Browsing Category: "International Marketing"
Business expansion across global limits, it becomes inevitable to study global markets in greater details and specifics. As each one of us knows it is through international market research findings and analysis crucial decisions take shape.
Most Business firms rely on International market research on for the following reasons :
1.Get valuable insights with regards to new market developments abroad especially in developing economies
2.Provide useful information with regards to diverse market environments and conditions
3.Take maximum advantage of technological advancements in collecting, retrieving and analyzing market findings and offer highly accurate and relevant results.
International Marketing Research is carried across all verticals ranging from social sectors, healthcare sector, financial markets, IT sector, business to business markets and many more.
With the active presence of International marketing research agencies, the availability of required market research reports can be done in a desired manner. Considering the various manners in which research is conducted, the client company could go for –
In International Market Research the areas of conducting research activities could be in reference to
Most research agencies have known to conduct research on verticals such as mobile phones, software, professional AV, consumer electronic and domestic appliances, food products, coffee, alcohol, ICT, engineering, utilities, boats, telecoms services, IT consultancy, security, radar, waste disposal to name a few prominent ones. These research reports include economies and markets across East, Western Europe, America – both North & South and even Asia.
Healthcare Market Research is widely conducted across the globe by many market research agencies. Healthcare Market research includes study and research on
Companies who go for healthcare research reports wish to ascertain the performance of competing brands, user experience of existing procedures and treatments, feedback from medical professionals’ i.e doctors, consultants and nurses. Healthcare research reports could be related to developed countries or developing countries. In case of companies wishing to expand to wider horizons, more and more reports relating to developing countries are asked for.
The core areas of healthcare market research include Gynaecology, Oncology, and Cardiology, Contraception, Optometry, Rheumatology, Alzheimer ‘s disease, COPD, Smoking cessation, Diabetes, Insomnia, Obesity, Wound care and HIV Based on trends and analysis revealed from these research reports, Healthcare companies are in a position to put forth new products and market them in a desired manner ensuring its successful acceptance across the markets.
In today’s world, International Marketing Research has a key role to play. In fact it accelerates the process of business expansions and guides industries to take the path forward and bask in success and limelight all the way.
The world is increasingly becoming a smaller place to live and experience – thanks to globalization and modern technology. Call it the Domino Effect or otherwise, businesses are no longer remaining to the confines of a single state. Markets and economies are expanding and so are the developing countries. One of the best and the most lucrative of all jobs is the marketing job and in the international scenario – it has incentives unparalleled elsewhere. International marketing employment has truly become the buzzword of the modern days. So what does it take to be an international marketing job?Job Profile• Creativity: Creativity sells and how! Marketing jobs are getting trickier by the day and more so because of the ‘international’ word being attached to it. You’re now catering to more people than ever before and that too with varied tastes. Quite literally, if a dish is a delicacy in a country – it may be frowned upon in other countries! You need to jerk your grey cells and start thinking like you have never before.• Time: Time is a precious entity in international marketing jobs but is as scarce. That is, there are no fixed job hours for an individual. It may be the most lucrative and high-paying job on the planet, but is as exhausting. This is precisely the reason why only a few manage to cling onto the top!• Personality: Personality and appearance go hand in hand and especially when you’re catering to a global market, you always need to be in your best form. You cannot afford to be lax or complacent. The moment you fall in to the trap – someone else takes over. You need to give your best and that too every time.• Think Global: Think from the perspective of the customer you’re going to serve. This will help you market your product well. Broaden your horizons – it is time to go global. • Knowledge: International marketing jobs have a requisite that you need to upgrade your knowledge base every now and then. You cannot sell with your ‘cobwebbed’ knowledge. Upgrade yourself often and make sure you know better than the client you’re going to serve! Always be one up on the customer.There are international marketing opportunities that can be availed by sitting at some even! They pay less but are an attractive option too. You just need to have an active internet connection and you’ll be in no time starting your international marketing job. You can do the following things online to market internationally:• Write Blogs• Create websites• Help people troubleshoot their problems and market your product in between.• Indirect marketing by putting up advertisements on other websites.There are many ways you can earn. One needs a correct perspective and a positive attitude to find the best.
International Marketing
Guided by :Dr.Jelsy joseph
Director,Dept of management studies&research
KARPAGAM UNIVERSITY,COIMBATORE
International marketing refers to MARKETING carried out by companies overseas or across national borderlines . Companies must consider language barriers, ideals, and customs in the market they are approaching. International marketing is simply the application of marketing principles to more than one country. At its simplest level, international marketing involves the firm in making one or more marketing mix decisions across national boundaries. At its most complex level, it involves the firm in establishing manufacturing facilities overseas and coordinating marketing strategies across the globe.
Elements of the international marketing mix:
The “Four P’s” of marketing: product, price, placement, and promotion are all affected as a company moves through the five evolutionary phases to become a global company. Ultimately, at the global marketing level, a company trying to speak with one voice is faced with many challenges when creating a worldwide marketing plan. Unless a company holds the same position against its competition in all markets (market leader, low cost, etc.) it is impossible to launch identical marketing plans worldwide.
Product
A global company is one that can create a single product and only have to tweak elements for different markets. For example, Coca-Cola uses two formulas (one with sugar, one with corn syrup) for all markets. The product packaging in every country incorporates the contour bottle design and the dynamic ribbon in some way, shape, or form. However, the bottle or can also includes the country’s native language and is the same size as other beverage bottles or cans in that country.
Price will always vary from market to market. Price is affected by many variables: cost of product development (produced locally or imported), cost of ingredients, cost of delivery (transportation, tariffs, etc.), and much more. Additionally, the product’s position in relation to the competition influences the ultimate profit margin. Whether this product is considered the high-end, expensive choice, the economical, low-cost choice, or something in-between helps determine the price point.
How the product is distributed is also a country-by-country decision influenced by how the competition is being offered to the target market. Using Coca-Cola as an example again, not all cultures use vending machines. In the United States, beverages are sold by the pallet via warehouse stores. In India, this is not an option. Placement decisions must also consider the product’s position in the market place. For example, a high-end product would not want to be distributed via a “dollar store” in the United States. Conversely, a product promoted as the low-cost option in France would find limited success in a pricey boutique.
After product research, development and creation, promotion (specifically advertising) is generally the largest line item in a global company’s marketing budget. At this stage of a company’s development, integrated marketing is the goal. The global corporation seeks to reduce costs, minimize redundancies in personnel and work, maximize speed of implementation, and to speak with one voice. If the goal of a global company is to send the same message world wide, then delivering that message in a relevant, engaging, and cost-effective way is the challenge. Effective global advertising techniques do exist. The key is testing advertising ideas using a marketing research system proven to provide results that can be compared across countries. The ability to identify which elements or moments of an ad are contributing to that success is how economies of scale are maximized. Market research measures such as flow of attention & flow of motion and branding moments provide insights into what is working in an ad in any country because the measures are based on visual, not verbal, elements of the ad.
Advantages of international marketing
Product Issues in International Marketing
Product Need Satisfaction. We often take for granted the “obvious” need that products seem to fill in our own culture; however, functions served may be very different in others—for example, while cars have a large transportation role in the U.S., they are impractical to drive in Japan, and thus cars there serve more of a role of being a status symbol or providing for individual indulgence. In the U.S., fast food and instant drinks such as Tang are intended for convenience; elsewhere, they may represent more of a treat. Thus, it is important to examine through marketing research consumers’ true motives, desires, and expectations in buying a product.
The International Product Life Cycle (PLC). Consumers in different countries differ in the speed with which they adopt new products, in part for economic reasons (fewer Malaysian than American consumers can afford to buy VCRs) and in part because of attitudes toward new products (pharmaceuticals upset the power afforded to traditional faith healers, for example). Thus, it may be possible, when one market has been saturated, to continue growth in another market—e.g., while somewhere between one third and one half of American homes now contain a computer, the corresponding figures for even Europe and Japan are much lower and thus, many computer manufacturers see greater growth potential there. Note that expensive capital equipment may also cycle between countries—e.g., airlines in economically developed countries will often buy the newest and most desired aircraft and sell off older ones to their counterparts in developing countries. While in developed countries, “three part” canning machines that solder on the bottom with lead are unacceptable for health reasons, they have found a market in developing countries.
Branding. While Americans seem to be comfortable with category specific brands, this is not the case for Asian consumers. American firms observed that their products would be closely examined by Japanese consumers who could not find a major brand name on the packages, which was required as a sign of quality. Note that Japanese keiretsus span and use their brand name across multiple industries—e.g., Mitsubishi, among other things, sells food, automobiles, electronics, and heavy construction equipment.
PROMOTIONAL ISSUES
Promotional objectives. Promotional objectives involve the question of what the firm hopes to achieve with a campaign—“increasing profits” is too vague an objective, since this has to be achieved through some intermediate outcome (such as increasing market share, which in turn is achieved by some change in consumers which cause them to buy more). Some common objectives that firms may hold:
Legal issues. Countries differ in their regulations of advertising, and some products are banned from advertising on certain media (large supermarket chains are not allowed to advertise on TV in France, for example). Other forms of promotion may also be banned or regulated. In some European countries, for example, it is illegal to price discriminate between consumers, and thus coupons are banned and in some, it is illegal to offer products on sale outside a very narrow seasonal and percentage range.
Language issues. Language is an important element of culture. It should be realized that regional differences may be subtle. For example, one word may mean one thing in one Latin American country, but something off-color in another. It should also be kept in mind that much information is carried in non-verbal communication. In some cultures, we nod to signify “yes” and shake our heads to signify “no;” in other cultures, the practice is reversed. Within the context of language:
Writing patterns, or the socially accepted ways of writing, will differs significantly between cultures.
Pricing Issues in International Marketing
Price can best be defined in ratio terms, giving the equation
resources given upprice = ——————————————— goods received
This implies that there are several ways that the price can be changed:
Reference Prices. Consumers often develop internal reference prices, or expectations about what something should cost, based mostly on their experience. Most drivers with long commutes develop a good feeling of what gasoline should cost, and can tell a bargain or a ripoff.
Reference prices are more likely to be more precise for frequently purchased and highly visible products. Therefore, retailers very often promote soft drinks, since consumers tend to have a good idea of prices and these products are quite visible. The trick, then, is to be more expensive on products where price expectations are muddier.
Marketers often try to influence people’s price perceptions through the use of external reference prices—indicators given to the consumer as to how much something should cost. Examples include:
CULTURE OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
Culture is part of the external influences that impact the consumer. That is, culture represents influences that are imposed on the consumer by other individuals.
The definition of culture offered one text is “That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man person as a member of society.” From this definition, we make the following observations:
Culture has several important characteristics:
(1) Culture is comprehensive. This means that all parts must fit together in some logical fashion. For example, bowing and a strong desire to avoid the loss of face are unified in their manifestation of the importance of respect.
(2) Culture is learned rather than being something we are born with. We will consider the mechanics of learning later in the course.
(3) Culture is manifested within boundaries of acceptable behavior. For example, in American society, one cannot show up to class naked, but wearing anything from a suit and tie to shorts and a T-shirt would usually be acceptable. Failure to behave within the prescribed norms may lead to sanctions, ranging from being hauled off by the police for indecent exposure to being laughed at by others for wearing a suit at the beach.
(4) Conscious awareness of cultural standards is limited. One American spy was intercepted by the Germans during World War II simply because of the way he held his knife and fork while eating.
(5) Cultures fall somewhere on a continuum between static and dynamic depending on how quickly they accept change. For example, American culture has changed a great deal since the 1950s, while the culture of Saudi Arabia has changed much less.
CONCLUSION
If the exporting departments are becoming successful but the costs of doing business from headquarters plus time differences, language barriers, and cultural ignorance are hindering the company’s competitiveness in the foreign market, then offices could be built in the foreign countries. Sometimes companies buy firms in the foreign countries to take advantage of relationships, storefronts, factories, and personnel already in place. These offices still report to headquarters in the home market but most of the marketing mix decisions are made in the individual countries since that staff is the most knowledgeable about the target markets. Local product development is based on the needs of local customers. These marketers are considered polycentric because they acknowledge that each market/country has different needs.