The American Marketing Association defines channel of distribution as “An organized network of agencies and institutions, which in combination, perform all the activities required to link producers with users to accomplish the marketing task.” Distribution is the physical flow of goods through channels; as suggested by the definition, channels are comprised of a coordinated group of individuals or firms that performs functions adding utility to a product or service. The major types of channel utility are: Place (the availability of a product or service in a location that is convenient to a potential customer); Time (the availability of a product or service when desired by a customer); Form (the product is processed, prepared and ready to use, and in proper condition); and Information (answers to questions and general communication about useful product features and benefits are available). Since these utilities can be a basic source of competitive advantage and productContinue reading
International Business
International Business Management deals with the maintenance and development of a multinational operation across national borders, whose manager has the knowledge and the skills to manage and handle cross-cultural processes, stakeholders and business environments in a right way.
What Pricing Policy should a Global Company Pursue?
Viewed broadly, there are three alternative positions a company can take toward worldwide pricing. 1. Extension/Ethnocentric The first can be called an extension/ethnocentric pricing policy. This policy requires that the price of an item be the same around the world and that the importer absorbs freight and import duties. This approach has the advantage of extreme simplicity because no information on competitive or market conditions is required for implementation. The disadvantage of this approach is directly tied to its simplicity. Extension pricing does not respond to the competitive and market conditions of each national market and, therefore, does not maximize the company’s profits in each national market. 2. Adaptation/Polycentric The second pricing policy can be termed adaptation/polycentric. This policy permits subsidiary or affiliate managers to establish whatever price they feel is most desirable in their circumstances. Under such an approach, there is no control or fixed requirement that prices beContinue reading
Price Component of the Global Marketing Mix
In any country, three basic factors determine the boundaries within which market prices should be set. The first is product cost, which establishes a price floor, or minimum price. While it is certainly possible to price a product below the cost boundary, few firms can afford to do this for extended periods of time. Second, competitive prices for comparable products create a price ceiling or upper boundary. International competition almost always puts pressure on the prices of domestic companies. A widespread effect of international trade is to lower prices. Indeed, one of the major arguments favoring international business is the favorable impact of international competition upon national price levels and, in turn, upon a country’s rate of inflation. Between the lower and upper boundaries for every product there is an optimum price, which is a function of the demand for the product as determined by the willingness and ability ofContinue reading
Product Component of the Global Marketing Mix
Product is probably the most crucial element of a marketing program. To a very important degree a company’s products define its business. Pricing, communication, and distribution policies must fit the product. Its research and development requirements will depend upon the technologies of its products. Indeed, every aspect of the enterprise is heavily influenced by the firm’s product offering. In the past, managers have been prone to committing (often simultaneously) two types of errors regarding product decisions in global marketing. One error has been to fall victim to the “Not Invented Here” (NIH) syndrome, ignoring product decisions made by subsidiary or affiliate managers. Managers who behave in this way are essentially abandoning any effort to influence or control product policy outside the home-country market. The other error has been to impose product decisions policy upon all affiliate companies on the assumption that what is right for customers in the home marketContinue reading
Marketing Strategies Adopted by Global Companies
Marketing strategies adopted by Global Companies can be broadly classified as follows: 1. A Global Strategy It treats the world as a single market. This strategy is warranted when the forces for global integration are strong and the forces for national responsiveness are weak. This is true of the consumer electronics market, for example, where most buyers will accept a fairly standardized pocket radio, CD player, or TV. Matsushita has performed better than GE and Philips in the consumer electronics market because Matsushita operates in a more glob ally coordinated and standardized way. 2. A Multinational Strategy It treats the world as a portfolio of national opportunities. This strategy is warranted when the forces favoring national responsiveness are strong and the forces favoring global integration are weak. This is the situation in the branded packaged-goods business (food products, clean ing products). Unilever can be cited as a better performer thanContinue reading
Development Stages of a Transnational Corporation
There are five stages in the evolution of the transnational corporation. These stages describe significant differences in the strategy, worldview, orientation, and practice of companies operating in more than one country. One of the key differences in companies at these different stages is in orientation. Stage One–Domestic The stage-one company is domestic in its focus, vision, and operations. Its orientation is ethnocentric. This company focuses upon domestic markets, domestic suppliers, and domestic competitors. The environmental scanning of the stage-one company is limited to the domestic, familiar, home-country environment. The unconscious motto of a stage-one company is: “If it’s not happening in the home country, it’s not happening.” The world’s graveyard of defunct companies is littered with stage-one companies that were sunk by the Titanic syndrome: the belief, often unconscious but frequently a conscious conviction, that they were unsinkable and invincible on their own home turf. The pure stage-one company isContinue reading