A. National Advertising
Introduction
National advertising means advertisements, brochures, catalogues, and similar marketing materials published and distributed to consumers; included in publications intended for consumers; or broadcast through television, the Internet, radio, or other media that are designed and intended to promote the sale of approved products, including point-of-purchase displays for use by retailers and marketing and promotional pieces provided to retailers for use in sales promotions to consumers.
Geographically speaking, national advertising is extended to the territorial limits of the country. The advertiser uses the national media to inform the consumer about the product. The advertiser uses the national, local, or regional language but prefers the national language. It can be available everywhere in the country and easily purchased. For example, Nestlé Kit Kat
Nestle Kit Kat in India
Nestlé Kit Kat was launched in India in 1995 and was well received by consumers owing to both the ‘finger format’ of the chocolate as well as the way its advertising celebrated the ‘consumption ritual.’ Through different creative renditions, the brand has always propagated the ‘BREAK IN ROUTINE’ communication. The new ad concept has really come out very well, based on the concept of animals emoting human emotions, particularly love.
The TVC that hit the screens a few days back has already garnered a huge fan base of over 40,000 viewers on YouTube. Basking in this, the company has even introduced various different format portions of the chocolate in 1-2-3 and 4-finger at convenient price points of Rs.5 and Rs.10, respectively.
Hyundai in India
Hyundai, the South Korean automobile manufacturer, has recently marked its 20th anniversary in the Indian market. This cause for celebration paved the way for a beautiful ad, ‘Hyundai brilliant moments,’ that narrated the story of a family’s memories with their Hyundai Accent.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), the country’s second largest car manufacturer and the largest exporter since inception, launched the innovative Emotional and Recalling Brilliant Moments with Hyundai Campaign to celebrate 20 years of sales and production in the Indian market. To celebrate Hyundai’s legacy and thank over 5.5 million valuable customers, the emotionally connecting Brilliant Moments with Hyundai (BMH) campaign will invoke nostalgic memories to connect with all Hyundai customers. The Brilliant Moments Campaign will provide a unique experience through various experiential marketing, sales, and service initiatives at all Hyundai touchpoints and invite the customers of SANTRO, ACCENT, and i10 to share their brilliant moment stories.
B. Global advertising
Introduction
Only a few generations ago, it took months to ship products to a market in another country, and doing so was such a difficult undertaking that only major trading companies were able to take the risk. Then, developments in transportation technology made it possible for people and products to move much faster, and the first push toward globalization began.
More recently, information technology and particularly the Internet have shrunk the world even further. A business might have partners and employees half a world away, and consumers can get products from those locations in a matter of days.
Global marketing is more than simply selling a product internationally. Rather, it includes the whole process of planning, producing, placing, and promoting a company’s products in a worldwide market. Large businesses often have offices in the foreign countries they market to, but with the expansion of the Internet, even small companies can reach customers throughout the world.
Even if a company chooses not to expand globally, it may well face domestic competition from foreign companies that are. This competition has made it nearly a necessity for most businesses to establish an international presence.
Who employs global marketing?
Global marketing is particularly important for products that have universal demand, such as food and automobiles. Thus, a beverage company is likely to be in more markets than, say, a wooden toy company, but even a wooden toy company may find niche markets in diverse corners of the world.
However, even today most companies are focused on the domestic market (which is the largest economy in the world), with only one percent of U.S. companies invested in exporting. Nevertheless, the value of U.S. exports continues to increase, amounting to some $2.1 trillion in 2011.
Some individual examples of global marketing include:
- Coca-Cola started selling internationally back in 1919 and is now present in more than 200 countries. In order to keep a consistent brand, Coke tastes the same in every region (although outside of the United States, the recipe uses sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup), but the size, shape, and labeling of the bottle are changed to match the norms in each country. While the company formerly used a standardized advertising approach, it has changed to adapt advertising messages to local culture. Additionally, it adjusts its product line-up to fit local tastes, including a number of additional beverage brands.
- McDonald’s makes certain that a Big Mac tastes the same in every country, but it also varies items on its menu according to local tastes. Customers in Mexico can order a green chili cheeseburger, customers in Korea get to eat bulgogi burgers, and customers in many Arab countries can enjoy the McArabia, a grilled kofta sandwich on pita bread.
- Starbucks also adjusts their menu to fit local tastes. In Hong Kong, for example, they sell Dragon Dumplings. And as a global buyer of coffee, the company has long had a reputation for engaging local cultures according to their needs.
- In Japan, Kentucky Fried Chicken has managed to associate their product with Christmas, and every year Japanese line up around the block to get their KFC chicken on that day.
For a non-American example of global marketing, consider Ahava, which started out as a tourist stand on the Dead Sea selling bottles of mud and salt from the renowned body of water. From this inauspicious start, they developed a line of cosmetics, and after partnering with an American company that already has a global distribution network, their cosmetics are being sold in high-end department stores throughout the world.
What kinds of customers does global marketing reach?
Since global marketing involves a variety of different products and opportunities, it’s impossible to identify a single customer profile. A global company must be prepared to develop multiple profiles for each of the different regions it trades in. The United States’ biggest trading partners are Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union, but international trade by no means ends there.
Depending on the product, customers can be reached nearly anywhere in the world. In order to do so, global companies may rely on local distribution networks, but as they grow in particular markets, they may establish their own networks. Companies attempting to enter new markets tend to start with heavily populated urban centers before moving out to surrounding regions.
Particular attention needs to be paid to the growing international online market, which vastly increases businesses’ access to customers worldwide if they can speak the language. J.P. Morgan, in a report for the Department of Commerce, estimated that only 27 percent of online shoppers speak English. Nonetheless, in Korea, 99 percent of those with Internet access shop online; in Germany and Japan, 97 percent. Thus, companies that wish to break into those markets need to not only create a good product and do what works stateside; they also need to immerse themselves in the language and culture of the international market they wish to break into.
How is a global marketing campaign developed?
When marketing products globally, companies must recognize that a marketing mix that works in the domestic market may not have the same success in another market. Differences in local competition may require a different pricing strategy. Local infrastructure may affect how products are produced and shipped. In some cases, it may be more profitable to produce things locally; in others, it may be cheaper to ship them in from across the globe.
Partnerships with local businesses may be an important step in expanding into one market, while in another market, such partnerships might dilute the brand. The savvy global marketer must consider all these aspects of marketing in addition to the task of communicating cross-culturally.
When promoting a product or brand globally, a company must make decisions regarding trade-offs between standard and local messages. A single message is cheaper to produce and maintains the consistency of the brand, but it may not perform well in some regions due to differences in cultural values or expectations.
A global company must carefully research the various markets and prepare to make adjustments to its product and messaging wherever required. Sometimes this requires changing a name (for example, the Chevy Nova didn’t sell well in Spain, as “no va” in Spanish means “no go”). Sometimes it even involves changing the packaging (in America, Gerber baby food has a cute baby on the label to represent the brand, but in some countries shoppers expect the picture to represent the contents of the jar and were appalled by the image).
Individual marketers working with global campaigns should strive to learn the language of the market they’re assigned to, both for the purpose of managing business relationships with local companies and in order to verify translation efforts. For example, how do you evaluate the work of someone who has translated your company website? Is it a meaningful translation, or is it just full of buzzwords?
Additionally, marketers should personally visit their target markets and spend time in them—even moving to them for a time. Here they can develop local contacts, as well as gain a deeper understanding about how business is conducted in the area. In Japan, for example, it is not enough just to speak Japanese; you must also conduct business the Japanese way. Learn what is valued culturally—and what is offensive.
Developing and respecting local business talent is also critical for global marketing. If you have an office in Hong Kong, for example, you want to make full use of talented Hong Kong Chinese professionals in your marketing, advertising, and distribution. Many companies have lost opportunities and alienated allies by having the attitude that as Americans, they automatically knew better than their foreign partners.
J. International advertising
Introduction
As technology creates leaps in communication, transportation, and financial flows, the world continues to feel smaller and smaller. It is possible for companies and consumers to conduct business in almost any country around the world thanks to advances in international trade. According to the World Trade Organization, the volume of international merchandise trade increased 33 times between 1951 and 2010.
Brands and products that originate in one country are enthusiastically accepted in others. For example, Louis Vuitton handbags, BMWs, and Columbian coffee, all foreign products, are symbols of status and quality in the United States—and many American brands, like Warner Brothers motion pictures, have similar footholds overseas.
However, globalization has created just as many challenges as opportunities for brands that venture overseas. Because consumers have so many more options for similar products, companies must ensure that their products are high in quality and affordability. Additionally, these products cannot be marketed identically across the globe. (See also Global Marketing.) International marketing takes more into consideration than just language—it involves culture, market saturation, and customer behaviors. American and European companies especially have turned their international marketing efforts into something more than just exporting—they have adapted their branding to account for differences in consumers, demographics, and world markets.
Companies who have done this very well include Coca-Cola, who discovered that the word ‘Diet’ carries a negative connotation in Latin America and changed the name of their zero-calorie product to ‘Coke Lite’ for those countries. UPS, known in America for their brown trucks, issued a fleet of a different color after learning that their flagship brown trucks resembled Spanish hearses.
What is international marketing?
International marketing is the application of marketing principles in more than one country, by companies overseas or across national borders. International marketing is based on an extension of a company’s local marketing strategy, with special attention paid to marketing identification, targeting, and decisions internationally (see also Local Marketing).
According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), “International marketing is the multinational process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.”
Who employs international marketing?
Rapid technological advances mean that geographical and cultural communication barriers are disappearing, and even smaller businesses without a physical presence in other countries can market and sell their products internationally (see also Diversity Marketing). This means that almost anyone with the desire can market internationally but will do so with varying levels of success, depending on the thought and research that is put into the international marketing strategy.
Companies selling goods that have customs restrictions, like food and live plants, must contend with a more rigorous regulatory process before marketing their products internationally. While they may have a more difficult time setting up their international export business, they also have the opportunity to expose other countries to native products they couldn’t access otherwise. Other types of companies that often perform well internationally include those involved in export, joint ventures, and direct investment.
Exporting is the practice of shipping goods directly to a foreign country. Prominent companies that do an excellent job of marketing their foreign exports to the United States include Fanta soft drinks, Honda, and retail giant H&M. In fact, H&M paid $3.5 million for a 30-second commercial during the 2012 Super Bowl, a marketing bonanza that has long been dominated by American brands.
Joint venture companies refer to the combined efforts of two or more businesses for their mutual benefit. One of the most famous international joint venture success stories is Sony-Ericsson, a partnership between a Japanese electronics company and a Swedish telecommunications company. Their international marketing strategy, comprised of bright colors and modern shapes, has helped make the joint venture known the world over. (See also Cooperative Marketing.)
A direct investment company places a fixed asset in a foreign country with the aim of manufacturing a product, or part of a product, abroad. Dell computers, for example, is an American company with factories in many other countries that assemble personal computers from parts made all around the world. Dell then markets their computers with an exceptional emphasis on customer needs and customization—unlike other companies that sell pre-manufactured products, Dell computers are custom-assembled after customers place their orders.
What kinds of customers are effectively marketed to with international marketing?
Depending on your brand, any foreign citizen is a potential customer. But how does a marketing team figure out how to tap into an international market? Customers who live in foreign markets have different buying habits, preferences, and priorities than the customers they’re familiar with. By tracking these foreign customers through market research and cultural surveys, marketers can discover the best methods of reaching them.
Trying to market a brand to international customers without researching is just asking for trouble, as companies have proven time and time again. Careful consideration of a culture’s beliefs and prejudices is important in international marketing. For example, the Muslim culture considers dogs to be dirty animals. So, positioning a dog as “man’s best friend” in a Middle Eastern country will surely fall flat.
Huge international Marketing Blunders
- Pepsodent tried to market its toothpaste in Southeast Asia by claiming that it “whitens your teeth” before learning that some locals chewed betel nuts to blacken their teeth, a sign of attractiveness in their culture.
- The Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux didn’t account for a common American colloquialism when marketing their vacuum in the U.S.: “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”
- The soft drink Fresca was marketed under that name in Mexico … before the company discovered that ‘fresca’ is a slang term for lesbian in parts of Mexico.
- Pepsi used the slogan “Come Alive With Pepsi” in Taiwan … or so they thought. The slogan was actually translated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.”
- The Coors slogan “Turn It Loose” was translated into Spanish as “Suffer From Diarrhea.”
How is an international marketing plan developed and employed?
It can be difficult for a small or medium-sized corporation to initially build an international marketing plan because they generally don’t have the expertise or budget to launch the campaign. By partnering with another group or hiring marketing experts with knowledge of foreign markets, smaller companies can build their cultural research and implement more successful campaigns. Whether a company chooses to partner with another foreign agency or hire an inside international marketing representative, the most important facet of building a successful international marketing campaign is the research they conduct. Research will inform the company’s marketing mission as they proceed, allowing them to maximize potential in new markets.
Once research is completed and a market is chosen, experts should examine and modify a brand’s marketing strategy so that it fits their target demographics. Hiring representatives from the country will help ensure that all cultural differences are handled appropriately and with sensitivity. For an emerging international brand, establishing partnerships and networking with other companies in the country are essential for success. Partners within a target market help new companies establish themselves in markets where they would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Finally, it is important to review an international marketing strategy on a quarterly basis. Even if a company sends representatives to travel to the foreign market, it is much more difficult to keep a finger on the pulse of an overseas marketing campaign. This means that results need to be tracked extremely closely, and tweaks should be made regularly to help a product gain the appropriate foothold for success.
About the Author
