Chapter 1: Introduction to International Global Marketing

Marketing: the activity and processes for creating, communicating, and delivering offerings
that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Marketing Mix: The 4 Ps (price, place, product, promotion)

International / Global Marketing: the scope of activities outside the home market

The basic objective of marketing is understanding the need of customers.

Marketing myopia: when marketers lose sight of customer needs (they think they are doing
the right thing, but they are not).

Product / Market Growth Matrix (Ansoff Strategy): we look at two elements which are the
market and the product:
1. Market penetration: existing market and existing product but needs more marketing.

2. Market development: new market and existing products (a new market might not be
a different country but a new part of the country which is different in culture than the
other).

3. Product development: new product and existing market (example: when McDonald’s
offer different types of meals according to countries like Mc. Baguette).

4. Diversification: new product new market. It can be related (LG selling new
technology products) or unrelated (virgin as they have airlines, and they sell books)

Challenges for marketers:

- Unique or unfamiliar features in countries or regions like piracy in China, bribery, or
corruption.
- The economic effects of the country (Coca-Cola does not exist in Lebanon because it
is very expensive to the consumers and Pepsi monopolizes the market)

Customer perceived value: how we want the brand to be visual in the mind of the consumer
(a successful company is always positive in the mind of its people).

The value chain: composed of marketing, product, design, manufacturing, and

transportation logistics (we can create value by improving the product, reducing the price,
finding new distribution channels, or communicating to consumers in a better way).
Value = benefit / price

Competitive advantage: When a company succeeds in creating more value for customers
than its competitors do.
Globalization: integration of national economies into the international economy through
trade, direct foreign investment + capital, workers, and technology flows.

- Standardization: developing standardized products marketed worldwide with

standardized marketing mix (Essence of mass marketing).
- Adaptation: mixing standardization and customization in a way that minimizes costs
while maximizing satisfaction (Essence of segmentation).

Dimensions of International Marketing:

- Concentration of marketing activities: in international we cannot deliver the same
message delivered locally unless we focus on something that everyone has the same
opinion in such as habits and pricing decisions.

- Coordination of marketing activities: Coca Cola does international campaigns but

they might have managers for each nation but there must be a main office that
coordinates each one.

- Integration of marketing activities: sometimes there are successful strategies applied

by tactics which can reach to achievements (using known figures to showcase the
products) which can lead to an assumption that everyone uses these things such as
Messi playing with kids and drinking Coca Cola.

Decision making abilities in international marketing:

- Ethnocentric orientation: whatever comes from my country is good and whatever
that comes from other countries is bad (we are an international company that
headquarters in Bahrain, so Bahrain is the best place to decide). Like standardization.

- Poly centric orientation focuses on the host country relying on the mentality that
says that people who work for me in another country know about the details that
help me. Like adaptation.

- Regio centric orientation: we trust more the region (if not Bahrain then Saudi or
Kuwait).

- Geo centric (world) orientation: we are talking about the world-oriented mentality
success (the most important is whatever suits my decision).

Chapter 2: The Environment and of International Trade

Economic Factors: Today we have economic trade agreement that were fold between
countries to enhance the economy of such places in terms of global and local competition
(example: EU agreement, GCC free trade agreement).

Economies are trying to be diversified especially after the introduction of strong e-

commerce sectors that are worldwide.

Economic systems:
- Capitalism: an open market for individuals that is mostly concerned with private
sector companies (example: USA)

- Centrally planned capitalism: the main economy strategy decisions are decided by
government and others will just follow the rules with a freedom to work in private
sectors. It is less risky than capitalism (example: Bahrain)

- Socialism: the market status controls of the elasticity of the decisions made by
governments (example: Sweden)

- Centrally planned socialism: everything is owned by the state and there is no

opportunity for private sectors (example: Cuba, North Korea)

Developing countries (BRICS): Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Economic Freedom: the ability of people of a society to take economic actions. Variables

include trade, taxation, and banking policies in addition to wage control.

*Rankings of economic freedom: “free” “mostly free” “mostly unfree” “repressed”.

Chapter 4: Cultural Dynamics in Global Markets
Task of global marketers: they study the culture of the country they are going to enter
(values or influences) as they cannot be changed easily to adapt to the marketing process.

Culture: the way of living for people around us which can be transmitted from one
generation to another (it has both conscious and unconscious values / ideas + can be both
physical like clothing and nonphysical like religion).

Categories of culture: nation, ethnic groups, gender groups, family, organization

Social institutions that reinforce cultural norms: family, education, religion, government,
business.

These days, many consumers share the same consumer behaviors about coffee or food due
to the connection of the world through internet and satellites.

What impacts culture:

- Religion is an important source of beliefs, values, and attitudes.
- Attitudes and beliefs.
- Aesthetic and colors (example: white for purity in west but death in Asia)
- Music
- Dietary preferences (domino’s left Italy because it was too American with toppings)
- Language and communication

The impact of marketing on culture: it standardizes certain elements and increases

communication.

High context culture: places great deal on a person’s values and position.

Low context culture: less importance on value and character.

Hofstede’s five dimensions of national culture:

1. Individualism and collectivism: Individualistic people prefer their own interest (USA)
while collectivist people expect the group to look after them and protect them
(Mexico). This is more on a going out with people level

2. Power distance: high power distance people accept differences in power and believe
in authority (Mexico) while low power distance people believe in equality (USA).

3. Uncertainty avoidance: high uncertainty avoidance people have anxiety when facing
situations that are not sure of as risks are higher (Mexico) while low uncertainty
avoidance people are more comfortable cause risks are low (USA).
 4. Achievement and nurturing: achievements value aggressive features (I look at myself
first such as USA) while nurturing countries like (Sweden) value relationships and
concern for others.

5. Long-term and short-term orientation: long-term oriented individuals look for the
future (Japan) while short-term oriented value traditions and the past (USA).

Diffusion theory: the adoption process: The stages of people when introduced to new
products in the market and how it relates to the life cycle of a product.

Chapter 6: The Political, Legal, and Regulatory Environment

Political culture: reflects the importance of the government and legal system.

Sovereignty: Supreme and independent political authority (trade is regulated and flow of
people is managed in a way that it does not affect the boundaries of the people).
- In the EU, individual countries gave up their rights to a national currency and product
standards in exchange for better market access.

Political Risk: Affects a company’s ability to operate effectively and profitably (if high,
country will have difficulty in attracting foreign direct investments).
*Examples: war, international disputes, corruption, crime

International Law: The rules that nation-states consider binding among themselves. Pertains
to property, trade, and immigration.

Disputes between nations are issues of the public and can be solved using international
organizations.

Intellectual property:
- Patent: exclusive right to make, use or sell an invention
- Trademark: motto or emblem that distinguishes product from competitors
- Copyright: ownership of a recorded, performed, or filmed work
Licensing: an agreement where a licensor allows a licensee to use patents, trademarks,
secrets, technology, and other assets in return of compensation.

Chapter 13 & 14 Brand and Product Decisions in Global Marketing

Basic product concepts: a product can be a good (tangible attributes), service or idea
(intangible attribute). There are two types which are consumer or industrial goods.

Product warranty (express warranty): a written guarantee that ensures the buyer is getting
what is paid for with a remedy in case of failure (positive attribute for a company).

Packaging: is important not only as a nice design but to help the environment and protect
the product when transporting it (differs between countries but cannot be disregarded).
- Eco-packaging: addresses environmental issues like recycling / sustainable forestry.

Labeling: they should provide relevant information while attracting the attention of the
buyer at the same time (regulations vary, example: health warnings on tobacco products)

Aesthetic: visual aesthetics of a brand, must be changed in response to local culture

Brand equity: the most important objective of all the above, it is the total value of a product
or a service. A good indicator is when showing a person, a brand logo and they easily
recognize it.

- Benefits of brand equity: Greater loyalty / larger margins / more inelastic consumer
response to price increases / increased marketing communication effectiveness.

Brand extension: acts as an umbrella for new products (when the brand is successful, it
translates it into different brands Ex. Virgin Megastores, Virgin Radio, and Virgin Airlines)

Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy helps marketers understand how & why local products go
beyond the home-country (Needs and wants aren’t the same thing).

Chapter 15 International Marketing Channels

Marketing channel: an organized network that performs all the activities that link the first
users (producers) with the ending users (businesses or consumers) to accomplish the
marketing task.

Today, channels can be through social media platforms (buying an item from Instagram).

Marketing channels create benefits for its users:

- Place utility: availability of a product or service in a location that is convenient.
- Time utility: availability of a product or service when desired.
 - Form utility: availability of the product to be prepared, in proper condition.

- Information utility: availability of answers to questions and general communication

about useful product features and benefits

Consumer product channels: Direct marketing channels are important cause sometimes it’s
less expensive, more convenient to buyers and gives safety. But, in an international
perspective and times where there is high demand it’s better to have intermediaries.

*Direct: from the producer to the customer (Peer-to-Peer marketing, Door-to-Door Selling)
*Indirect: from the producer to the intermediary to the customer (Retail)

Working with channel intermediaries:

- Selecting distributors that are active and have knowledge of the market
- Treating them like partners by establishing long-term relationships and commitment
- Maintain control on the marketing strategy to improve marketing
- Be selective in the elements that you want to distribute (when they offer 3 products,
we choose the best on instead of them all)

Global retailing: today, its available everywhere because of the progress in social media and
technology (both local and international companies increased their scope post-pandemic).

Types of retailers: examples

- Department stores: place that gathers multiple elements (clothes, medicine, grocery)
- Specialty retailers: they specialize in something (Lush, Starbucks)
- Convenience stores / Discount retailers / Hypermarket

Global retailing categories:

Global retailing market entry strategy framework:

Organic: a new
company set to
enter the market
(founded from
scratch in a
foreign country)

Supply chain: all firms that perform support activities by generating raw materials,
converting them into finished products, and making them available to customers.

Logistics: The management process that integrates the activities of all companies to ensure
an efficient flow of goods through the supply chain.

Physical Distribution, Supply Chains, and Logistics Management:

- Order processing (entry, handling and delivery)
- Warehousing: used to store goods until they get sold
- Inventory management
- Transportation (rail, truck, air, water)

Chapter 8 International/Global Marketing Research

Information Technology, Management Information System & Big Data:
We have a lot of information that we gather for marketing research, this is a way we can
arrange such large data with for future references.

IT infrastructure: Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) is how the company

communicated with its customers. Example: when stores send a message on our birthdays.

Sources of market research: they can be personal such as company subsidiaries, customers,
suppliers, and government relation.

Form of a good marketing research:

- Inquiring information
 - Defining a problem (it is important to not over impose what you think is right)
- Choosing how to analyze the problem (global, regional, or country perspective)
- Examining the availability of the data (are there secondary or primary ones)
- Assessing the value of the research (what is the cost and how will I benefit)
- The design of the research (the budget also affects the design of the survey)
- Analyzing the data collected
- Interpreting the results and presenting them

*When making research that is based on observing the behavior of people (people sh0pping
in supermarkets as an example) we cannot tell them that we will be observing them when
buying products because it may cause them to change their behavior. But it is not ethical to
not inform them, so we need to find a solution to problem.

*Primary data are more expensive because we must work for them ourselves

Research methodologies:
- Survey research (quantitative, qualitative)
- Consumer panel
- Observation
- Sampling technique
*Out of the 100% population, we take a specific group that represents them all, the higher
the percentage of the sample the better
*Census is when we take the whole population because of its small size

One of the most effective ways to collect data are as follows: (+ not part of course syllabus)
 Probability sampling: we are randomly choosing.
 Non-probability: there is a reason for choosing.

- Focus groups
Final Exam Content
Chapter 12 Global Marketing Management: Planning and Organization

Whenever we one up with a strategy in an international / national level there are forces that
we cannot ignore:

- Threat of new entrants: there is always a possibility that either people will enter the
market and compete with you, or you enter to the market becoming a new entrant.

One of the most known strategies is shock marketing (more value, quantity, or even quality for
less price). Many restaurants when they enter the market, they offer prices less than its
competitors but gradually later the price increases.

- Bargaining power of buyers: bargaining means negotiation (never rely on one customer
even if its profitable).

- Threat of substitutes: today everything can be replaced even humans (substitute

products may not be in the light but suddenly arrive).

- Bargaining power of suppliers: suppliers might be a threat in terms of providing raw

material that can be critical in terms of quality and cost.

- Rivalry among competitors: sometimes there is a big competition in the market that
gives a disadvantage to those wanting to enter.
Competitive advantage: factors that allow a company to produce goods or services better or
more cheaply than its rivals.

Strategies to create competitive advantage:

1. Cost leadership: providing products for lower prices for consumer (Example: Ikea)

Most of the time low cost does not mean low quality. We can achieve that by:
- Having our own store brand
- Using economies of scale: when we buy larger quantities from suppliers that lead us to
sell for lower prices while maintaining the quality.

2. Product differentiation: offering unique products that no other company can offer that
adds value for an additional amount of money paid (it could also be a way to deliver the
product such as cold stone throwing cookies in the air and mixing it with the ice-cream).

3. Focus strategy: normally for a niche group of people that have similar interest and
lifestyle (money here does not matter and the product may not be differentiated
because the communication is targeted to certain people).

Global competition: occurs when a firm takes a global view of competition and sets about
maximizing profits worldwide (Example: Nespresso as they started selling through kiosks then
online and now recently through intermediaries).

We should not forget about the resources when choosing a proper strategy to take on because
they play a role in affecting our strategy.

Factor conditions:
- Human resources: anything that is related to the workers (skills, wage, ethics)
- Physical resources: land, water, and any natural resources
- Knowledge resources
- Capital resources
- Infrastructure: not directly related to the company but important in international
structure (healthcare, transportation, communication systems)

Domestic rivalry: brands that are known in the country to have an international Prescence and
competition (example: Gaia)

When we talk about international strategies, we need to make sure to have the following:
- Competitive advantage
- Sustain on the long run

We have two categories of competitive spaces:

 1. Red ocean: existing markets where players understand the rules (we should avoid it
because all competitors attack each other, they all have good things which are similar).
2. Blue ocean: markets or industries that do not currently exist (we are going in with
innovation and creativity causing the competition to decrease).
Chapter 16 Integrated Marketing Communications
Whenever a company uses multiple sources of communication (advertising, public relations,
promotions ...) to reach the customers we call It an integrated marketing communication.

Advertising: any sponsored paid message that is communicated in a non-personal way. It can
be for one single country, regional or global.

When we choose the global type of advertising, we use the same message, photographs, or
stories (example: Coca Cola, Starbucks, and Apple). The more global we get, the harder it may
be to convey a message because of the differences in cultures and perceptions.

Standardization or adaptation strategy in advertising

- Standardization: one message that fits all countries and consumers (suitable for mass
production)
- Adaptation: adjustment of the content of the message to reach the target audience in
a more effective way (we must segment the market first then make a strategy)

Legal and cultural issues are important when choosing standardization or adaptation (example:
in some countries it is not allowed to say the name of the competitor of an advertisement).

There are difficulties in communication efforts that some companies (not everyone sees the
message in the same way):
- The message may not reach the intended customer.
- The message may not be understood or even be misunderstood.
- The message may not induce the recipient to take the action desired by the sender.
- The effectiveness of the message can be impaired by noise.

Most of the companies appoint external agencies that are experts in communication. Hence,
we should always look up at the advantages and disadvantages of using a certain company over
the other.

Advertising appeal:
- Rational Approach: what we are trying to evaluate must be based on evidence and logic
(Example: medications, they should follow certain standards)
- Emotional Approach: plays more on the feelings of a person (Example: messages that
convey the information of driving safely on roads and they put a sound of an accident).
- Selling proposition: what do we promise customers to sell them (the regency hotel
wants to make businessmen feel at home, so they have laundry and food services).
How to present an item:
- Straight sell
- Scientific evidence
- Demonstration
- Comparison
- Slice of life
- Animation
- Fantasy
- Dramatization

Copywriting decisions: we should pay attention to elements such as music that are taken from
YouTube to put in ads if the company allows it or not.

We cannot take for grant what is applicable in our country is the same outside if we are
expanding our business abroad.

There are some negative implications for publicity which includes privacy scandals like in
Facebook, issues in batteries for Samsung.

Chapter 17 Global Marketing Communication Decision ll

Sales promotion: a program with limited duration that adds tangible value to a product or
brand. It could be price vs non-price promotion (we can add a certain addition to the item such
as dishes that come with oil) or consumer vs trade promotion.

There are some factors that affect the sales promotion elements:
- Cost (if we sell 3 items for the price of 2, we lose profits if done in long-terms)
- Complexity (how easy and hard it is to implement; it wouldn’t make sense for a car
company to do a buy one get one free promotion)
- Global branding

 Economic development (if low it limits the range of tools used)

 Regulations and restrictions
 Local perceptions

Sampling: giving customers an opportunity to try products without cost (works better and
smarter when there is a new introduction for the product in the market).

Couponing: printed certificates that give the bearer a price reduction when purchasing a
particular product or service.

Personal selling: one person does a certain activity regarding sales with a client (we should be
able to persuade the client into purchasing and maintaining a relationship on the long run by
using good communication skills and being honest).
There are many hurdles to personal selling which include political risks, regulations, currency
fluctuation and the unknown conditions of the market.

How do salespeople prepare their sales activities to communicate ideally with consumers:
1. Approach: when we reach clients either current or potential
2. Presentation: assessing needs of customers and matching them to products offered
3. Demonstration: showing how the product can meet the needs of customers
4. Negotiation: ensuring both parties have a winning situation
5. Close: finalizing the deal with customers by signing an agreement as an example
6. Servicing the sale: ensuring the satisfaction of the customer after purchasing the
service/product (customer service and assistance).

Other options:
- Sales agents
- Exclusive license arrangement
- Contract manufacturing or production
- Management only agreements
- Joint ventures