Managing International Business Enterprises - Essay Example

Managing International Business Enterprises: Article reviews In the first article under review, Lost in Translation, Wooten  discusses how successful companies could easily lose their brand value in international markets, especially where they have to come up with a translation for their brand name. He begins the article by giving a humorous, albeit untrue, parody of Coca-Cola’s gaffe in naming its brand upon entry into the Chinese market. Directly translated the brand name would have been something like “bite the wax tadpole” (Wooten, 2011), and the implications of such a name to Coca-Cola would be grievous to contemplate.

According to Wooten (2011) marketing managers need to effectively communicate the unique linguistic preferences up front to the translation companies so that the translation does not dilute the brand. The important thing in translation is to retain the original key brand message and tone as closely as is possible. The article proposes that companies need to work with professional linguistic translators whose native language is the target language. This article’s key message is concise and well-illustrated.

Maintaining a brand’s image and meaning once a company decides to go global is both a product management and promotional strategy issue. Central to this move into the international market is the role of marketing managers. Marketing managers need to closely work with language service providers so as to effectively convey their brand messages. This will also call for flexibility and foresight since the translated names should also cater for brand growth. An example of this is Coca-Cola’s translation “K’o K’ou K’o Le” was coined several decades ago yet its literal meaning “happiness in the mouth” is very much applicable to its present day “Open Happiness” campaign.

In the second article under review Newby (2011) endeavors to explain five key things that a small business in the United States may need to consider before making the decision to market its products or services in the United Kingdom or not. Newby (2011) list comprises of market advantages, branding, promotion, pricing and distribution. Under marketing advantages, the article proposes use of income and population to measure this attribute. Income would reflect purchasing power while population would give an estimate of market size.

With regards to branding the article’s standpoint is that the local image, in the US, may be sufficient for conveying the brand in the UK. Promotional strategy depends on product /service demand. Pricing and distribution will be the more intricate factors to consider before making market entry into the UK. The second article has highlighted several pertinent issues to consider before entering the UK market; however the author has made some unjustified generalizations. For example low income does not necessarily imply lack of market advantage.

Strategy expert Prahalad has argued and proved that that there is value to be gained from selling to the bottom of the pyramid. The second assumption that a US company could use its local image and it is sufficient for conveying the brand in the UK is also not necessarily true. Pricing and distribution like Newby (2011) has articulated are fairly complex decisions which require extensive input from managers. Distribution for instance would require that managers work with counterparts from the new region for among other things effective resource management, value-chain addition and customer feedback.

Key decisions such as whether to use a local distributor or establish one’s own distribution or a hybrid of the two will have to be made. These decisions are the essence of management. References Newby, D. (2011, April 7). Global marketing: branding, promotion, pricing, and distribution to the UK. Examiner.com. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://www.examiner.com/small-business-in-baltimore/global-marketing-branding-promotion-pricing-and-distribution-to-the-uk Wooten, A. (2011, April 29).

Lost in translation. Utah Business. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://utahbusiness.com/issues/articles/10713