1. Global Marketing Strategy

2. Examples of Global Companies are: – IBM, Intel, Coca-Cola (North America) – Philips, Nokia, LVMH (Europe) – Sony, Canon, Flextronics (Asia)

3. To develop a coordinated global marketing strategy, the first step is typically to decide upon which countries and product lines should be involved.

5. Selling Orientation Remember that “good” marketing should have a “customer orientation.” However, typically, the global marketer sells what it makes, not makes what it can sell as the ideal marketer supposedly does. The introduction of a new product is always difficult and uncertain. Launching it into a foreign market only adds complexity and risks to the problem. Consequently, the global marketer will typically delay its plans until the product is successful at home or in a lead market.

6. Selling Orientation There are cases where a global marketer has introduced completely new products in a foreign market, after assessing the preferences in that market. The Japanese show several examples of this.. – Toshiba, the first to introduce the laptop computer, designed it for the American market. – Sony’s sporty Walkman designs are targeted at consumers in the West.

7. Standardization Standardization is the norm not only for global products and brands but also extends to advertising, pricing, and other elements of the marketing mix. Nowhere is standardization more prominent than in the strategic use of brands. As many travelers have observed, global standardization makes foreign countries look like home – or at least more similar. Standardization also makes people’s behavior, habits, and tastes more similar.

8. Coordination Coordination means that what happens in one country market is made to depend on actions in other countries. The delays in the launch of Microsoft Windows 98 release was due to the difficulty of coordinating 30 language versions for simultaneous launch. After the US and European releases in mid-1998, the Chinese launch came on September 2 and the Thai version on October 28. And some countries did not get Windows 98 until ‘99.

9. Centralization Another reason for a deficient customer orientation is the decidedly centralized character of most firms’ global marketing efforts. Even under the best circumstances, with cross-country product teams, strategic input from lead countries and global mandates for local subsidiaries, the global marketing effort is a top-down activity. – The timing of software releases from Microsoft is carefully calibrated from HQ in Redmond, Washington; Disney’s release dates for films and videos is set from its Orlando HQ. – Volvo cars did not have cup holders until recently despite appeals from their American dealers (Volvo engineers in Sweden were too busy with more serious design issues)

10. With the renewed emphasis on localization in the new millennium, the benefits of global coordination of strategies need to be balanced against local sensitivity. Today, while globalization might still be the dominating factor driving international business, the balance is shifting toward a coordinated strategy that is adapted to local differences.

14. Typically involves a 2-stage procedure. First, countries are grouped using more general criteria, to identify clusters of countries that are similar in socioeconomic and cultural characteristics. Second, market research is used to collect data on the potential customers in each of the countries belonging to the selected cluster or clusters.

16. To determine the level of competitive intensity, the firm has to go beyond the simple identification of which domestic and global competitors operate in each market and which segments they target. The firm also needs to assess the commitment of these firms to defending their market positions, and the resources they can marshal to sustain their local advantages in selected segments.

17. Before doing a forecast of projected sales and revenues from each country and segment, competitive advantages need to be translated into market share estimates. In global segmentation, this needs to be done across all the countries in the selected cluster or clusters. The targeting decision needs, of course, to be based not only on forecasted revenues but also on costs of achieving those revenues.

19. Two major considerations play a role in the chosen positioning strategy: – The degree to which the market is global – The stage of the product life cycle