This document provides an introduction to international marketing, covering several key topics: 1. It outlines the learning objectives which include understanding the benefits of international markets, comparing international and single-country marketing strategies, and recognizing important concepts like the self-reference criterion. 2. It defines international marketing and discusses the benefits of leveraging operations globally through economies of scale. 3. It contrasts single-country and international marketing, explaining how marketing mix elements like product, price, and promotion need to be adapted or standardized for different countries. 4. It introduces some of the major trade barriers like tariffs and quotas, as well as institutions that govern international trade such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank

1. Introduction to
International Marketing
Chapter 1
Lecturer: Le Hồng Đắc

2. 1-2
Learning Objectives
LO1 Understand the benefits of international markets
and definition of international marketing
LO2 Compare and contrast single-country marketing
strategy with international marketing strategy
LO3 Understand the scope of the international marketing
task and different stages in the evolution of marketing
across national boundaries
LO4 Recognise the importance of the self-reference
criterion (SRC) and global awareness in international
marketing
LO5 Understand the several types of trade barriers, free
trade agreements and institutions

3. Exhibit 1.2 Selected U.S. Companies
and Their International Sales
Source: Compiled from annual reports of listed firms, 2012
1-3

4. 1-4
Benefits of International Markets
• To leverage operations on a worldwide scale
(economies of scale)
• To take advantages of the know-how knowledge
(e.g. knowledge of how to do things; save costs
on R&D)
• To obtain the strategic value of the geographic
location (e.g. being close to the target market or
the cheap labour forces)

5. 1-5
Single-Country Marketing versus
International Marketing
Single-country Marketing
(Domestic Marketing)
International Marketing
Domestic market participation International market participation
Marketing Mix Development Marketing Mix Development
• Product • Product Adaptation or
Standardisation
• Price • Price Adaptation or Standardisation
• Promotion • Promotion Adaptation or
Standardisation
• Place • Place Adaptation or Standardisation
Sources: Keegan & Green (2013: 10)

6. 1-6
Definition of International Marketing
• International marketing is “the performance of
business activities designed to plan, price,
promote, and direct the flow of a company’s
goods and services to consumers or users in
more than one nation for a profit”. (Cateora et
al., 2011: 10)

7. 1-7
Product Adaptation-Coca Cola
• Entering the Chinese market near
the end of the 1920s
• The translation of Coca Cola into
Mandarin (可口可菜) carries
negative or even no meaning:
“female horse fastened with wax”
• Coke Marketing Executives
overcame the language barrier by
using the phrase “可口可乐” which
means “happiness in the mouth”
(Morse, 2009: 162)

8. 1-8
Product Standardisation-Best Buy
• Entering the Chinese market
since 2003
• The translation of Best Buy into
Mandarin (百思买 Bai Si Mai)
carries negative meaning:
“Think one hundred times
before buying”
(Basciano, 2016)

9. 1-9
Standardisation versus Adaptation
• Standardisation (or Globalisation) means
offering a uniform product/service on a regional
or world wide basis (international products
without local variations)
• Adaptation (or Localisation) focuses on the
cross-border differences in the needs and wants
of the firm’s largest customers (international
products with local variations).
(Kotabe & Helsen, 2010: 11)

10. 1-10
Case Study-McDonald's food throughout
the world

11. 1-11
Group Discusion Questions (20
mins)
(discuss in group of 5 students)
1/ Would McDonald's ™ prefer to globalise or
localise their menu across the world?
2/ In your opinion, what are the advantages of
the above strategy?
3/ What are other product/menu ideas do you
think McDonald's ™ could introduce in the
Vietnamese market?

12. The International Marketing Task
One
Two
Three
Four
1-12
Source: Cateora et al. (2011: 11)

13. 1-13
Stages in the evolution of marketing
across national boundaries
• Domestic Marketing
• Export Marketing
• International Marketing
• Multinational Marketing
• Global Marketing

14. 1-14
Source: Kotabe & Helsen (2010: 15)

15. 1-15
Self-Reference Criterion & Ethnocentrism
• Self-Reference Criterion (SRC) is an
unconscious reference to one’s own cultural
values, experiences, and knowledge as a basis
for decisions.
• Ethnocentrism is the notion that people in one’s
own company, culture, or country know best how
to do things.
• Both the SRC and ethnocentrism impede the
ability to assess a foreign market in its true light.

16. 1-16
Self-Reference Criterion & Ethnocentrism
• Self-Reference Criterion (SRC) is an
unconscious reference to one’s own cultural
values, experiences, and knowledge as a basis
for decisions.
• Ethnocentrism is the notion that people in one’s
own company, culture, or country know best how
to do things.
• Both the SRC and ethnocentrism impede the
ability to assess a foreign market in its true light.

17. 1-17
Developing Global Awareness
To be globally aware is to have:
• tolerance of cultural differences and
• knowledge of cultures, history, world market
potential, and global economic, social, and
political trends

18. 1-18
Trade Barriers
• Barriers to trade are one of the major issues
confronting international marketers
• They can be tariff (i.e. tax) or non-tariff (i.e.
quotas, antidumping laws etc.) barriers
• Tariff barriers have reduced considerably in
recent years

19. 1-19
Protectionism
• The reality of trade is that this is a world of
tariffs, quotas, and nontariff barriers designed to
protect a country’s markets from foreign
investment
• Although the World Trade Organization has
been effective to some extent in reducing tariffs,
countries still resort to measures of
protectionism
• Countries use legal barriers, exchange barriers,
and psychological barriers to restrict the entry of
unwanted goods

20. 1-20
Steel tariff toward China

21. 1-21
China through Vietnam steel tariff
evasion

22. 1-22
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT)
• Covers three basic areas:
– trade shall be conducted on a nondiscriminatory
basis;
– protection shall be afforded domestic industries
through customs tariffs, not through such commercial
measures as import quotas; and
– consultation shall be the primary method used to
solve global trade problems.

23. 1-23
World Trade Organisation (WTO)
• It sets many rules governing trade between its
132 members
• WTO provides a panel of experts to hear and
rule on trade disputes between members, and,
unlike GATT, issues binding decisions
Unlike GATT, WTO is an institution, not an agreement

24. 1-24
The IMF and the World Bank
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the World Bank Group are two global
institutions created to assist nations in becoming
and remaining economically viable.
• These organisations play important roles in
international trade:
– by helping maintain stability in the financial markets
and
– by assisting countries that are seeking economic
development and restructuring

25. Major Regional Trade
Agreements/Institutions

26. Major Regional Trade
Agreements/Institutions