Marketing is “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution

of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives”

The word 'International Marketing' is the extension of marketing in national boundaries, it is defined as
the exchange of goods and services across national borders to meet the requirements of the customers.
It includes customer analysis in foreign countries and identifying the target market.

International expansion strategies are formal, multi-level strategic plans that businesses use to enter an
overseas market, establish a growing presence, and become quickly profitable.
Foreign expansion strategies make continued growth more structured and sustainable.

International marketing strategy, are actually important parts of a marketing strategy. In order to create
a good international marketing strategy, you must be able to answer: “What I am trying to achieve in an
international market?” “What are my company’s strengths and weaknesses for that market?” “How can
I counter challenges in the market?” “What potential will I have in this market?”

Marketing mix is a combination of factors that can be controlled by a company to influence consumers
to purchase its products.( four P’s of marketing): product, pricing, promotion and place.

Key decision making factors:

Standardization became a popular buzzword during 1980’s, it is a framework of agreements to which all
relevant parties in an industry or organization must adhere to ensure that all processes associated with
the creation of a good or performance of a service are performed within set guidelines.

Customization allows a firm to tailor its products to meet the needs of customers in each market.

Advantages and disadvantages:

Standardized international marketing

Advantages:

Reduces marketing costs

Facilitates centralized control of marketing

Promotes efficiency

Results in economies of scale production

Reflect the trend towards a single global marketplace

Disadvantages:

Ignores different conditions of product use

Ignores local legal differences

Ignores differences in buyer behaviour patterns

Inhibits local marketing initiatives

Ignores other differences in individual markets

Cultural influences means historical, geographical, and familial factors that affect assessment and
intervention processes.

Economic factors, the set of fundamental information that affects a business or an investment's value.
Various economic factors need to be taken into account when determining the current and expected
future value of a business or investment portfolio.Such as:

Brand names, one element international firms often like to standardize is the brand name of a product.
A firm that does this can reduce its packaging, design and advertising production costs. It also captures
spill overs of its advertising messages from one market to another.

Pricing policy directly affect the size of the revenues earned by a firm.

3types of pricing policy:

1. Standard price policy, where the firm charges the same price for its products and services regardless
of where they are sold or the nationality of the customer.

2. Two-tiered pricing, whereby the firm sets one price for all its domestic sales and a second price for all
its international sales.

3. Market pricing policy, is the most complex and the most commonly adapted.

Gray markets – a market that results when products are imported to a country legally but outside the
normal channels of distribution authorized by a manufacturer. It’s also known as a parallel importing.

A Gray market may develop when the price in one market is sufficiently lower than the price the firm
charges in another market.

Gray markets sales undermine a firms market pricing policy and often lowers the firms profits.

Promotion – it enhances the desirability of its products among potential buyers ADVERTISING personal
selling sales promotions and public relations.
ADVERTISING- the most important element in promotion mix it considers 3 factors:

the message it wants to convey

the media available for conveying the message

the extent to which the firms wants to globalize its adversity effort

MESSAGE – the message of an advertisement is the facts or impressions the advertiser wants to convey
to potential customers.

MEDIUM - The communication channel used by the advertiser to convey a message.

Global vs Local advertising

A firm must also decide whether advertising for its product or service can be the same everywhere or
must be tailored to each local market the firm serves.

PERSONALL SELLING - The second element of the promotion mix is making sales on the basis of personal
contacts. The use of sales representatives who call on potential customers and attempt to sell products
or services is the most common approach to personal selling.

For industrial products personal selling customers often need technical information about product
characteristics, usage maintenance requirements, and availability of after sales support.

For consumer products normally is confined to selling to wholesalers and to retail chains.

The advantages of personal selling

• Firms that hire local sales representatives can be reasonably confident that those individuals
understand the local culture norms and customs.

• Personal selling promotes close personal contact with customers. Customers see real people and come
to associate that personal contact with the firm.

SALES PROMOTION Comprises specialized marketing efforts such as coupons, in store promotions,
sampling, direct mail campaigns, cooperative advertising, and trade fair attendance. Their activities are
focused on wholesalers and retailers and are designed to increase the number and commitment of
these intermediaries working with the firm.
PUBLIC RELATIONS their efforts are aimed at enhancing the firms reputation and image with the public.
The impact of a good public relation is hard to quantify but over time an international firm’s positive
image and reputation are likely to benefit the firm in the host country.

The fourth P of the international marketing mix is PLACE but referred to as distribution. There are 2
distribution issues:

• Physically transporting its goods and services from where they are created to the various market in
which they are to be sold.

• Selecting the means by which merchandise its goods in the markets it wants to serve.

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION its issue will always remain as how to transport its products or services it
will always be a selection of how will it get to its destination without taking any damage of problems.

• International order cycle time – the time between the placement of an order and its receipt by the
customer.

CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION

An international firms marketing managers also must determine which distribution channels to use to
merchandise the firms products in each national market it serves. 4 basic parts of channels of
distribution:

* the manufacturer that creates the product or service

* a wholesaler that buys products and services from the manufacturer and then resells them to retailers

* the retailer which buys from wholesalers and then sells to customers

the actual customer who buys the product or service

THE CHANNEL LENGTH The number of stages in the distribution channel. Or how does a product or
service get through to the consumer without any problems or danger.

DIRECT SALES by passes wholesalers and retailers and goes directly to the customer.