Saturday, December 8, 2012

International Marketing

Why has international marketing grown so much in recent decades? 

Global marketing reaches customers, markets and advertising beyond the borders of domestic region. The more a culture spreads, the more its products do. Since traveling is a lot easier as it used to be, people from different cultures visit different countries. Better communication, transportation and freer international markets are signs of globalization. These aspects lacked in the past and while it used to be risky, international marketing is in many cases a necessity for businesses.




 What are some of the factors that has allowed this to happen more easily now than in the past?

Improved communications, transportation and businesses that are too big for their own market.



Identify five reasons why companies may decide to sell their product or service in foreign markets.
Home markets may be too saturated, meaning that the product is already maximized in given market and there is no more space to sell it anymore.
Foreign markets also offer potential profits while it still emerges, this result in rapid sales at low costs.
Spreading risks to different places.
Poor trading conditions may contribute to market globalization.




What considerations must a company have in these areas when undertaking international marketing?
Ø     Political differences
Changes in the government or political instabilities, like riots or terrorist activity, increase the risk of business failure. For example civirl wars in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Sudan dramatically decreased businesses.
 
Ø     Economic differences
One must take in account the GDP as well as the rates of taxes, age structure of population and interest rates. The GDP vary from country to place to place, like Luxembourg that has GDP of $78 559 and Burundi that stands on $160.
 
Ø     Social differences
Products to be sold are also effected by cultures that also include the importance of marriage and the role of women in the society. For example, IKEA's advertisements that had a happy women in nicely designed kitched in a European country, lacked the woman in the picture in an Arabic country.
 
Ø     Legal differences
Legal differences have huge impact of foreign businesses and affect them in many key ways. For example: product safety and labeling are much stricter in European Union than in America, children under the age of 12 cannot be directly advertised to, guns are legally sold in the USA but are illegal in other countries.
           
Ø     Cultural differences
Unrecognized cultural differences may have crucial impact. While laws are written down, traditions and culture are hard to measure. If a business doesn't recognise , for example, the roles of women in the society, uses an unfortunate word in its translation or uses different colors (ex. in far East, white is a mourning color), the business will fail.  

Ø     Differences in business practices
Setting up a business, the formalities and paperwork that come with it take different amount of time in different parts of the world. For example, this process may take few days in the UK but may take up to a year in Sierra Leone.
 

Source: Business and Managemrnt for the IB Diploma by Peter Stimpson and Alex Smith
              http://www.helium.com/items/1010632-political-risks-in-international-trade

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