Background and Scenario for the Assignment

This assignment is based on a specific company and brand, Hello Fresh, and its recent acquisition Green Chef.

Hello Fresh was launched in Germany in 2011, and now operates in an additional twelve countries. Its corporate website shows deliveries of over 280 million meal kits in 2019 and a customer base of over 4 million (Hello Fresh 2020).

The Hello Fresh corporate website provides more detail about the company and what it offers – see https://www.hellofreshgroup.com/websites/hellofresh/English/100/investor-relations.html

A full list of Hello Fresh websites can be found in the PR1 folder on Blackboard, and will be helpful for understanding the company’s current approach and geographic spread.

Hello Fresh is seeking growth in a number of ways. One of these is through its brand Green Chef, a meal kit company focused on healthy and organic eating plans, which was acquired in 2018 (Thakkar 2020). You can see Green Chef’s range of organic, vegan, gluten-free, paleo, and keto-friendly meals, currently only available in the USA, on www.greenchef.com

The scenario for this assignment is as follows:

• Hello Fresh is seeking to establish which of the European countries they already operate in, would be particularly suitable for the launch of Green Chef.
• They are looking for profitable business, not necessarily the highest level of demand where perhaps there might be intense competition.
• As the university’s Passport subscription only covers certain countries, the countries which are thus potential candidates are:
• For students based in the UK:
• Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland

(In other words you may not include your own ‘home’ country – this is an International Marketing module!)

In the role of consultants to Hello Fresh you have been asked to complete the tasks below (see The Assignment Task). In doing so you will need to draw on wider research into the potential market, its potential competitors and customers. Use of Passport and other sources will be imperative.

This wider research will be needed to underpin – and justify your answers.

The Assignment Task

Process

Stage One: identify screening criteria

Develop a set of SIX screening criteria to help evaluate the 7 countries.

(Note; The subject of International Marketing Selection and the use of ‘Criteria Tables’ will be covered in lectures, you should make sure that you familiarise yourselves with the concept of market selection and examples of criteria tables).

Remember that criteria = conditions that should ideally be present in the chosen country, so be as specific as possible

Maximum of 6 means just that, please do not break each criteria down into a further 3 or 4, thus giving yourself 18-24 separate pieces of information to find for each country!

Stage Two: collect data and create criteria table(s)   

Collect relevant secondary data to help assess how your chosen countries perform against the chosen criteria.  Data may be a mix of quantitative and qualitative information, but as far as possible use measurable and quantifiable data here – either way you must seek authoritative evidence to inform your criteria.

A range of sources will be introduced in classes; you MUST use the Passport GMID resources and additional sources are welcome.

You may not get 100% of the information you require but a serious and persistent search needs to take place! If you experience problems, think about redesigning your criteria or redesigning your search!

Create a table or tables which summarises each of the criteria and the data/facts obtained to assess each, with sources referenced by author (year).

Aim to get your table(s) on to a maximum TWO slides.

You can use highlighting, a scoring system or whatever else will be helpful to clearly identify, which four countries come out best from the initial eight.

Stage Three: conduct further research and argue for the top two countries

It is never enough to make market selection decisions based largely on quantitative information and often steps 1 and 2 will reveal that the top countries achieve fairly similar scores, or that some will perform well on some criteria and less well on others.

So your job for this stage is not just to evaluate what the figures are telling you, but to bring in additional insights from Passport and other sources, which will help the Hello Fresh board to really get behind the figures and understand where the best potential might lie – and why your top two are ultimately a better choice than your bottom two countries.

What do you actually present in the slides/do in the presentation?

What we are particularly wanting to see in the presentation is a good level of critical evaluation and argument, backed up by good evidence from authoritative sources.

So, having introduced the group,

• Show the 6 criteria (on their own, without the countries) and defend your choice of those criteria, why are they particularly suitable and precise for evaluating the different countries and supporting Green Chef’s market selection? Are some more important than others?

• Show the completed criteria table(s) for the eight countries and take the Board through the figures (e.g. cross comparing performance against the criteria, so that we can understand the choice of the best four)

• Now take the Board through your arguments and evidence for choosing the top two countries, why those countries and not the other two from your top four?