Global - (1.1) Intro to international marketing

Question 1

What were the most important changes in global marketing last years (and which drivers)?

Answer 1

Covid 19 + War Ukraine
- E commerce > more sales
- Digital firms grow in market capitalization
( value shares * number of shares )
- Soaring energy prices
- Launch of chatGPT > AI influences sales and marketing

Question 2

What are the current threads for global trade?

Answer 2

• Pandemics = impact on globalization, diverse opinions
• Politics and wars > trade war between US and China, Russia gets isolated from the western world, brands react (especially in Europe)
• Singular events like the block of the Suez canal

Question 3

How to describe international marketing?

Answer 3

= marketing activities a company undertakes when it conducts business operations in more than one country
> design and realize market activities for customers located in more than one country
> establish favourable conditions to implement activities across countries

Question 4

What are groups of conditions along the international market environment?

Answer 4

• Technological market conditions
• Political-legal market conditions
• Socialcultural market conditions

Question 5

Explain the technological market conditions.

Answer 5

ICT and amount of internet users –> affect the best way of targeting people.

Question 6

Explain the political legal market conditions.

Answer 6

• Free trade zones / tarrifs
• Cross-national harmonization of legal regulations ex. GDPR
• Country risks measured by=
  > ICRG index for political risks and economic and financial risks
  > Corruption perception index (abuse of power for gains)

Question 7

Explain the socialcultural market conditions.

Answer 7

Culture = collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another.
> Hofstede”s 6 cultural dimensions = research project from IBM about national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation in 64 countries.

Question 8

Give the 6 dimensions of Hofstede

Answer 8

1) Power distance
2) Individualism VS collectivism
3) Masculinity VS feminity
4) Uncertainty avoidance
5) Long termism VS short termism
6) Indulgence VS restrained

Question 9

Explain the Hofstede dimension “power distance”

Answer 9

Extent in which individuals are willing to accept inequality in their society
> High score = differences in wealth are accepted ex. Japan
> Low score = inequality is not easily accepted ex. Sweden

Question 10

Explain the Hofstede dimension “individualism VS collectivism”

Answer 10

Extent to which people in a society are focused on individual achievements and accomplishments as opposed to the overal success of the group to which they belong
> Indiv = focus on people’s interests and success, you get rewarded for own initiative and ability to be independent
> Collect = interests of the group are highly rewarded, you get rewarded for good teamwork

Question 11

Explain the Hofstede dimension “masculinty VS feminity”

Answer 11

Extent to which a society tends to empathize maculine values like succes and performance or feminine values like nurturing and care for others
>Masc = Japan
>Fem = Scandinavia

Question 12

Explain the Hofstede dimension “uncertainty avoidance”

Answer 12

Extent to which indiv expect to be guided by formal rules and regulations
> High in Belgium (structure and regulation expectede)
> Low in UK, Sweden (no to bureacracy, emrace situations with unknown consequences, risk taking)

Question 13

Explain the Hofstede dimension “long termism VS short termism”

Answer 13

Extent of importance attached to the future VS the past and present
> LONG = perseverance, sense of shame, long term horizon in investment decisions (Japan)
> SHORT = valuing more and rapid solutions to solve issues, only quarterly profit expectations in business (mostly less developed nations)

Question 14

Explain the Hofstede dimension “indulgence VS restrained”

Answer 14

Extent to which a society allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun
> Indulgence = focus on happiness and wellbeing, importance for leisure and freedom (Mexico)
> Restrained = perception that life is hard, normal state of being is duty (Germany)

Question 15

Explain the specific relation between a few cultural dimensions and marketing concepts

Answer 15

• Uncertainty avoidance — customer innovativeness
• Masculinty +++ customer innovativeness
• Individualism +++ customer innovativeness
• Power distance belief — impulsive buying

Question 16

Explain Hall’s differentiation in sociocultural market conditions

Answer 16

Context of communication = first criterium
> LOW CONTEXT
Great importance of spoken and written word, what is meant is being said, context of communication is not important
Ex. USA, Australia, Germany
> HIGH CONTEXT
Great importance of facial expressions, gestures and intonations
Context is very relevant and a lot remains unspoken
Ex. China, Japan, Latin America

Question 17

Importance of culture and communication for marketing

Answer 17

• Communication decisions
• Launching of product innovations
• Co-branding strategies
• Managers leadership behavior
• Employees cultural intelligence is relevant for transnational negotiation, customer loyalty and perceived service quality

Question 18

Explain the relation between language and patience

Answer 18

Some languages are futureless in verbs (like Dutch), future seems less far away, burden of patience seems less strong

Question 19

Explain the values that drive status in markets

Answer 19

Established
- Traditional (sense of duty)
- Modernisation (Individualism, self-actualisation and pleasure)
- Re-orientation
Emerging
- Traditional (to belong: rules, norms, authority)
- Adaptation (to advance in quality of life)
- Modernity (to indulge, self centered)
Combination of those values with levels of status create boxes where internatinal buying behavior can be placed in.

Question 20

Explain product preferences in different cultures with examples

Answer 20

Some countries have special preferences on products –> essentiel information for marketing and companies.
Ex. Spain: more liquid yoghurt
Ex. Muslim countries: little demand for pork (beef)

Question 21

Explain the country of origin effect

Answer 21

The country of origin from a product influences its image among customers in different countries in a positive or negative way.
Ex. Belgian beer

Question 22

Explain ethnocentrism

Answer 22

Customer groups rate image and quality of products from their own country as more positive than products manufactured elsewhere.
> Preference for domestic products
> Political exploitation

Question 23

Explain the experiment around foreign brand names

Answer 23

3 kind of wacthes:
- Congruent (french name and made in france)
- Incongruent developed (french name and made in developed country)
- Incongruent emerging (french name and made in emerging country)
» Incongruence is no problem for simple products, but it is for luxury. In luxury: lowest purchase for incongruent emerging information.

Question 24

Explain international market segmentation

Answer 24

• Countries as segments > Benelux, Balkan
• Segments that exist in every country > students
• Country-specific segments

Question 25

Explain the convergence hypothesis of Levitt and its resistance

Answer 25

Cross national convergence to the same buying patterns.
Why?
> Similar demographic developments in industrial countries
> Intensive interaction with other cultures
> Improvement in transportation
> Standardization of products and services
> Emergence of global customer industries
Resistance
> Also return to local specialities
> Growing local preferences
> Differences in culturally shaped value systems