Vermont Teddy Bear

———————– Should Vermont Teddy Bear go abroad? What kind of difficulties would the Vermont Teddy Bear meet if it were to internationalize its business? Vermont Teddy Bear belongs to a very specialised industry. Depending of the targeted countries’ tastes, its internationalization can be successful or not. In fact, offering a teddy bear instead of flowers is not anchored in other countries such as in Europe. Furthermore, some countries don’t have the same ordering habits and Vermont Teddy Bear is making half of its orders online.

Only rich countries are ordering online. By selling in US, the company isn’t paying taxes and shipments, if it wants to go abroad, they will also be required to review their prices. Could it be relevant to Vermont Teddy Bear to internationalize by following some of its US corporate customers abroad? Vermont Teddy Bear’s corporate customers are very big companies, that kind of companies such as Pepsi Cola or Johnson & Johnson have centralised upstream activities but decentralised downstream ones.

So, every downstream function is specific to the country it is in. For the same reason, the culture clash will be present if Vermont Teddy Bear follow its US corporate customers. In what part of the world should the company start its internationalization? The company should start its internationalization in Asia. There are some countries in Asia which are becoming more and more occidental, and like everything occidental.

In Europe, it is very hard to change traditions, in Asia it is completely different. How should the company penetrate the foreign markets? by internet? By physical stores? By a combination of the two? A combination of two would be the best idea. The large part of customers like having a place where they can physically see or touch products. Internet is good for customisation, and the company can be worldwide visible. By other means?