Professional Documents
Culture Documents
International Marketing and Production
International Marketing and Production
04 December 2023
5.process,
6.people
7.physical evidence,
I.language,
II.institutions,
III.material productions,
IV.symbolic productions
Targeting Strategy
In order to choose the target market(s), the
manager needs to check the current segment size
and its growth potential. The size of the segment
may be significant, but it may have reached the
saturation level and may not have any growth
potential. Then, there is no need to choose this
segment as a target market because the possibility
to sustain profitability will be a problem.
Targeting Strategy
Differential advantage refers to the ability to
provide better market offerings than the
competitor’s offerings. Product and service quality
and brand reputation variables are combined to
calculate the differential advantage.
Cost advantage means providing the same
products at a better cost than the competitors.
Marketing advantage refers to providing
a better market offering than competitors due to
extensive distribution and effective promotion.
Targeting Strategy
Targeting strategies can be grouped into three at
the global level:
1.standardization,
2.differentiation, and
3.niche marketing.
Standardization is a process of marketing the same
marketing mix throughout the globe.
Targeting Strategy
Differentiated marketing, which refers to serving
multiple market segments with different marketing
mix offerings, seems to be a better alternative when
serving in contemporary global market. For
example, L’Oréal is a global cosmetics company that
uses a differentiation strategy very effectively. It has
the L’Oréal Luxe brand line, which carries various
luxury skincare, makeup, and perfume brands for
millennials, whose desires and aspirations are
shaped in contemporary social networks.
Targeting Strategy
Niche marketers serve a narrowly defined market
within an international market or at the global
level. For example, due to the advancement of
digital photography, people lost interest in analog
film photography. Recently, a niche market of
young consumers who prefer alternative
photography techniques, tools, processes, and
nostalgic aesthetics and experiences has emerged.
Lomography, a brand of analog photo camera,
serves for this particular and narrowly defined
global market.
04 December 2023 / INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
57
INTERNATIONAL MARKETING STRATEGIES
Positioning Strategy
Positioning is a strategy which aims to differentiate the
brand in the consumer’s mind from the competitor’s
brand in terms of the attributes and benefits offered by
that brand. Having this in mind, another important
consideration for marketers is the scale of the market
that they need to operate in the global cultural
economy. There can be three alternative scales:
a.global consumer culture,
b.foreign consumer culture, and
c.local consumer culture
Positioning Strategy
Global consumer culture positioning means that the
brand identifies a specific segment of the global
consumer culture. For example, in the early 2000s,
UGG boots became popular among the upper-
middle-class global youth female subculture. Rather
than adapting the products according to the
geography or across countries, UGG identifies
female consumers that belong to the global youth
subculture with similar tastes and lifestyles.
Positioning Strategy
An alternative positioning strategy is foreign
consumer culture positioning, where the company
associates the brand with a specific foreign country
or culture. For example, Levi’s Jeans symbolically
associates itself with America or the Wild West,
Volkswagen associates itself with German
Engineering by Das Auto slogan. Foreign consumer
culture positioning is less common than global and
local consumer culture positioning strategies.
Positioning Strategy
Product Decisions
Product is defined as “anything that can be offered
to a market for attention, acquisition, use or
consumption that might satisfy a want or need.
Products have tangible and intangible components
and can be conceptualized at three levels: core
customer value, actual product, and the augmented
product. While the core customer value refers to
the benefit of the product to the customers, the
actual product consists of quality level, features,
design, packaging, and brand name.
Product Decisions
Marketers can extend or adapt current products or
create novel products for international or global
markets. To choose one of these options, an
international marketer needs to look at two
essential elements of the marketing mix together:
product and communication. Communication and
product decisions are considered together since
marketing communications create the position of
the product and the intangible elements of the
product, such as its symbolic value and the brand
name.
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64
INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MIX DECISIONS
Product Decisions
The four alternative strategies that a company can choose when planning its product for the global markets.
Product Decisions
Strategy1: suggests using the same message in all promotion mix elements and
offering the same product in different international markets. It is a risky strategy
since most of the time, the product needs to be adapted according to the
constraints of the environment and the needs of the market. Additionally, the
new market can be able to interpret the message designed for the domestic
market.
For example, Chanel perfumes and Benetton utilize this strategy. They market the
same products with the same communication tools across the global consumer
culture.
Product Decisions
Strategy2: suggests that while extending the product to different
international markets, communication about the product can be adapted.
This strategy suggests managers tailor the intangible aspects of the product
or the message given about the product to fit it to the culture of the new
customer base. While
launching Burberry’s Taipei flagship store, Burberry used Asian celebrities in
the opening event which they organized. Coca-cola also tailors ads specific
to the cultural rituals of the market.
Product Decisions
Strategy 3 considers adapting the product to the needs of the
foreign markets while keeping the communication common all
around these different markets.
BP sells various types of gas in different
international markets but prefers to use the same message on
the brand across these markets.
Product Decisions
The fourth strategy (Strategy 4) is the adaption of both the product and
the communication. Environmental conditions and the characteristics of
the target market may necessitate companies to tailor both their
products and communication practices to the new foreign markets.
Most of the car
brands utilize this strategy. Regulations, climate, needs, and wants of
the consumers lead car manufacturers to offer different car models to
various international markets.
Pricing Decisions
Price is the only element of the marketing mix that creates revenues.
International pricing is more complicated than pricing in domestic markets
due to a variety of external factors such as changes in exchange rates,
increasing inflation levels, use of alternative payment methods such as
barter or leasing, and government influences such as tariffs or quotas or
regulations on pricing. Besides, the particular market factors such as
customers’ perceptions of the value of a product, their economic means,
and competition may influence the pricing decision
Pricing Decisions