Question

Provide an example of how an international company (such as Unilever or Mondelez International) changes its distribution channels and/or marketing messages based on country.

Cite your reference

Answer 1

Since we all know due to globalization, the disappearance of distinction between the marketing strategy in the home country as well as in the external market can be seen. Thus, the companies are now strategizing differently in order to meet the challenges they can face in the global market adding to how they are sustaining the competitiveness in their home country. Also, they are customizing the marketing mix for their brands in different markets based on the needs of the customer, their language, their wants, culture as well as values.

The main practice of marketing keeping in mind the 4 Ps i.e. , product, price , place, promotion, all are changed when the company decided to move to global market out of their comfortable home market. Extensive Promotion is being required in the new market to position the company. A perfect example can be for McDonalds. The company is one of the leaders in global marketing in fast foods. The company changes their menu based on the country. For example, in the country like India, where beef is banned, this fast food chain is not selling any burger which contains beef in that, keeping in mind, the values of the Indians, whereas on the other hand, if we go outside India, the fast food company barely selling any veg burgers but all are being non vegetarian burgers including beef, meet and pork. Also, the packing varies, since different countries have different native languages, thus they are offering menu, labels based on their country’s native language.

Similarly, if the companies want to go global, they must keep certain point sin the mind. For example, before launching any product, the company makes sure to define target market and determine the products that will be suited for the intended market. Adding to that, pricing as well as distribution channel should also be kept in mind before moving globally.

Promotional strategies for major chunk of people should also be taken care of like if television commercials or social media can prove to provide a helping hand in that. Moreover, the marketers will also face challenges such as responding to their consumers response, promotional and product challenges will also come in the way when the company will be dealing in different brands.

To overcome these challenges, the marketers must ensure that the promotional marketing campaign for the brand is successfully implemented based on demographics, psychographics, knowledge, attitude, their beliefs etc.

Language: The language plays an important part in uniting the people of a country. Language differences can sometimes cause difficulty for marketers to design campaigns and the labels for the product. This would be more crucial, if the people of the country are speaking more than one language.

Values: Values are something that always holds a moral or religious belief with it and later gained from experiences. For example, In America, people are more concerned for buying any item for their status symbol. Apart from their necessity, they consider their status symbol important for survival.

Business norms: The norms for doing business differs from country to country. Some country prefers selling directly to the customers, others prefer to go by the supply chain as they did not want to disrupt the distribution channel.

As we all know the challenges faced in the global markets are more as compared to the local markets, thus extensive research is needed for the new market before starting any operation, this help the marketer to identify the attributes for the product’s potential environment. These attributes then further help in marketing mix including pricing to be more specific.

Pricing will be different for different markets, since there are many internal and external factors, Internal include the manufacturing costs, profits, overhead costs, margins, whereas external includes tariffs like trade, exports, imports and many others. Also, apart from these, shipping cost, handling, manpower, all must be taken care of before setting a final price for the product. Also, the price should be in the price range, keeping in mind the price floor and price ceiling.

Lastly, the major challenge that mostly companies face when they are turning themselves for the global market is not only the communication of brand image, but the development of understanding the differences in culture that most of the time separate consumer markets from one place to another.