International marketing – the issues 629
international marketers frequently have pre-
ferred modes of entry that they may use over
and over again irrespective of the entry situa-
tion. The dangers of this strategy are two-fold.
First, a firm may forfeit a promising market
because its institutionally accepted mode is
incapable of penetrating the foreign market.
Second, although the firm may be able to
penetrate the market, its mode of entry may
prevent it from fully capitalizing on market
opportunities. Being aware of and avoiding the
pitfalls inherent in institutionalizing entry
modes might lead to more long-term success in
international markets. Planning is everything,
the plan itself is nothing. Make contingency
plans (Chae and Hill, 2000).
Continuing and future challenges
1 Economic integration. The impact of economic
integration within the European Union is
having a formidable effect in regenerating many
West European economies. As indicated
earlier, EU membership could easily rise to 28
member states. However, while there is
interest worldwide in the European
experiment, other trading blocs stop at the
economic stage and keep well clear of any
permanent political association where, to take
the case of the EU again, it officially represents
its member states. Clearly, in terms of size and
membership, APEC (Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation), spanning two continents, has
tremendous potential to influence world trade
if ever it chooses to do so, but there are many
other large free trade agreements, including
NAFTA and ASEAN.
2 Strategic alliances are increasing in all
industries across all nations as a preferred
means of corporate foreign market entry.
3 Brands are replacing products. Consumers
have become increasingly sophisticated and
product knowledgeable with the advent of new
means of communication and the
concentration of suppliers. While this has led
to globalization and product standardization in
the main, segmentation and pre-testing are still
necessary. Over-standardization in an era of
anti-globalization is a sin.
4 Time to market and product differentiation
(physical and psychological) are important.
5 Market data are increasingly important,
especially for the many relatively new
transitional economies. Need for awareness,
image and preference data has led to new
types of market research.
6 Regulation is important in a world trade order
dominated not by trading nations but by
economic blocs such as the European Union,
which accounts for nearly 40 per cent of
world trade. This has led to the establishment
of a new organization in the World Trade
Organization (WTO).
7 Distribution channel change. Major changes in
distribution channels, e.g. concentration in
retailing, use of the Internet (Hamill, 1997;
Palumbo and Herbig, 1998; Zugelder et al.,
2000) and the rise of international retailing.
There is the problem of finding exclusive
agents and representatives.
8 Consumer price sensitivity. Worldwide,
consumers are becoming more price sensitive,
so private labels are a response by retailers to
ensure margins and customer loyalty.Maintaining a sustainable advantage
Wensley provides an excellent review in this
book of general marketing strategy (Chapter 4).
Comments here focus on international market-
ing strategy.
Traditional marketing theory dictates that
by adjusting the 4Ps for the correct marketing
mix, companies are able to communicate effect-
ively with their buying public. The marketing
mix, reduced to only 4Ps, assumes passive
markets while the interaction approach
accepts that there are dynamic relationships
between buyers and sellers involving product