International marketing is an economic activity that involves the trading of goods and services to consumers of several countries. For international marketing to be effective, new strategies and approaches need to be adopted. Some of these approaches include licensing, franchising, strategic alliance, and counter-trading. Challenges facing international marketing include, fragmented marketing, language barrier, cultural diversity, political and legal factors, and government influence on business activities. International marketing can create new opportunities for businesses.

Executing International Marketing: International marketing’s main objective is to sell to consumers globally. Companies need to adopt standard international marketing strategies to succeed in the international marketing scene. The chart below illustrates standard international marketing strategies adopted by modern day marketers.

Figure 1: International Marketing Strategies (Accessible in PDF Version) 

The international marketing strategy approach should cater to the diversity of markets in the global region. As illustrated in the infographic above, one size does not fit all therefore a more customized approach is appropriate to fit different markets. Company offerings and international marketing strategies should be tailored towards cultural, political, and economic factors for each region.

Extensive market research for each region should be done before expanding into the global market. This is important in understanding consumer preferences in each region enabling brands to respond to consumer needs appropriately. Content creation and product information in local languages is very important when brands want to venture into new markets. This allows consumers from different regions to purchase the same product and understand the contents without the need for translation. Event marketing has also proven key for brands over the years. It has enhanced customer participation and engagement and increased brands’ popularity.

Some brands that made an impact with these strategies:

• Coca-Cola gave its local operations the freedom to adjust the taste according to the cultural preferences of each region.
• Airbnb has used the power of local storytelling to create a sense of community between hosts and travelers.
• Red Bull has embraced event marketing as a huge part of its marketing strategy. This has helped the brand to expand its market across countries.

Importance of Using International Marketing in a Global World

Innovations of technology have made the world a global village. Companies are beginning to embrace ‘global’ marketing strategies where both local and global considerations are put in place. This has made it easier for companies to expand into the global market such that companies can interact with their consumers regardless of their geographical location.

Figure 2 & 3: World Trade & Import Growth  (Accessible in PDF Version) 

International marketing is therefore considered the enabler of global trade as it allows companies to tap on cross-border customers whose numbers can be in thousands or even millions.

E-commerce: E-commerce refers to the trading of goods and services via the internet. E-commerce has grown tremendously over the years contributing to the growth of international marketing. Research indicates that online consumers prefer to buy from international retailers. Online shopping has become popular among many online consumers since it gives consumers a personal shopping experience allowing them to shop for variety of products at the comfort of their home. The graph below indicates the growing opportunity for the international market in the field of E-commerce. The trend in the graph indicates that about USD 4.1 trillion is spent on E-commerce trade worldwide. Out of this, USD 2.34 trillion which translates to 57% relies on consumers purchasing from cross-border retailers.

Figure 4 & 5: Retail E-commerce Sales & World -Wide Average (Accessible in PDF Version) 

This is a strong indicator that International Marketing plays a major role in E-commerce all over the world.

Current Trends

Social Media Domination: Social media has been one of the most effective tools for today’s international marketers. It has blurred geographical boundaries, increased product awareness, and made overseas product marketing cheaper.

Social media is now being considered as the New Generation Global Word of Mouth, leveraging the convenience of text and video. Social Media platform usage has grown with great leaps and bounds over the last decade.

Social media creates a global village where users create and share content as well as interact and engage. This level of interactivity makes social media the best platform to communicate brand image. Brands are then able to gauge the engagement and impression in the minds of consumers and measure the results of their marketing activities.

Video Advertising: Video advertising has become an important part of marketing today. Advancement in data rates and improved connectivity have enabled live video streaming and video advertising. Live video streaming allows users to virtually experience ‘real time’ events from any corner of the world. Video streaming has created a platform whereby brands can engage more with consumers. YouTube uses video advertising extensively. For instance, over 500 hours of video content is posted every minute and more than 5-billion videos are watched every day.

AI in marketing for micro-segmentation: Many marketing teams are rapidly adopting intelligent technology solutions like Artificial Intelligence Marketing to encourage operational efficiency while improving customer experience. Artificial Intelligence Marketing uses artificial intelligence to make automated decisions based on data collection, analysis and observations of economic trends that may impact marketing efforts. This enables brands to make better decisions and deliver products and services exactly the way they intend to.

Brands are also able to micro-target different customer segments. The use of AI-driven ad tools ensures ease in analyzing ad campaign data to provide suggestions on the changes that should be made for regions to optimize the performance considering Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Brands use AI-powered chatbots to boost brand engagement, increasing the connectedness among consumers and the brand. Shell, the Oil and Gas giant launched a chatbot named “Shelly” whose intention was to assist customers by suggesting the enhancements that are most suited for their vehicles. Apart from brand engagement, the automatic assignment of products by Shelly led to a reduction in downtime thus decreasing customer operational costs by 25-30%.

Cross-sector Marketing and Co-Marketing: Cross-sector marketing refers to a situation where two or more brands collaborate to achieve mutually benefiting outcomes. This type of marketing strategy is becoming more prevalent as it is blurring organizational and geographical boundaries. Brands are embracing cross-industry alliances to suit evolving and diversified customer needs. Such alliances enable brands to leverage one another’s popularity and resources. Co-marketing is cost-effective, helps brands broaden their audience and build a strong brand identity. Lloyd’s bank and Mental Health (UK) collaborated to assist consumers to deal with the impact of the financial crisis on mental health caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2014, Uber and Spotify merged to form a successful partnership that allowed Uber users to connect to their Spotify accounts and stream their favorite tunes while riding in an Uber. This helped Uber increase their total ride request and upgrade their customer experience while increasing Spotify’s consumer engagement.

Amplifying consumer participation and customer co-creation: Customer participation is meant to increase engagement with brands. Brands can amplify customer engagement by creating a great experience, reading customer reviews, discounts, gift vouchers, and holding contests. The following graph illustrates how the frequency of participation increases as one move across the spectrum. For instance, 28% of consumers who participate in online conversations, do so at least once a week while 37% provide direct input once a week or more. This simply means that as customers engage in deeper activities, they also tend to participate in them more frequently.

Figure 6: Participation frequency in deeper engagement activities in higher than in lower level (Accessible in PDF Version) 

Some of the best examples of customer participation that have been put up by companies over the years include Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, Starbucks’ “White Cup Contest” in 2014, and Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign. Nike on the other hand engages customers including the cross-border ones by putting the creativity of designs in their hands through customer co-creation. Products are then customized according to customers’ cultural preferences.

Future of International Marketing and the Road Ahead: We live in the digital era where more and more customers are informed about brand activities. Every brand move impacts the consumer perception of the brand. Brand move, therefore, has the potential to make or break brand perception in the minds of the brand. Brand move, therefore, has the potential to make or break brand perception in the minds of consumers. The following figure illustrates how consumer loyalty changes depending on customer awareness of their actions.

Figure 7: The customer funnel from awareness to purchase behavior (Accessible in PDF Version) 

Consumers also expect brands to take social responsibility seriously and as such, they seek it in the relevant actions taken by the brands. Consumers for instance expect brands to engage in climate change campaigns.

Research suggests that 71% of global consumers believe that climate change cannot be overlooked. According to a survey carried out by Deloitte in the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, consumers responded more positively to brands that were responding in a positive way to the pandemic. In 2020 and beyond, consumers will be paying more attention to brands that respond to crises and respond with a holistic purpose.