Page 62 - GLOBAL STRATEGIC MARKETING

• Identifying international customer needs: Achieved by conducting
market research to find out what customers’ needs are in different

markets and whether they are different from those of the customers
currently being served in existing markets.

• Satisfying international customers: If customer needs are different
across markets, the company must find ways of adapting its products

and various elements of the marketing mix for the international
market. For example, if the company faces a situation where prices

must be lowered, then it must consider how to design and make
products at a lower cost and where such products might be made
more cheaply.

• Being better than the competition: Companies must pay attention
to international and local competitors. An international competitor
could be a multinational or a state-owned enterprise. It might not be

profit-oriented. It might be a small, local firm. For an international
company to achieve success over its competitors, it needs to assess,

monitor and respond to their actions in perhaps a friendly or
sometimes an assertive way.

• Co-ordinating marketing activities: International companies must
co-ordinate their marketing activities. This may involve centralisation

or decentralisation of company decisions, and policies on
standardisation of their products/services, staffing and allocation of
responsibilities across marketing units in different countries.

• Recognising the constraints of the global environment: It is
important for international companies to recognise the differences in
the overseas market as much as the similarities. So, what exactly is

globalisation?

1.6 What is Globalisation?

Yip et al. (1988) answered this question by writing their famous article,

‘How to Take Your Company to the Global Market’. They mentioned five
major dimensions of internationalisation, each offering significant benefits: