In this video, we introduce International Marketing. International marketing is highly dependent on natural culture, as we shall see. This first video provides an overview of international marketing and the subsequent videos dive into more detail. But first, let's define international marketing. There is of course, great commonality between domestic and international marketing. But in addition to the challenges of domestic marketing. International marketing includes other crap factors, critical beyond domestic considerations. First, there're cultural factors, including language, regional tastes, regional values, and consumer habits. Since much of marketing appeals to emotional and cultural sentiments. Marketing campaigns will often vary substantially between nations and cultures. For example, advertising and marketing campaigns that are appreciated in some cultures, may be considered offensive in others. Then there are varying economic factors, such as per capita income, social stratification, supply and demand for various products. The wealth of the nation and distribution of wealth clearly all have an impact in how we undertake marketing efforts. Political and legal factors can also come into play. Such as laws and regulations, taxes, fees, currency risk, tariffs, quotas, and political instability or stability. For example, some countries have strict rules about providing advertising claims, such as we make the best beer in the world. If an advertisement makes such a claim, then the advertiser may be required to provide proof. And finally, any number of other factors can complicate marketing across borders, such as environmental risks for certain products. The need for partnerships to sell in a country, or the need to adapt a product for a particular market. Marketing is a complex and difficult activity, even when operating in a single country. Operating across borders only makes it more interesting and challenging. Fundamentally, there are four critical questions to ask when marketing across national borders and cultures. When should we engage in international business? Who is our target market in destination countries? What marketing strategies should we employ? And how should we engage our target market? To answer these four questions, marketers have developed for well known models and methods. To answer the question, when should we engage in international business? Marketers analyzed the 3Cs of marketing, Company, Customer, and Competition. To answer who is our target market in destination countries? Marketers undertake market segmentation. To answer what marketing strategy should we employ? Marketers choose one of four Strategic Marketing Orientations. And finally to determine how should we engage with our target market. Marketers find answers to the 4Ps of marketing, Product, Place, Promotion and Price. We will explore each of these questions and their solutions in the next series of videos. Now is as good a time as any to review common mistakes that are made with international marketing. The first is not explicitly defining target countries. But instead vaguely thinking in general terms about regional markets such as Asia, Europe, or South America. Every country in the world is different, and often areas within a country are different. For example, Catalonians in Spain or Cantonese in China. Creating large geographic regions as homogenous is almost surely doomed to failure. Another frequent problem is not adapting product offerings to the needs and preferences of a particular country or region. But rather mistakenly thinking, and assuming that one-size fits all everywhere. Products that are wildly successful in some countries, fall flat in others. For example, the old TV show Baywatch, was very popular in Germany long after it passed from the scene in the United States. Yet another point of failure is not considering input from local managers. It's all too easy for personnel from a successful company to believe that they have all the answers in a foreign country. And that the foreign locals are just yokels, which means unsophisticated and ignorant rural persons. In a similar way, companies fail by not adapting successful home country sales and marketing channels to different local circumstances. Channels here mean the types of marketing methods that are used, such as print, advertising, TV, personal selling, social media and so forth. Or work at home, may or may not and probably won't work in a different hemisphere. Finally, in common failure is not thinking through the challenges of global logistics. And underestimating the difficulty of moving goods and offering services to foreign locations. Moving materials around the world is not just calling up FedEx or trucking company to have packages of pallets delivered to a different continent. Much, much more is involved as we will explore in future videos. Well, these are just some of the common mistakes that marketers make when they go international. Keep these in mind as we continue our discussions of global marketing. In the next videos we will answer these four critical marketing questions. How should we engage in international business? What is our target market in destination countries? What marketing strategy should we employ? And what tactics should we use within our target markets? We will address the first three questions immediately in this lesson in a few more videos. And the fourth question in a series of videos in the following lesson. Stay tuned, we'll see then.
