DNV Healthcare China : providing sustainable pork safety for China

Abstract

Four International Marketing students on the behalf of DNV Healthcare China, a Norwegian risk management provider, conducted this thesis. The authors used an exploratory research design, and most of the acquired data is collected from secondary sources. The aim of this study was to characterize the Chinese pork safety market and give strategic recommendations on how DNV Healthcare can position itself in order to become the obvious choice among risk management providers within this particular market. One of the main challenges for DNV Healthcare was to develop an appropriate strategy that does not conflict with their overall communication to the Chinese market, as they currently do not offer pork safety services in China. Currently, there are several shortcomings within the Chinese pork safety market, where the major problems are governance issues, lack of standards, and implementation and overseeing of such standards. Recent incidents of tainted pork have increased customer awareness, which again have resulted in a growing market opportunity within the pork safety industry. Based on both external and internal analyses conducted in this thesis, the authors concluded that entering the Chinese pork safety market through a strategic alliance would be most beneficial for DNV Healthcare. The final part of this thesis includes several recommendations on how DNV Healthcare should enter this new market, which positioning- and marketing mixtools they can derive benefit from and implications on what they should communicate.