The Scope and Challenge of International Marketing
Introduction
Why Global Marketing?
You might be wondering as a student, why you have to take Global Marketing. After all, like many students you might not have considered employment beyond the United States. There a multitude of reasons that international marketing is important to your success as a future marketer/manager.
For instance, Coca-Cola is an American iconic brand that is synonymous with the red and white cans. However, Coke does most of its business outside of America. In fact, Nestle, which is a Swedish company, does most of its business in the United States. International expansion of American or Foreign companies is a great growth opportunity for firms to garner market share and additional profits. Thus, it makes sense that sometime in your future career you will be involved in international business.
Exhibit 1.2 (Cateora, Gilly, and Graham, 2009, p. 9) in your textbook shows American companies and their percentage of revenues outside of the US. Notice that many big companies such as General Electric and Apple, for example, derive over 40% of their revenues from outside the US? Therefore, if American companies are deriving large percentages of revenue from outside the US, doesn’t it make sense that in your future role as a marketer or manager that international business skills might be required to do your job well?
This course will focus on learning the ins and outs of Global Marketing as well as how to be successful in this field. The business paradigm has shifted from the seventies where we were not a globalized business society to one without borders. Most companies now have an international strategy of some kind. Most likely, your role as a marketer/manager will require some experience in this area to be successful.
Lesson 1 Objectives
After completing this Lesson you should be able to:
- Identify some reasons studying global marketing is important
- List the events and trends that affect global business
- Recognize the differences in domestic vs. global marketing
- Explain the different stages of international marketing
- Understand the differences in strategic orientation that companies adopt