Unit 7 Flashcards
Objective of International promotion policy
The main objective of international promotion policy is to influence the knowledge levels, expectations, and consequently the behavior of the target audience in such a way that the company can pursue its goals. Marketing communication focuses on current and potential customers as the target audience for promotional campaigns, however individuals and organizations that influence the buying processes of these targets also need to be considered. These can include media providers, promoters, opinion leaders, etc.
Marketing Communication
Marketing communication always aims to reach a level of congruence between the intended message from the sender and the message actually understood by the receiver. In general, difficulties can arise that jeopardize this congruence, but particularly so when communicating internationally. When launching promotions in an international context, the use of signs and symbols is often problematic. Country- or culture-specific differences in syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of signs may result in different interpretations. This can in turn interfere with the achievement of promotional goals, e.g. specific advertising effects or certain buying behaviors (de Mooij, 2004). Problems can occur especially when the company and target audience are from different countries and there are different languages involved, when they have different cultural backgrounds, or when there is greater diversity in the targeted audience (such as several target groups or entire national markets).
Standardized promotion Policy
When considering cost, standardizing promotion policy tools can be advantageous when this reduces the costs of developing international markets. Developing a single promotion policy for several countries means that costs are limited to a single process of conceptualization, production, and controlling. A single promotion policy generally requires only one testing phase, executed in a single country, which also reduces promotion costs (Backhaus & Voeth, 2010). However, there are limits to the potential for cost-savings. At many international companies, conceptualization costs are less than 10 % of the overall promotion expenses (Merkle, 1984).
Advantages of standardizing international promotion policy
Using transnational creative expertise: Standardized promotion policy can be improved by utilizing the in-house creative know-how of staff working in different countries. Valuable marketing knowledge and skills present in the individual branch offices in different countries can be brought together through international working groups to achieve higher quality promotion efforts.
Bundling financial resources: Pursuing distinct, country-specific promotional activities means that each national market only gets a respective share of the overall promotion budget. More complex marketing campaigns cannot be realized as they would exceed the individual countries’ budgets. Bundling resources can often lead to more ambitious, complex, or widespread campaigns.
Using international media: Standardizing promotion policy enables companies to approach international media. This is significant, given the growing importance of international media, particularly global data networks and satellite TV programs.
Spillover effects: The impact of promotional efforts can be improved by taking advantage of so-called spillover effects. For example, national TV stations can be easily watched in neighboring countries; an advertisement in one national market may be viewed by consumers in another who are already familiar with this particular promotional campaign. This will result in repeated exposure to the advertising materials, anchoring the brand and reinforcing the intended effect of the promotional materials. A differentiated promotion policy, in contrast, will not have this reinforcing or cumulative effect and may even irritate or confuse consumers.
Marketing communication
Marketing communication measures are often subdivided into “above the line” and “below the line” activities. In international marketing, budgets are increasingly spent on below the line measures, as they have the potential to overcome the growing problem of information overload experienced by consumers, and focus the attention of the potential consumer on the actual advertisement. The field of below the line marketing measures is developing in a dynamic fashion with new forms of communication being added continuously, e.g. online communities, advertising in computer games, mobile marketing, etc.
International advertisement is the international promotion policy tool that the majority of literature pays the greatest attention to. Apart from the advertising objectives and advertisement timing, the main parameters of international advertisement are designing the advertising message, choosing the advertising medium, and selecting the types of advertising materials (Thieme, 2000
Advertising Message
Designing an advertising message means developing a clear message to communicate and planning its technical components (e.g. tone, images, colors, music, and advertising text). The values that the advertising message seeks to appeal to as well as the actual information and symbols included in the advertisement are of utmost importance in international marketing, as they may be perceived differently in different cultures or countries (Müller & Gelbrich, 2004)
When considering different countries and cultures, the actual information or content of the advertising materials will have different effects on consumers depending on the level of the information (e.g. detailed versus simple, descriptive or analytical) and the type of information featured (e.g. quality, price, appearance, and composition/ingredients of advertised object). In an international context, it goes without saying that advertising texts and slogans should not be used in their original form everywhere as customers in different markets will likely speak different languages. The information contained in the advertisement should vary in different countries as it will likely evoke differing associations and interpretations due to differences in comprehension and perception (de Moojo, 2004).
Advertising Medium
Choosing the medium of advertising is closely connected to selecting the actual type of advertising. Commercials are typically found on television or in the cinema, advertisements are run in print media, and banner advertisements are published on the Internet. The selection of the advertising medium will strongly depend on cultural or regional differences. On the one hand, the selection of the appropriate advertising medium will depend on how the target groups in that country perceive and interpret the features or design elements of advertising media. Different perceptions of image communication or text-related advertising are often cited as examples of such differences. On the other hand, legal limitations may restrict the use of specific advertising mediums or types of advertising (Harker, 1998; Taylor & Raymond, 2000).
Advertising Media Type
Selecting the type of advertising (or media type) means choosing the right type of advertising within a medium. While traditional advertising focuses on “conventional” types of media, advertising in new media is characterized by multimodality, digital integration, and interactivity, often in the form of dialogue components such as comments or “likes.” Important vehicles that may be used for multimedia advertising include (Bruhn, 2007):
online platforms
mobile storage media (e.g. CD-ROMS, USB flash drives)
kiosk systems (e.g. point of information terminals, POS terminals, point of fun terminals)
mobile communication media
International Public Relations
Public relations are the extension of a company’s communication tools and aim at promoting the company as a whole. This field of international promotion policy has grown greatly in importance over the past years. An important goal of international public relations is to minimize the potential for conflicts between the company and its targeted countries. While advertising is primarily used to shape the image of products, product groups, or services, public relations aim to cultivate a specific, favourable image of the company. Specific public relation objectives of international companies include (Perlitz, 2004):
identification with the interests of the countries of potential consumers
contributing to the development of said countries
establishing good contacts with government offices
respecting cultural and social differences
promoting the company image
emphasizing the independence of foreign branch offices relative to the headquarters
More on International Public Relations
External channels such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and the Internet are especially important for public relations activities in an international context. Through these channels, media representatives spread information on or from the company. The role of public relations is to achieve widespread media coverage about the company that is generally as positive as possible. However, it is sometimes the case that editorial coverage in some of these media sources also contains negative information about the company, brands, or products. It is the responsibility of the PR division to react to this coverage, implementing strategies to avoid any or further damage to the reputation of the company, product, or brand (Freimüller & Schober, 2001). It must be taken into account that the media in general play many different roles and the various media outlets have different levels of credibility in an international context.
International Sales Promotion
Sales promotion measures are short-term, temporal instruments that are usually designed specifically for a local context. Such measures include (Gedenk, 2001):
direct sales assistance (e.g. sales manuals, computer-aided selling systems, leaflets, catalogues, and support measures aiming at providing further information, such as training and professional literature)
personal incentive schemes (e.g. sales competitions)
maintaining contact at the individual level (e.g. product presentation, visits, gifts)
Country-specific legal regulations, the attitude of the local distributor towards a cooperative promotion of sales, and the attitude of the customers towards such tools are some of the challenges for sales promotion in an international context. As sales promotion measures are short-term instruments, companies may consider standardizing them via their own distribution system so that they can maintain complete control over the process (Meffert & Bolz, 1998; Berndt, Fantapié Altobelli, & Sander, 2005).
International Direct Marketing
International direct marketing, as previously mentioned, is a marketing approach that has developed in an especially dynamic manner, largely due to the progress of information and communication technology and efforts to individualize marketing approaches. Industrial goods companies often focus their activities on international direct marketing; however, such tools have also become increasingly important for addressing consumers. There are three types of direct marketing (Bruhn, 2007):
Passive direct marketing: The attention of the consumer is drawn to the company’s service offer without the medium itself establishing customer contact (e.g. advertising letters, catalogues, generic mail material).
Direct response marketing: After being approached, the consumer has the opportunity to react (e.g. mail order packages with business reply cards, direct response advertising).
Interactive direct marketing: The company enters into a direct dialogue with the consumer (e.g. telemarketing, e-mail communication).
The main reasons to conduct direct marketing activities include information brokerage, increasing consumer interest, and obviously, the eventual acquisition of new customers.
Measuring Effectiveness
While it is relatively easy to determine costs, it is difficult to measure effectiveness. The reason for the complexity assosciated with determining effects of promotional strategies on actual revenue is twofold. Firstly, it is often difficult to measure the level of standardization of promotion policy tools relative to their effect. Secondly, it is difficult to match effects with revenue-related parameters (e.g. while a promotion activity may have a good effect on consumer brand awareness and affinity, it is difficult to measure the related effect on actual sales).
