Internationalization Strategies for Market Expansion

Introduction

Every company when hold quite a strong market share tries to expand their brand, products, services, and their goodwill to other regions and countries so that their customer base, global image, product and service promotions can be spread to other places also. The concept of a global marketing or in other words internationalisation of companies can be referred to as the selling or furnishing of the products and services in the global or international market with a huge audience range. The initial components involved in this process are planning, generation, placement & promotion of the company or brand products and services in a worldwide market or short globally. This essay will focus on what concepts and models companies apply in their internationalisation process and how the marketing mix theory helps them further. The management issues of the internationalisation process are evaluated with effective support by different pieces of literature ad theory models.

Concept of the Global Marketing Strategy

The global marketing strategy (GMS) is such a strategy that facilitates the encompassing of various countries of different regions around the globe and which has its aim to create a coordination of a specific company’s marketing efforts and efficiencies in the markets of the selected regions or countries. De Mooij (2018) suggested that the marketing mix and the products are varied so they are not adaptable by the local preferences as suggested by several customer orientation surveys. To make these products according to the local customers of that country or region different strategies are implemented by the companies which are called the global marketing strategy (Kalogiannidis et al. 2020). In a global marketing strategy, the focus is kept on considering all the dimensions including the product design, nature of the packaging, the pattern of labeling the products, choice of the brand name, presence or absence of the warranty of the products, separate advertising strategies for each region or country protecting their beliefs and sentiments and last but not the least the most important dimension that is the after-sales service support. De Mooij (2019) stated that the after-sales service supports that element which many companies either ignore or don’t consider much but it is said to be the key factor in establishing a foreign company brand into a new region or globally. The after-sales service is that principle depending upon which the further growth and improvement of the brand with the audience relate to. According to Kanagal (2017), a bad or improper after-sales service can bring failure in all the global marketing strategies.

International Marketing Mix

The marketing mix whether global or national comprises the four prominent P’s which are considered to be the four dimensions standing upon which the marketing mix strategies functions. These four P’s are product, price, placement, and promotion. These four elements are the key factors that are involved in planning the strategies regarding the marketing of goods and services and along with that all these four determinants interact and connect significantly (Leonidou et al. 2018). Setting up the strategies after considering all these dimensions is the way to create such an approach which will be a holistic marketing strategy by nature.

Product

In the general marketing mix, the focus is on how to sell the products and services more aiming at the target of fulfilling all the needs of the target market. According to Lee and Griffith (2019) in the international marketing mix, the considered factors are the cultural background, religious belief, buying preferences, choice of brand image & level of the personal income among families. As an example, McDonald's being a global brand always customises their food items according to the country.

Price

Setting the price of products for an international level customer is the toughest of all four Ps. The price factor will determine the competition level of that brand, the difference with the local brands of that place, and various other variable rates. Some more additional factors considered are:

Transportation cost

Exchange rate fluctuations

Income of the target market

General economic situations of that country

Place

Place element of the international marketing mix is completely about the product and service distribution system to the respective customers, at the right time and right place. This needs to analyse that which the company is willing to sell their products and services to which businesses, wholesalers, and retailers or directly to the respective customers.

Promotion

The promotional strategy applied in one country can be restricted or offensive in other countries. Westjohn and Magnusson (2017) advised that every side of the product promotional details needs brief analysis and further followed by proper planning by using the social media platforms.

Critically evaluating the concepts and models relating to the components of the international marketing programme

The international marketing programmes are very crucial and critical as many big companies with their international marketing ventures are failing up just after starting their functions or also after sometimes due to various challenges that are prevented in the international market. İpek (2020) argued that it can be contemplated that when a company is launching its products and services in the global overseas market, the must carry out a detailed through research process about the market type, customer preferences, and other things for reducing the level of failure and uncertainty in their internationalisation process. As per Gatignon and Capron (2020), a specific profitable opportunity in a place may not be available in any other geographical region and till the marketers are aware of their existence as a brand, they will not consider them among the alternative brand options. And secondly, the competition level in the global market is also very high as compared to the national companies. The most common and usual components of the international marketing programmes are- global consumer behavioural patterns, marketing mix strategies, market targeting plans & market opportunities. Depending upon all these major components, there are three basic strategic models of the international marketing programme:

Ethnocentric Strategic model

This is used generally for export marketing and for the persons who are related with the marketing matters who are related with the home country. The global overseas marketing operations are seen as the secondary operation when compared with domestic or national operations and these are primarily considered as the means to dispose of the surplus production of the home country. The ethnocentric approach is most useful in strategizing the foreign recruiting system depending on the expertise, abilities & needs of the people blending with the community of the company with that place (Hanfan et al. 2019). In this model, the prices, production, and distribution process are the same as the home country market programmes.

Geocentric Strategic model

In the geocentric model, the company that is planning to enter the global market with international programmes, observes the entire global market as the definite potential market where the national boundaries are ignored while exporting the products and services to the customer out there globally (Kwon et al. 2018). Every country has its own culture and it is very difficult for companies to adopt and adapt to the cultural differences of both places when promoting their brands. In the geocentric orientation, the company prepares standardised marketing mix programmes which will project a uniform brand image of the company and its products and services in the international market.

Polycentric Strategic model

Different from the above two models, in the polycentric model, all the subsidiaries which are established in the overseas market operate their business operations and functions with a different independent identity who have their marketing plans, programmes, and objectives apart from the home country strategies. As opined by Dupont (2017) in this model each target country’s marketplaces are considered to be distinct from each other as so do the marketing programmes implemented in them. Individually it is found to be one of the best models since it is a country-specific model focusing on multilingual approaches to reach the broadest possible customers on a global range. These entire three specific models are different from each other in their characteristics and functions and results unlike in every situation or environment. According to Lerner (2021), when any company chooses the ethnocentric approach, the marketing strategies and programmes are the same in both national and international environments. If the model chosen is geocentric, the marketing strategies are developed in such a way that they will work uniformly worldwide. On the other hand, when a polycentric approach is established in the subsidiary countries the marketing strategies and programmes are developed according to the host country individually without connecting with the national market.

Exploring the implementation and management of the issues created by internationalisation

The process of internationalisation of any company whether big, medium or small is full of problems and risks, so it has been advised by all the expert researchers regarding the matter that, to make this process fruitful more and more efforts must be contributed throughout this internationalisation process. According to Golubeva (2019) in internationalisation process, the entry of the company is a part of the growth & development of that company’s engagement in any selected or targeted foreign market environment which is the first of the two determinants of the internationalisation process. At this level the entry is kept normal followed by all the activities as an integral part of the internationalisation process. And the second determinant is the sequential entry of in the foreign markets which are not dealt with at all in any circumstances (Bradford et al. 2017). Numerous issues arise in the internationalisation process of a company which can be managed by implementing certain strategies.

Reputation issues and its management

The first thing to manage is the reputation of the new entrant with protecting its values because when entering any new foreign market, the rivals and competitors sometimes tries to harm the brand image and reputation of that company (Chatterjee et al. 2021). So, implementing necessary regulations and laws are a must when internationalising any brand into a global environment.

New Partnerships issues and its protection

When a company enters any new foreign market, many partnerships are placed in this procedure, so it is very much important that the partnerships must be done only after secured research of that opposite partner. Melewar (2017) suggested that there should be a firm control over the export compliances in regards to the partnership matters. It will help in removing or managing the partner issues such as disagreements, commitment issues, and personal habits, and so on.

Recruitment issues and its solutions

The internationalisation process involves a new system of recruitment where few are shifted from the home countries and few are recruited from the host country. In this regard, the issues arise in adjustments of both the types of employees, sharing their experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise (Naeej Haghighi et al. 2018). Eduardsen and Marinova (2020) noted that to manage these issues proper training to all the employees works best and most important giving them adequate time to be comfortable with each other and not forcing them to work together.

Cyber security issues and its protection

A very prominent problematic element of internationalisation is the cybersecurity where there are constant threats of leaking of the data, misusing of the company resources, data theft, and many more (Crick et al. 2020). These issues are vital because lack of strict protection in cybersecurity can result in the decline of not only the internationalised subsidiary but also the shutting down of the home company with no other option (Morgan et al. 2018). To maintain strict protection management, the related laws, rules, punishments are regulations also needs to be strict to follow.

Conclusion

The above essay presented the concept that global marketing or the internationalisation of companies in the selling or furnishing of the products and service in the global or international market where there is a huge audience range involving the components of planning, generation, placement & promotion of the company or brand products and service worldwide. The process of internationalisation whether big, medium or small is full of problems and risks, so the expert researchers advised contributing to more efforts to get a fruitful internationalisation process. It can be summarised from the above essay that the most common components of international marketing programmes are global consumer behavioural pattern, marketing mix strategies, market targeting plans & market opportunities and to manage them there are three basic concept models namely Ethnocentric, Geocentric and Polycentric. Lastly, it can be said that a bad or improper after-sales service can bring failure to all the internationalisation marketing strategies.

References

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