The first step in crafting an international business plan to enter your selected country is to create amarketing plan. Develop a six- to seven-page marketing strategy for the industry in which your...

Introduction
Arista networks is a computer networking and software driven, cloud computing company providing a wide platform of extensible network operating system (EOS) to large data centers and business houses. Arista was started by Jayshree Ullal in the year 2008 and is headquarter in Santa Clara, California, US. They specialises in building mammoth data centres for the fortune 500 companies and providing top class computer networking services to its customer. They also do have a very efficient supply chain management system. They have built more than 20 million networking ports universally with Cloud vision and EOS, which is an advanced network operating system. They specialize in providing an Ethernet speed ranging between 10 to 400 gigabits per seconds. It has a wide range of partners and outsourced manufacturers who produce the forecasted quality goods at an affordable cost and with great success. The company also specialises in Cloud computing and artificial intelligence platforms.
Arista has its presence in many parts of the world. They want to tap and reach Ghana, African market with its computer networking products. For this we will prepare an effective marketing plan which will help them to compete in the Ghana market.
Discussing on the Ghana economy, it is the 13th largest economy in the sub-continent of Africa. In 2019, in the first quarter the GDP of Ghana was estimated at 6.7% as compared to 5.4% during the same period in the previous year. Ghana observed a strong recovery in service sector in 2019 which grew at 7.2% compared 1.2% in 2018. Ghana has a rich cultural heritage of its production in cocoa, gold and gold mines, recently oil and gas refineries, lush forest in the heart of Africa, with diverse animal life and sandy warm beaches.
This was largely driven by government policies for infrastructure development; focus on the development of information and communication technology (ICT) services. Ghana’s main source income is from its oil production which draws a huge amount of foreign direct investment in the form of capital investments in the oil fields. (The World Bank in Ghana, IBRD.IDA)
Marketing Plan for Arista Network Inc
1. Commit: First we have to target the business houses as the potential customer in Ghana. Whether we will first start with the small business houses or the large business houses is based on the capacity of production facility in Ghana. A smaller market will make it easier to access the small business houses requirements initially.
2. Identify the Entry points: This will help to minimize the cost and maximize the profits. It will ultimately help to plan for the future growth of Arista in Ghana. For this we have to set some criteria: (a) is the computer networking market in Ghana underserved (b) is there a strong and urgent need of technology development in Ghana. (c) Are the key decision maker available with appropriate funds (d) identifying the competitors in the network industry and their drawbacks (e) knowledge of the Ghana’s computer network market.
3. Define the market entry strategy: This strategy will help to understand the target audience i.e.; the small business houses and the feasibility of the networking business in Ghana. It also takes into account how the computer networking industry is perceived by the customer in Ghana.
4. Assemble Plan: Then a proper sales target of 10 sales per week of the computer networking products has to be set after discussions with all the key stakeholders of Arista. All campaigns and targets needs to be communicated clearly to the concerned persons and proper ownerships must be assigned to each.
5. Research: Approaching the small business houses who are Arista’s potential customer needs to be approached either in person or via online survey can help which will help Arista to understand the changes that needs to be done before fully entering the Ghana computer networking market.
6. Test: A small pilot project by a team of experts to be conducted to measure the risk before full deployment of the project in Ghana.
7. Pricing Strategy: The pricing strategy of Arista in Ghana will be price penetration. They will initially focus the low cost and high quality to target the potential small business houses with their computer networking and internet based products. This strategy will help them to capture more customers at an affordable cost of sales.
8. Branding Strategy: (1) Brand positioning: Arista will target the brand towards the small business houses. The brand positioning of Arista’s computer networking devices will be “High quality at low cost”; (2) Brand Name: Arista “The cloud networking decade”; (3) Brand sponsorship: (a) Arista Extensible operating systems (AEOS), (b) Arista Transceivers and cables (c) Arista networks CloudVision (d) Arista networks cognitive Wifi; (4) Brand Development: Arista will deal with its brand development through Line extension and Brand extension.
9. Advertising strategy: Arista should focus on marketing its products through social media like LinkedIn, Facebook and other e-commerce websites like Amazon, Flipkart etc.
10. Ramping up: In this process the ultimate aim of Arista will be to target for increased market share by focusing on its marketing and sales simultaneously. As you will sell and pitch on the product more there will be a general buzz and more viability of the brand Arista.
11. Exit Strategy: Lastly Arista has to plan for both success and failure. Strategies has to be built for moving ahead and long term investment if the network product sells flourishes and also strategies of cut and continue if it fails to reduce wastages.
Arista’s main competitor in Ghana
There are three major strong competitors of Arista in Ghana in the computer networking segments:
1. CAN-WEST Limited
2. Ecoband.net
3. Ghana Dot Com
CAN-WEST Limited is a promising IT Market centre led by a team of experienced and professional market experts and technicians. They provide with a wide range consumer electronic products to the top business houses in Ghana. They have tie-ups with various renowned brands like HP, Dell, TP-Link, Cisco, Linksys, D-Link and many more. They also provide wide range of services like warranty, repairs and maintenance. (CAN-WEST Limited website)
Ecoband.net is a company providing a wide range of services in satellites, microwave and fiber optic based solutions for internet connectivity along with broadband and MPLS service. They have a wide collaboration with leading brands for providing the best solution to the customers of Ghana. (Ecoband.net website)
Ghana Dot Com: They are the subsidiary of Network computer systems and were setup in the year 2007. NCS is a leader in the African market for providing internet services. Ghana dot com provides a wide...