Global Marketing Management
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Global marketing management first involves the same elements as any type of marketing management and then must take into account the different requirements of the global marketplace, the different opportunities, and the pitfalls that must be avoided in this developing arena. Deciding what works and what does not and seeing to it that the company follows what works is the job of the marketing manager. While the purpose of marketing is the same in the global marketplace as in the domestic market, namely to decide what the customer wants and then to provide it, the task can be more complicated in the global market because the manager will not be as familiar with that market, because that market is not one market at all but many markets in many different countries and parts of the world, and even different markets within the same country or region. The process of marketing therefore now involves finding the right message for many different places and taking care not to try to tell a product with the wrong message in a part of the world where that might be offensive.
Marketers have to consider the core values of the consumer, and in America, these values are ascertained by various means by marketers. American marketers tend to have a good idea of the values held by American consumers, but when thinking globally, they have to account for different values in other parts of the world. What sells well in America may not sell well in Europe and may have even less traction in the Middle East or Africa. The mass-market strategies used in the past in the U.S. are now considered crude and overly general, and they may also not be applicable in some places. Some core values seem always to have an effect in the U.S., however, among them a sense of personal freedom, quality, value for money spent, individualism, originality, and personal success. Individuality is not a core value at all in many parts of the world, and personal success also may not be given as high a consideration.
These values are often expressed in the marketing strategies undertaken to reach the consumer and sell products and services, though often the values are implied rather than overtly stated. For instance, the marketer entering the American market with a clothing line will associate the clothing with images reflecting these values–people who are expressing themselves, doing so freely, and achieving much while wearing this clothing. Commercials would show young people working and playing in these clothes, implying that anyone wearing the same clothes would thus be successful and free as well. Selling the clothing line in other parts of the world might emphasize fitting into the social scene more than standing out.
Marketing developed from an early focus on the product to a new focus on the customer, and this was addressed by the idea of the marketing mix, or the four Ps of marketing, namely product, place, price and promotion. Market segmentation was next introduced, followed by many other approaches: “Marketing discipline therefore, is heavily influenced by economics, psychology, philosophy, management and other social sciences” (Kermally 13).
The science of marketing has replaced the more intuitive approach of the past, placing more emphasis on research and on the psychology. This is indicated by C.P. Rao, who writes.
More and more of the worlds people, from the richest to the poorest, are now participating in the worlds wealth through global trade. Bonded together by satellite communications and global companies, consumers in every corner of the world are demanding an ever-expanding variety of goods. (Rao 29)
Living standards have been rising for some time around the world, and this has led to an increasingly competitive marketplace:
This heightened competition has forced companies from all over the world to find new ways to build and maintain their competitive strength. As a result, the level and intensity of competition has changed. (Rao 29)
Global marketing management has a particular meaning and a particular role in marketing on the Internet. Such marketing is necessarily global as well, for the Internet crosses borders quite freely, except in those countries able to impose limitations, such as China has been doing. Geraldine T. Cohen notes,
The nationally based business will start with cautious testing of new markets, often selected with a similar culture,