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Marketing as an academic discipline got its breakthrough in the 1950s. The first textbooks in international marketing appeared only some 20–30 years later. Today, more than 60 years later, international marketing texts have proliferated – in different shapes and with emphasis on different perspectives concerning scope (export marketing, international marketing, global marketing, global marketing strategy, etc.) as well as approach (theoretical/practical/handbook). This book offers two distinct features that distinguish it from other books: (1) it takes a contingency approach where the firm's international marketing strategy is discussed in view of its strategic position in world markets; (2) as a consequence, it discusses the international marketing strategies of “all kinds” of firms – small and large. The book is theory based, but it also offers normative and practical advice to its readers. It is therefore a good starting point for both students and business practitioners alike. As a former colleague of the author, Professor Hans Matthias Thjömöe, used to say: “Nothing is as practical as a good theory”!

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No chapter abstract available.

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Since the 1980s until around 2015, the world witnessed a trend towards a more intertwined business world, both through trade and foreign direct investments. This trend, popularly termed globalisation, happens mainly along four axes: economic, cultural, trade policy, and technology. As trade increases, citizens in countries become “global citizens”. This means that the differences we see along cultural dimensions are reduced and we see a greater shared culture across regions and globally. Trade policies have reduced barriers and allowed for greater and easier access to foreign markets. Regional agreements such as the EU and USMCA are leading the way towards more internationalisation. Finally, technologies such as the internet and ubiquitous mobile telephony are still leap-frogging traditional barriers to trade. Geopolitical events and increasing protectionism have a cooling effect on this development, eventually ending up in “de-globalisation”. These trends affect both the competitive landscape and market opportunities globally.

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Examining a company internally before an international venture requires assessing the internationalisation process and resources – often in terms of a stepwise model. This type of model, such as the Uppsala and the Bakka models, maintains that a company starts exporting gradually and cautiously before developing into an experienced and thriving international business. However, this line of thinking is challenged by other observable patterns of internationalisation such as the concept of “born global” firms who internationalise at a much faster pace. For successful internationalisation, we cannot do without a supportive company culture to uphold commitment to success. To assess the culture, we propose three factors: attitudes, competence, and embodiment (ACE). These factors together form a self-sustaining circle, where an increase in one factor will have a positive effect on the others.

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Globalisation drivers, together with the competitive landscape, tell us the degree of globality in an industry. A global industry will usually consist of global oligopolies which compete across many regions and countries. Preparedness for internationalisation can be assessed by analysing organisational culture, market share, and access to key customers. Taken together, these external and internal factors can point us to a useful framework for internationalisation: the “Nine Strategic Windows”. The framework suggests nine main strategic thrusts or orientations (the windows) that firms should consider in their internationalisation process. While each window does not prescribe a precise strategy, the framework helps us understanding challenges and opportunities ahead.

Pages: 214

No chapter abstract available.

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International marketing decisions require information which can be obtained in several ways. Companies can obtain their information through informal routes or by rigorous marketing research, and information collection can be continuous or on an ad hoc basis. Our information needs are usually connected to understanding our company, the competition, customers, and macro factors – and some of this data is easier to access than other data. The chapter describes data with high availability and data with low availability. Data differs with respect to how helpful they are, and the resources required to collect the data. For some decisions, we can collect powerful data quickly and with low costs. Other decisions require data which requires a sizable investment in time and money. Whichever type of data we decide to collect, challenges and obstacles follow.

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Most firms start their exporting to neighbouring countries almost by default, since managers sense, right or wrong, that they know their closest neighbours. A more systematic approach is to identify specific criteria and carefully assess different markets – and then make a choice: for example, market size, market growth, and macro factors such as political risk and currency stability. The method and the choice of market will typically vary depending on internal and external factors – as viewed through the “Nine Strategic Windows”. When managing a portfolio of markets, we can classify them according to the growth in the market and our market position.

Pages: 44

Choosing how to enter a country, the operation mode, depends on internal factors and external factors. Export operation modes can either be done indirectly, for example with a trading house, or directly, such as using a local distributor or an agent, or selling directly to customers. Operation modes with production abroad are chosen due to a variety of factors such as trade barriers, logistics costs, tapping into raw materials, tax credits and subsidies, being closer to customers, and demonstrating commitment to competition. These types of entry modes include licensing and franchising, contract manufacturing, wholly owned production subsidiaries, management contracts, and strategic alliances. Whichever operation mode is chosen, we need to weigh the resources, risk, control offered, and flexibility we need in the selected market. The suitability of the different operation modes varies according to the company's position in the “Nine Strategic Windows” framework.

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Selecting a well-suited partner and developing a good working relationship with it are keys to successful exporting. This means we need to forge a contract, which can have elements of both formalisation and relational governance. Partner relationships vary based on the role of the local representative in the marketing decision process and the marketing insights at HQ. In addition, product complexity and cultural distance are important contingency factors. Partner relationships are also affected by the company´s position in the “Nine Strategic Windows” framework.

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Should the firm standardise or adapt its marketing mix in international markets? This has been central to a long-standing debate without any definitive conclusion. This chapter examines primarily how the product and promotion are adapted, or not adapted, when entering international markets. We point to factors which could influence this decision, how this can fit with the overall firm strategy, and how it may affect performance.

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Product strategies start with realising the overall need or want our product attempts to satisfy. From there, we examine and decide on issues tied to the layers of the product, the tangible and intangible elements included, the packaging, and logistics. As introduced in Chapter 9, standardisation or adaptation is a central issue to tackle; where we have to tackle issues related to culture, technical demands, product life cycle, and our portfolio of international products. In addition, the Nine Strategic Windows framework also points to how different levels of industry globality and preparedness for internationalisation should influence our product strategy.

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Promotion deals with the most visible part of marketing: advertising and other ways to communicate with a customer. Looking at a typical model of communication, where a message is transferred from a sender to a receiver in a chosen channel, we examine the effects the international context might have. This includes new digital channels which present us a plethora of possibilities for international communication. Finally, we look at how the Nine Strategic Windows framework can help inform our decisions of standardising and adapting promotion.

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In general, four main factors influence international pricing policy: the type of objectives we are aiming for, the cost factors, the market factors, and the approach to pricing taken. Pricing risk is given special consideration as it could be markedly different from domestic sales. Choosing the right price entails examining profitability as well as strategic position. Using the Nine Strategic Windows framework can help inform our strategic positioning decisions.

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No chapter abstract available.

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Deep understanding of the market situation in each market is a prerequisite for good planning. It helps us define our role in the market – leader, challenger, niche, or marginal player – and appropriate measures to fulfil this role. The Nine Strategic Windows framework gives pointers to how to approach the planning process in different strategic positions. The plan itself can either be constructed using a top-down approach or a bottom-up approach. In any event, good planning includes involvement of partners – to create a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead.

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Organising the international marketing effort should take as a point of departure the tasks ahead. The extent to which the firm itself should undertake all these tasks or outsource some of them depends partly on its resources and ambitions in the market and partly on the challenges ahead. The organisational structure then varies from a very simple hierarchy with just a marketing manager, to a complex structure – matrix according to product and market, or GAM (global account management). Important issues to consider are coordination, control, learning, and partnering. The Nine Strategic Windows framework may help guiding the development of the organisational design.

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Globalisation has put an imprint on both business and academia over the last three to four decades; it has indeed influenced the content of this book. We believe that globalisation, defined as a process towards an increasingly intertwined international market and a competition dominated by few large players, poses tremendous challenges to firms of all kinds – large and small, high-tech and low-tech, B2B and B2C. Sometimes the globalisation drivers are easy to detect: trade deals, entrance of large multinational players in the domestic market, instant access to information through internet, application of (new) technologies creating new opportunities (examples of which are Spotify, Uber, Amazon, Kahoot!), etc., though their implications are not obvious. Other times the trends are more subtle, and their consequences difficult to fathom: change in consumer patterns and buyer behaviour, restructuring of industries partly as a consequence of the above drivers. Indeed, the trend may also go in the opposite direction – towards de-globalisation, or at best – regionalisation, as may be the result of international conflicts such as the war on Ukraine and the mounting disaccord between the Untied States and China, or more nationalistic currents in leading countries – be they Brexit, Trumpism, or any other flavour of national centrism.