INTRODUCTION TO

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
Agenda
• The international marketing concept
• A brief introduction of international marketing
environment
• Major obstacles in international marketing
• Stages of international marketing involvement
International marketing
• It refers to marketing carried out by companies
overseas or across national borderlines.
• The performance of the business activities that direct
the flow of a company’s goods and services to
consumers or users in more than one nation for a
profit.
American Marketing Association (AMA)
• The multinational 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
INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
• In simple words International Marketing is the
application of marketing principles to across national
boundaries.

• However, there is a crossover between what is

commonly expressed as international marketing and
global marketing, which is a similar term.
Global marketing
• It refers to marketing activities integrated across
multiple country markets.
International Marketing Vs. Domestic
Marketing
• The main difference between them is that the
marketing activities take place in more than one
country.
• more complicated, at least two levels of
uncontrollable uncertainty instead of one.
International Marketing Vs. Domestic
Marketing
• Uncertainty is created by the uncontrollable elements
of all business environments, but each foreign
country in which a company operates adds its own
unique set of uncontrollable.
International Marketing Vs. Domestic
Marketing
• Competition, legal restraints, government controls,
weather, fickle consumers, and any number of other
uncontrollable elements can, and frequently do, affect
the profitable outcome of good, sound marketing
plans.
International Marketing Vs. Domestic
Marketing
• Marketer can not control or influence these
uncontrollable elements, but instead must adjust or
adapt to them in a manner consistent with a
successful outcome.
International Marketing Vs. Domestic
Marketing
• Marketing objectives are achieved in a way of
molding the controllable elements of marketing
decisions (product, price, promotion and distribution)
within the framework of the uncontrollable elements
of marketplace (competition, politics, laws, consumer
behavior, level of technology, and distribution).
 Source: Philip R. Cateora. International Marketing. Ninth edition

International Marketing Environment

Foreign environment
(uncontrollable)
Political/legal
forces Economic forces
Domestic environment
(uncontrollable)

Competitive
Cultural
Political (controllables) structure Competitive
/ legal
forces forces forces

Economic
Geography and climate Level of
infrastructure technology
Structure of
distribution

Environmental
uncontrollables
country market A
International environmental forces
• Marketing controllables: The successful manager
constructs a marketing program designed for optimal
adjustment to the uncertainty of the business climate.
• Domestic uncontrollables: This includes home-country
elements that can have a direct effect on the success of a
foreign venture: political forces, legal structure, and
economic climate.
• Foreign uncontrollable: The problem of uncertainty is
further complicated by a frequently imposed “alien
status” that increases the difficulty of properly assessing
and forecasting the dynamic international business
climate.
International environmental forces
• Thus a strategy successful in one country can be
rendered ineffective in another by differences in
political climate, staged of economic development,
level of technology, or other cultural variation.
International marketing
• International marketing is often not as simple as
marketing your product to more than one nation.
Companies must consider
▫ language barriers,
▫ ideals, and
▫ customs in the market they are approaching.
Language barrier
• Due to a language barrier, it is more difficult to
obtain and interpret research data in international
marketing.
• Promotional messages needs to consider numerous
cultural differences between different countries. This
includes the differences in languages, expressions,
habits, gestures, ideologies and more.
Language barrier
Language barrier
• United States - "okay"
• Mediterranean - "zero" or "the
worst“
• Tunisia - "I'll kill you"
• Japan - "money".
Language barrier
74 English-speaking nations a word with the same meaning can
differ greatly from each other

• Bar: pub (Britain), hotel (Australia), boozer (Australia,

Britain, New Zealand)
• Bathroom: Loo (Britain), Dunny (Australia)
• Ghost or monster: Wendigo (Canada), Duppy (Caribbean),
Taniwha (New Zealand)
• Truck: Lorry (Britain and Australia)
• Sweater: Jumper (England)
• French fries: Chips (Britain)
• Soccer: Football (the rest of the world)
Language barrier: Misinterpretation
• On a sign in a Bucharest hotel lobby:
▫ The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that
time, we regret that you will be unbearable.
• From a Japanese information booklet about using a
hotel air conditioner:
▫ Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of
warming your room, please control yourself.
SRC And Ethnocentrism: Major
Obstacles
• The key to successful international marketing is
adaptation to the environmental differences from one
market to another.
SRC And Ethnocentrism: Major
Obstacles
• An unconscious reference to one’s own cultural
values, experiences, and knowledge as a basis for
decisions.
• The SRC impedes the ability to assess a foreign
market in its true light.
SRC And Ethnocentrism: Major
Obstacles
Cross-cultural analysis isolating the SRC influences
• Define the business problem or goal in home-country
cultural traits, habits, or norms.
• Define the business problem or goal in foreign cultural
traits, habits, or norms. Make no value judgments.
• Isolate the SRC influence in the problem and examine it
carefully to see how it complicates the problem.
• Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and
solve for the optimum business goal situation.
 Stages Of International Marketing
Involvement
1. No Direct Foreign Marketing: trading companies,
foreign customers, domestic wholesalers, distributors
2. Infrequent Foreign Marketing: Temporary
surpluses caused by variations in production levels or
demand, few companies today fit this model
3. Regular Foreign Marketing: foreign or domestic
overseas intermediaries, own sales force or sales
subsidiaries
Stages Of International Marketing
Involvement
4. International Marketing: fully committed and
involved in international marketing activities. Such
companies seek markets all over the world and sell
products that are a result of planned production for
markets in various countries.
5. Global Marketing: Market segmentation decisions
are no longer focused on national borders. Instead,
market segments are defined by income levels,
usage patterns, or other factors.
Global Economics and Global Exchange
Free trade or Protectionism