Finding the right international mix
In these days of increasing global integration, the task many international marketers face is not so much market entry as managing the marketing mix in different national markets. Is it better to standardise or to adapt it across different markets?
Consumer tastes in cars are very different in North America, the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan and India. A 'global' car that does not have country-specific differentiating features will fail. The manufacturer, therefore, has to find the balance between designing a separate car for each market – which would be exorbitantly costly – and designing one car for all markets. Nissan was a pioneer in this area. It reduced the number of different chassis designs from 40 to 8 for cars meant for 75 different national markets.
Some companies, however, do develop the same product for all markets regardless of existing local preferences. Companies such as Kellogg have succeeded in changing consumption patterns. Breakfast cereal was unknown in France 20 years ago. Today it is common. Kellogg ignored the research that said cereal would not sell in France. In contrast, Coca-Cola changes the flavour of its soft drink to conform to local tastes. Coke in the US tastes different from Coke in the UK, which in turn tastes different from Coke in India.
Thus there is a spectrum of new product development strategies. Firms sometimes customise a product to every market; at other times they offer one standardised product everywhere; and sometimes they compromise and settle in the middle.
New product development that coordinates efforts across national markets leads to better products and services. Such opportunities are not normally available to a company that operates only in one country or is only just entering a new country.
The advent of the Internet and Intranets has the potential to accelerate the process of mining all markets for relevant information and for features that can be included in new products. Unilever has four global research laboratories that develop products for their different national markets while providing inputs for global products. The laboratories coordinate their efforts by looking at the possibilities of melding product ideas arising from different countries. Motorola's software development establishments coordinate their efforts in working on different modules of the same project.
Companies also develop products in different countries in markedly different ways. Japanese companies, for example, tend to believe much more in getting new products to market and then gauging the reaction to them. The product itself may have been developed with reference to observations of present and potential customers rather than conventional market research. US companies, on the other hand, tend to use more formal market research methods. And for German companies, product development schedules tend to be wore important.
Clearly, companies decide on different launch strategies for different categories of products. Toshiba launched the Digital Video Disk (DVD) in Japan in November 1996, in the US in March 1997 and in Europe in autumn 1997. However, Intel launches its latest PC chips practically simultaneously in all countries. The launch decision also includes marketing mix decisions. When Citibank introduced its credit card in the Asia-Pacific region, it launched it sequentially and tailored the product features for each country while maintaining its premium positioning. The promotional, pricing and distribution strategies also differed from country to country.
As a contrast, consider Rolex. The genuine Rolex watch is the same certified chronometer anywhere in the world; its positioning – as the timepiece for the elegant high achiever – is the same around the world, as is the advertising message. One will always find a Rolex in an upmarket distribution outlet and at a premium price. Or consider Unilever's Lifebuoy soap, which has different ingredients in India compared to East Africa. However, Unilever positions the soap in the same way in both markets – as an inexpensive everyday soap that has antibacterial properties and protects health.
F
rom
the Financial
Times
What other companies does the article mention? What does it say about their marketing approaches?
Exercise 1. Discuss the following questions.
How has new technology contributed to the development of new products, according to the article?
How do Japanese, US and German companies differ in their approaches to product development?
Exercise 2. Choose the best definition of the words below.
1. exorbitantly
a) much higher than usual
b) much lower than usual
c) the same as usual
2. spectrum
a) range b) choice c) potential
3. customise
a) design specially b) order specialty c) test specially
4. compromise
a) choose a middle way
b) make a promise
c) achieve your aim
5. gauging
a) assessing b) guessing c) predicting
Exercise 3. Complete the statements with suitable marketing expressions from the box.
buying habits economic situation government bureaucracy income distribution monetary regulations political stability |
Because of tight _____company profits could not be taken out of the country.
Red tape and other examples of _____hinder a company's entry into a market.
The country is attractive to exporters because it has enjoyed _____for the last 50 years.
The purchasing behaviour of consumers can be described as their _____.
The _____ is improving leading to a rise in employment.
_____ is a term used by economists to describe how wealth is shared in a country.
Exercise 4. Read the excerpt below about positioning ((product) positioning the way that people think about a product in relation to the company's other products and to competing products or the way that the company would like them to think about it.)
In each line 1-14 there is one wrong word.
For each line, think of the correct word (as in the examples).
Product positioning is the art of creating a product that persuades and fits a given place in the consumer’s minds. Positioning is no created by the market, but rather by the consumers themselves. What the marketer does, is create an environment which encourages consumers to accepting a particular production in their minds. Some marketers argue that positioning is something.
For positioning to be successful, a number of factors needs to be considered. Firstly, the massage of the brand needs to be clear and in line with which the company wants to communication about its product or service.
Secondly, the product must be perceived as relevance to the targeted customers' lifestyle. It is therefore necessity to ensure that the product identity is neither too youth or too old, neither too up- or downmarket for the consumers targeting.
Finally, any claim that the product is 'unique' or 'genuine' has to be supported by evidence, and of course such a promise will need to be kept in order to create trust in the brand. |
|
|