Altessa Motors: Ericka Schmidt in China

The marketing manager at a luxury car company attempts to deal with a range of issues that have surfaced in her first two months in the company’s new China country office. China is a fast-growing country and is seen as one of the potentially largest markets for this brand of luxury vehicles in the future, and for that reason, the company has recently set up a country office to support market development efforts. In her attempts to make inroads in the China market, the marketing manager struggles to deal with issues related to language barriers and unfamiliar cultural norms for conducting business. As well, as a woman working in a male-dominant industry within a patriarchal society, she faces some resistance from staff and clients in terms of gender bias. She wonders how best to deal with these challenges while trying to establish her dealership’s brand in the Chinese market for luxury sports cars.