Ardismg

Archive for February, 2010

Besides generating additional revenue, firms are expanding their operations outside their home country to gain other benefits, including new insights into consumer behavior, alternative distribution strategies, and advance notice of new products. By setting up foreign offices and production facilities, marketers may learn new marketing techniques and gain invaluable experience.
Global marketers are typically well-positioned to compete effectively with foreign competitors. With the fall of Soviet Russia came the rise of a new economy. Although Russia has a well-deserved reputation for being a difficult market to enter, Western companies flocked to the 150 million, product-starved consumers, and many have found the effort worthwhile. A major key to achieving success in foreign markets is a firm’s ability to adapt its products to local preferences. For decades, Bestfoods, makers of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, has marketed different mayonnaise recipes around the world. The special recipe for Russia, for example, is a near-liquid version that is much blander than the U.S. version. Unlike Americans, who spread mayonnaise on bread, Russians pour it over vegetables) Hellman’s has been one of the few foreign companies that has been successful in its marketing efforts to Russia. Its greatest competitive threat comes from state-owned leader Moszhircom mayonnaise.
Another method used by international marketers before entering foreign markets is to conduct transcontinental product testing. Procter & Gamble is a veteran of global marketing but only recently began to develop truly global products. Swiffer, a lightweight mop with disposable cleaning cloths that use static electricity to pick up dust, hair, and other dirt, was test marketed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and in Sens, France, before its global launch. It was found to be successful in both markets. The name Swiffer is meant to convey speed and ease of use and is used in promotions as both a noun and a verb, as in “Let’s Swiffer the floor.” As one P&G spokesperson explained, “The more that we truly explore consumers on a global basis, the more we find that they’re really more alike than they are dissimilar.” Global testing was also used for P&G’s Dryel home dry-cleaning products. Test sites for Dryel were in Ohio and Ireland.
Since firms must perform the marketing functions of buying, selling, transporting, storing, standardizing and grading, financing, risk taking, and obtaining market information in both domestic and global markets, some may question the wisdom of treating international marketing as a distinct subject. After all, international marketing is marketing; a firm performs the same functions and works toward the same objectives in domestic or international marketing. As the chapter will explain, however, both similarities and differences influence strategies for international and domestic marketing.