The Marketing Strategy Research Of Company F’s Africa-produced Copper Cathode On Chinese Market

Recently, prices of commodities, especially the nonferrous metals, fluctuate wildly,while those industries are going through the process of global integration. Limited by thegeographic distribution, China’s copper production cannot meet the demand of its economydevelopment. China’s demand to copper resources soars since1980s, and till2012, its totalcopper consumption reached7.68million tons, became the top one in world copperconsumption. China’s strong demand also pushes up the international price of nonferrousmetals.Company F, as one of the largest companies in copper industrial, wishes to expand itsAfrica-produced copper cathode business on Chinese market, due to the continuouslydevelopment of Chinese economy and sluggish recovery of global economy. The thesistakes the copper cathode, one of the most popularly traded commodities and industrialproducts, as subject, use marketing strategy theory, especially the industrial productmarketing strategy as guideline, studied on its strategy and implantation scheme onChinese market.By studying the marketing strategy of the Copper Cathode of Company F’s Africasmelter on Chinese market, the thesis analyzed the internal and external environmentthrough PEST model, Five Force model, and SWOT model, found the weakness andthreats of Company F, such as not setting the brand tactics, entering China market late;short in customer accumulation, no business entity, substitution threats, etc. In themeantime, the analysis also found out the strengths and opportunities of Company F, suchas cost advantage, technology advantage, good brand image in copper industry, etc.Based on above analysis, the thesis positioned domestic copper fabricators as targetmarket, and carried out related marketing strategies and implementation scheme: to designthe copper cathode based on customer preference, and setup direct communicationplatform with end-users; to apply the pricing method, which is more suitable to Chinesemarket; to promote product brand and company image on China market; and to apply with different distribution channels in different period.As commodities, there is similarity of the marketing strategy of copper cathodes. Theanalysis and research results in this thesis provide the reference for industrial insiders,especially for overseas copper producers entering Chinese market. In addition, the coppercathode discussed in this thesis is produced in Africa. There’re many researches on theexploration, development, and investment of copper mines in Africa, but few of which areabout the marketing strategy of African copper cathodes in other countries, like China. Thisthesis makes up this shortage.Meanwhile, the thesis forecasts the distribution development trend, to which overseacopper producers would apply after their entering China market, and provides theinformation for copper cathode import agents, and points out their development area in thefuture.