second position. This is why many Moroccan franchisors say that there are many obstacles to overcome. Like the complexity of finding the right local partner, the administrative formalities and the problems of adapting concepts. The company must therefore find the right partner to adapt to local cultures while maintaining its brand identity. Therefore, brand challenges and obstacles can be: • Product counterfeiting • Finding the right franchise • Adapting to local culture • Weak brand protection • Franchise fees: a significant part of the investment For the he location of the franchise, I decided to establish the retail store in the city of Casablanca due to its high population density and the high purchasing power of the residents. The brand must provide daily support to the franchise such as setting up training and coaching meetings but also support to guarantee the success of the franchise. The company can also convey the company's values ​​so that the franchise does not convey a bad image to customers and does not degrade how they feel about the product and the brand. For a franchisor, one of the challenges is to adapt its concept to the local culture and the target audience, without losing the identity of the brand. Here I will use mixed marketing with the 4P to see what changes could be made to adapt to Moroccan customers: Price: For the price, the brand just needs to put the prices in the local currency, the dirham. The dress shoes are sold for €139 per pair and the second pair for €99, or €119 per pair if you buy two. And after the third, it is €119 so that each pair is the same price. In terms of transportation and delivery of the product, sea transportation is the most suitable, and as I mentioned previously, this transportation represents more than 95% of foreign trade transportation in Morocco, this is also easy.