The Oxford University Press defines global marketing as “marketing on a worldwide scale reconciling or taking commercial advantage of global operational differences, similarities and opportunities in order to meet global objectives.” Oxford University Press’ Glossary of Marketing Terms.

Here are three reasons for the shift from domestic to global marketing as given by the authors of the textbook, Global Marketing Management—3rd Edition by Masaaki Kotabe and Kristiaan Helsen, 2004.

Worldwide competition

One of the product categories in which global competition has been easy to track in U.S.is automotive sales. The increasing intensity of competition in global markets is a challenge facing companies at all stages of involvement in international markets. As markets open up, and become more integrated, the pace of change accelerates, technology shrinks distances between markets and reduces the scale advantages of large firms, new sources of competition emerge, and competitive pressures mount at all levels of the organization. Also, the threat of competition from companies in countries such as India, China, Malaysia, and Brazil is on the rise, as their own domestic markets are opening up to foreign competition, stimulating greater awareness of international market opportunities and of the need to be internationally competitive. Companies which previously focused on protected domestic markets are entering into markets in other countries, creating new sources of competition, often targeted to price-sensitive market segments.
Not only is competition intensifying for all firms regardless of their degree of global market involvement, but the basis for competition is changing. Competition continues to be market-based and ultimately relies on delivering superior value to consumers. However, success in global markets depends on knowledge accumulation and deployment.
tiwana.

Evolution to global marketing

Global marketing is not a revolutionary shift, it is an evolutionary process. While the following does not apply to all companies, it does apply to most companies that begin as domestic-only companies.

Domestic marketing

A marketing restricted to the political boundaries of a country, is called "Domestic Marketing". A company marketing only within its national boundaries only has to consider domestic competition. Even if that competition includes companies from foreign markets, it still only has to focus on the competition that exists in its home market. Products and services are developed for customers in the home market without thought of how the product or service could be used in other markets. All marketing decisions are made at headquarters.

The biggest obstacle these marketers face is being blindsided by emerging global marketers. Because domestic marketers do not generally focus on the changes in the global marketplace, they may not be aware of a potential competitor who is a market leader on three continents until they simultaneously open 20 stores in the Northeastern U.S. These marketers can be considered ethnocentric as they are most concerned with how they are perceived in their home country.
exporting goods to other countries.
loosener Rhett

International marketing

If the exporting departments are becoming successful but the costs of doing business from headquarters plus time differences, language barriers, and cultural ignorance are hindering the company’s competitiveness in the foreign market, then offices could be built in the foreign countries. Sometimes companies buy firms in the foreign countries to take advantage of relationships, storefronts, factories, and personnel already in place. These offices still report to headquarters in the home market but most of the marketing mix decisions are made in the individual countries since that staff is the most knowledgeable about the target markets. Local product development is based on the needs of local customers. These marketers are considered polycentric because they acknowledge that each market/country has different needs.

Global marketing specialization

Global marketing is a field of study in MBA. When it comes to global marketing strategies, the Internet plays a highly significant role as the most powerful business weapon in today's globalized business world.

Elements of the global marketing mix

The “Four P’s” of marketing: product, price, placement, and promotion are all affected as a company moves through the five evolutionary phases to become a global company. Ultimately, at the global marketing level, a company trying to speak with one voice is faced with many challenges when creating a worldwide marketing plan. Unless a company holds the same position against its competition in all markets (market leader, low cost, etc.) it is impossible to launch identical marketing plans worldwide.
Nisant Chakram(Marketing Management)

Product

A global company is one that can create a single product and only have to tweak elements for different markets. For example, Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

 uses two formulas (one with sugar, one with corn syrup) for all markets. The product packaging in every country incorporates the contour bottle design and the dynamic ribbon in some way, shape, or form. However, the bottle or can also includes the country’s native language and is the same size as other beverage bottles or cans in that same country.

Price

Price will always vary from market to market. Price is affected by many variables: cost of product development (produced locally or imported), cost of ingredients, cost of delivery (transportation, tariffs, etc.), and much more. Additionally, the product’s position in relation to the competition influences the ultimate profit margin. Whether this product is considered the high-end, expensive choice, the economical, low-cost choice, or something in-between helps determine the price point.

Placement

How the product is distributed is also a country-by-country decision influenced by how the competition is being offered to the target market. Using Coca-Cola as an example again, not all cultures use vending machines. In the United States, beverages are sold by the pallet via warehouse stores. In India, this is not an option. Placement decisions must also consider the product’s position in the market place. For example, a high-end product would not want to be distributed via a “dollar store” in the United States. Conversely, a product promoted as the low-cost option in France would find limited success in a pricey boutique.

Promotion

After product research, development and creation, promotion (specifically advertising) is generally the largest line item in a global company’s marketing budget. At this stage of a company’s development, integrated marketing is the goal. The global corporation seeks to reduce costs, minimize redundancies in personnel and work, maximize speed of implementation, and to speak with one voice. If the goal of a global company is to send the same message worldwide, then delivering that message in a relevant, engaging, and cost-effective way is the challenge.

Effective global advertising techniques do exist. The key is testing advertising ideas using a marketing research system proven to provide results that can be compared across countries. The ability to identify which elements or moments of an ad are contributing to that success is how economies of scale are maximized. Market research measures such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding moments provide insights into what is working in an ad in any country because the measures are based on visual, not verbal, elements of the ad.

Advantages

• The advantages of global market we can introduce our product by using advertising
• Economies of scale in production and distribution
• Lower marketing costs
• Power and scope
• Consistency in brand image
• Ability to leverage good ideas quickly and efficiently
• Uniformity of marketing practices
• Helps to establish relationships outside of the "political arena"
• Helps to encourage ancillary industries to be set up to cater for the needs of the global player
• Benefits of eMarketing over traditional marketing

Reach

The nature of the internet means businesses now have a truly global reach. While traditional media costs limit this kind of reach to huge multinationals, eMarketing opens up new avenues for smaller businesses, on a much smaller budget, to access potential consumers from all over the world.

Scope

Internet marketing allows the marketer to reach consumers in a wide range of ways and enables them to offer a wide range of products and services. eMarketing includes, among other things, information management, public relations, customer service and sales. With the range of new technologies becoming available all the time, this scope can only grow.

Interactivity

Whereas traditional marketing is largely about getting a brand’s message out there, eMarketing facilitates conversations between companies and consumers. With a two way communication channel, companies can feed off of the responses of their consumers, making them more dynamic and adaptive.

Immediacy

Internet marketing is able to, in ways never before imagined, provide an immediate impact. Imagine you’re reading your favorite magazine. You see a double-page advert for some new product or service, maybe BMW’s latest luxury sedan or Apple’s latest iPod offering. With this kind of traditional media, it’s not that easy for you, the consumer, to take the step from hearing about a product to actual acquisition. With eMarketing, it’s easy to make that step as simple as possible, meaning that within a few short clicks you could have booked a test drive or ordered the iPod. And all of this can happen regardless of normal office hours. Effectively, Internet marketing makes business hours 24 hours per day, 7 days per week for every week of the year. By closing the gap between providing information and eliciting a consumer reaction, the consumer’s buying cycle is speeded up and advertising spend can go much further
in creating immediate leads.

Demographics and targeting

Generally speaking, the demographics of the Internet are a marketer’s dream. Internet users, considered as a group, have greater buying power and could perhaps be considered as a population group skewed towards the middle-classes. Buying power is not all though. The nature of the Internet is such that its users will
tend to organize themselves into far more focused groupings. Savvy marketers who know where to look can quite easily find access to the niche markets they wish to target. Marketing messages are most effective when they are presented directly to the audience most likely to be interested. The Internet creates the perfect environment
for niche marketing to targeted groups.

Adaptivity and closed loop marketing

Closed Loop Marketing

Closed loop marketing

Closed Loop Marketing refers to a loop of two-way messaging with customers. Marketing messages and materials are pushed to the customer based upon insights on customer preferences, or accessed in a self-service model...

 requires the constant measurement and analysis of the
results of marketing initiatives. By continuously tracking the response and effectiveness
of a campaign, the marketer can be far more dynamic in adapting to consumers’
wants and needs.
With eMarketing, responses can be analyzed in real-time and campaigns can be
tweaked continuously. Combined with the immediacy of the Internet as a medium,
this means that there’s minimal advertising spend wasted on less than effective
campaigns.
Maximum marketing efficiency from eMarketing creates new opportunities to seize
strategic competitive advantages.
The combination of all these factors results in an improved ROI and ultimately, more
customers, happier customers and an improved bottom line.

Disadvantages

• Differences in consumer
  Consumer
  Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
  
   need
  Need
  A need is something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as food, or they can be subjective and psychological,...
  
  s, want
  Want
  The idea of want can be examined from many perspectives. In secular societies want might be considered similar to the emotion desire, which can be studied scientifically through the disciplines of psychology or sociology...
  
  s, and usage patterns for products
• Differences in consumer response to marketing mix
  Marketing mix
  The term "marketing mix" was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American Marketing Association presidential address. However, this was actually a reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients",...
  
   elements
• Differences in brand
  Brand
  The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
  
   and product development and the competitive environment
• Differences in the legal environment, some of which may conflict with those of the home market
• Differences in the institutions available, some of which may call for the creation of entirely new ones (e.g. infrastructure)
• Differences in administrative procedures
• Differences in product placement.
• Differences in the administrative procedures and product placement can occur

See also

• Advertising
  Advertising
  Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
  
  
• Advertising research
  Advertising research
  Advertising research is a specialized form of marketing research conducted to improve the efficiency of advertising. According to MarketConscious.com, “It may focus on a specific ad or campaign, or may be directed at a more general understanding of how advertising works or how consumers use the...
  
  
• Marketing
  Marketing
  Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
  
  
• Marketing research
  Marketing research
  Marketing research is "the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information — information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve...
  
  
• wiktionary:Picture Sorts

Further reading

• Hollensen, Svend Global Marketing - A Decision-oriented Approach – 5th Edition, Pearson, Copyright 2011, ISBN 978-0-273-72622-7
• Kotabe, Masaki and Helsen, Kristiaan, Global Marketing Management – 3rd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc – Publishers, Copyright 2004, ISBN 0-471-23062-6
• Kotler & Keller, Marketing Management - 12th Edition, 2005, ISBN 81-203-2799-3
• Theodore Levitt, The Globalization of Markets, Harvard Business Review 61 (May–June 1983): 92-102
• Young, Charles E., Advertising Research Handbook, Ideas in Flight, Seattle, WA, April 2005, ISBN 0-9765574-0-1

External links

• http://www.gmnhome.com Global Marketing Network is the only global accreditation body for marketing professionals. We are committed to the development of a strong marketing profession and to the raising of standards within it worldwide. With GMN individuals can apply for Professional, or Distinguished levels of Membership. Each application has to be approved by at least three members of the GMN Membership Committee before they can be formally elected and then welcomed as a Member. The same professional standards are applied, consistently, fairly and transparently, worldwide so that, increasingly, membership of GMN becomes a highly desirable and eminently portable recognition of the professional standing and `fitness to practice` of marketing professionals, wherever you live and work in the world.
• www.wfanet.org World Federation of Advertisers
• aef.com several presentations on Global Advertising given by advertising practitioners