Introduction to International

Marketing
Al Marshall
ACU National
 The Impact on Business
• Internationalisation impacting on demestic
economies
• Impact is on all sizes of business
• Direct impacts come from imports, exports
• Indirect impacts come from macro
environmental forces
 Success in Business Requires
Understanding
• Forces of internationalisation must be
understood
• Effects of these forces must also be
understood
• Business performance depends on the above
• Solely a domestic/national focus
insufficient
 Threats to the Domestically
Focused
• Notion of the protected marketplace
increasingly redundant
• If not in other markets, other market
companies are here
• Intensified competition in domestic market
• One response is to move intto other markets
 International Marketing as an
Option
• Core marketing concepts, principles,
functions, processes remain the same
• Differences lie in increased environmental
difference
• Charactorised by complexity/diversity
• Environmental difference the key difficulty
 Environmental Differences
• A greater number of factors
• These factors less known than domestic
market factors
• Understanding and adaption required
• Issues arise in both developing
understanding and strategic adaption
 Fit With Domestic Marketing
• Question of how will fund international
marketing
• Domestic market resources typically used
• Question of what commonalities there are
with domestic market
• Commonalities allow greater
synergies/degree of integration
 The Extent of Commonalities
• Markets can be selected for the degree of
commonality
• Common markets though may not be the
ones with greatest market potential
• Differences may exist at product, market,
industry, macro enviro levels
• Latter includes pol/legal, economic,
technology, demography, socio-cultural
 The Key Role of Cultural
Differences
• Developing cultural understanding a key
issue
• The major source of problems in
international marketing
• Culture (both individual and corporate) is
largely invisible
• Self reference criteria and ethnocentrism
stumbling blocks
 The Role of Environmental
Audits
• Audits have a major role to play on a
continuous basis
• Crucial in choosing non-domestic markets,
but also post-entry
• Market attractiveness and choice premised
on audits
• Strategic market planning requires them
 Degree of Commitment and
International Exposure
• Not simply an either/or type option
• Typically commitment/exposure is limited
to start with
• Success (and the experience curve) leads to
a upward cascade
• Varies from indirect international marketing
to full global marketing
 Advantages of Going
International
• Experience curve learning effects can be
applied elsewhere
• Economies of scale and reduced costs
• Opportunity to grow further and increased
profit
• Break out of being attacked in saturated
domestic market
 Disadvantages of Going
International
• Higher risk and prospect of failure
• Higher resource commitment may drain
from elsewhere
• Environmental complexity/ and pychic
distance
• Need for adaption in marketing plans with
possible new strategies