Abstract
Moving to China is always a big challenge. The growing economy of this vast country, which counts more than 1.3 billion of people, represents an "Eldorado" for western companies. A lot of potential customers and an emerging middle-class population makes this country very attractive with respect to business. One might think you just need to put a product on the market, like in India, and the probability of people buying your product will be so high that you don't even need to use marketing to sell more efficiently. Maybe it's true for certain products, certain periods or certain markets.
Regarding the Caroll case, it's a little more complex than just selling clothes, bags or shoes. The market and target segment where Caroll is focused on is very particular. It requires a marketing strategy plan because many factors influence the success or failure of implementing its brand in China. The first part of this marketing plan will be dedicated to the presentation of the Caroll company, analyzing what are its strengths and weaknesses through matrices such as the Value Chain or the SWOT analysis. Then, we will focus on entering the Chinese market considering the fashion players and what are opportunities for Caroll to choose this country with respect to marketing and other matrices.
Carroll's story begins in the sixties and is now a success story, one of the largest in the world of ready-to-wear. Raphael Levy and Joseph Bigio created the brand in 1963 under the name "Les tricots Carroll" to provide fluid, pleasant and easygoing clothes. The 1970s saw the company grow in its market share in 1980 to launch a new line of ready-to-wear. This was the time that the first franchised shops were springing up in the hexagon.
