First Teaching Unit / Second Learning environment

Essential reading

International marketing strategy

Content

1 Strategic markets

2 Business intelligence

Keywords: strategic markets, business intelligence, information systems.

1. Strategic markets

¿Did you know that…?

Most small companies fail in their internationalization process because
they don’t do a correct market research.

Once the National Market is already covered by the company’s products, the next step is to take
advantage of global markets. But, how do you know which market is the best for your product?
Should you use the same strategy you apply for your National Market selection? All these questions,
along with others regarding customers´ profiling, geographic scope, and distribution channels, can
only be solved through a marketing intelligence process. This process ends up in a strategic business
plan that should include, not only the marketing team, but everyone in the company. The elements
involved in a business plan are exposed on the following figure.

Marketing TEAM

Business Plan

Research
Analysis

Research

Figure 1. Elements of a Business Plan.

Source: designed by the author

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 1.1. Marketing intelligence and information systems

The term marketing intelligence has been used as an important tool to decrease the levels of
uncertainty in a company. According to Aste (2011): “marketing intelligence allows quantifying the
impact of marketing actions and analyzing information in a more scientific (and less intuitive) way.” To
avoid uncertainty in marketing decision-making, is important to analyze, for example, if the customer
feel satisfied with the product. The competitors are another important variable to be analyzed as well as
the geography and localization of the country of destination, in order to guarantee the correct strategy.

Competitor

Marketing
Customer Intelligence
Product

Geography

Figure 2. Marketing Intelligence Analysis

Source: designed by the author

One important tool for marketing intelligence is information technology. All the new trends can be
found on the Internet, on the competitor’s web page, for instance. Nevertheless, it is also important
to determine the type of information that will be useful in your marketing strategy design. For
example, the legal requirements of the foreign country become, sometimes, a problem for small
companies. Too many paperwork, too many certifications, changes in the labels, etc.

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 FRUIT
FRUIT

FRUIT
FRUIT
FRUIT
FRUIT
500 ML

FRUIT
FRUIT
500 ML

FRUIT
FRUIT
500 ML

500 ML

500 ML

Figure 3: Fruit campaign

Source: designed by the author

For example, if you are a colombian fruit juice company and you are planning to export your product,
to Germany, one of the first changes in your marketing strategy will be translating the nutritional facts
from Spanish to German. You must also change the concept of raw fruit into processed fruit pulp.
Another example is if you want to export is a pair of leather shoes to the United States, you should
consider that in that country they may use a different size chart, so you must make a conversion.

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Any marketing intelligence process has four basic components, which are exposed below.

Information technology in
the form of computers, Analytical capabilities in
hardware or software. the form of statistical
Information Analytical packages in order to
Technology Capabilities analyze marketing data.

Marketing
Intelligence
Components

Marketing Marketing
Knowledge Data

Marketing knowledge which

refers to advertisement and Marketing data in the form
customer reaction. Is the of quantitative information
result of experience and related to prices, market
intuition (Wierenga & van share, distribution, and
Bruggen, 1993). marketing mix.

Figure 4. Marketing Intelligence Components

Source: design by the author

When you do a marketing intelligence process you need a lot of information, which can be found on
different web sites, like Trade Map, Export Help, the Ministry of Commerce, Expansion (datosmacro.
com), and the World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Other relevant information
in your marketing intelligence process is the one concerning the maritime or air routes, transit times,
tariffs, economies information of the foreign country (GDP, GDP Per cápita, inflation rate), and the
no payment risk.

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 1.2. Analysis of competitors in prices and products

The competitors are the headache for most companies. But who is my competitor? According to the
dictionary, a competitor in business is another company that offers the same product or service that
you offer (Competitor, n.d.). That competitor does not necessarily offers a better price, sometimes it
adds value to its products.

Competitors analysis can be used as a benchmarking process, in which the company compares their
product or price strategy in order to determine if they are applying the correct ones. Customers are
willing to pay high prices for valuable products, so in case you are planning your marketing strategy,
don’t forget to consider the reasons why is your competitor has been successful.

One business tool that can be used to perform an analysis is the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats). Many companies fail in their attempt for fighting competitors and they don’t
really know why they haven’t found success. Another useful tool is the PESTEL analysis, which studies
factors like politics, economics, technology, society, environment, and legalities.

This PESTEL analysis is a strategic campaign planning tool.

¿Did you know that…?

The PESTEL tool analyzes political, economical, social, technological,
environmental and legal aspects within a country or organization. To know
more about it go to the following website: http://pestleanalysis.com/what-
is-pestle-analysis/

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 E S

- Economic growth - Income distribution

- Inflation -Demography

- Government PESTEL - International

influences T
P stability
- Tax policy analysis - Tech transfer

- Environmental
- Regional laws restrictions
- Court system - Climate change

L E

Figure 5. PESTEL Analysis Elements

Source: design by the author

2. Business intelligence
Business intelligence, not to be confused with marketing intelligence, is the capacity of transforming
data into useful information, and this one into knowledge that will be finally used in business decision-
making. (Ram, Zhang, & Koronios, 2016).

Business intelligence can be a comparative advantage to any company when all the information
gathered during the marketing research process is used correctly. Data itself is useless, but when
a company knows how to analyze it and convert it into structured information, then it can be more
successful than its competitors.

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 Data

Information

Knowledge

Figure 6. Business intelligence process

Source: designed by the author

But, why is business intelligence so important?

The answer is all about information. Because it can be found anywhere, the importance is knowing
how to use that information to improve the company´s competitiveness. Efficiency is improved as
well as the identification of new market trends and highlight potential threats. Also, decision-making
will be more confident, based on analyzed data. For that reasons, companies must be conscious of
having updated technological tools that support this process.

In logistics is very important to have organized information in order to make good decisions such as
choosing shipping services, distribution channels or the Incoterm. In International Marketing business
intelligence is an excellent tool in choosing the correct market for a product by creating the best
marketing mix strategy. One simple mistake in the promotion or brand strategy can cause a company
to lose money and clients.

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 Synthesizing...
Business intelligence is a process that have to be taken into consideration
in every company to guarantee effectiveness in management decisions.

If a startup company wants to export leather shoes to Miami, just because a friend is living there and
because he or she liked one pair ofshoes they can’t make a whole business decision based on intuition
or emotion. You must be creative, and every business decision needs to be made based on real
information, such as, customer’s needs, sizes, colors, transit times, costs, requirements, among other
important issues.

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References
Aste León, C. (2011). Marketing Intelligence, el mejor respaldo para tomar una decisión. Retrieved
from https://www.esan.edu.pe/conexion/actualidad/2011/07/19/marketing-intelligence-el-mejor-
respaldo-para-tomar-una-decision/.

Competitor (n.d.). Business Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/

competitor.html.

Ram, J., Zhang, C., & Koronios, A. (2016). The implications of Big Data analytics on Business
Intelligence: A Qualitative Study in China. Procedia Computer Science, 87. 221-226.

Wierenga, B. & van Bruggen, G. H. (1993). Marketing management support systems: evolution, adoption
and efectivenes. In J.F. Boss et al (Eds.), ESOMAR/EMAC/AFM Symposium on 'Information based
decision making in marketing: reconciling the needs and interests of decision makers, data collectors
and data providers', París, 17-19 November, 1993 (1-20). Amsterdam: ESOMAR.

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 TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Module: Logistics and International Marketing

First Teaching Unit: Introduction and basic concepts
Second Learning environment: Marketing in the
international economic process

Author: Sandra Chicas Sierra

Advisor: Juan Felipe Marciales Mejía

Graphic Designer: Cristian Navarro
Assistant: Ginna Quiroga

This material belongs to the Politécnico Grancolombiano.

Total or partial reproduction is prohibited.

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