International vs Domestic Marketing - Essay Example

? Business Marketing Contents Contents 2 Answer 3 Answer-2 4 Answer -3 5 Answer -4 6 References 7 Answer International marketing can be definedas the process of making the products and services available to the customers beyond the national borders. Although the basic concepts and the process of marketing would be the same in case of international and domestic marketing, it has to be mentioned that international marketing is a lot more complex as compared to domestic marketing because in case of international marketing the marketers need to consider the external environmental threats beyond the border in the form of the political, economic, social and technological factors. Due to the impact of the external environmental factors the marketers have to think about changing the designs, functionality and specifications of the products. In case of product positioning in the international markets the marketers usually have two options such as the straight extension and adaption. Among this two, the marketers mainly use the concept of adaption i.e. changing the product according to needs of the customers belonging to different countries as various major companies have failed due to use of the straight extension policy. One of such examples could be Google Inc. Google entered in the year 2007 and became one of the leading search engines in the Chinese market. However, Google had been using the same marketing mix in China also. The internet content in China was heavily censored by the government and soon the problems in the form of delays lead to customer dissatisfaction and Google started to lose market share. To make things worse for the company, Google started facing competition from local search engine company Baidu. Google tried to censor the contents but it turned out to be a bit too late and Google had to leave the country. This case shows how important the external environmental factors are important in case of international marketing and how neglecting those factors can lead to heavy prices (Czinzota, Ronkainen, Moffett, Marinova & Marinov, 2009, pp. 423-429). Answer-2 Intermediaries are the channel partners that help the marketers to reach out to customers. Intermediaries are mainly middle –men like wholesalers, retailer, etc (Kotler, 2001, p. 25). From the point of view of the marketers intermediaries are of great help when it comes to market expansion and customer reach. Intermediaries help the marketers to reach to different customers within a relatively short period of time. The intermediaries like wholesalers and retailers help the marketers in breaking the bulk and selling the end product to the customers. Without the help of the intermediaries it would be extremely difficult to reach to the customers on their own. Also sometimes intermediaries may actually have better knowledge of a certain section of the market as compared to the marketers. Hence the marketers can actually use the knowledge and expertise of the intermediaries to gain customer insights. Also in some cases the reputations of the intermediaries help the marketers in case of promoting the product. The importances of the intermediaries become even more important in international marketing. In case of international marketing the marketers operate in alien conditions. The brand awareness of the marketers in the international market is very low. Also the marketers have little insight and knowledge about the customers. If the marketers would look to invest directly in the market it could prove to be of great risks due to the facts mentioned above. Hence, most of the times the marketers look for joint ventures or strategic alliance with some local firms. These firms usually have good insights about the local market. This allows the company to use the marketing and sales of the local firm. In this way the intermediaries help the marketers in cost as well as in risk reduction (Henry, 2008, p. 89). One of the major concerns in case of the use of the intermediaries for the marketers has been the issue off control. On numerous occasions the marketers have not been able to keep the desired level of control over the intermediaries. There have been cases when the marketers have initiated a promotional campaign but the intermediaries have not provided the info or the offer to the customers. Also the customers have complained about damaged good which might have occurred due to the mishandling of the products by the middle men. Also sometimes due to the use of the intermediaries the marketers have to actually incur extra costs. There have been reports of grey marketing by some channel partners also. Sometimes due to the lack of efficiency of the sales person of the intermediaries, the marketers had to face decline in sales. These are some of the negatives of the use of the intermediaries from the point of the marketers. Answer -3 Grey marketing is a major problem for the international marketers. The following steps could be instrumental in preventing grey marketing. At first the marketers should consider adopting a uniform pricing strategy. The primary incentive of grey importing is profit. The easiest way to reduce grey importing is to decrease or if possible eliminate incentives. One of the most effective ways to stop grey importing is to cut off at the very beginning. In order to do so, the trademark owner should make sure that the products have some marking such as bar codes that would help in identifying the source of production. Another option could be individualizing products for the local markets by the use of different formulations for the local market. The marketers should also keep a close eye on the inventories. One should closely match the outgoing inventory with sales figures to make sure that some of the products are not available in a certain market for certain unwanted purposes. The marketers should also look to master the art of business relations. The marketers are always advised to maintain good relations with the suppliers and other channel partners to ensure that the problem of grey marketing is reduced at the business level only (Kolb, 2008, p. 92). Answer -4 In the year 2008 the largest coffee chain in the world got into a controversy in the UK over the fact that millions of gallons of waters were being wasted each day by the company due to the policy of the company to keep the taps running nonstop around the stores in the world. It is estimated that the company had wasted 6.2 million gallons of water each and every day. According the report published by the Sun, the staffs of the company were not allowed to turn off the taps. Another major controversy had the largest retailer in the world in the grips. On November 2012 total of 112 workers were killed in a garment factory in Bangladesh. According to the reports published by the New York Times it was an incident due to the fact that Wal-Mart was looking for countries where the company can get workers that are ready for low wages. The reason for death was fire which occurred due to the rush to get the materials delivered quickly. Another controversy surrounded Apple when a blast took place in the Foxconn factory in Chengdu in May 2011. According the reports, there were various warnings was provided to Apple by employees and other sources also. But there was complete negligence. In the end the company had to pay heavy price for the blast. It was believed that the blast occurred due to the presence of aluminium dust found in the factories. References Czinzota, M., Ronkainen, I., Moffett, M., Marinova, S. & Marinov, M. 2009. International business (European edition). UK: John Wiley. Henry, A. 2008. Understanding Strategic Management. UK: Oxford University Press. Kolb, B. 2008. Marketing Research: A Practical Approach. UK: Sage. Kotler, P. 2001. Marketing Management. UK: Prentice Hall. Read More