International retailers

International retailers can be classified under two categories: Global grocery retailers and International fashion Brands. Example of global grocery retailer would be Wal-Mart. It operates in 15 different countries with 8500 stores. Then the example of international fashion retailer could be Zara or Gucci. Fashion retailers have seen their opportunity to expand their product mix and by that also market the products internationally. This is why we see the luxurybrands dealing with fashion clothing (including sports fashion, casual and formal wear, party outfits, footware and accessories) and then they have their luxuryitems like watches, perfumes, jewellery and all that can be a part of one's personality.

 

 

image

image

 

 

image

International Retailer of the Year

 Every year on of the thousand international retailer are chosen to be the "International Retailer of the Year" by the National Retail Federations (NFR) annual convention. Who gets this award is chosen usually in January.

NFR haven't told the criteria to choose the winner, but they say that this award is for a global retailcompany that works excellent in their native country and internationally also.

This years International Retailer of the Year is Angela Ahrendts, the CEO of Lululemon. It's a company which makes technical athletic clothes for yoga, running, working out, and most other sweaty activities. There is told that Angela Ahrendts learned to create high volume sales and strong, distinct culture for a company, she learned working as a senior manager for Starbucks. She was able to grow her company Lululemon more than 180% in only five years. This was possible by not only making the global competitive but also being a rolemodel for customers and employee engagement. This is something that even some of the largest retail chains have difficulties at.

image

 
In 2012 the International Retailer of the Year was chosen to be Angela Ahrendts, who is the CEO of Burberry.

image

Pricing

Developing an international pricing strategy is typically an intricate task because the firm has to determine the optimum pricing strategy in each national market and then harmonize the prices across countries. The aim is both to control pricing problems and maximize profitability in foreign markets. To that end, international pricing encompasses price discrimination, strategic pricing and regulatory influences on prices.

 image

Some companies, Apple is well known for it, adopt a global pricing strategy where all products cost the same everywhere, and if prices vary, then it is because the product has been varied for that market. For some, this is definitely the right approach — but it’s not right for all.

There are many variable factors that influence international pricing, such as currency exchange rates, economic conditions, production expenses, your competitors and the consumers in your target market.  When setting prices internationally, you also need to consider the standard of living and income levels in your target market.                      

Top 10 issues companies face in international pricing

• Different commercial realities: you cannot just harmonise everything
• Lack of internal transparency
• International sourcing trends: buyers comparing prices across markets for the same or similar product
• Coordination between markets without disrespecting local commercial practices
• Harmonization where not needed
• Different accounting & controlling standards
• Different people cultures
• Lack of common internal language about pricing
• Different levels of market maturity suggests different pricing strategies
• Grey market trading

 

image

New Product Development

Where do organisations get their ideas for NPD? Answer is:

• Market Research

• Employees

• Consultants

• Competitors

• Customers

• Distributors and Suppliers

The international trade director at UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) West Midlands Doug Mahoney have said that "You need to be clear that there is a market for your product overseas. Don't assume that just because you have a great product and it sells well in your own market, that it will sell as well abroad. It's essential to understand the culture of the market you are thinking about moving into"

Organsations must accept that differences in values, customs, languages and currencies will mean that some products will only suit certain countries. There are important regional differences. For example advertising in China and India need to focus on local languages.
 (source)

 New product development has eight stages:

image

 

Testing products abroad

In the picture above is this stage 7: test marketing. This means that the product will be tested within a specific area. The product will be launched within a particular region so the marketing mix strategy can be monitored and if needed modified before national launch.

For example Nokia Lumia 900 was first hitted in Rogers of Canada. After that it spread globally from there. In the US, Nokia and phone carrier AT&T Wireless had a big marketing splash for Lumia 900, which included a launch event in New York City's Times Square.This campaign would be even bigger than those done for iPhone.

Business gifts

It's not always easy to do business with foreign people. That's mostly because of the cultural differences we have in the world. If it's wanted to success in international business, you should learn to know the habits of other cultures.

For example in Asia the behavior might be a lot of different than in Finland. Smile is not always a good thing when asian people does it, because it might be a way to cover their real feelings. So finnish people might have some difficulties to read their minds and know what they really think.
When you go to Asia to your business trip, you should make sure that you have enough time to do the business in there because asians want to know you better before they start business with you.

Business Gifts

If you bring business gift to foreign country you should take account of few thinks:

• If the gift is wrong kind, there might be some loss of face as a result
• The gift might be a tabu in some country
• If the gift is too expensive, they might think that it's a bribe in some countries
• Still don't ever bring odds and ends even to a developing country

image

Before buying a business gift, you should read some facts and tips of the country you are going to. Here's some rules of some countries business gift -culture:

In Belgium they think that is rude to give a present in a first meeting.

In South-Korea there is a big meaning of business gifts. They hope that foreign guest leaves something concrete of itself. South-Koreans also gives a lot of business gifts themselves and they expect to have something back from every business gift. The mental balance of gifts recipient might suffer if a gift you give to them is inferior than the gift that they gave to you.


In China, the business gifts are indication of thankfulness and appreciation. Even tough it's good that the business gifts reminds the recipient of the givers country, for example finnish people should remember that never give blue-white -coloured gift in China! Also there is some forbidden gifts in China, for example a clock and a green cap or hat.

In USA they give business gifts a little, but usually it's not a habit of the country. There are a lot of companies that has an exact rules of receiving a business gift. You should follow a good taste of giving a gift in USA, or else it might be a bigger mistake to give the present that it would have been not to give it. Business women should not be given any personal gifts, like cosmetics or clothes.

In Japan is very usual to give and to have a business gift. You should ever give paper knife, scissors etc to japanese people. Also "forbidden" gifts are anything that's cheap and commercial, like t-shirts, caps stickers and cheap ink pens. You should also never give something that you have given earlier to japanese people.

image

 

Lumon

Lumon sales, produces and installs balcony facade and terrace products: balcony glazings, frameless glass curtains, balustrades. It's an international company from Finland. They have had subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, Spain, Germany, Canada and Russia. Now they have bought a new place from China. It was a balcony glazing -company near Shanghai that already existed. At the moment there's two finnish people and 30 chinese working in Lumons Chinas factory. The managing director of Lumon, Tapani Kinnunen, says that there's customers in China and new orders comes all the time, but the volumes are still quite small.

It's good to be careful at start with China. There is a lot of opportunities, but also the risks are are also known because of Chinas unpredictability.

 image

In China there are a lot of copies of brands and there are copies of Lumon too.

source:  Kouvolan Sanomat

Disney

In an entertainment industry Disney is one good example being worldwide. It's best known of its products of the film studio: the Walt Disney Studios. It's been told that one of the explanations why Disney is so successful, is their intellectual property. There is no other company that has so much of well-known, cute, family-friendly, and highly marketable characters. In marketing they must have done something well for being so famous, loveable and global. People loves Disney in everywhere in the world.

picture

picture

In quite a latest news there were this article of Disneys newest marketing campaign where they built an entire street in London looking as an 8-bitted. This was a marketing trick of their movie Wreck-It Ralph. The street is filled with 8-bitted -looking statues and stuff. I think this is very cool way of marketing a new product especially in this kind of field.

picture

There would be a job to do if Disney wanted to do this kind of marketing in every country where the film is published. Maybe they should do the same thing to some of Helsinkis streets when the premiere comes to Finland? I understand it would be hard and expensive to make 8-bitted streets to almost every country in the world, but that would also be a different way to market and raise interest in customers. Maybe there would be even this cute dog outside every movie theater when Wreck-It Ralph movie is on?

picture

Tips for an international marketing planning

I was reading this one website with a few good advices to international marketing.

There was this good sentence that "Any successful firm internationally, should first obtain success locally". This is so true. You must carefully create your product before trying to hustle it to everywhere in the world, where it might not be even needed. To bring your product first to local markets is like testing if it's worth to expand over the world. And when you start expanding the product, you must think carefully: Can they afford it? Do they want it? Do they need it?

There was also this good advice about marketing a product as an foreign product. Especially if the product is something that your country is known of or the people knows that this product quality is the best in your country.

One important thing in marketing internationally is trying to find a local partner. And for the best this partner should be a company that already has a local credibility.

And to the end this one good example that every taste just not work to every people. It might be about where they are used to.