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Unit/Module : Unit 40 International Marketing
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Nelson College London

 Executive Summary
This report is focused on analysing and identifying various aspects of international marketing
and how a business can ensure its success in the international market. Here the key concepts,
scopes, rationale, selection process for choosing a suitable international market, different
market strategies, advantages and disadvantages, international market mix, and many other
things like this have been discussed. This report aimed to develop and clear understanding of
international marketing by using various models and theories.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1

Introduction................................................................................................................................3

Analyse the scope and key concepts of international marketing............................................4

Explain the rationale for an organisation and describe the various routes to market.............5

Evaluate and apply the key criteria and selection process to use when considering which
international market to enter...................................................................................................6

Explain the different market entry strategies for targeting international markets, including
the advantages and disadvantages of each..............................................................................7

Present an overview of the global vs local debate's key arguments and evaluate the context
and circumstances...................................................................................................................8

Investigate how the product, pricing, promotional and distribution approach differs in a
variety of international contexts.............................................................................................9

Explain and analyse the various international marketing approaches organisations can
adopt.....................................................................................................................................11

Compare home and international orientation and ways to assess competitors outlining the
implications of each approach..............................................................................................11

Conclusion................................................................................................................................13

Recommendation......................................................................................................................13

References................................................................................................................................14

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 Introduction
Globalisation has opened a door for free trade across the borders; Different national, regional
and international organisations are also constantly working for facilitating the scopes and
methods of global or international business and marketing. Many businesses have already
taken advantage and flourished successfully. As a result, it has created one kind of standard
for other companies to think of taking their businesses at an international level. Without it,
substantial growth is almost impossible. However, it's a big decision and requires a clear
understating and carefulness about everything.

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Analyse the scope and key concepts of international marketing.
International marketing is when a business offers its products and services to satisfy a
customer's need across the border (Cateora, Gilly and Graham, 2016). Here, the company
performs all the basic functions of marketing not only for the domestic market but also for the
international market as well.

The scopes of international marketing

I. Export

When companies of a nation sell products to other nations and send them, this business
transaction is called export. It helps to create brand recognition in the foreign market.

II. Import

When companies of a nation purchases products from other nation's companies, then the
business transaction is called import. This is the easiest and most common type of
international business and marketing.

III. Joint venture

When a business wants to enter a foreign market, it sometimes creates a partnership with any
of the local companies of that market's same genre, and this process is called a joint venture
(Kotabe and Helsen, 2015). It helps to get quick recognition and maintaining easy operation.

IV. Fully owned manufacturing

Sometimes big, popular, and established companies get the privilege to run their business into
another country all by themselves. They have the sole authority to manufacture and sell their
products and services without any third party or partnership.

The key concepts of international marketing

I. Increased revenue and profit

Expanding a business in the international market helps to gain a larger target market and the
chance to sell more. As a result, both the revenue and profit margin increase which is
definitely a plus point for companies.

II. Stability

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The international market offers a long-term term business operation. As a result,
organisations don't have to depend only on the domestic market and get affected by
economic, social, technological, or other environments. It will then have the support of the
foreign market too.

III. Innovation

International marketing flourishes an organisation's internal research and development and

brings out many innovations (Wall and Minocha, 2015). Because expanding territory is a big
step and requires new strategies and techniques that later results in innovation.

IV. Governmental incentives

Governments of many countries offer supports and incentives to SMEs for internal expansion
and marketing. As a result, it turns out to be a good deal for business organisations
considering all the benefits,

Explain the rationale for an organisation and describe the various routes to
market.
When an organisation decides to enter the international market, it must consider many
rationales and various market routes. They are described below.

The rationale for an organisation

I. External factors

There are various external factors like legal, environmental, political etc., that are needed to
be considered before and the organisation decides to enter the international market. These can
create both opportunities and barriers to an organisation (Backhaus, Joachim Büschken and
Voeth, 2006). If a nation approves foreign companies to operate their activities without any
restrictions, then its an opportunity, and if not, it's a challenge. For example, Amazon faced
the barrier of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) while entering the Indian market.

II. Infrastructural factors

These factors are basically connected with the domestic market, its support, mindset etc.
They affect organising to continue its operation in the foreign market's domestic
environment. For example, both the customers and retailers of India think that e-commerce is
not reliable and complicated. As a result, Amazon had to use different strategies to convince
the local sellers and small businesses to use it to sell goods.

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 III. Congenital factors

A business requires leadership spirit and determination as well to enter an international

market. For example, Amazon faced many difficulties and restrictions while entering the
Indian market from both the sellers and customers (International abstracts of research in
marketing, 2007). But Jeff Bezos was pretty determined about it and directed all the
employees to analyse and discover opportunities to tackle all those barriers and turn them into
opportunities.

Various routes to market

I. E-marketing

E-marketing is a popular route for marketing internationally. Here, the company uses the
internet and online media to promote its business overseas and does its business transactions.

II. Exportation

Exporting is the most common and quick method to do international marketing. A business
can easily export its goods and materials to other countries and create brand recognition to
the foreign target market.

III. Franchising

Franchising allows local businesses to represent a popular foreign brand and earn money
(Buckley, 2002). Many established companies like KFC, McDonald's, Bandbox etc. does
franchising with the local business of another nation and does international marketing.

Evaluate and apply the key criteria and selection process to use when
considering which international market to enter.
An organisation must evaluate some key criteria and consider the section process before
choosing an international market to enter. Here are some of those criteria.

Size of the organisation

The size of the organisation that is going to enter the international market is important to
consider. Because the scope determines the operations and the required territory of the
business needed to be successful in the foreign market (Ellis and Zhan, 2011). For example,
Amazon is a big company with numerous goods to offer. It needed to understand if the size
and operation are appropriate for the selected market.

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Identifying the target market

This is another important thing to consider because without identifying the right target
market, the decision of expanding into another market will bring no value (Proff, 2002). For
example, Amazon needed to understand if India has the right target market and potential or
not so that the value proposition of Amazon gets accepted the way it wanted.

Preliminary screening

Preliminary screening includes the analysis of the cultural, legal, political, technological,
educational situation of the potential market, so understand if the environment is in favour or
not. Amazon is not available in every country of the world because they didn't get chosen in
the preliminary screening.

In-depth screening

The in-depth screening identifies a clearer scenario of the market where the company is going
to enter. It tells the market condition, how to operate their, hat strategies need to be taken etc.
For instance, Amazon knew India's FDI barrier, yet it did in-depth dome screening and
figured out the ways to overcome that (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2012). If the ways couldn't
be found, then the expansion in India might not have happened.

Final selection

The final selection happens when the company makes the official decision to enter a specific
market/markets. It is a long-term decision with a heavy investment of time and money.
Fortunately for Amazon, India's expansion was successful and it became the number one
leader in India's e-commerce industry.

Explain the different market entry strategies for targeting international

markets, including the advantages and disadvantages of each.
There're multiple ways and strategies by which an organisation can target for entering an
international market.

Exporting

Most of the firms use exporting as an entry strategy for the international market. Here the
organisation sends or delivers products from the origin country to a foreign country. A
contract or agreement gets made with a foreign country distributor whose responsibility is to
collect and re-distribute the products (Stone, 2003). The advantages of exporting are the

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entering process is simple and quick. There's also less investment needed, and the risk is
lower as well. However, there're some disadvantages, including less control on the
distribution, less knowledge gathering on the local market and customers, which may affect
the business in the long run.

Licencing or Franchising

In licencing, the company sells the right to use the products and services to another person or
company, such as Marvel entertainment. In franchising, the company lets the person or
company duplicate its business and run operation in return for a certain fee, such as KFC. The
difference between these two things is that there aren't any monitoring of interference from
the original company, but franchising these two things exists in licensing (Peng, 2017). These
strategies have advantages such as less risk, local recognition, shared investment etc. And the
disadvantages are less control, chances of defamation etc.

Partnering or Strategic Alliances

Here, a company forms a contractual agreement with one or multiple foreign market
companies regarding the distribution of the products and services. However, while doing
partnering or strategic alliances, it needs to monitor if the local companies can share and
achieve one common goal (Cateora, Gilly and Graham, 2016). For example, the partnership
between Cisco and Fujitsu to develop and sell routers in Japan. This strategy reduces risk,
ensures quick local recognition and less investment is needed. Still, the cost is higher than
exporting and franchising and sometimes there are issues in collaboration between two
different organisations.

Acquisition

Here, the company wither buys the majority of a foreign company's share to control or buy
the whole company for full control—an example such as Vodafone and Mannesmann
acquisition. Often companies do it to ensure a strong positioning in the international market.
It provides a fast entry and established operation (Backhaus, Joachim Büschken and Voeth,
2006). However, this strategy costs a huge amount of money, and there may be some serious
legal barriers to face.

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Present an overview of the global vs local debate's key arguments and
evaluate the context and circumstances.
When an organisation take a decision to enter a new market, the debate of whether to use the
global or local approach is always in question.

Product adaptation

A product or service that is popular in the local market may also do many wonders if it went
global. However, the opposite situation may happen, as well. It's easier to ensure product
adaptation within the local territory because the target market and their culture, mindset is
already known (Kotabe and Helsen, 2015). But in terms of the foreign market, it's hard to
know every detail that may benefit or affect the business. That's why its better to go global
only if the organisation is confident enough and has done adequate research on the foreign
market. For instance, when Amazon entered the market, it applied different strategies to
convince the sellers it may not have done in the US or UK markets. Amazon also adapted a
different pricing strategy for India than its origin country because it decided to go global.

Legislature

The legislature is a serious thing to consider while considering going global or staying local.
Commonly, local products and services have to face fewer rules and regulations than foreign
products or services. As a result, many businesses feel reluctant to go global. Amazon also
faced legal restriction on FDI in India. Still, it decided to go global because Amazon figured
out how it can overcome this barrier. Similarly, only if a business can ensure the strategy to
tackle the legislature of a foreign market will go global. Otherwise, it's better to stay local.

Business activity set up.

Setting up a business operation in a completely different country requires a lot of planning

and consideration. The local territory is always limited, and there's not much hassle to set up
the business (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 2011). But that's not the case in foreign
territory. For example, Amazon is a big company and to run its business; it requires
numerous warehouses. India is indeed a big country and can provide space and manpower to
set up Amazon's business there, which may not happen with other countries. That's why
analysing if the foreign country is suitable to set up the specific business activities, and then
the global or local decision should be made.

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Investigate how the product, pricing, promotional and distribution
approach differs in a variety of international contexts.
For entering the international market, several things affect the basic marketing mix. Those are
described below.

Product

The product approach varies from business to business. Some businesses have the privilege to
stick to their origin product approach, while other business cannot. For example, McDonald's
has to change its products strategy depending on its operation (Wall and Minocha, 2015). The
product portfolio that is suitable in and Europe country won't work in the Middle East.
However, businesses like Amazon, which sells various types of essentials, can maintain their
product portfolio. However, it's better if the supplier of those products is local.

Price

The pricing strategy definitely varies while running operation in an internal market. Different
countries have different economies, and maintain the same monetary standard for all the
country won't be beneficial. For example, Amazon charges $119 for its annual prime
membership in the US. But is India, the charge is only 999 INR which is around $14. This
price variation is important to achieve acceptance from the foreign target market.

Place

It's important to consider the placement and distribution strategy for the foreign market.
Because it's natural that a company may not have proper knowledge about the places and
distribution channel of the foreign country where the product and services will get the
expected result, but it's highly essential to figure out (International abstracts of research in
marketing, 2007). Amazon has developed 21 warehouses all across India to ensure an
undisturbed flow of operational activities. It has also launched two India-centric programs
named "seller flex" and "easy ship". All these are done to adapt to the foreign market's
placement and distribution to maintain the original way of doing business.

Promotion

Indeed, some promotional campaigns are enough to send a common message all over the
world. But that's not always enough. To properly capture the foreign market and its attention,
sometimes local promotion is needed too. Indian people know how Amazon works. To be
more attached to them, Amazon has applied different promotional campaigns that reflect the

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value and culture of Indian society. It also made a relationship with the sellers with the desi
approach and convinced them to use Amazon.

Explain and analyse the various international marketing approaches

organisations can adopt.
Here is a detailed discussion of the various international marketing approaches that an
organisation can adopt.

Ethnocentric Approach

In this approach, the origin country's operations will always be prioritised, and the secondary
country's activities will be considered secondary (Buckley, 2002). It means the business will
be more focused on dealing with the home country's competition than the international
market.

Polycentric Approach

In this approach, strategies for local and global market are different. The company applies
one type of techniques for the home country and develops subsidiary strategies or sections
dealing with the foreign market with a different approach. Each of the subsidiaries gets
operated independently.

Regio-centric Approach

In this approach, each international market is considered a different territory, and the
strategies and decision for each of them are separate (Ellis and Zhan, 2011). Many
organisations use this approach to be adapted appropriately to the different market according
to the different characteristics, demands and needs.

Geocentric Approach

In this approach, all the international markets on which the organisation operates its business
are considered the single market. A standard strategy gets developed and is applied for all the
target market of each nation.

Compare home and international orientation and ways to assess

competitors outlining the implications of each approach.
The market scenario in a local context and a foreign context is always different. The local
context is more predictable than the foreign one. Because the organisation knows how to
handle the market demand what the consumer wants (Proff, 2002). Businesses also enjoy

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various types of flexibility while operating in the home orientation, which is impossible in
international orientation. As a result, assessing the competition will be different as well for
these two orientations.

A business operating in an ethnocentric approach will not pay much attention to the
international market because its main priority would be the local market. As a result, it will
do better in the local market than in the foreign market. On the other hand, in a polycentric
approach, the business has concerns for both the local and international market, and for this
reason, it has developed different strategies for each market. It'll be helpful to tackle different
market competition effectively (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2012). The same goes for the
Regio-centric market because all the markets where the business is getting operated are
considered different, and competition analysis is different. Oy provides a clear understanding
of the competition and helps to handle them effectively. The geocentric approach is risky for
handling competition because every market is considered one single market and competition
is also considered the same. But the real scenario is not like that. It also makes it difficult to
develop a standard that will effectively assess all the markets' competition.

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 Conclusion
The decision of taking a business internationally isn't easy and requires lots of consideration.
However, it's also an important thing to do if the business wants to expand its operation and
achieve global recognition. But before that, the organisation must know how to approach the
foreign market so that the initiatives don't fail. In the example of Amazon, it has been
observed that this company knew what it is doing (Stone, 2003). Before entering the Indian
market, it has already done proper research and made strategies about it. This is why it is
successful in becoming the market leader in the e-commerce industry of India.

Recommendation
Amazon has successfully captured the Indian market, which was very difficult to do as the
market's characteristic wasn't something that matches the previous operations and another
foreign territory of Amazon. It also had many barriers which directly affected the typical
activities of this company. However, Amazon had prepared itself for every barrier and
effectively captured the market with its innovating and engaging strategies. Other businesses
that are thinking of expanding their business internationally should take lessons from
Amazon. It manages everything by properly analysing the market scenario and finding the
opportunities to grow.

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 References
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Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

‌Buckley, P. (2002). International business versus international marketing. International

Marketing Review, 19(1), pp.16–20.

Cateora, P.R., Gilly, M.C. and Graham, J.L. (2016). International marketing. New York, Ny
Mcgrawhill Education.

‌Czinkota, M.R. and Ronkainen, I.A. (2012). Principles of international marketing. Mason,
Ohio: South-Western ; Andover.

‌Czinkota, M.R., Ronkainen, I.A. and Moffett, M.H. (2011). International business. Hoboken
(N.J.): Wiley.

‌Ellis, P.D. and Zhan, G. (2011). How international are the international business journals?
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‌J Michael Geringer, Ball, D.A., Minor, M.S. and Mcnett, J.M. (2016). International business.
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‌Peng, M.W. (2017). Global business. Australia: Cengage Learning.

‌Proff, H. (2002). Business unit strategies between regionalisation and globalisation.

International Business Review, 11(2), pp.231–250.

‌Stone, M.A. (2003). International marketing relationships20032Sue Bridgewater and Chris

Egan. International marketing relationships. Palgrave, 2002. , ISBN: 0‐333‐73378‐9 £26.99
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‌Wall, S. and Minocha, S. (2015). International business. Boston: Pearson.

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