International Marketing: Key Factors to Consider

Values and Attitudes

Values and attitudes vary between nations, and even vary within nations. So if you are planning to take a product or service overseas make sure that you have a good grasp the locality before you enter the market. This could mean altering promotional material or subtle branding messages. There may also be an issue when managing local employees.

Education

The level and nature of education in each international market will vary. This may impact the type of message or even the medium that you employ.

Social Organizations

This aspect of Terpstra and Sarathy’s Cultural Framework relates to how a national society is organized.

Technology and Material Culture

Technology is a term that includes many other elements. It includes questions such as:

• Is there energy to power our products?
• Is there a transport infrastructure to distribute our goods to consumers?
• Does the local port have large enough cranes to offload containers from ships?
• How quickly does innovation change?
• Do consumers actually buy material goods, are they materialistic?

Law and Politics

As with many aspects of Terpstra and Sarathy’s Cultural Framework, the underpinning social culture will drive the political and legal landscape. The political ideology on which the society is based will impact upon your decision to market there.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics relate to your senses, and the appreciation of the artistic nature of something, including its smell, taste or ambience.

• Is something beautiful?
• Does it have a fashionable design?
• Was an advert delivered in good taste?
• Do you find the color, music or architecture relating to an experience pleasing?
• Is everything relating to branding aesthetically pleasing?

Religion

The nature and complexity of the different religions an international marketer could encounter is pretty diverse. The organization needs to make sure that their products and services are not offensive, unlawful or distasteful to the local nation. This includes marketing promotion and branding.

Language

With language one should consider whether or not the national culture is predominantly a high context culture or a low context culture (Hall and Hall 1986).

The concept relates to the balance between the verbal and the non-verbal communication.

In a low context culture spoken language carries the emphasis of the communication

International Companies

International companies are importers and exporters, they have no investment outside of their home country.

Multinational Companies

Multinational companies have investment in other countries, but do not have coordinated product offerings in each country. More focused on adapting their products and service to each individual local market.

Global Companies

Global companies have invested and are present in many countries. They market their products through the use of the same coordinated image/brand in all markets. Generally one corporate office that is responsible for global strategy. Emphasis on volume, cost management and efficiency.

Transnational Companies

Transnational companies are much more complex organizations. They have invested in foreign operations, have a central corporate facility but give decision-making, R&D and marketing powers to each individual foreign market.

The Company: Products

Are the company’s existing products suitable for international markets?

If change has to be made, which ones?

Standardization:

• Consider a global market for the product, if the same type of good is supplied in different domestic markets.
• To overcome the differences of each country with a promotional effort that tries to adapt consumers and users to the product of the company, and not the other way around.
• Reduce the costs of adaptation to the detriment of a higher cost of promotion, since it is ultimately intended to homogenize the national demands for the product of the company

Adaptation:

• Identifies multiple domestic markets, the differences that distinguish them from each other and with the home market of the company
• Involves the decision to adapt the product to the specific preferences of each country
• Usually represents higher costs of adaptation but lower costs of promotion