Introduction
The international marketing demands new and innovative approaches to business which takes into account cultural and national differences of product perception and product value. International marketing is aimed to reach diverse consumers and sell products on the international scale. Supranational marketers apply different strategies and techniques in order to reach target market and create effective marketing strategies. Standardized, concentrated and differentiated international marketing are the most common approaches used by marketing operating on the international scale. The core of the international strategies is a unique approach to target audience and ability of a company to foreshadow needs and desires of potential customers. Consumption factors shape the mix; decisions are made about the individual components and design of each as well as the total mix itself; and opportunity assessment, marketing planning and programming, marketing organization, and marketing control are fundamental management functions necessary for the design and maintenance of an effective marketing mix.
Discussion Section
The main mistake made by the Parker Pen Company was a homogeneous strategy applied to the global marketing campaign. Standardized approach did not work in many contraries and led to sales decline and profit decrease. Standardized approach means that a marketing campaign should be created for a international market but can be successfully adapted to local conditions, if necessary, developing this strategy, the Parker Pen Company should continuously being obliged to produce the best total mix of ingredients to meet the demands of both the international marketplace and the company. The Parker Pen Company had to develop a system by integrating the cultural sub-mixes into a whole. An understanding of forces that constrain and influence marketing effort, and at the impact of the interaction of a combination of marketing ingredients, is helpful in achieving this system. Although it may be impossible to determine the optimum marketing mix, it is usually within the realm of reason to develop logical, adequate, coordinated marketing programs (McDonald and Christopher 2003). The Parker Pen Company strategies were aimed to meet international consumers creating an international culture but failed to appeal to all cultural groups and entities. They developed a standardized approach which was easily applied to local markets such as Chinese and Japanese markets, Russian and Italian markets. The Parker Pen Company developed its international strategies in order to popularize its brand name and attract consumers’ attention to new products (Doyle and Stern 2006).
The example of the Parker Pen Company proves that cultural and competitive differences are more important as it considered by the company. The Parker Pen Company should apply a concentrated marketing strategy aimed to reach few of the market segments. The marketing mix pivots on planned, focused, and controlled marketing activity dedicated to the satisfaction of customer wants and needs of a particular target group. It embodies a master marketing plan and the development of operational plans in each of the areas, such as the sales program, advertising program, and market development program. The benefit of this strategy is that it helps small producers and marketers to reach the specific market segment at low cost. The company creates marketing campaigns aimed to reach a particular market segment (McDonald and Christopher 2003).
The mistake was that the Parker Pen Company did not target specific customer group but tried to appeal with value proposition to diverse customers. It is possible to assume that differentiated marketing would allow the Parker Pen Company to reach two or more market segments and develop unique service or products for these segments (McDonald and Christopher 2003). Businesses strive to develop the most profitable mix by combining ingredients to produce a total system that conforms to market forces. In designing marketing programs, prime consideration should be given to the entire mix rather than arty one segment of it. Marketing success depends on integrating the various elements rather than solely on making decisions about separate marketing activities. The benefit of this approach is that it allows a company to develop a separate mix for each product or segment (Doyle and Stern 2006).
The mistake of the Parker Pen Company was caused by the fact that it is difficult to apply concentrated and differentiated marketing strategies to both international and local markets. Thus, these strategies require that the marketing mix will be dynamic. It must be adjusted to the changing forces of the market. Also, the mix for different companies making the same product will vary. Successful standardized marketing requires recognition and authority at the top decision-making level. Marketing programs must be carefully planned and based not merely on knowledge of internal corporate affairs, but also on knowledge of external environments. This approach suggests that a business should be seen from the customer’s and consumer’s standpoint. All-encompassing, this concept of marketing enters the enterprise at the beginning of the production cycle, is coordinated with all the phases of the business, and permeates all its areas. In contrast to standardized and concentrated marketing, differentiated marketing is limited in its scope and requires high marketing costs. For international marketers, the development of standardized marketing mix is a complicated task. It is almost synonymous with marketing planning, since it is concerned with the integration and coordination of all the information required to plan an optimal marketing mix. It is the approach to the establishment of an effective mix that becomes important, rather than the achievement of scientific laws or mathematical models that will guide marketing management to a supposed optimum policy (Doyle and Stern 2006).
The main mistakes in the implementation were lack of cultural elements in advertising and inadequate promotion campaigns. The cultural approaches are variable and complex, open rather than closed, adaptive, externally oriented, and competitive. Such factors as continued economic growth, increased disposable income, vigorous domestic and foreign competition, accelerating technology, automation, population decentralization, expansion, and innovation will spur the appearance of this new marketing form. Although mass production has been hailed as the key to our high standard of living, a large part of the economic revolution has been the change in marketing (McDonald and Christopher 2003).
In business markets, customers’ behavior patterns analysis is often used to make selling more cost effective by prioritizing customers groups. Behavior segmentation of the Parker Pen Company involves finding out the key drivers that distinguish one group of customers from another. The key drivers of consumer market behavior will be: psychographic, demographic, lifestyle and transactional. Customers will buy the product because of its low price, unique brand image and technological benefit (low emissions) (Fill, 1999).
Segmenting decisions were complicated by the fact that national income figures, such as those cited for Europe are averages. Age segmentation involved young people between the ages of 18 – 70+. These young people by virtue of their shared interest in fashion, music, and a youthful lifestyle, exhibit consumption behavior that is remarkably consistent across borders. Young consumers might not yet have conformed to cultural norms (Reed 2006). Psychographic segmentation will help to group people in terms of their attitudes, values, and lifestyles. The majority of the target audience is stylish young people who admire fashionable cars and lifestyle. They will feel the new model is tailored according to their needs and wants. Income segmentation: the car market consists of those who are willing and able to buy. The buyers belong to middle and low class families. Taking into account standards of living, they will offer 0% interest for five years or the option of getting $2500 of the price of the vehicle. It is expected that there will not be great differences in gender and occupation of buyers, but this product will be popular among young population who value new designs and innovative knowledge (Hollensen, 2007).
The Parker Pen Company’s potential buyers are diverse in character. They represent $175 billion in annual buying power. These customers expect to find unique products, regardless of what the price and proposition. This target group can be characterized as the skeptical consumers who are health and environment conscious. Most of them are looking for a toy chest of automotive accessories including interior lighting, taillight dress-up kits, carbon-fiber shift knobs, and sports mufflers. Positioning The new model will be positioned as a unique car which promises mobility and social freedom. Personalization, innovation, and technology will be the core of positioning strategy. The buyer perception of benefit-generating attribute will be based on unique design and stylish image appealing to a wide target audience. Social mobility and personalization will be the main attributes of positioning strategy. A unique image of the car and a sense of belonging to new generation will appeal to potential consumes (Reed 2006).
In order to increase sales and sustain its brand image, the Parker Pen Company introduces aggressive international campaign. The process of aggressive marketing to various countries is necessarily complicated and time consuming. Yet, many examples of successful adaptations in diverse economic climates are evident. The introduction of supermarkets into Italy, Japan, and Latin America; of advertising and installment selling into Russia; of credit purchases into Britain, and of discount houses into France are typical. Shaped in fact by particular cultures, marketing then influences local customs and practices. The forces that mold international environments include such things as increasing incomes and purchasing power, mass production, the geo- graphic, social, and economic expansion of markets, mass distribution, the increasing security of international consumers, the willingness to buy on credit, and the development of mass middle classes. Basic shifts from agrarian to industrial societies, from rural to urban complexes, from the home environment to the working wife, and from servant to global markets all influence the scene abroad. In addition, marketing abroad is very sensitive to border disputes, shifts in tariffs, legal cartels, and greater government participation in economic affairs (Kotabe and Helsen 2008).
A main reason for applying the aggressive marketing on an international scale is the great similarity of consumer wants and needs throughout the world, wherever a high level of economic development prevails. In this respect, economic factors dictate the use of mass production and hence, mass-marketing techniques. To be effective, international marketing requires more than a consideration of corporate effort alone. It needs an integrated plan that takes into account both government policy and the competitive position of participating American businesses (Mezzatesta and Cook 2003).
Although international markets are beginning to resemble American markets, they do not merely mirror the United States. They blend American culture with other cultures, resulting in an adaptation of things American. Likewise, our own life style is being affected by the forces of other cultures. Just as there is no single homogeneous American market, so there is no homogeneous Latin American, African, or European market. International markets cover a wide range of opportunities and situations (Walker et al 2005). They range from other western civilizations that are highly industrialized to the emerging nations of Africa, each with its particular type of civilization requiring its own set of products, channels, advertising, and promotional techniques. The significant differences among international markets are factors to be considered in marketing plans and strategies (Kotabe and Helsen 2008).
The example of the Parker Pen Company vividly portrays that the merits of the global marketing should be carefully access and evaluative by a company. The result is, therefore, that the distinction between international and domestic marketing is blurring. The multinational or international corporation is emerging to prompt a new organizational style. Within organizations, a world-wide perspective is unfolding in marketing management, with marketing decisions made on the basis of international alternatives. Companies are now integrating foreign sales with total sales, and the distinction simply becomes one of marketing in other territories. In this sense there are no foreign markets, just logical extensions of current markets that become integral components of the complete marketing scheme. Each management seeks the means most suited to their company to cultivate international markets. Each company’s current markets, corporate structure, finances, product line, and image all have an influence on its operations abroad. But, flexible marketing policies are required for distribution channels, pricing, and advertising policies (Kotabe and Helsen 2008).
The best approach for introducing the Parker Pen Company into a foreign market need not correspond with its debut in a domestic market. In fact, a cycle of market opportunities exists as a country develops, and companies should assess opportunities based on the cycle. The less-developed countries constitute markets for essentials, both in consumer-goods and industrial-goods sectors. In fact, manufacturing equipment, which may be obsolete in highly industrialized economies, may be ideal for emerging nations. The more developed nations offer opportunities for technical and research-intensive products. Over time, international companies may lose the very markets they create, especially the markets for less technical goods. The very development of markets by American companies might be planned as a progression: first, exporting finished products; then, exporting components; next, setting up subsidiaries; and finally, licensing, cooperating with, or merging with foreign companies. International, marketing, therefore, requires aggressive and imaginative approaches in cultivating the markets, with the realization that methods effective at home may not necessarily work against competitors in foreign markets (Kotabe and Helsen 2008). A completely new look at marketing changes, involving both technical and financial risk, is obligatory.
the directives were seen by managers as a starting point only so it added creativity and cultural component to advertising. For Parker products, international marketing decisions are not the result of deliberate, planned assessments of business opportunities. They stem from personal contact, experiences, or suggestions of foreign companies, and may involve a cursory investigation or a “try it and see” policy. The aftermath may be disastrous as in the case of standardized approach. What is required is an intensive analysis of important information, its assessment against a world perspective, and a blending of decision making at home with that abroad. Yet some strategic, and positively tactical, decisions require local knowledge and must be made abroad. At best it is difficult to decide where in the world resources should be invested for the greatest company benefit. But the rewards of marketing overseas include increased profits, higher rates of return on investment, new goods and processes, diversification of risk, and the development of executives (Paley 2006).
Cultural approach in world markets is not a direct extension of competition. Competition abroad may often be difficult because of lower labor costs, lower overhead, taxes and subsidies, and the political climate in foreign countries. Global markets are subject to increasing competition, a cost-price squeeze, broader assortments, and greater advertising effort. Pyramid distributions of income are developing, and as income bases broaden, market opportunities for most products expand, national and trade barriers tend to fade, and regions merge into new economic and political alignments. But the factors of economic nationalism are always present. In foreign countries, for example, it is politically undesirable to compete so vigorously that national companies, however inefficient, are driven out of business (Johnson and Scholes 1998).
Conclusion
n sum, the Parker Pen Company failed to understand and analyze international environment and its current needs. The style of living of consumers varies widely from one country to another. The life styles of Spain may be contrasted with those of parts of Africa or the United States. Although some of the differences are disappearing, tastes and desires are far from uniform. To meet these dissimilarities, world-wide corporations often develop multiple marketing strategies. Unfortunately, information about many markets (in particular, knowledge of trends, customers, attitudes, and opinions) is sparse. Often such knowledge largely depends on information supplied by people at the local level.
Presentation
The case of the Parker Pen Company shows that standardized and homogeneous approach adopted by the company failed because of lack of analysis and cultural competences. The actual sales of products tend to follow geographic boundaries. Thus, for economic efficiency, global marketing activity should cross national boundaries but takes into account possible national and cultural variations. Effective international marketing through jets and satellites certainly helps to hurdle boundaries, if not to make them vanish. Further actions and strategies of the Parker Pen Company prove that global Marketing tends to become multinational. The confinement of markets within boundaries is neither economically possible nor desirable, since modern communication functions best in multinational mass markets. International markets achieve economies in the social, economic, and even supporting policies of member countries by technology.
Aggressive campaign proposed by the manager was the right decision to position the product as a premium brand. The development of new conditions is said to spring from the harmonization of objectives. Yet many weaknesses exist, and common markets do not necessarily result in standardized product needs. Different marketing messages affect the Parker Pen Company and marketing decisions. Their implications become clear to the Parker Pen Company through the interpretations of specialized legal arrangements. The Parker Pen Company accepts the marketing philosophy that programs must fit the cultural environment of each country while remaining flexible enough to meet changes.
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