A US based company might want to expand its operations to Barcelona because:
Location: Barcelona is located near southern Europe making it convenient for businesses to expand to other parts of Europe and even Africa and Latin America.
City Brand: Barcelona is a known city that is internationally recognized, which would be easily understood by competitors, new markets and partners for the expansion.
Catalonia is considered the headquarters of more than 5,000 foreign companies and 90% of them are based in Barcelona- which shows that there has already been company expansions to Barcelona that has thrived and benefited from the move and should also show a positive impact for the company considering to expand there.
With Barcelona’s key location, it is also able to be well connected with its surrounding area by many forms of transportation including; air, trains, highways, and water.
Barcelona is a growing country in itself in that new technologies and opportunities are constantly developing. This could give businesses a door to new partnerships, strategies and ideas.
The people of Barcelona have created a long established tradition for business and commercial enterprising; which shows that the business would be able to find responsible and serious employees once they expand.
When moving to a foreign country or city, the business should also see how developed the place is. Barcelona is a large city that is constantly trying to improve and develop.
Education is also a key factor in looking into expanding and Barcelona has a good number of schools and universities that are well known throughout the world as well as many people that speak and understand English.
Barcelona is also an ambitious city in that they are constantly reinventing its urban-planning and different strategic projects to for the city’s economy.
There is also a high quality of life in Barcelona for workers; in which it has been the best in Europe for the last 14 years.
2. Some hesitations a business might have when thinking to expand to Barcelona could include potential competitors, laws and regulations, having to find/hire employees/managers that are well equipped and trained to do business in Barcelona and in the culture, and pay differentiation.
3. Company: db5
Executive Summary
db5 is a company based on helping our clients succeed by providing them with a more profound understanding of their audience through market research. We take pride in being different than other research agencies through our talent, technology, and tenacity. By employing and partnering with extraordinary talent from Brand Marketing to Traditional Research Practice; to taking leading edge technologies and integrating them into traditional research methodologies; to creating better when the data or means do not exist, db5 has accomplished and grown tremendously since its beginning. With offices in LA, NYC, and Chicago offering services to the US and overseas, an expansion of an office to Barcelona might sound profitable but may not be as easy of a transition as we might hope.
Today, Barcelona is one of the world’s leading tourist, economic, trade fair, and cultural centres, and has a great influence on commerce, education, entertainment and media making it one of the world’s major global cities. It has been ranked one of the world’s most successful as a city brand and has seen tremendous growth within the past few years. Barcelona has been a leading “smart city” in Europe and has continued to be a place of interest and opportunity for many businesses to expand to.
The idea to expand to Barcelona is a very tempting one, but with the size of db5 currently it would be too far reaching for the current company situation. While db5 is still considered a “startup” coming on its 8th year as an agency, there is plenty of room to grow and expand with different clients, even ones in Barcelona before starting an office there. An expansion to do business with companies in Barcelona would be a fulfilling and a beneficial start for the company in setting foot in Barcelona and Europe before committing to an office expansion.
One benefit of db5’s work is the ability to work from any location and still be able to provide in depth and valuable data and information to companies regarding their marketing and advertising concerns. To promote our brand in Barcelona we can look to partner with companies that are already doing business there and may need a study on segmentation or concept testing. We can reach out to contacts and brands in Barcelona as well as ones that are not to perform our own research as to why it would be beneficial or not to make such a move.
db5 has plenty of years ahead of the company to grow and become a world leading market research agency, but as of right now, staying in the US with its three different office locations and small but talented team of market researchers seems to be best fit for the company to grow and develop even more before making such a move.
