Introduction
Inside Scoop, a local premium ice cream brand, has more than 20 retail stores in Malaysia. The
founder of this brand is a Malaysian local brand founded by Edmund Tan and his wife Lim Shiew Li. It
has been known for its local flavours since 2013. Currently, their ice cream flavours have been
expanding to more flavours, including unique local flavours such as Cendol, kopi Peng, and classics
such as chocolate and vanilla beans, to the popular Unicorn, which has rotated more than 70
flavours. With the escalating growth of this ice cream product, it is well-known among the Malaysian
(Inside Scoop, 2018).
Since most of their sales come from retail stores, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent
Movement Control Order (MCO) caused a sharp decline in their main source of income
(DriveFunnels, 2020). In order to overcome the challenges faced, I developed a marketing plan to
help the Inside Scoop company expand globally. Therefore, China was selected as a potential country
to introduce Inside Scoop because China has the world’s largest ice cream market compared to the
United States (Mintel, 2015), and this has pretty much explained the China ice cream consumption
demand is relatively higher than other country. Aside from that, knowing that most of the ice cream
brand in China, the flavours of the ice cream are very similar and common to other brands, hence so
Inside Scoop seizes this opportunity to work with Malaysian flavours to the Chinese locals, as it
believes that the Chinese taste buds are very similar to Malaysian taste buds, such as durian flavour.
According to Ling (2015), durian has dominated the Chinese market, and it is believed that the
flavour of durian will set off a market trend in China.
2.0 Analysis and findings
2.1 Pestle analysis
Based on the above PESTLE analysis, we can know that the potential advantages and disadvantages
of Inside Scoop entry into the China market and the development trend of the industry. Political
stability in China had leads to increase in economic growth and gain market opportunities. This is
also a favourable condition for Inside Scoop to enter the Chinese market after its successful
development in China. From the perspective of economic factors, the purchasing power of Chinese
consumer goods will be much higher than that of Malaysia, proving that the Chinese market is large
enough to expand Inside Scoop. According to a Mintel report, 61% of Chinese dessert consumers are
more willing to pay for natural desserts without additives, and 54% are willing to pay for highly
nutritious desserts (Lim, 2019). With its unique flavour, high-quality ingredients and no artificial
flavours added, it brings advantages to Inside Scoop’s sales in the Chinese market. This factor will
greatly increase the competition between Inside Scoop and its peers. Lastly, China’s appetite for
durian is growing, and this will be the best time to expand the brand in the Chinese market. The
country is already Malaysia’s largest durian exporter (Liu, 2017), so buying from their wholesale
market will help Inside Scoop keep prices at a minimum, and there will not be much difference in
sales prices between domestic and international markets.
2.2 Hofstede Cultural Dimensions
