Global Marketing
Communications
Chapters 16-17
Global Marketing Communications
The environment in which MC programs are implemented varies
from country to country
In Germany everything is forbidden if not
allowed.
specifically
In the U.K. all advertising is allowed if not specifically
forbidden.
In Italy everything is allowed even if forbidden, and
In Belgium, nobody knows what’s forbidden.
Marketing Communications
 is all forms of communication used by
organizations
 to inform, remind, explain, persuade and
influence
 the attitudes & buying behavior of customers
and other parties.
Elements of the international communication process
Factors influencing the communication situation
Language differences
Economic differences
Sociocultural differences
Legal/regulatory differences
Competitive differences
Communication tools
Advertising
Personal
selling
Direct
marketing
Public
relations
Sales
promotion
The major international advertising decisions
Objectives setting
Budget decisions
Message decisions
Media decisions
Agency selection
Advertising evaluation
Global Advertising & Branding
 Global advertising is the transfer of advertising
appeals, messages, art, copy, photographs,
stories and video film segments from one
country to another
 Human demands and desires are very similar if
presented
in
recognizable
experience
situations
 A global company that has the ability to
transform a domestic campaign into a
worlwide one or to create an effective global
campaign has a critical advantage.
Global Advertising
 1st level -- same copy strategy
 2nd level -- same script
 3rd level -- same advertisement
Stress of country of origin?
Volkswagen “Fahrvehrgnugen”
Harley-Davidson “Made in USA”
Swiss Made
BMW
Indonesia?
Peru?
 Global media
 Single vs. dual vs. multi campaign approach
Global Branding
has advantages:
 Economies of scale
 Improved access to distribution channels
 Increased control
 Potential creative leverage of a global
appeal
Localized campaigns vs global branding
decisions are based on the trade-offs
involved
 Reasons for/benefits from global campaign
 Being forced to discover the global market
for the product
 Can initiate the search for coherent global
strategy
 For a global marketing effort
 Knowledge of cultural diversity and
symbolism asociated with cultural traits
 Creation of a common data base is
necessary
Advertising & stages of development
 Increases in per capita GNP and increases in
advertising as a % of GNP are directly
correlated
 Incentive to engage in advertising is positively
correlated with increases in country income
 The effectiveness of any particular message is
inversly correlated with intensity of
communication in the system
 The marginal efficiency of advertising
expenditures in countries at different stages of
ecomic development differ.
 The payoff in terms of objectives (sales, awareness) from an
extra marginal expenditure on advertising in different
countries must be determined
 Optimum world wide level of advertising expenditure and the
optimum allocation of expenditure among countries must be
determined
Global Advertising vs Adaptation
 The components of the communication
process
 Overall requirements of effective
communication and persuasion
do not vary from country to country
There may be some barriers that can prevent
communication in international communication
Should the global marketer change the
advertising message and media
strategy between countries and
regions?
Arguments for
 Standardization of advertising
...people demand same products for the same
reason so standardize advertising and achieve
economies of scale
 Localization of advertising
...buyers differ from country to country,
advertising must be tailored to countries so that
misunderstanding of audiences and failure to
adapt to foreign cultures can be avoided
The trend is toward increased use of localized
international advertising
Global committment to local vision is needed for
succes in global advertising
Cathay Pacific chose standardized
advertising throughout its markets
http://www.cathaypacific.com
Courvoisier cognac used a
localization strategy
http://www.courvoisier.com/
Tailoring Global Campaigns
Coca-Cola
General Assembly
A thousand children singing the praises of Coca-Cola
21 localized versions with
a youngster from the local market
Advertising appeals & product characteristics
 The effective appeal for a product varies between
markets because
 Products can be at different stages in their life
cycles in different countries
 Cultural, social, economic differences exist
 Marketers should try to identify situations where
 Potential cost reduction exists due to the
existance of economies of scale
 Barriers to standardization are not significant
 Products satisfy similar functional & emotional
needs accross cultures
 If emphasis placed on different functional and subjective
criteria in different countries, use different appeals in
messages
 Basic appeal & creative execution of the appeal may differ
between markets (eg. Club Med)
 If the market is global ie. The product appeals to the same
need around the world, appeals can be standardized and
extended. (eg. Whisky, coke)
 Food products are most likely to exhibit cultural sensitivity.
Budget decisions
Percentage of sales method of budgeting means that
the firm simply allocates a fixed proportion of sales to the
advertising budget
Advantages
 Guarantees equality among
markets
 Easy to justify
 Guarantees only what is
affordable is spent
Disadvantages
 Based on historical
performance
 Ignores necessity of increased
spending during declining sales
 Doe24s not consider goals
 Fails to address relationship
between advertising and sales
Budget decisions
Competitive parity form of budgeting
simply duplicates the amounts spent on
advertising by major rivals
Budget decisions
Objective and task approach of budgeting
starts with determining the advertising
objectives and then ascertaining the tasks
needed to attain the objectives
message
 The advertiser will use MR to determine which appeal
works & give a creative brief elaborating the positioning
statement (key message, target audience,
objectives,benefits to promise,media) to the agency
 The creative strategy involves
 Message generation/creative staff must contact buyers,
dealers & experts
 Message evaluation & selection/ must focus on core
selling proposition & aim for desirability, exclusiveness &
believability.
 Message execution/choose style, tone & format for the
message
 Social responsibility review/make sure creative advtg
does not overstep social & legal norms
Creating advertising
Art Direction
Involves the visual presentation. Some forms of
visual presentation can be universally
understood and thus can be extended.
Eg. Benetton
Copy
Translating copy is difficult. Direct translation can
create problems in the case of slogans
Challenges
 The response to advertising is difficult
to measure –Other factors affect
demand–Response may not occur
immediately
 Incentive problems–In one study of
81 winners of the Clio advertising
award, 36 of the agencies involved
had either lost the account or gone
out of business.
 Coordination problems
Big Risks
 1.A lot of money
 2.No salvage value
 3.You may not be advertising
enough
 4.Bad advertising is bad
Image
the personality of the product
 Variables in marketing mix must be
consistent with the image
 Customers may consume the image as
part of the product:–Coke and Pepsi –
Reebok and Nike
 Choose an image that will not need
change
Execution
 Restrain the Artists
 Ask for at least 3 alternatives.
 Write down your positioning
statement.
 If possible, include a direct measure
of response.
 Do your creative people have
experience with direct response?
Selling proposition
 What is said and the creative presentation/how
it is said must be distinguished.
 Buying propositions (eg.Top quality) can be
transferred.
 Creative presentations are more difficult to
transfer because there may be some obstacles
like:
..cultural barriers
..communication barriers
..legislative problems
..competitive positions
..execution problems
Media decisions
Reach
Momentum
Media mix
Frequency
Gross
rating points
(GRPs)
Reach refers to the total portion of
the target market exposed to at
least one ad in a given time period
Frequency refers to the average
number of times within a given
timeframe that each potential
customer is exposed to the same ad
Main media types
Television
Magazines
Radio
Cinema
Newspapers
Outdoor
Global Media Decisions
Four major difficulties can rise in organizations attempting
to communicate internationally


The message may not get through to the intended recipient.
This difficulty could be a result of an advertiser’s lack of
knowledge about media that are appropriate for reaching
certain types of audiences. For example, the effectiveness of
TV as medium for reaching audiences will vary
proportionately with the extent to which TV viewing occurs
within a country.
The message may reach the target audience but may not be
understood or may be misunderstood.
This can be the result of an inadequte understanding of the
target audience’s level of sophistication
The message may reach the target audience and
may be understood but still may not induce the
receipient to take action desired by the sender.
This could result from a lack of cultural
knowledge about a target audience.
 The effectiveness of the message can be impaired
by noise, or the effect of external influences such
as competitive advertising, other sales personnel,
and confusion at the receiving end, which can
detract from ultimate effectiveness of the
communications

Selecting Advertising Agencies
The choice is between a local agency in each
national market and an agency with domestic
and overseas offices
 Choice considertions may include:
 Co-organization in decentralized companies (MNC)
the local subsidiary may choose
 National responsivenes of the agency to be selected
 Area coverage fit of the company & the agency
 Buyer perception / if the company wants strong
local identification a local agency should be selected
Geocentrically organized companies select a
combination of both international & national
agencies
European agency selection factors
National
 Supports national
subsidiary
 Investment in existing
brand best handled
nationally
 Closer to marketplace
 Personalized service
and greater creativity
 Diversity of ideas
Source: adapted from Lynch, 1994, Table 11-4.
Pan-European
 Reflects new European
reality
 Economies of scale in
new product
development and
branding
 Uniformity of treatment
across Europe
 Resources and skills of
major agency
 Easier to manage one
agency group
Aspects of advertising evaluation




Communication impact
Pre testing of print and broadcast ads
Testing finished ad
Sales impact
Sales Promotion
 Collection of incentive tools, mostly
short-tem designed to stimulate
quicker and/or greater purchase of
products by consumers or trade
Types of sales promotion
Price discounts
Catalogues/brochures
Coupons
Samples
Gifts
Competitions
Factors leading to expansion of
sales promotion activities
Greater retail competition
Higher levels of brand awareness
Improved retail technology
Greater integration of promotional mix
in media campaigns
Major decisions in SP
 Set objectives
 Select tools for consumer, trade,
business & sales force promotion
 Develop a program - decide on size of
the incentive, conditions for
participation, duration, distribution
vehicle, timing, budget
 Pretest, implement, control &
evaluate the program
Public Relations
 Varietry of programs designed to promote
and/or protect company image or products
 PR departments perform the followind
functions:
 Press relations
 Product publicity
 Corporate commn
 Lobbying
 counseling
Public relations
Possible PR methods
 Event sponsorship
 Prizes at events
 Press releases
 Announcements
 Lobbying
Possible PR targets
 Employees
 Shareholders
 Suppliers
 Customers
 General public
 Governments
 Financial markets
Direct marketing
 The use of consumer direct channels to reach &
deliver goods & services to customers without
using mktg middlemen
 CRM, is the tool for applying the goal of longterm relationship building
 Catalog & direct mail is growing %7 /yr (retail
sales grow %3/yr)
 Internet user population is growing
 Market demassification/ ever-increasing number
of mkt niches
Major channels in DM
 Face-to-face selling
 Direct mail (E-mail, fax mail, voice
mail)
 Catalog mktg(paper, cd-ROM, online)
 Telemarketing,
 Kiosk mktg
 E-mktg
Factors leading to expansion of
international direct marketing activities
 Developments in mailing technology
 Escalating costs of other forms of
promotion
 Increasing availability of quality lists
 Developments in information
technology
 Increasing availability throughout
developed world of interactive
television facilities
Combination of direct mail and personal
selling
Personal selling
 face to face interaction with one or
more prospective customers for the
purpose of making presentations,
answering questions & procuring
orders
Questions to ask
when assessing
sales force effectiveness
Is the selling effort structured for effective market coverage?
Is the sales force staffed with the right people?
Is strong guidance provided?
Is adequate sales support in place?
Does the sales compensation plan provide the proper motivation?
Sales force organizational structures
Geographic
Combination
Product
Customer
Using expatriates for the sales force
Advantages
 Product knowledge
 Training for
promotion
 Greater home
control
Disadvantages
 Highest costs
 High turnover
 High training costs
Source: Reprinted from Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 24, Honeycutt, E.D. and Ford, J.B. (1995) ‘Guidelines for managing an international sales force’, p. 138, Copyright 1995, with permission from Elsevier.
Staffing the sales force from the
host country
Advantages
 Economical
 High market
knowledge
 Language skills
 Best cultural
knowledge
 Faster implementation
Disadvantages
 Needs product training
 May be held in low
esteem
 Importance of language
skills declining
 Difficult to ensure
loyalty
Staffing the sales force from a
third country
Advantages
 Cultural sensitivity
 Language skills
 Economical
 Allows regional
sales coverage
 May allow sales in
a country in
conflict with home
country
Disadvantages
Face identity
problems
Blocked promotions
Income gaps
Needs
product/company
training
Loyalty assurances
Three trade fair conceptions
Source: adapted from Rosson and Seringhaus, 1996, p. 1181, with kind permission of P.J. Rosson, Dalhousie University.
The role of Internet communications
in the buying process
Awareness
Mass media
Need
identification
Information
evaluation
Direct and
personal selling
Online marketing
Choice
Transaction
POS,
in-store promotion
Phases of web audience development






Integration
Unique design requirements
Audience creation techniques
Advertising methods
Effective promotion
Measurement and analysis
Viral marketing refers to a
marketing technique that seeks to
exploit existing social networks to
produce exponential increases in
brand awareness through online
word-of-mouth communication
Viral marketing
Advantages
 Inexpensive
 Active and
participatory
 Effectively targeted
through peer-topeer networks
Disadvantages
 Requires
technologically
compatible
programs
 Filtering programs
may prevent receipt
 Must be easy
Developing a viral marketing campaign
Step 1: Create compelling content
Step 2: Target the right audience
Step 3: Seed the message
Step 4: Control/ measure results