Page 65 - GLOBAL STRATEGIC MARKETING

• Advertising agencies have expanded their operations internationally
to advertise to global customers. This helps companies considering

international involvement. Saatchi and Saatchi, for example, has
established offices overseas to serve its customers worldwide.

All of these things have contributed to changing the way that business is
done. They have encouraged a skills exchange in management and

international sales. They have also made distances between countries
matter less, and have eased the communication process and the spread

of complex operations.

1.8 The strategic marketing process

Before we begin to understand international marketing strategy, we need

to shed some light on the international strategic process, which includes
four interrelated elements:

• A consideration of environmental changes that bring about new
opportunities and pose new threats

• The assessment of the internal strengths and weaknesses of the
organisation, and in particular its ability to respond to those

opportunities and threats

• The development of a decision-making process influenced by the
values, preferences and power of interested parties

• The generation of options and their evaluation.

Strategic marketing is, therefore, an all-embracing term dealing with goals

and objectives, the firm’s environment, its resources and structure, the
scope and nature of its activities, and ultimately the behaviour of its

members. Given the large number of variables involved and the
considerable subjectivity of the decision-making process, strategy
formulation is highly complex. There are several reasons for management

to engage in strategy formulation:

• Strategy assists in the formulation of goals and objectives, and
enables them to be modified in the light of information and experience