Many companies try to expand their products to different target markets, as Diou Cao has said in her blog, with one of the simple examples being, a broadening of age targeting for a product. With many companies succeeding in their expansions, there are always the few that fail to do so. BestBuy had high hopes for their company, so instead of just broadening in the age categories, they had believed they could spread internationally, specifically to China. They had overlooked one important thing though; the international difference between the market in America and in China. Unlike the simple broadening of the age categories, where the company has to just promote the product through slightly different commercials and means with different packaging, entering into the international market means introducing a new range of strongly rooted competition, and a cross-cultural difference in buyers. BestBuy did not take that into account, and did not realize that China had an entire different type of market then America, thus they did not change their Amercian Business Model (China Briefing 2011) to suit China’s needs. Within a short 8 years of trying to expand the company in China, they had to shut down all their stores and exit their international expansion. China’s strongly rooted competition had made the percentage of buyers already low, but with their unflexible behavior of trying to understand the customer’s needs, they had failed to make a competitive advantage and sway the Chinese’s hearts.

Links:
http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/03/02/best-buys-withdrawal-american-morals-fail-to-transcend-chinese-consumer-market.html