The Task of an International Marketer

The International Marketer's task is more complicated than that of the domestic marketer because the international marketer must deal with at least two levels of uncontrollable uncertainty instead of one. Discuss.

Introduction

Domestic marketing deals with any marketing activities within the boundaries of a nation. This should be directly contrasted with the term International marketing, which refers to all marketing activities that go beyond the confines of a domestic economy. For Zimbabwe, this would be consumers, workers, businesses, and governments that lie beyond the Zimbabwean national boundaries. How both the international marketer and the domestic marketer should know the 4Ps (Product, price, promotion and place) or the 7Ps(Product, price, promotion, place, process, people, and physical environment)

International marketing is important because the world has become globalised - it is becoming increasingly impossible for any country to practice economic isolation. Zimbabwe in particular, because of the relatively small size of its domestic market, is reliant upon trade with international partners. Moreover, Zimbabwe's multi-cultural society reinforces an appreciation of the opportunities and the subtle complexities of doing business in overseas markets.

The opportunities and challenges encountered today by international marketers are greater and more diverse than ever before. The international marketer should therefore be conversant with the dynamics of the various countries and should have an international total marketing strategy. New consumers are appearing in emerging markets globally. Some of these emerging markets have relatively little purchasing power today but hold the promise of being huge markets in the future.

In the more mature markets of the industrialised world, there are also many opportunities and challenges as consumers' tastes become more sophisticated and complex, and as increases in purchasing power provide them with the means of satisfying new demands.

Inherent in the task of an international marketer is the occurrence of uncontrollable undesirable outcomes including unknown and unexpected possibilities. These arise from different marketing environments more so when these environments are looked at internationally. The following categories constitute the areas in which an international marketer has two levels of uncertainty :

* demographic

* social/cultural

* Trade agreements

* Balance of Payments

* Trade Barriers

* International Economics

* International Finance

* Comparative Advantage

* Competitive Advantage

Progressive organizations will have a process for obtaining and evaluating information for each of these categories because information is the basis of effective marketing.

Demographic

Demographic environment relates to the size, distribution, and growth rate of groups of people with different traits that relate to buying behaviour. Demographic environment is a component of the social environment. Demography varies from country to country and hence there is higher complexity of when a marketer is dealing with more than one country.

Socio-Cultural

Social environment deals with all factors and trends related to groups of people, including their number, characteristics, behaviour, and growth projections. On the other hand cultural environment deals with factors and trends related to how people live and behave, including the values, ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and activities of specific population groups and subgroups. It is a component of the social environment. Also included in the social environment is the language and the religion of the community. Literacy and educational levels; the class structure and mobility and the degree of urbanisation also influence the culture of a society.

Of all the "environmental uncontrollable", culture is one of the most difficult to comprehend, take account of and harness to advantage. This is particularly so when the product or service is "culture bound". Such products and services include those which are generally indigenous by nature and/or of relatively small value and very common. This is particularly true of foodstuffs. Sadza in Zimbabwe, a staple food made from maize meal, would not go down well in United Kingdom or United States of America. Only products of a more technical nature, like computers on the other hand, have a universal appeal.

The marketer can study culture in a number of ways including the anthropological approach, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the self reference criterion, diffusion theory, high and low context culture, and perception approaches. "Culture" itself is made up of a number of learned characteristics including aesthetics, education, religion and attitudes and values. One of the principal researchers on culture and its consequences is Hofstede, who, as a result of his studies, offers many insights and guides to marketers when dealing with diverse nationalities. Ignoring differences, or even similarities, in culture can lead to marketers especially international marketers making and executing decisions with possible disastrous results.

Trade agreements

Since 1945, there have been eight major trade agreements. The first five were "bilateral" agreements, where only two countries made treaties with one another. These were not an efficient way to reduce tariffs, as other countries were able to take advantage of the "spillover" effects of the reductions. All subsequent trade negotiations have been multilateral, or involving many countries. All talks took place under the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT. GATT embodies a set of rules of conduct for international trade and is monitored by a governing body in Geneva. The main constraints it places on trade are:

Export subsidies: Signatories to the GATT may not use export subsidies, except for agricultural products.

Import quotas: Signatories to the GATT may not impose unilateral quotas on imports, except when imports threaten "market disruption".

Tariffs: Any new tariff or increase in a tariff must be offset by reductions