International Marketing: STP Model, Glocalization, and Promotional Strategies

This article discusses the concept of international marketing and its benefits and challenges. It focuses on Morrison, a UK-based retailing company, and its expansion into China. The article covers the STP model, glocalization, and promotional strategies, including the AIDA and communication process models. It also includes a PEST analysis of China and recommendations for Morrison to adopt adaptation strategy while expanding their business from UK to China.

International
Marketing

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Background of product and target country..................................................................................3
STP model...................................................................................................................................4
Glocalization................................................................................................................................6
Promotional strategy....................................................................................................................8
Digital........................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

Introduction
International marketing is the concept where a company promote their products and
perform marketing activities in more than one country. Basically, this is done by those
companies who are having their business in more than one country or the company who aims to
expand their business soon. There are various benefits of performing international marketing
such as increase in total number of customers, better corporate image, increase in sales and many
others. It also consists of huge investment and consumes time in research activities for
marketing. It is essential for every company to identify their potential customers and their
preference first before promoting their brand. This will help to focus on those factors which
majorly attract their targeted audience. Morrison is retailing company based in Bradford, UK. It
is founded in 1899 by William Morrison. It sells retailing products like household products,
vegetables and eatable products and many others. The following file covers STP model,
marketing mix, glocalization and digitalization.
Main Body
Background of product and target country
China is selected as new country for Morrison Company sells their clothing, food and
drinks, petrol, books and magazine and groceries to the customers of China by opening their new
and well attractive supermarkets and hypermarkets. The brand reputation of Morrison is well
gained and attractive for retailing customers. Hence, this will help company to attract more
customers. In UK is has more than 450 stores and they provide good services to their customers.
For marketing strategies, they promote their products on TV advertisements, newspaper
advertisement, social media marketing and few others like pamphlets and hoardings.
PEST analysis of China-
Political factor- In context of China, most of their citizens and news channels claims that
they are having unsettled political forces. Their government mainly focuses on development of e-
commerce businesses. This will be beneficial for Morrison to sell their products through online
mode and attract more customers.
Economic factors- China is having good GDP growth which indicates that their
customers are spending more income in markets. Their labour cost is low which will help

Morrison to hire more labours at low wages. On the other hand, it has high inflation rate and high
property prices which can impact negative to Morrison.
Social factors- The customers in China are having high purchasing power and they
purchase products to develop their life standards whether they have to pay little more amount.
They also focus to buy quality products and their preference largely shifts to online buying of
products. Hence, Morrison is required to maintain their online sites in such a manner which will
help customers to use their websites and online app easily.
Technological factors- China is having good quality of machines and tools for
manufacturing companies. Hence, this will provide benefit to Morrison to purchase and use those
machines which will help them in their packaging and labelling process of products. Increasing
internet sources will help Morrison to promote their products on social media and other online
platforms to gain effective attention of customers in China.
STP model
Segmentation- It is the process where companies divide their markets into smaller segments to
understand the customers and their behaviour easily to select which segment is suitable for
targeting (Sheth, 2020). In context of Morrison, their new business in China will have few of the
market segments which are mentioned below-

Demographic segmentation- It consist of age, income distribution, gender, occupation
and many others. In context of China, they segment their market for both genders males as well
as females. They also segmented their markets for all income groups like low income groups,
medium income groups and high income groups. Their main segments for occupation are
professional, housewives and students.
Geo demographic segmentation- Here, Morrison segmented their market for both urban
as well as rural areas and they will try to open their supermarkets and hypermarkets at crowded
areas near local residential.
Psychographic segmentation- Here, Morrison can categorize their customers on the
basis of their attitude and lifestyle. They specially focus on loyal customers who did not switch
from one company to another instantly. They also focus on type category of those customers
whose mindset is to develop their lifestyle well by purchasing high quality of products.
Behavioural segmentation- Here, those customers are more focused who believe to have
proper relationship with companies and share their feedbacks truly.
Targeting- It is the process where companies select one or more segments from various
alternatives of segments in market to decide their targeted customers so that they will offer their
products to them and perform marketing activities according to their targeted customers
(Katsikeas, Leonidou and Zeriti, 2019). In context of Morrison, they use multi- segment
approach for their targeted customers where they choose more than one segment in market. They
target their customers who are loyal toward their brand for longer period of time, those who
provide true feedback to company and maintain good relations. They also target whose
customers who prefer to develop their lifestyle well. Their main targets are urban customers for
which they plan to open stores in urban crowded areas. From demographical segmentation they
targeted both gender customer’s males and females; they also target medium income and high
income customers and their main focus on housewives and professional ladies and gents.
This multi-segment targeting approach with help Morrison Company to gain more
customers. Specially those customers who are having interest in their products and services. This
will provide them a clear idea that they will perform their marketing activities like labelling,
packaging, promoting and many others in such a way which will make their targeted customers
happy and satisfied.

Positioning- This is the process where companies create a strong brand recognition inn
market and gain the trust of their customers well to have high growth in their business. It defines
how their customers see their brand, how they perceive the value of their products and services
in market and what company is doing to make their targeted customers happy and satisfied
(Samiee and Chirapanda, 2019). In context of Morrison, they are having various competitors in
market such as Tesco, Asda and many others. Morrison is having good quality of products as
compared to their competitors and their low pricing strategies attract more customers and make
them satisfied that they are purchasing good quality of products on lower prices.
Morrison uses a matching card strategy where they share a card with their customers in
which the comparison of their product’s quality and prices with their competitors are mention
which indicates that their prices and quality is better than any other retailing brand. This strategy
will help the company to gain more customers by influencing them that Morrison is best retailing
for them to purchase any household product. On the other hand, they also promote their business
on social media to gain customers at global level and create a worldwide reputation.
Glocalization
Glocalization is the combination of two words globalization and localization. The
concept of glocalization is to focus on both international customers as well as local customers.
When a company grows internationally then they only focus at their international customers and
ignores to pay attention on needs and wants of their local customers (Hult and et. al., 2018). This
will impact badly on company’s brand image and local customers can switch to other company.

Hence, in context of Morrison, they are required to focus on both their new market (China) and
their existing market (UK).
Few of the glocal strategies for Morrison-
 Think global, act local- Here, Morrison can adopt the procedure and techniques of their
marketing same as they perform in UK to attract Chinese customers. This will help them
to invest low on techniques and processes and develop effectiveness with innovative
ways in new country.
 Learn global techniques and apply at local stores- This is the strategy where Morrison
can learn new techniques of handling their inventories and stocks from various countries
where they expand their business and they can adopt the same procedure in UK stores in
case those techniques are considered as easy, time and money saving.
Standardization- It is the way by which companies stick to similar process or technique for
their business task and growth aim for longer period of time. Here, companies did not change
their strategies on regular basis and keep working with established strategy for longer period of
time. When a company use same growth strategy from one country to another while its
expansion then they is having standardization in their business culture.
Advantages of standardization-
 It helps to cut cost by not changing strategies again and again.
 Employees are well aware about the way of working within their organisation. This will
help to invest less on providing training to employees. Here, employees enhance their
skills well and their objectives and ideas are clear about the direction of work.

Disadvantages of standardization-
 Lack of inn0vation in products and services is seen in the company which will lower
customer’s satisfaction. Customers seek to purchase updated products (Griffith, Dean and
Hoppner, 2021).
 Here, companies are unable to meet their marketing trends. Marketing trends are dynamic
in nature which means that it changes rapidly. Companies are required to meet their
marketing trends with their modified strategies, products and processes. In case of
standardization, companies are unable to adopt this opportunity well.
Adaptation- This is the process where companies adopt new products, services and processes
when they expand their business from one country to another. Here, strategies and products are
changed on regular basis according to customer’s needs and wants.
Advantages of adaptation-
 To meet customer trends and satisfy customers by modifying products on regular basis
according to their needs and wants.
 This will also helps companies to analyse the needs and wants of their customers and
maintain good relationship with their customers by focusing on their needs that what they
want company to make changes in their products and company adopt the same changes
which their customers suggest them.
Disadvantages of adaptation-
 It require more time and cost to change strategies and products on regular basis.
 It requires training employees again and again when companying changes there any
strategy or procedure to achieve their organisational task.
It is recommended for Morrison to adopt adaptation strategy while expanding their business from
UK to China. This will help them to provide those products and services to their new customers
which are preferred by them and help them to gain customers satisfaction. On the other hand,
meeting trends in global market and gaining competitive advantage it is essential for Morrison to
modify their strategies and products on regular basis and must focus to adopt those changes
which help their companies to grow well.
Promotional strategy
It is essential for every company to focus on their promotional strategies because this will help
them to aware their customers about the quality and prices of their products and services (Poulis,

2020). Few of the models are used to identify better promotional strategies for Morrison to
perform their work at international level and these models are explained below-
Model 1- AIDA model
This model helps to identify the stages through which a customer goes to make a purchase
decision. This model is used in digital marketing and its factors are given below-
Attention-This will help companies to identify how they can attain the attention of
customers. In context of Morrison, they can promote their products on social media platforms
because today most of the customers are active upon social media platforms and use their
contents to collect any information.
Interest- When customer gets aware about the product and services offered by company
then they must focus on increasing the interest of their customers well. Here, Morrison can
communicate more with their customers and influence their interest level by conveying the
message of using their products rather than their competitor’s products.
Desire- This is the stage where companies influence the desire of their customers and
focuses that their customers desire strongly to purchase the product. This is the stage where
company’s employee’s efficiency is identified (Gnizy, 2019). In context of Morrison, in case
they arrive customers at their store who want to purchase beverages then here the employees at
stores will help them to provide the benefits and details about all those beverages which their
customer prefer to buy. Here, they can sell beverages by conveying them about the quality and
prices which they offer and here, they make sure that they will compare their low prices with
their competitor’s prices which are higher than Morrison’s prices. This will help to influence
customer that Morrison’s beverages are having best quality and prices which further make
convert their weak desire to strong desire to buy the product.

Action- This is the last stage where companies influence their customers to make
purchase decision as soon as possible like offering 80% discounts. This will help customers to
purchase the product in least prices whether they want to purchase the product or not but they
influenced with the prices and they instantly purchase the products.
Model 2- Communication process model
It consists of those steps which help to communicate well with customers and identify
their needs and wants. It helps to promote the message of company which they want to convey
their customers in market. There are six elements in this model which are mentioned below-
Source- Here, companies make a clear idea that why and what messages they want to
convey to their customers in market.
Message- This is the content which companies wants to share in market to their
customers. It is essential for companies to become confident on sharing correct information to
their customers. In context of Morrison, they must make sure that they will not share those
messages which will harm the feelings of their customers related to their culture and beliefs.
Encoding- This is the process where message is arranged in such a way which will make
a correct and understandable meaning for others to understand the message easily.
Channel- It consists of choosing those medium which is required to reach customers. In
context of Morrison, they opt social media platforms as their channel to reach to their customers
(Amankwah-Amoah, Boso and Debrah, 2018). They share their messages through Instagram,
Twitter and many others to reach their customers.
Decoding- Here, when message received by receiver through channel then that receiver
understand the message clearly. In context of promotional strategies of Morrison, their messages

are reached by their customers and they understand the meaning of message according to their
perception and understandings.
Feedback- This is the process where customers reach or provide feedback to companies.
In context of Morrison, their customers comment under the pictures and videos which they share
on social media which help company to understand that their customers have reached the
message and what they think about the message.
Digital
CRS activities are also considered within marketing strategies to attract more customers.
In context of China, their people believe more on those companies which provide benefit to their
environment and their communities for societal benefit (Mathur, 2019). This will help Morrison
to perform those CSR activities which will help to gain the trust of more Chinese customers like
banning the use of plastic bags from their company and distributing their food products to poor
people so that they will develop their livelihood.
In context of Morrison, they can promote their products and services in China by using
social media marketing where they can share contents on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and
many others. It is having global reach and it is considered as one of the most effective and
mostly used digital site by customers to collect any information or provide reviews to particular
product and services. Morrison can have their own mobile app and website which can be used by
their customers to analyse which Morrison product is having high discounts and did the company
introduce new product or not. It also helps to provide the option for providing feedback for using
their products to aware companies that customers are satisfied or not. Morrison can also use
famous personalities or social media influencers to advertise for their brand on their personal
accounts because they are having huge number of followers who get easily influenced on
whatever their idol says to them. Hence, promoting products through using social media
influencers is better for company to gain more customers.

It is suggested for Morrison to share positive reviews of their customers on the top page
of their website so that their website or blog readers will get attached to company easily and
make a decision to purchase products from same company.
The 5S model of digital marketing-
Sell- One of the main aim of any company is to increase their sells so that it will directly
contribute to increase their profitability (Ferraris and et. al., 2019). Hence, using social media
platforms or online way of selling products will help companies to gain more customers. In
context of Morrison, their website is designed in such a manner which will help their customers
to collect information and purchase any Morrison product easily. Here, customers can easily
operate their websites.
Serve- Here, it is essential for companies to recognize the needs and wants of customers
and serves them those products and services which they prefer more to fulfil their needs. In
context of Morrison, they allow customers to provide feedback on social media as well as on
their website so that they will get to know what they are expecting from the company to serve
them best products and services which match their needs.
Speak- communication is one of the most important factors for having good marketing
strategies. In context to Morrison, it is essential for them to communicate well with their
customers as well as with their suppliers to perform best business practise to achieve success. In
context of Morrison’s expansion in China, they can design their website in Chinese language as
well as English language for Chinese customers. This will help them to understand the contents
easily.
Save- Performing marketing activities especially promoting products on social media
marketing will help company to save money. Social media marketing does not need any charges.
Hence, companies are required to open their accounts for free of cost and start sharing their
contents.

Sizzle- This is the way which hep to analyse how a company build or enhances their
brand name through online mode (Buccieri, Javalgi and Gross, 2021). Social media plays a
positive role in enhancing brand reputation at worldwide level. In context of Morrison, their most
of the customer’s states that they get to know about this brand through social media channels.
Customer relationship management- It the concept which consist of maintaining good
relations with customers for a longer period of time. In context of Morrison, they make sure that
their customers will not face any issue by their offered products even after purchase (Xu and et.
al., 2018). They also provide after services to their customers. For maintaining good relations
with customers so that they will build good trust, Morrison take strict action on the factors of
customer dissatisfaction as quick as possible. They are having different team for handling their
social media activities which are responsible to focus on complaints of customers which they
receive on their social media and convey this message to representative departments so that they
will make some changes in their products and services to make their customers more satisfied.
Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) is the process by which companies can improve
quality and traffic of a particular website. They mainly target at unpaid traffics rather than paid
ones. Having facilities of SEO will help a company to rank higher in searching results and help
in more visibility of website through online mode. SEMRush.com is a measurement tool for
analysing performance of company’s website which will not only tell about the performance of
company and products but it will help to analyse the nearest competitors (Santoro and et. al.,
2019).

It will further help to analyse total number of traffic for company, the worth of that traffic
in $, total number of keywords used to search the specific blog and how many websites were
linked to specific company’s website.
Conclusion
From the above information it is clearly concluded that every company aims to expand
their business globally and for this they are required to analyse the preference of other country’s
customers. STP model helps to analyse different segments made by a company to categorize
their customers and analyse who are their targeted customers. Positioning will further help to
analyse how a company can create brand reputation in market. Today, most of the companies
promote their brand and products through social media platforms because it has global reach and
today most of the customers use social media marketing for collecting any information. It is also
concluded that standardization and adaptation are two strategies which are used by a company to
achieve their goal. Most of the companies use adaptation strategies for their company’s growth
because this strategy consists of modifying products and processes on regular basis according to
customer’s needs and wants. Having good relations with customers will help company to gain
true and actual feedback from their customers so that they will make changes accordingly.

References
Books and Journal
Amankwah-Amoah, J., Boso, N. and Debrah, Y.A., 2018. Africa rising in an emerging world: an
international marketing perspective. International Marketing Review.
Buccieri, D., Javalgi, R.R.G. and Gross, A., 2021. Innovation and differentiation of emerging
market international new ventures the role of entrepreneurial marketing. Journal of
Strategic Marketing, pp.1-29.
Ferraris, A. and et. al., 2019. Refining the relation between cause-related marketing and
consumers purchase intentions: a cross-country analysis. International Marketing
Review.
Gnizy, I., 2019. The role of inter-firm dispersion of international marketing capabilities in
marketing strategy and business outcomes. Journal of Business Research, 105, pp.214-
226.
Griffith, D.A., Dean, T. and Hoppner, J.J., 2021. Choices and Consequences: Recommendations
for an Improved Understanding of Cultural Distance in International Marketing
Research. Journal of International Marketing, 29(3), pp.23-42.
Hult, G.T.M. and et. al., 2018. Addressing endogeneity in international marketing applications of
partial least squares structural equation modeling. Journal of International
Marketing, 26(3), pp.1-21.
Katsikeas, C., Leonidou, L. and Zeriti, A., 2019. Revisiting international marketing strategy in a
digital era: Opportunities, challenges, and research directions. International Marketing
Review.
Liu, S., Perry, P. and Gadzinski, G., 2019. The implications of digital marketing on WeChat for
luxury fashion brands in China. Journal of Brand Management, 26(4), pp.395-409.
Mathur, L.K., 2019. The impact of international gray marketing on consumers and firms.
In Ethical Issues in International Marketing (pp. 39-60). Routledge.
Poulis, K., 2020. Punctuated epistemology in international marketing strategy: A Whiteheadian
remedy. Marketing Theory, 20(3), pp.363-384.
Samiee, S. and Chirapanda, S., 2019. International marketing strategy in emerging-market
exporting firms. Journal of International Marketing, 27(1), pp.20-37.
Santoro, G. and et. al., 2019. Cause-related marketing, brand loyalty and corporate social
responsibility: a cross-country analysis of Italian and Japanese consumers. International
Marketing Review.
Sheth, J.N., 2020. Borderless media: Rethinking international marketing. Journal of
International Marketing, 28(1), pp.3-12.
Xu, H. and et. al., 2018. Facilitating dynamic marketing capabilities development for domestic
and foreign firms in an emerging economy. Journal of Business Research, 86, pp.141-
152.