This course looks at the marketing dimension of multinational businesses. It is designed to offer participants an opportunity to pin down a range of topics which constitute the pillars of global marketing. International marketing by itself has been thought of as a mere extension of domestic marketing, because it usually involves many market-specific factors. This course attempts to systematically filter out the key issues related to MNCs’ global marketing successes.
This course begins with the rationale for expanding marketing activities overseas. Then it discusses various marketing environments and how these contextual factors affect buyer behavior and the way we do marketing research. After a brief analysis of STP, global marketing selection and entry, our attention turns to the 4P decisions and the coordination of global marketing efforts. To facilitate astute thinking, we pay special attention to global strategic implications from time to time. It can be shown that experiences gained in some markets may be applicable in others. That is, spillover effects can help MNCs achieve scale or scope economies. But at the same time, global marketing has to respond to individual market idiosyncracies. Hence the tradeoff between global standardization and local adaptation becomes the most important concern in international marketing.