In this video, we discuss international marketing strategies. Recall the four critical questions for global marketing. When and how should we go international? Who is our target market? What marketing strategy should we employ? How should we engage with our target market? In this video, we'll be answering the third question, what marketing strategies should we employ? We'll use strategic marketing orientations to answer that question. Marketing strategies are alternative marketing approaches for communicating with and persuading target customers to try and then purchase our product or service. There are five of these strategies which are commonly labeled as strategic concepts by the marketing community. These are the sales concept, the production concept, the product concept, the strategic concept, and the social concept. As shown in the graphic to the right, the two main factors that define a marketing strategy are the need to vary products and the need to adapt to customer needs. Some products can be sold globally without much variation or others must be adapted to serve local markets. Some customer needs and preferences globally are identical, but often customer needs and preferences vary widely. The final social concept is essentially an overlay philosophy which could be applied to any of the first four strategies. Let's look at these concepts in more detail. The international sales concept assumes that domestic and global customers have similar needs. In other words, that one size fits all. The sales concept assumes that product supply is fixed and therefore focuses on closing sales. Little or no effort is made to customize products or services since international customers all want the same undifferentiated product or service. Examples of global industries that employ the sales concept are agricultural products such as grain, timber, meat, fruit, and flowers, metal products such as steel, aluminum, copper, and gold, petroleum products such as oil, petrol, and petrochemicals, and many other commodity products sold in bulk. While the products are the same, individual sales to customers can vary in timing, quantity, methods of delivery, payment terms, and so forth. The production concept focuses on operational efficiency and assumes that demand will follow production. In other words, that if we build it, they will come. The production concept emphasizes operational efficiency, consistency, and functionality. It utilizes mass production to produce similar goods and then pushes goods into the marketplace for purchase by customers. Industries using the production concept serve both domestic and foreign markets similarly. Examples include: fast food, automobiles, aircraft and airlines, telecommunications, and commodity clothing, and shoes. In contrast to the first two concepts, the product concept focuses on product performance, design, and features for global customers. For the product concept, products are designed for performance, aesthetics, and utility with a focus on desirable features. Examples of industries that employ the product concept include: mobile phones, tablets and computers, consumer and commercial software platforms, toys, furniture and home goods, and kitchenware and appliances. Products from these industries vary little across national markets. The strategic marketing concept adapts both product and sales to the needs and preferences of local customers. This concept is often described as customer-centric and it tends to deliver exactly what customers want, when they want it, and where they want it. This is accomplished by an emphasis on market research and new product development. In many ways, the strategic concept can be thought of as an integration of sales, production, and product orientations. With the strategic concept, customers effectively pull or select the products, services, and brands which they prefer. Examples of global industries and companies that use the strategic concept include: consumer package goods companies such as Nestle, Unilever, PepsiCo, and Danone, technology companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung, fast-food companies such as Starbucks, McDonald's, and KFC, and global banking companies such as ICBC, Wells Fargo, and Alliance. Online societal marketing emphasizes social consciousness as the part of any marketing plan and it argues that the well-being of customers, the company, and society should be included in all marketing. Societal marketing is closely linked to the concept of corporate social responsibilities. Companies that are well-known for societal marketing include: the entertainment company Disney, the cosmetics company Natura, the Cosmeticos out of Brazil, the Danish company Novo Nordisk for pharmaceuticals, Bosch power tools, and Aveda cosmetics. In summary, there are five different strategic marketing approaches for communicating with and persuading target customers to try out and purchase our products. These are: the sales concept which focuses on selling what is available, often commodities, the production concept that focuses on the supply side of supply and demand, the product concept which focuses on product features desirable to global customers, the strategic concept that is customer-centric in which it attempts to give customers exactly what they want, and the societal concept that could be combined with any marketing concept by considering societal stakeholders in all marketing.
