Organizing for international marketing

Until a firm develops a truly worldwide view of its operations, it should have someone in charge of international matters. The basic concern should be to see that the firm transfers its domestic know-how into international operations.

As a firm moves beyond just a few international locations, its managers might want to develop regional groupings, clustering similar countries into groups. This smooths the transfer of know-how among operations in similar environments. Regional groupings may also reduce the cost of supervision.

But regional groups may be less useful than groups based on other relevant dimensions such as the stage of economic development or language. The important thing is to develop an organization that enables local managers to control matters that require «local feel» and, at the same time, to share their accumulating experience with colleagues who face similar problems.

Each national market should be thought of as a separate market. And if they’re really different from each other, top management should delegate a great deal of responsibility for strategy planning to local managers. In extreme cases, local managers may not even be able to fully explain some parts of their plans because they’re based on subtle cultural differences. Then plans must be judged only by their results. The organizational setup should be such that these managers are given a great deal of freedom in their planning but are tightly controlled against their own plans. Top management can simply insist that managers stick to their budgets and meet the plans that they themselves create. When a firm reaches this stage, it’s being managed like a well-organized domestic corporation, which insists that its managers (of divisions and territories) meet their own plans so that the whole company’s program works as intended.

CONCLUSION

The international market is large—and it keeps growing in population and income. More Canadian companies are becoming aware of the opportunities open to alert and aggressive businesses.

Involvement in international marketing usually begins with exporting. Then a firm may become involved in joint ventures or wholly-owned subsidiaries in several countries. Companies that become this involved are called multinational corporations. These corporations have a global outlook and are willing to move across national boundaries as easily as national firms move across provincial boundaries.

But markets in different countries vary greatly in stages of economic development, income, population, culture, and other factors. These differences must be studied and carefully considered in developing marketing strategies. Lumping foreign nations together under the common and vague heading of «foreigners»—or, at the other extreme, assuming that they’re just like Canadian customers—almost guarantees failure. So does treating them like common Hollywood stereotypes.

Much of what we’ve said about marketing strategy planning throughout the text applies directly in international marketing. Sometimes Product changes are needed. Promotion messages must be translated into the local languages. And, of course, new Place arrangements and Prices are needed. But blending the four Ps still requires knowledge of the all-important customer. The major roadblock to success in international marketing is an unwillingness to learn about and adjust to different peoples and cultures. To those who are willing to make these adjustments, the returns can be great.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14