The word marketing is commonly used as a synonym for marketing. It consists of establishing strategies in order to promote and sell a product or service in a certain market. This idea can be extended to other realities, such as the field of politics or corporate social responsibility. In other words, marketing is a discipline that tries to meet and identify the needs of individuals and society.
The international dimension of marketing
A small traditional company looking for new clients in its environment will have to implement marketing mechanisms adapted to its local reality. However, a multinational company that operates in different areas of the planet must take into account the diversity of cultures and languages of the consumers it is targeting. In this sense, international marketing is directly related to international trade.
International marketing plans
For a product or service to be adequately promoted abroad and beyond the local market, it is necessary to carry out a marketing plan with international projection. Some of the most relevant aspects of these plans are the following:
- Investigate the reality of the international market. It must be borne in mind that consumers in a distant country may be interested in a product, but this is not enough to start a plan, since it is necessary to know all kinds of aspects (means of transport, shipping system, tariffs, means of payment, distribution of the population by age, consumption patterns, etc.).
The international marketing departments of companies perform various functions
1) they propose how to market a product based on the target market,
2) they design a specific product depending on the consumer they are targeting,
3) they analyze the product or service so that it has global characteristics and that it may be of interest to the largest number of consumers possible (in this sense, you have to choose between a standardization strategy for a product or a strategy for adapting to a specific market) and
4) they value a series of elements of the product or service to be internationalized (the brand, the label, the packaging, the security, the guarantees, the quality, the service, etc.).
University studies in international marketing
The academic courses of this discipline incorporate very broad knowledge and the most significant are the following:
1) marketing strategies,
2) internationalization processes,
3) export modes,
4) international communication,
5) research tools,
6) distribution channels and logistics management and
7) international competitiveness.
Photos: Fotolia - Dragon / Gstudio
