1. Chapter 9 – International Communications
Doole, Lowe and Kenyon
International Marketing Strategy

2. Learning Objectives
Appreciate the nature and role of communications in implementing international marketing strategies
Understand the challenges faced in the successful management and effective integration of international marketing communications
Be able to explain the use of the elements of an international communications strategy, including corporate identity, products and services promotion and the development of relationships with customers
Identify the use and the limitations of the communications tools in international marketing
Recognize the value of integrating the communications to meet the requirements of different audiences offline and online

3. The role of marketing communications

4. The role of marketing communications (cont.)

5. The fundamental challenges for international marketing communications
Inconsistency of messages conveyed to customers (by staff at different levels from different countries and cultures)
Different styles of presentation of corporate identity, brand and product image (from different departments and country business units which can leave customers confused.)
Lack of coordination of messages (e.g. press releases, advertising campaigns)
Differences in fields of perception of sender and receiver (e.g. the way the massage is understood by receivers. Do not use technical terminologies)

6. The fundamental challenges for international marketing communications (cont.)

7. The fundamental challenges for international marketing communications (cont.)
Counterfeiting (e.g. it may suffer damage to its image if customers believe the low-quality goods supplied by the counterfeiter are genuine)
Parallel importing (e.g. communicates contradictory messages that do not reflect the image of the brand and thus confuse consumers)
Competitors, governments or pressure groups (e.g. Companies such as Shell, Coca-Cola, KFC and McDonald’s have suffered following criticism of their lack of concern for the environment or animal rights.)

8. International marketing communications strategy
Increasing market share at the expense of local/international competitors
Identifying new potential customers
Obtaining a specific number of responses to a promotional campaign
Reducing the impact of competitors in the market
Increasing the value of the corporate brand and the product image
Helping to establish the position or re-position the product or brand
Increasing awareness levels especially in new country markets
Changing consumers’ perceptions or products, brands or the firm

9. International marketing communications strategy (cont.)
The primary difference between push and pull marketing lies in how consumers are approached. Read [Link]
In push marketing, the idea is to promote products by pushing them onto people (e.g. set up point-of-sale displays).
For push marketing, the idea is to establish a loyal following and draw consumers to the products. Examples are Porsche which no longer need to advertise, as consumers come to them.

10. The marketing communications tools
Personal selling and word of mouth
Exhibitions and trade fairs
Trade missions
Advertising
TV advertising
Press advertising
Use of agencies and consultancies
Financial
Specialist knowledge
Creative input
External perspective

11. The marketing communications tools
Sales promotions
Direct marketing (e.g. database marketing, Facebook, WhatsApp marketing etc.)
Communicating with a wider range of stakeholders
Corporate identity
Sponsorship and celebrity endorsement
Public Relations
What main tools do you employ to promote the drink or food that you want to sell in the UK market?

12. Developing profitable, long-term marketing relationships
The concept of relationship marketing
Maintain and build existing customers
by offering more tailored and cost-effective business solutions
Use existing relationships to obtain referral to business units and other supply chain members
that are perhaps in different parts of the world and not currently customers
Increase the revenue from customers by offering solutions that are a combination
of products and services
Reduce the operational and communications cost of servicing the customers
including the work prior to a trading relationship.
How can a firm increase customer loyalty? Please note that 100% customer satisfaction does not guarantee that customers will repurchase from the firm.
One importance marketing strategies is to develop ‘switching cost strategy’ that make customers difficult to switch to other companies.
Can you name a company which has developed good ‘switching cost strategy’?