International Marketing Structure: Approaches and Analysis

This article discusses the multinational, global, meta-national, and transnational approaches to international marketing. It also covers competitor analysis and recommendations for structuring your firm for success. The article includes references to books and journals on the topic.

Fact sheet
(LO – 4)

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING STRUCTURE
Referring to the British American Tobacco which is a British multinational corporation established in 1902 is engaged in
manufacturing and selling of tobacco, cigarettes and other products related to nicotine there are various approaches of
international marketing such as multinational strategy, global strategy, transnational strategy and meta – national strategy.
Such a type of international marketing approach involves
having physical locations of business and staff in different
locations. This allows catering of goods and services to
varied individual markets and provides benefit of altering the
business strategies as per the requirements of the individual
business locations. These varied business strategies as per the
type of market being catered to will lead to more effective
variation in the goods and services and creation of various
luxury purses as per the specifics of each individual location
of operations. Also, such purses can be effectively adjusted
depending on the market being served. This will naturally
allow variations in the prices based on the demand of a
product or demographic in the market.
It is the complete opposite strategy of the multi-domestic
strategy. This strategy involves providing essentially the same
goods and services in each international market for the sole
purpose of gaining low costs of operations and economies of
scale. Thus, it can be said that modification in the
responsiveness to the local requirements are compromised in
each of such international markets to attain low costs and
enhanced efficiency. This may include the products and services
which are essentially hidden from the view of the customers
being catered like the software programs being offered by
Microsoft, silicon chips make by Intel. It shall be noted that for
the entities utilizing such strategy, variations according to the
local preferences is the least important factor but, pricing is the
most essential factor.
INTRODUCTION
MULTINATIONAL GLOBAL
When an entity tries to gain balance between the global strategy
and the multi – domestic strategy, it implements and utilizes the
transnational strategy. This gaining of balance involves
achieving of reduced costs of operation and enhanced levels of
efficiency along with adjusting to the localised preferences and
tastes of various international markets and countries. This
balance between the global strategy and multi – domestic
strategy is attained through coordination, interdependence and
cooperation among its headquarters, division of operations and
retail outlets or subsidiaries which are located internationally.
TRANSNATIONALMETA-NATIONAL
A multinational which is operating at a large entrepreneurial
scale which is efficient and effective in tapping and
accessing the hidden reserves of market knowledge,
innovation and technology dispersed throughout the world is
referred to as meta-national. Important point to be noted is
that these hidden reserves of market knowledge, innovation
and technology are present in the emerging markets of
various economies which are underexploited. Therefore,
under this strategy, the tasks of innovation that takes place
are global from the most initial day and includes tasks of
expanding and accessing the new customers, market

ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING EFFORTS
In relation with the marketing perspective, one of the major aims of the marketing director of the firm is nothing but to
evaluate adequately the anticipations along with the desires of the clients. First, talking in relation with the home marketing
orientation, it is normally indeterminate that clients have similar outlooks and demands. However, in the international
orientation, it is normally being assumed that the demands, preferences and requirements might be dissimilar on varied levels.
On contrary, there is a behavioural approach wherein the chief restrain is one the home orientation. Home orientation assumes
that the market wherein the firm is entering have similar first choices, taste and preferences. British American Tobacco
company is stepping in the international market and thus, they should consider the taste and preferences of the clients which
are from varied home markets. There are four approaches such as ethnocentric in which overseas operations are regarded as
secondary and importance is given to domestic operations, Polycentric in which local personnel and techniques are utilized,
Regiocentric wherein markets are selected based on common regional qualities and finally, Geocentric wherein the whole
world is treated as one market.
If the firm makes use of home orientation, then it will be needed to manage the rivalries on the basis of local strategy and if
international orientation is adopted than emphasis should be given on international competitors more in comparison to
domestic competitors
It is being referred as one of the most essential section for the
environmental evaluation of any firm. It supports in studying the
strategies of the competitors which in turn helps in enhancing the present
approaches. It also supports in measurement of performance and
benchmarking. British American Tobacco company perform competitor
evaluation by adopting certain steps such as determination of the key
rivalries, evaluating and making comparison of the content of the
competitors, evaluating the SEO structure of the rivalries, examining the
communication of competitor on social media and identifying the fields
which needs to be enhanced. Furthermore, competitors can be assessed
by gathering advance knowledge about their strategies and approaches
related to dealing with the customers.
HOME AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETING PERSPECTIVE
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
For the purpose of maximizing the rate of success in
the international market or context, British American
Tobacco is being suggested to be structured in a
hierarchical way wherein the headquarters in the UK
should discharge all the accountabilities for all the
international locations of the firm. Other than this, it
is also suggested to the firm to undertake all the
important and suitable decisions from the home
nation because this will support in eliminating all
types of risk in regards with the decision making. As
the firm is well settled in the market of UK and thus,
the management team of the UK is effective in
undertaking all the pertinent decisions. Further, out
of the four approaches being discussed in the above
section, it is recommended that the firm should adopt
global approach as it is more beneficial.
RECOMMENDATIONS ON HOW
FIRM SHOULD STRUCTURE

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Baumgartner, H. and Weijters, B., 2021. Dealing with common method variance in international
marketing research. Journal of International Marketing. 29(3). pp.7-22.
Dinu, A.M., 2018. International Market Entry Strategies. Academic Journal of Economic
Studies. 4(2). pp.20-25.
Hartsfield, S., Johansen, D. and Knight, G., 2017. Entrepreneurial orientation, strategy, and
marketing capabilities in the performance of born global firms. International Business:
Research, Teaching, and Practice. 2(1). pp.12-38.
Tien, N. H., Phu, P. P. and Chi, D. T. P., 2019. The role of international marketing in
international business strategy. International journal of research in marketing management
and sales. 1(2). pp.134-138.