3. Corporate culture

4. International Marketing

International marketing refers to marketing carried out by companies overseas or across national borderlines. This strategy uses an extension of the techniques used in the home country of a firm. Tastes everywhere are becoming similar and homogeneous. However, it is important to remember “Think global, act local” Acting local means having local market knowledge: there are still wide variations in taste, customs’ behavior and expectations between consumers.

Of course, there are issues that a company with a global presence has to address. But all global companies started from a home base. For example, it took 30 years for Malboro to become global.

Phillip Kotler marks out the various methods how to enter overseas market:

• Indirect export- through intermediary

• Direct export- overseas sales offices

• Licensing- sell the rights

• Joint ventures- local and overseas companies work together

• Direct investment- the company buys a local firm

Of corse, these different arrangements require different levels of commitment, investment and risk.

Kotler talks about the internationalization process, where firms move through such stages:

• No regular export activities

• Export via independent representatives/agents

• Establishment of overseas subsidiaries

• Establishment of production facilities abroad

This process will help them to progress towards global thinking and local action as they expand internationally.

From the book

In these days of increasing global integration, the task of many international marketers face is not so much market entry as managing the marketing mix in different national markets.

In text are provided some examples of different marketing approaches.

Consumer tastes in cars are different in different countries. The manufacturer has to find the balance between designing a separate car for each market. Nissan was pioneer in this area. It reduced the number of models to sell it for 75 different markets.

Kellogg- cereal produces company- ignored the research that said cereal would not sell in France. Now it is popular and common.

Coca-Cola changes the flavor of its soft drink to conform to local tastes.

Thus there is a spectrum of new product development strategies. Firms sometimes customize a product to every market, at the other times then offer one standardized product everywhere and sometimes they compromise and settle in the middle.

Company develops products in different countries in different ways. Japanese companies tend to believe much more in getting new products to market and then gauging the reaction to them. US companies tend to use more formal research methods. Germany prefers product development schedules.

Example: Kira Plastinina is a Russian young designer. Her business is a good example of international marketing. Initially she worked to produce clothes for Russians only. Later on, her collections were presented in Milan. She invited Paris Hilton to promote her clothes. And now her shops are on the overseas markets, even in USA.

Plastinina went through some of Kotler’s stages: export via independent agents and establishment of overseas sales subsidiaries.