Question

Question 5

What is the importance of collaborative relationships to competition?

Question 7

Assume that you are the director of international marketing for a company producing refrigerators. Select one country in Latin America and one in Europe and develop screening criteria to use in evaluating the countries. Make any additional assumptions that are necessary about you company.

Question 16

Visit the Nestle Corporation website (http://www.nestle.com/) and the Unilever website (http://www.unilever.com/). Compare their strategies toward international markets. In what ways (other than product categories) do they differ in their international marketing?

Chapter 13 – Page 417

Question 5

Discuss product alternatives and the three marketing strategies: domestic market extension, multidomestic markets, and global market strategies.

Question 14

Discuss the characteristics of an innovation that can account for differential diffusion rates.

Answer 1

Question 5

What is the importance of collaborative relationships to competition?

Collaborative relationships among competition have acquired significance as :

• Globalization has placed stress on driving quality, managing pricing & creating innovative products, thus to ensure the maintenance for quality, pricing, and innovation collaborative relationships are important.
• Time has become very crucial and has evolved into a very vital factor for any organization or an entity, to ensure proper time management in any organization it is very imperative to form a collaborative relationship among competitor.
• The proliferation of technology has been constantly reducing the PLCs (product lifecycles) & and also generates future prospects for creating successful products and establish market share in global markets. Collaborative relationships also influence the survival of many businesses in the long term as they help mitigate liquidity risks.

Question 7

Assume that you are the director of international marketing for a company producing refrigerators. Select one country in Latin America and one in Europe and develop screening criteria to use in evaluating the countries. Make any additional assumptions that are necessary about you company.

Our company LMK refrigerators has put in place the following screening criteria to help evaluate the marketing decision making :

• Nature in terms of market entry loss ( Capital expenditure, other investment factors )
• The demographic distribution in terms of the age groups, the gender distribution
• Worldwide demand and the comparison of the geographical demand in the country of selection.
• Cultural and Linguistic diversity
• The market expectations from the products (customer expectation )
• The literacy rate of the country
• The average household income
• The Strategic Objectives alignment of the company and the country.
• The geo-political scenario.
• The Local Government support to international business entities.
• Ease of doing business criteria.

Question 16

Visit the Nestle Corporation website (http://www.nestle.com/) and the Unilever website (http://www.unilever.com/). Compare their strategies toward international markets. In what ways (other than product categories) do they differ in their international marketing?

Nestle :

• Nestle uses culture as a factor in order to acquire a competitive position in the market they are serving like in India nestle has adapted itself according to the Indian subculture and has successful brand to its name like Maggi.
• They have a product mix of more than 8500 products and it becomes cumbersome to have a channelized and consistent marketing plan.
• Since the decision structure is decentralized, it lies upon the decision making of the country-specific management teams to decide the strategy in terms of marketing which then happens according to the local needs.
• Nestle has a different website for every country it serves, this provides a sense of belonging and engagement to the country where they are serving.

Unilever:

• Unilever's prime focus lies in selling the culture of its own brand rather than adapting its company culture to the local suiting.
• It has a considerably strong social media and digital footprint and Unilever focuses on building its product around an individuals needs and wants.
• Focus lies in producing environmentally friendly products and endorsing the idea of green marketing.
• Uses and establishes a localized supply chain in every country it operates in.
• The product range or mix is very less, often focusing only on a few products.
• The target base is the Young, Savvy and Trendy generation.

Chapter 13 – Page 417

Question 5

Discuss product alternatives and the three marketing strategies: domestic market extension, multidomestic markets, and global market strategies.

Often the marketing department has the following options :

a.selling the existing product in the new market

b.Modifying its existing product to suit the local market it caters to.

c. Making a standard product that works in all the markets. ( in terms of being successful)

The most significant factor in terms of deciding the correct option is  : If the entity is creating the from scratch that means it doesn't have any product as of now or if it already has certain products in its product mix that are successful and are sold in certain international or domestic markets.

A totally new entrant should create a globalized product which is standard for all counties. i.e option number c

While if the company has already existing products, it should seek to establish them into newer markets by introducing some modifications to suit the tastes and preferences of the particular market it seeks to enter into.i.e Reposition itself.