International marketing or global marketing refers
to marketing carried out by companies overseas or
across national borderlines. This strategy uses an
extension of the techniques used in the home country
of a firm. It refers to the firm-level marketing practices
across the border including market identification and
targeting, entry mode selection, marketing mix, and
strategic decisions to compete in international
markets.
"international marketing is the multinational process
of planning and executing the conception, pricing,
promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and
services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and
organizational objectives." In contrast to the definition
of marketing only the word multinational has been
added. In simple words international marketing is the
application of marketing principles to across national
boundaries.
4 P’s of International Marketing
To organize your business and sell internationally, your
company needs to understand the Four P’s of
international marketing
1. Product
 As a product is sold outside of Canada it most likely needs
to be modified or adjusted in some sense.
 These modifications are made to adapt to the foreign
culture, language laws, and occur primarily in the following
areas:
a) Package weights: metric to imperial in the USA
b) Package colours: colours have different meanings in
different countries e.g. yellow in Canada is cowerdice and
in Japan yellow is considered a brave colour
c) Legal requirements: every country has laws that
reflect the packaging of a product. Sometimes
environmental fees of a package can cost more than the
package itself. E.g. Denmark charges 25 cents for every
Canadian package wrapped in PVC (polyvinyl chloride).
d) Labelling requirements: marketers must investigate
labelling requirements in their target foreign markets.
Food labelling requirements are especially tricky as each
country has different rules. E.g. California expects Global
Warming labels on all of its vehicles.
e) Language requirements: Obviously the information
on the package should be translated into the language
of the target country. E.g. The EU requires atleast 5
different language translations on its packages.
f) Ingredients: Many countries have strong taboos, both
religious and cultural, that prohibit the use of certain
products, particularly food items. E.g. if a chip
manufacturer were to sell in India to Hindu’s, it would
have to make sure that the chips were not deep fried in
beef fat.
g) Style: What the people of one country find
fashionable, people of another country might find
embarrassing or offensive. E.g. Paris, New York, Rome
and London expect the latest cutting edge fashions,
while people in other cities create their own street
fashion.
A business needs to be conscious of its colour choices.
2. Place
 Doing business across Canada is relatively easy considering
that you can get away with producing your product in one
centralized place in Canada and ship it all across the
country. However, doing business globally and if your
company becomes too big, you may have to manufacture in
more places than one (decentralized strategy)
E.g. Kraves Candy runs a centralized strategy approach where
all of their clodhoppers are manufactured in Winnipeg,
Manitoba and distributed all across North America from
Winnipeg. It is becoming challenging now that the candy is
being distributed across North America
E-Commerce
 The internet has changed the way international marketing
is performed.
 Now, a business that is close to a transportation hub can be
an international business. E.g. Amazon is a book distributor
that has a head office in Seattle, Washington and 80
distributor locations in the U.S. and worldwide
 You can stay in your respective city and do business
anywhere in the world.
 This market-entry strategy is also known as e-distribution.
It can be more effective than opening a retail strore.
 Amazon and E-bay are the largest e-distribution type
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businesses.
This way the smallest stores can compete with the largest
stores in the market.
The level of competition depends on the quality of the
website, the payment processing options, the variety of
goods offered online and the shipping options.
Most larger companies offer free shipping and Paypal
where smaller companies do not.
E-commerce and E-distribution can turn any local retail
operation into a global one; all that is required is a website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfFsqbIn_3E
Sales Agents
 Using a sales agent is one way to combine a centralized
strategy with a decentralized strategy, meaning, you have a
home base, and sales agents travelling around the world to
sell your products.
 Sales agents are usually paid based on a percentage of sales
basis (commission)
 If a business plans to manufacture in Canada, then sales
agents would be an effective way to enter any foreign
market.
 Sales agents bring products to life through product
knowledge
Trade Shows
 A collection of manufacturers and distributors of similar
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products who rent space, set up display booths, and sell
their products to registered buyers who are seeking
products to sell in their retail businesses.
Usually the latest and greatest trends are found.
Provide buyers with a large number of product sources
under one roof and can save them hundreds of hours and
thousands of dollars in buying trips.
For sellers, the trade show is often their major sales event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPz6LTFd6as
Branch Plants
 Building and staffing a branch plant is the most expensive
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market entry strategy.
Can also be the most effective way of entering a new market
E.g. If you build a branch plant in a European country, you
could gain access to the entire EU.
Shipping costs are lower.
Import regulations and tariffs are no longer an issue.
Product modifications are easier since you are surrounded
by the culture of the market.
Supply can meet demand as you increase the number of
production facilities instead of just being centralized.
Licensing Agreements
 Allowing other companies in other markets to produce your
products (patent or trademark) for a fee (royalty) to your
company.
 This is a way to enter foreign markets without the stress of
marketing since a foreign company is taking care of selling
your product for you in their own market.
 3 ways to license your products to foreign markets would be
through: manufacturing agreements, distribution
agreements and franchise agreements.
Acquisitions
 The most effective way for a company to deal with its’
competition in a foreign market or even domestically is
to buy them out. Either close them down completely,
or take over their resources and marketing connections
to expand its market.
 E.g. Microsoft and Apple are companies that
continuously by out their competition both
domestically and internationally in order to continue
to grow their markets.
3. Price
 Usually, the domestic price of a product is certainly
lower than the price of the same product abroad.
 This is a major marketing challenge because the
company needs to find out whether the consumers of
the foreign market can afford the product
 Most companies find that if they use a centralized
marketing strategy, the price of their goods increases
to the point where they are not competitive.
 These increases come from several areas:
Labour costs
 Labour costs in Canada are among the highest in the
world.
 What costs in Canada, cost 10 times less in Mexico and
25 times less in India and 30 times less in China
Shipping costs
 Shipping across Canada is costly since Canada is so big
 Shipping globally is even more costly
 These freight charges must be calculated into the cost
of the goods in order to establish a price
Duties and Tariffs
 Most countries charge taxes on goods imported into
their country in order to keep their domestic goods
competitive.
Legal costs
 Modifications that must be made to conform to
product codes and the standards of the foreign market
can often be very expensive, requiring translators, new
packaging, legal fees, inspections costs, and other
charges that increase the cost of the product.
 Anyone trying to market a product in a foreign country
must consider whether the price of the product in the
foreign market is competitive.
 This is why major companies like the decentralized
market entry strategies, because they can save a lot of
costs like: on tariffs, cheaper labour, lower shipping
costs, and conforming to local rules and regulations,
thereby eliminating the extra costs associated with
product modifications.
4. Promotion
There are three ways to promote and advertise products
if you are planning to sell internationally:
Using existing ads
Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim to Win campaign is money
saved because the strategy does not change much from
year to year. Also, the campaign is no different in the U.S.
since the culture is similar.
Translating ads
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=
eC6TFBY53HI&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4hlzRNu3uE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_KsOnyuCGA
Create a generic commercial for your product and then
translate or dub the advertisement into the language of
your target market.
Creating new ads
Depending on what the culture is like, your business
may have to create a new ad in each country that it
enters or for each product that it sells.
E.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HULUCNZi2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfPI4OC1Yss