International Marketing Strategies

I recently finished reading a book on International Marketing called International Marketing Strategy: Analysis, Development, and Implementation by Doole, I, Lowe, R. & Kenyon, A.

Due to the fact that markets have become increasingly global, many of the businesses I work with are finding the need to expand to international markets to compete in their business segment.  The book essentially draws out a roadmap to help companies expand into the international market successfully.

One of the success stories mentioned in the book was a Mexican company that has now expanded its corn and flour products to the US, China, and Europe. One of the first things the company did was send a team over to each of these markets to conduct a survey of the culture, business practices, consumer behavior, etc.  

As I mentioned in my previous post, part II of foreign market entry, evaluating a foreign market’s culture can be a challenge as it is comprised of observable and unobservable components. For example, one can observe behavior patterns such as are rules being enforced, rituals, etc. However, one cannot observe beliefs, values, and assumptions, and these are typically the most important to understand when entering a foreign market.

The other key to the company’s success was their ability to adapt their product to the current market.  One of the observations from they initial survey was that certain populations don’t eat corn tortillas, so they modified the product to naan, special wraps, etc in specific markets. 

The book discusses other strategies but in my experience conducting the initial survey and having the ability to adapt your products/services to the target foreign market play a critical role in whether your company will experience success in a foreign market. I will leave you with a perfect example of this:

When one of the world’s most recognizable brands, Coca-Cola launched in China, it was a struggle.  The company quickly learned that Coca-Cola resembled “Kooke Koula”, which translates to “a thirsty mouthful of candle wax”. By changing the pronunciation to “Kee Kou Keele”, with means “joyful tastes and happiness, ultimately contributed to their success in China.

If I can help you determine whether your company should expand to a foreign market, please reach out to me.