to gain control of the company (Glennon, 1994, p. 1538).
The plan to market Dr. Pepper brand soft drink beverages in the People's Republic of China is presented in the remainder of this paper. The presentation of the plan includes a cultural analysis, an economic analysis, a marketing audit/competitive analysis, and a preliminary marketing plan.
The estimated population of the People's Republic of China in 1991 approximated 1,110,000,000 (Hunter, 1993, pp. 355-357). The country's population target for 2000 is 1,270,000,000. Females account for 51.6 percent of China's population, males 48.4 percent. In the early-1990s, 75.1 percent of China's population resides in rural areas, 24.9 percent in urban areas (Hunter, 1993, pp. 356-357). Thus, the typical Chinese would be described as a rural dweller. In must be remembered, however, that the urban/rural distribution of the population is changing relatively rapidly. Fifteen years ago, almost 85 percent of the Chinese resided in rural areas.
The typical Chinese is also a relatively young person. Almost one-half (46.07 percent) of the population is under age 20, and almost two-thirds (63.7 percent) are under age 30 (Waddle, 1993, pp. 59-96).
Officially, there are 56 nationality, or ethnic, population groups in the People's Republic of China. In the 55 smaller groups, there are 70 million people (greater than the population of most countries) who are distributed over 60 percent of China's geographic area (Waddle, 1993, pp. 59-96). The country's largest ethnic group--the Han Chinese, however, number in excess of one- billion persons. Therefore, the typical Chinese must be viewed as an ethnic Han. There are great differences, however, within the Han ethnic group. Eight mutually unintelligible language dialects are spoken by the Han, each of which contains several sub-dialects, and differences in cuisine, dress, and custom also characterize the...