What you’ll learn to do: describe common approaches used by organizations to compete successfully on a global scale

Most of the basic principles for effective marketing apply equally well to domestic and global marketing activity. However, globalization introduces a number of challenges that are unique to operating simultaneously in different countries and global markets. What is the best way to enter a global market? When should you adjust a product’s features to customize it to consumer needs in a different global market? How do you manage the costs and complexities of product promotion when it must take place in different locations, with different languages, cultural sensitivities and consumer expectations? What considerations should go into product pricing, when a good is offered in different markets using different currencies and exchange rates?

While this next section doesn’t attempt to answer all of these questions definitively, it explains common strategies and approaches used by multinational corporations and their marketing teams to navigate these and many other challenges posed by global marketing.

The specific things you’ll learn in this section include:

• Discuss common strategies businesses use to enter global markets
• Explain the pros and cons of global standardization theory with regard to product marketing and marketing communications
• Explain how the basic principles of marketing apply to global marketing

Learning Activities

• Reading: Entry Strategies in Global Markets
• Reading: Approaches to Global Competition
• Video: McDonald’s “Glocalization”
• Reading: Applying Marketing Principles in the Global Environment
• Self Check: Approaches to Global Competition