International Marketing: Concepts, questions, projects

International Marketing: concepts, questions, projects.

Global / International marketing refers to the marketing of products or services outside of a firm’s home country (domestic audience). By pursuing internal expansion, a firm stands to gain several benefits such as increases sales, increased brand awareness, and develop a global audience.

Academic Questions

Question: How can we define and recognize global/transnational businesses? What are the most important characteristics of the industry that could affect the company’s decision and ability to globalize? How did the company (some example) manage to become global/transnational? Why did their strategy become successful? What type of entry strategies/modes did the company follow? what were their segmenting & targeting strategies? What type of global product, branding and communication strategies did the company pursue for their innovative product?

Question: Choose a company (focus on a brand, a specific product or a business unit of the company) in some country. Follow the 5-Step Global Marketing Plan Framework to evaluate the country’s attractiveness & propose market entry & marketing mix strategies for the company.
analyze the country’s macro environment & local industry at the micro-level; recommend on the market entry strategy/mode & potential target customers; propose a Marketing Mix strategy (how to adapt/standardize the domestic marketing mix). Drawing on your analysis, provide an invest/not invest decision.

Question: “After deciding which markets to enter, a global marketer faces the question of HOW to enter them. Discuss possible expansion strategies and entry modes. Include the following.” 
Explain the difference between a ‘concentration’ and a ‘diversification’ approach. When is a company likely to choose a concentration approach? When is a company likely to choose a diversification approach?  Explain the difference between a waterfall approach and a shower approach. When is a company likely to choose a waterfall approach? When is a company likely to choose a shower approach?
Explain the two commonly used entry modes ‘exporting’ and ‘wholly owned subsidiary’. Also discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

Question: What are the benefits of using standalone attractiveness to evaluate potential markets for global companies? What are the challenges and benefits of focusing on globally strategic markets for expansion for global companies?

Question: Develop a Global Marketing Plan for your Company to Evaluate and Enter an International Market. A company decided to seek growth opportunities and now considers expanding (further) into the global marketplace. A first screening of international markets led to a short list of potential target country markets. The board of the company is asking you to develop a global marketing plan for one of those countries. Your plan will help the board to make a final decision about expanding the company.

Developed Economies: Singapore, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Australia, France, UK, USA.
Emerging Economies: China, India, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Poland, Turkey, Mexico.

Choose one country from the list provided for you (see previous slide).
The company that you chose should not already be operating in that country. If you find that your company is already operating in all of these markets, consult me.
Assess the market attractiveness of the country that you chose for your company
Offer strategic and tactical suggestions of how to best enter this market. Follow the 5-Step Global Marketing Plan Framework (see the slides at the end).
The report should include information on the potential target market’s macro and micro environments; recommendations on the market entry strategy and target customers; recommendations on how to adapt (or not adapt) the marketing mix for this country market.
Based on your analysis, provide an invest – not invest recommendation.
Do not consider costs/budgets.

Choice of Company-Country Combination Grey-zones

The terms “emerging”, “developed” and “(not) operating in a country” may give some room for interpretation. Sometimes companies have merged with foreign companies but this is not obvious at first sight; or they offer “worldwide/international delivery” but they do not have brick and mortar stores in the countries that you seek to enter. These are grey zones. Ideally you should meet the requirements of this assignment. But note that ‘little’ deviations into these grey zones will not negatively affect your mark.

Structure of the Final Report:
Title page naming the company and the one international country market you chose. Executive summary. Introduction. Brief Summary of the Company: Introduce your company by summarizing the main insights. External Analysis of the International Market: conduct an external macro and micro analysis of the international target market. Global Market Strategy: market entry strategy, target customer segmentation. Global Marketing Programme: standardization versus adaptation of the marketing mix – the level of glocalization. Conclusion: Recommendations (whether or not to invest in the target market). Bibliography (Harvard reference style). Appendix (if any).

You are expected to use secondary sources both industrial and academic such as the business press, online industry reports, global databases and journal articles to investigate the market attractiveness of the potential international target market and to suggest a marketing strategy/programme for entering the international market.

Question: Marketing Communication and Environment.
Provide a definition and explanation of integrated marketing communication and explain this in relation to the integrated application of communication tools, channels and content. Discuss the roles that marketing communication plays in global markets. Part B Underline what marketers need to know about a country’s environment when developing a communication campaign.

Question: Product & International Marketing: How do global companies ensure foreign markets are big enough for new products? Is it necessary to differentiate various prices for new products? How does a new product fit into strategic marketing plan? (e.g., is the product consistent with the brand & overall goals?)

Question: Culture and International Marketing.
Define a sub-culture and culture and discuss why are they so important to international marketing. Use G. Hofstede’s theory to support the discussion. Part B Choose two culturally different countries and apply Hofstede’s culture theories to illustrate the difficulties when a company is developing international marketing strategies in a foreign market.

Question: Why is an understanding of culture so important to international marketing? Use the theories of G. Hofstede and E.T. Hall in this discussion. Choose two culturally different countries and apply Hofstede’s and Hall’s theories on culture to illustrate how a company adjusts its marketing strategy in each country due to cultural differences. Apply one of the following examples (a) fashion (b) supermarkets or (c) Fast Moving Consumer Good/Packaged Good (such as produced by Unilever, Proctor and Gamble or Nestle).

Segmentation, Positioning and Branding
Question: Discuss the importance of brand and product positioning and illustrate how marketers identify and categorise groups of consumers according to common characteristics? Choose one brand and illustrate how a brand positions itself in two culturally different countries. How are they different?

Question: Define the importance of brand positioning. Describe different brand positioning strategies and provide relevant examples of companies/products.

Q) You are an Indian Company manufacturing machine parts made of steel and exporting to US. With Donald Trump imposing Tariffs, you have decided to manufacture some of your products in North America and use this as an opportunity to expand your business in that part of the globe. You want to set up the factory either in Mexico or in Canada for this purpose. Evaluate the two location options of setting up the Plant and Business on basis of International Business & Marketing Environment parameters to come to a decision.

Q) You are the CEO Starbucks and wish to enter India. Evaluate any 3 entry options to enter into India. Which of the market entry options would you finally choose & why?

Q) The Tanzania Toothpaste market has strong growth and reasonable volume. The market is dominated by Colgate which has more than 65% market share and rest 35% percent are scattered within 6-7 local players. Colgate is the market leader in prices while all the other local players are about 20-25% cheaper in prices. The top three parameters of buy of Tanzanian consumers are Health, White Teeth & Freshness in that order. While Colgate positions itself on health platform, other local players are positioned on other 2. One of the biggest reason for lower market share is poor print quality on the toothpaste tubes where as Colgate gets its products from Europe where better quality printing facility on tubes is available. You are an Indian contract manufacturer for Unile ver in India and are now eyeing the Tanzania market where there is no clear number 2. You have set up a Contract manufacturing and Distribution partnership with C&C which is a local business conglomerate who apart from other businesses are also into FMCG but not into Toothpastes. You have decided to export quality printed toothpaste tubes from here for the purpose to overcome the problem faced by local manufacturers.

a. Suggest what would be your pricing strategy for the new brand of toothpaste that you would introduce in Tanzania market based on the information. (5 Marks)
b. Suggest the possible brand positioning for your Toothpaste in the Tanzania Market.

Question. Hodrej is in the business of manufacturing and selling home safes. Business Head of Hodrej wants to promote his products in international market.
a. Being the Marketing Manager for Hodrej briefly explain the steps involved in international marketing process.

Q. International Market Entry Strategies. RV Shoes is a dominant player in domestic footwear market. Mr. Singh is the owner of the company and a first generation entrepreneur. He now wants to go global with his brand but is not sure of the ways to enter International Market. Discuss the various ways to enter International Market and explain the pros and cons of each way which would help Mr. Singh to devise his strategy

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