International Marketing
BMI3C
International Marketing
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Businesses use the same 6 methods
to compete internationally
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Promotion
Placement
Quality
Benefits of use
Price
Design
International Marketing
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To be successful, a company must not
expect consumers in one country to
react to its marketing efforts in the
same way as consumers from their
home country
The most important marketing activity for
international businesses is research
Promotion
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Key factors to consider:
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The regulations a country may have
Cultural differences
International Marketing
Blunders
Tales of Idiocy and Ignorance
Parker Pen in Mexico
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When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint
pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed
to have read, "It won't leak in your
pocket and embarrass you.“
Instead, the company thought that the
word "embarazar" (to impregnate)
meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It
won't leak in your pocket and make
you pregnant
Coors turned loose on Spain
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In Spain, when
Coors Brewing
Company put its
slogan, “Turn it
loose” into Spanish
It was read as
“Suffer from
diarrhea”.
Braniff en Espanol
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When Braniff International Airways
translated a slogan touting its
upholstery, “Fly in leather”
It came out in Spanish as “Fly naked”.
Sacrilegious Footwear
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Nike recalled 38,000 basketball shoes
after its flame-design logo drew
protests from Muslims in southeast
Asian
The offense: The logo was said to
resemble the Arabic word for Allah
Pepsi terrifies the Chinese
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When Pepsi started marketing its
products in China a few years back,
they translated their slogan, "Pepsi
Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally.
The slogan in Chinese really meant,
"Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back
from the Grave."
Frank Perdue really
loves chicken
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Chicken magnate Frank Perdue's line,
"It takes a tough man to make a tender
chicken," sounds much more
interesting in Spanish: "It takes a
sexually stimulated man to make a
chicken affectionate."
So are these vacuums good or
bad?
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Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer
Electrolux used the following in an
American campaign: “Nothing sucks
like an Electrolux”.
Bad hair day?
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A hair products company, Clairol,
introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling
iron, into Germany only to find out that
mist is slang for manure.
Not too many people had use for the
manure stick.
Smoking Salem
is a no-brainer
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The American slogan for Salem
cigarettes, "Salem-Feeling Free", was
translated into the Japanese market as
"When smoking Salem, you will feel so
refreshed that your mind seems to be
free and empty."
Mourning the death of Pepsi
in Asia
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PepsiCola lost it dominant market
share to Coke in South East Asia when
Pepsi changed the color of its vending
machines and coolers from deep
"Regal" blue to light "Ice" blue, as Light
blue is associated with death and
mourning in SE Asia.
Back to the other competition
methods…
Placement
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Consider…
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What is the infrastructure like in the
country?
Would a joint venture with a domestic firm
be appropriate?
Quality
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What competition is there?
Are high quality products common
there?
Benefits of Use
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Impacts the value equation
If there is little or no competition, the
marketer doesn’t really have to convince the
consumer that their product is better than
the competitor’s
Sounds good, right?
But if there’s no direct competition, you have
to be concerned with indirect competition
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Consumers have other preferences and will
have to be convinced to try something new
Price
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What will the landed cost of the
product be?
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Tariffs
Cost to repackage
Currency exchange rates
Transportation costs
Design
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What are the legal requirements?
Packaging/labeling
Language
Standards (format, units of measure,
etc.)
Problems with Standards
Consistency!
• Do you own more than one pair of shoes?
– Are they all the same size?
• What about clothes?
– Are all your shirts/pants/dresses the same size?
What about these…
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What side of the road do you drive on?
Do you spell colour with or without the u?
What does your electrical outlet look like?
Do you go topless at the beach?
Do you employ Daylight Savings?
Is it Zero outside, or is it 35 degrees?
Do you eat dog?
A little story about my mom…
“I don’t know why
everyone was going so
slow, I was doing 85
pretty much the whole
way and had to pass all
kinds of people…”
85 miles per hour = 137 km/hr
Mountain Dew
=
Problems for you, problems for
businesses
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Different standards may mean you have to
modify your product
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Video standards (NTSC, PAL, etc.)
Voltage/plug shapes
Clothing Sizes
Or at least use different packaging
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Units of measurement
Labeling laws
Activity
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Beavertails is a Canadian company
that has been trying to expand
internationally
What challenges might they face in
trying to market their product in a
foreign country like China?