Bilal Javed Jafrani

10021
January 3, 2018
The Most Common Mistakes Companies Make with Global Marketing
The paper aims to provide a guideline for marketers entering new international markets to
prevent them from making various blunders. The author suggests some common oversights by
the marketing team that are negatively affecting success of companies in international markets.
The tone of the paper is positivistic, in that the author supports the ideas presented with some
instances from the author’s past experiences. The paper does not bring forward a new idea, but
summarizes the already existing knowledge as a general guideline on what not to do when
entering international markets.
The paper is written based on the author’s experience as a business consultant, rather than being
based on objective research. The first point the author advices marketers not to do is group
individual countries into broad geographical regions. This is because each country has its own
social, economic and political environments. The next idea is to use internal data more than
external data because it is more relevant to the product being offered in these markets (that is,
your own) and could lead to more accurate decision-making. The next idea is to customize the
channels to match the environment of each country, rather than going along with a standard
method. The fourth point is to adapt the product offering to the country as well, considering the
readiness of the market to use the product and any other factors that might affect the product
launch in that country, including pricing. The fifth point is to trust the local teams for gaining
maximum benefit from them as these are the people who know the product as well as the market
better. The last point is to focus on the supply chain as well, to avoid marketing a product which
cannot be sold to all the target market.
This list can be especially useful for international companies starting business in Pakistan,
because of the uncertain political, economic and social environment and the strong religious and
cultural values. Grouping Pakistan along with its neighbors such as India could be disastrous for
companies. Even though they may seem similar superficially, but when we delve deeper into the
details, Pakistan actually has a very weak supply chain infrastructure and different religious
values. As Pakistanis tend to be more helpful for people who speak their own language,
especially the provincial language, it would be wise to trust local sales staff to get the job done
without any hiccups.
The points are clear, concise and easy to grasp as general guidelines. As the author was a
business consultant, the points put forward can be considered to be reliable for the purpose of
basic understanding. These few points can be useful for any marketer entering international
markets, but there is a possibility of expanding this list to beyond the common oversights only.
Using this paper as a starting point, a more comprehensive list can be made to encompass even
rare oversights by marketers, which can be even more useful for young marketers.

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