Essay on INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

The most important task of strategic management is to establish and maintain a dynamic interaction of the organization with its environment, designed to provide it with a competitive advantage, which is achieved by providing a product to the customer. Therefore, marketing objective occupies the position of one of the leading strategic management functions. For a number of organizations, depending on what goals they pursue and what strategy they implement, marketing is a key feature to ensure their successful operation. Moreover, companies turn to a management philosophy, according to which a company must focus its activity completely on customer needs (market driver management) and not try to make “convenient” products trying to sell it. Therefore, marketing becomes something more than just a separate function of management.

Marketing is increasingly used all areas of business activity of the company. Thus, marketing plays a special role in the strategic management, significantly beyond the scope of functions of sales and demand analysis.

Local marketing research

Today, setting new ambitious goals, every company faces many problems inherent to the market economy. The real problem of doing business has become the problem of finding effective demand. It is not enough to only produce goods, it is necessary to organize the work in such a way to make a profit from the sale of this product.

Local marketing research is a systematic search, collection, analysis and presentation of data and information related to a particular market situation, which the company faces in its country (Lipovetsky, Magnan, & Zanetti-Polzi, 2011).

The objectives of marketing research:

Searching goal – collecting information for a preliminary assessment of the problem and its structuring;

Descriptive goal – description of the selected events, research subjects and the factors affecting their condition;

Causal purpose – check of the hypothesis of a causal relationship;

Test objectives – selection of promising options or assessment of the correctness of decisions;

Forward-looking goals – prediction of the state of the object in the future.

The principal feature of marketing research, distinguishing it from the collection and analysis of internal and external current information, is its target aim to solve a particular problem or set of problems of marketing.

Each company determines the topics and scope of marketing research according to its capabilities and needs in marketing information, so the types of marketing research conducted by various companies can be different.

Iinternational marketing reserch

The term “international marketing research” refers to the collection, analysis and reporting on clearly defined problem of the operation of companies in foreign markets. International marketing research of different depth and breadth of coverage and the underlying information base are the base for all decisions (Webster, & Lusch,  2013).

Before entering international markets and creating information marketing base, a company should collect information about the overall status and trends:

1) industry of manufacturing products,

2) countries, which are producers and consumers of these products,

3) individual manufacturers, consumers and resellers.

The study of international markets is based on the following characteristics:

1) products (industries, types of products, manufacturers, methods and forms of sales and service of products)

2) consumers (industries, types of products, manufacturers and buyers, goals and methods of consumption)

3) location of the market (region, country, territory).

On the first stage of international market research, a company should study the broadest possible segment, that is the world market of the product. It must collect information about what companies in which countries produce, trade and consume this type of product and services (Mihaela, 2010).

The similarities and the differences between local and international marketing research

Local and international marketing research are very similar, as they have almost the same goals and objectives, as well as methods of conducting research. Both types of studies provide a comprehensive study examining objects such as the market, consumers, and competitors. Local and international marketing research have the same scheme of marketing research, which involves the following steps:

1. Defining a problem, objectives and methods.
2. Developing research plan.
3. Data collection and analysis.
4. Interpretation of the results and giving them to the management of organization.

Differences between local and international marketing research is that the evaluation of the international marketing environment is carried out mainly from the standpoint of economic purchasing power of the population in various countries, the levels of its income, industrial structure, orientation of the economy (agricultural, raw materials, etc.), overall level of economic development (Levy, 2012). Nevertheless, a potential exporter or importer should explore political and legal environment of the country: stability of government, its laws in relation to the economic sphere (quotas, restrictions, confiscation of property of foreign businessmen, foreign exchange controls). This may also include the availability of market information, organization of statistics, work of customs and tax authorities. Social culture of the country should also be a subject of international marketing research. Local marketing research does not include these questions.

The steps of marketing research

Marketing research process consists of several stages.

1. Defining the problem and research objectives. It is difficult to start any research before the problem is determined. Stage of recognition and definition of the problem is the first step in the process of finding solutions. Failure to comply with the tasks of sales, a growing number of unpaid bills and low turnover are the signals or symptoms of more serious problems. Researchers should recognize and identify the problems behind these symptoms. Incorrect definition of the problem can lead to wrong decisions. Objectives are derived from market research to formulate the problem. Objectives should be clearly and precisely defined, and be sufficiently detailed, it should be possible to measure them and evaluate their level of achievement.
2. Definition of the objects of research.

When a problem is defined, it is possible to formulate the research problem. As a rule, the study includes a solution to one of the four objectives: to develop, describe, test hypotheses and predict. The study is carried out to develop when you need to get more information on the issue and more clearly formulate hypotheses. Research to describe the problem is held when it is necessary to describe objects such as market, define their characteristics based on statistical data. If the task of marketing research is testing the hypothesis of relationship between the independent and dependent variables, companies conduct research to identify the causes of the emergence of the problem.

3. Development of a research plan. The creation of a research project is perhaps the most important step in the process of marketing research. Research project is a general plan of marketing research. It defines the requirements for a variety of data and its collection, processing and analysis. This stage includes not only the choice of certain methods of marketing research and development of specific tasks within the market research. At this stage, researcher determines the need for information, type of required information, sources and methods of its collection.
4. Data collection. From the perspective of the process, there are at least three alternative approaches to data collection: by the staff of marketing service, by the specially created group or with the involvement of companies that specialize in data collection. The process of gathering information is usually the most expensive phase of the study. Furthermore, it may have a sufficiently large number of errors during implementation.
5. Analysis of the data. It begins with the transformation of raw data (error checking, encoding, representation in matrix form). This allows transferring a lot of raw data into meaningful information.
6. Presentation of the results. Results of the research are presented in the form of the final report and submitted to the management of the company (Shaw, 2012).

From national to international marketing

Development of international economic relations, primarily on the basis of the international division of labor, is the characteristic process in today’s global community. These are objective, stable commercial relations between individual countries or groups of countries.

Essentially, each country in addition to conducting internal trade tends to carry foreign trade, implying a complex mechanism of relations arising in the process of sale of goods and services in the international market. Development of the international cooperation significantly increases the tendency towards the internationalization of economic processes, promotes international specialization and cooperation in production, trade, exchange of scientific and technological developments.

International marketing is a response to the world of commercial processes such as growth and expansion of partnerships in the international market, increase of production capacity, quick update of product range, frequent changes in the nature and structure of the market demand, market fluctuations, increased competition, increased and improved quality of information support. International marketing provides a systematic, ongoing, active involvement in the international market at different stages of the promotion of commercial products (services) to the consumer. That is why we should distinguish the concept of “international marketing” from the concepts of “sale” and “export”, since the latter consists in the fact that sellers are limited to delivery of its products to foreign importing companies. At the same time, suppliers are generally not interested in how consumers are satisfied in these products. A distinctive feature of international marketing is a complete and clear orientation on foreign consumers, the desire to satisfy their needs and requirements.

Marketing research is a necessary condition for the success of the company in international markets at all stages of its operation and product life cycle. The better boundaries and objectives of the study are defined, the more useful received information is, and the more accurate calculations are. They help to better understand and adapt to the needs of the buyer, determine the best value for money and quality of the goods, find new customers, find a way to draw attention to your company and products. Market conditions are constantly changing, so there is a need for such work all the time, which greatly increases the effectiveness of company on the international markets (Mihaela, 2010).

Examples

There are many examples of successful marketing of companies operating in the domestic and foreign markets. Here are some of them.

Marlboro. Marlboro invented pack of cardboard with flip-top lid, which are now standard package of cigarettes not in order to demonstrate innovation or design ideas but for promotional purposes. Smokers were able to pull out cigarettes from soft packs without removing them from the pocket, so others did not see the brand. Flip-tops made smokers take the pack out of the pocket so that everybody could see it, and the new always attracts attention.

Estee Lauder. There is a beautiful legend about how Estee Lauder began selling its perfumes. The young Miss Lauder came the biggest perfume shop in New York “accidentally” split the bottle of her perfume on the floor. Buyers asked about the wonderful smell and store just had to sign a contract with Estee Lauder.

Heinz. In 1896, Henry Heinz was walking around New York and saw an advertisement of shoe store, which offered clients “21 style of shoes.” By analogy, he decided to write on their ketchup and sauces “57 options”. This number had nothing to do with the actual figures range, but Heinz liked it. And it impressed buyers.

Harley-Davidson. The most famous manufacturer of motorcycles in the world holds the first place in terms of “branded” tattoos for more than a dozen years. It all began with the fact that Harley announced impressive discounts on bikes for those who would come to buy a motorcycle with a tattoo in the form of its logo.

One of the largest tobacco companies, «R. J. Reynolds International», was able to create a special “Russian image”. The company began to produce new cigarettes, which were called “Peter I». Until now, non-standard advertising of the company emphasizes that these cigarettes are created by Russian designers specifically for Russian consumers. Company «R. J. Reynolds International» was able to show how effective PR can work in terms of the binding of marketing programs to local traditions and mentality of the target audience (Slater, & Andriopoulos, 2013).

Conclusion

Marketing research includes studies to support marketing activities, as well as statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, assess of the nature of trading environment of the company and to obtain information from suppliers. Market research use statistical methods such as qualitative and quantitative research, hypothesis testing, chi-square test, linear regression, frequency distribution, binomial distribution, etc. These methods are needed to interpret the results and transform data into information. The process of marketing research covers a number of steps, including identifying a problem, developing a plan of analysis, data collection and interpretation, presenting information in the form of a formal report. The task of market research is to provide management with relevant, accurate, reliable and valid data.

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