Social Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints - Essay Example

Part A: The main n objective of any business concern is making more profit. To make more profit a company should introduce their product to their customers. This process is known as marketing. Marketing is the main function of the business concern. Without marketing, any business concern can not reach its goal and not make profit. Actually marketing is a collection of activities that includes selling, advertising public relation, sales promotions, research, new product development, package design, merchandising, the provision of after sales service and exporting. The main function of the marketing is to finding the customer and stimulating them about the firm's product "Marketing is seen as the task of finding and stimulating buyers for the firm's output." (Kotler and Levy, 1973, P 31). Mainly there are three types of marketing .They are Domestic marketing, International marketing, Global marketing. The International marketing means is the application of marketing principles to more than one country. There are some marketing mix to get a desired outcomes of the marketing. The term marketing mix described the combination of marketing elements used in a given situation. Approximate mixture varies depending on the firm and industry. Major element of the marketing mix can be listed under four heeding. A firms marketing mix normally have to be adapted for international marketing in consequence of the many national differences that exist in relation to stages of economic development, social system, technological environment, legal framework. The marketing mix known as four Ps. That is product, price, place and promotion. "The four Ps--product, price, place, and promotion--found in the marketing toolbox are the independent variables used to influence the desired out comes of the target markets, the dependent variables." (Kotler and Lee 2007, p. 12+). Another definition of the international marketing is the use of marketing mix in to more than one country. To make a better decision about the selection and implementation of international marketing there essential international marketing research. Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording and analyzing data and information about customers, competitors and the market. A marketing research is a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control. The international marketing research is very essential to any type of company to plan a new project and international expansion of existing company. The international marketing research defines as systematic method of data collection. It includes information about customer, their needs and wants, and market etc "international marketing research is the systematic and objective collection of information concerning international markets. It helps management to reach sound decisions concerning the selection and implementation of their international marketing." (Mccall and Stone 2004, P. 83). The main purpose of the international marketing research is to collect information for make a solution to solve marketing problem when a company plan to international marketing." the essential purpose of marketing research is to provide the necessary information or knowledge on which to base sound decisions in the solution of marketing problems when - readily available information is insufficient or completely lacking" (Davidson and Beckman 1967, p. 597). There are many methods to collect information for international marketing researcher. These methods include conducting program by marketing researcher and conducting the program by someone else. According to these methods there are two types of research that is primary research and secondary research. "There are two basic types of research: primary and secondary. Primary research is the type you conduct yourself and secondary research is the type that has been conduct by someone else often a syndicated research organisation, a trade association, or a government agency" (Rogers 2001, P. 7). The marketing research process contains many processes. These processes divided into mainly four steps. These steps include first step is define the problem and research objectives, second step is develop a research plan for collecting information, third step is implement the research plan by collecting and analyzing the data and last step is interpret and report the findings." There are basically four steps in the marketing research process that franchisors must follow" (Justis, Olsen and Chan 1993, p. 121+). The collection of information about international market and customer is known as data collection. These data divided in to two types. Primary data and secondary data. To collect these data there mainly two types of source. These are primary date source and secondary data source. The secondary data source is main sources to marketing researcher. The secondary data source is the person, publication and medium. "A secondary data source is any person, publication, or medium that provides data or information compiled for a purpose other than the current marketing research project." (Patzer 1995, p. 73). There is some complexity for international marketing researcher while they collect the data. Particularly the international marketing environment is main complexity of international marketing research. "The complexity of the international environment makes international marketing research particularly complex because of its effect upon the research process and its design." (Chansarkar and Baines 2002, p. 214). The international marketing environment means we should understand environmental factors which effecting the international marketing researcher. The main environmental factors effecting international marketing research is Culture factors, Social factors, Laws and Legal factors, Economic factors, Political factors and Technological factors. These factors are main complexity of international marketing researcher. The environmental factors can be viewed as consisting of four elements like culture factors, Technological factors, Social factors and laws and regulations. The main causes are to complexity of environmental factors to marketing researcher are cultural differences between countries, translation difficulties between different language, different in the educational background of target group in various countries, non availability of certain media in some region, differences in national attitude in advertising campaign. Culture Factors: Cultural factors often influence how people respond to research. While Americans are used to market research and tend to find this relatively un-threatening, consumers in other countries may fear that the data will be reported to the government, and may thus not give accurate responses. In some cultures, criticism or confrontation are considered rude, so consumers may not respond honestly to marketing researcher about the products and market. Technological factors: Technical factors are another complexity of the international marketing research. "The impact of technology is felt in two main areas of marketing research, the collection of data and dissemination of data." (Douglas and Craig 2000, p. 376). International marketing researchers will be able to operate the latest technological developments in data collection and dissemination into the research design. In developed country like America, they may not cooperate with researcher due to lack of time. They use only modern technology like CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing), and CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing)to give information for marketing researchers. So international marketing researcher will be able to face these techniques. The issue of comparability is another complexity of a international marketing researcher. "The issue of comparability is one of the most challenging for international marketing researchers." (Ghauri, 2005. P. 591+). Social factors: Social factors mean the local customs and geography may make difficult to international marketing researcher. The researcher may not get desired respondents interview; for example, in some countries, women may not be allowed to talk to strangers. Laws and regulation: Laws and regulation is another complexity faced by international marketing researcher. The laws and regulations are vary from country to country. For example comparative advertising campaign is the one of the method accepted by researcher. But the comparative advertising campaign is unlawful in many nations. This includes the comparison of an advertised item with competing products or mention of other firm. This technique is allowed in UK, Belgium and Italy. Part B: International marketing is a very challenging job. The challenges that are faced by companies in marketing research have already been discussed in the previous part. Advertising is the most challenging function in marketing. National advertising campaigning does not create many challenges for companies. But international advertising is challenging mainly because of the differences in the culture of different countries. "Some cultures have a past orientation where there is great respect for tradition and doing things the way they have always been done. Other cultures regard the present as most important." (Englis 1994, p. 35). The culture of US can be taken as an example in this case. The US culture is highly future oriented. They look upon more for the betterment of the future. They consider the future as a better age than the present. The people of US are more planned about their future. Therefore the advertisement strategies for US should contain an essence of this culture. One of the typical examples for such future orientation is the growth of fast food business in the country. People depend largely on fast food in order so that they can save more time and spend more time on activities. "In contrasting the advertising of the United States with that of Japan, Mueller (1987) found that Japanese advertising had a greater tendency to reflect tradition." (Englis 1994, P. 36). An advertisement that is designed for US cannot be used in UK or Japan. It is very difficult for the companies to study the cultural difference between the countries in order to design an advertisement strategy. The advertisement for US will be closely associated with US culture. But the solution for this is to launch a universal advertisement which can be accepted by any culture. Launching a universal advertisement is an expensive and innovative task. Every cultural aspect has to be brought into one advertisement. But usually the companies depend very less on universal advertisement. "As is the case for writers of direct mail, designers of advertisements do not know members of the intended audience. When designing advertisements, internationally operating companies must decide whether to standardize their marketing operations or to adapt them to local circumstances." (Hoeken et al 2003, p. 195+). Along with the cultural aspects the value expectations of the customers is another factor. Value is termed as the benefit that a customer receives by purchasing a product. The feature of the product that delivers value differs from one country to that of the other. This is again an influence of the cultural factors. Status may be the value perceived by one country while safety regarded as value by any other country. The customers evaluate a product on the basis of the value expected by them. A standardized advertisement strategy is the strategy adopted by many companies. Standardized involves the usage of same theme and message. But the language will be changed for adapting it to different countries. Financial factor is another important challenge that the companies face while adopting international marketing. "White (2000) reviewed the arguments in favour of standardizing marketing communications, and found that financial concerns seem to play an important role." (Hoeken et al 2003, p. 195+). Designing different advertisement strategies for different country is an expensive task. But developing one advertisement and changing the language for adapting it to different country is economic. Experts support the view of a standardized advertisement strategy for the companies. They substantiate their view with the arguments of advertisement expenditure and creation of brand image. They say that a standardized advertisement create a common brand image for the company in the countries in which they advertise. De Mooij says that when value is considered as a primary need satisfying characteristic of a product, standardized advertisement is ineffective. Therefore the advertisement should focus on values of a product which changes from one country to the other. Studies have shown that majority of the companies adopt culture as a major consideration while designing advertisement. Therefore it is the approach of the advertisers that determines the success and effectiveness of an advertisement. The professional advertisers usually have better focus on the target groups. "One of the critical international advertising issues has been the locus of decision making. Multinational corporations (MNCs), which offer their products world-wide, are faced with the complex problem of deciding whether to standardize their advertising operations across countries, to individualize their campaigns within countries, or to pursue a mixture of both." (Tai and Wong 1998, P. 318+). Asia Pacific region is considered as one of the important business destination by many companies. Most of the MNC's have their centralized office for managing the business of the whole Asia Pacific region. Most of the companies have entrusted such offices for the control of advertisements in that region. This centralized approach has been highly beneficial for companies. The nature of the market varies from country to country. The size of the market of one country will be entirely different from that of the other. A company may be well established in a country. An international advertising strategy may be designed by the company in order to enter a country where it has no presence or extremely low presence. This is a challenging job for marketing companies because first of all the companies will have to conduct a detailed study regarding the market potential of the new country. Competition is another major factor that challenges the company that adopts international advertising. There may be several well established companies in the country that advertise well in their market. Such companies are already well aware of the nature of the new market. Therefore their advertisement strategies will be superior to that of the new entrants. This is very challenging for the companies that adopt international marketing. Bibliography Kotler, Philip., and Levy, Sidney J (1973). Social Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints. 3. BROADENING THE CONCEPT of Marketing Publication Information. P. 31. (Contributors: William Lazer - author, Eugene J. Kelley - author. Publisher: Richard D. Irwin. Place of Publication: Homewood, IL). Kotler , Philip., and Lee, Nancy R (2007). Marketing in the Public Sector: The Final Frontier: Government Agencies Can Use the Four PS-Product, Price, Place, and Promotion-And Other Marketing Techniques to Transform Their Communication with the Public and Improve Their Performance. Gale Group. 36(1). P. 12+. (Contributors: Philip Kotler - author, Nancy R. Lee - author. Journal Title: The Public Manager COPYRIGHT 2007 Bureaucrat, Inc). Mccall, J. 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