International Sales and Marketing Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide

This comprehensive guide explores the intricacies of international sales and marketing, covering key aspects such as overseas representative arrangements, the role of governments and world trading blocs, and the impact of culture and ethics on international business operations. It provides insights into the challenges and opportunities of expanding into global markets, offering practical strategies for success.

International Sales and Marketing Strategy

Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................2
LO2 - Different types of overseas representative arrangements....................................................3
LO3 - Role of Governments and impact of Worlds Trading Blocks on International Sales and
Marketing.........................................................................................................................................6
LO4 - Role of culture and ethics in International Selling and Marketing........................................8
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................9
References.....................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
International trade can be defined as the process of buying and selling of goods and services
across national frontiers. There are mainly two processes in international trading which are
import and export. Selling of goods to the other countries is referred to as export while buying
of goods from a foreign country is an import. Marketing and selling of these goods and services
across and between two or more nations are known as International marketing (Papadopoulos
and Heslop, 2014). This assignment is dealing with various concepts of international marketing
and selling. Various factors are supportive and contributing in the process of international
marketing such as government, culture and ethics. Their roles are highlighted in this
assignment.
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LO2 - Different types of overseas representative arrangements
International marketing and selling can be done at various levels that are termed as their
overseas representative arrangement. Following are the major three levels at which the
international marketing in any of the businesses like the eBay:
Domestic marketing: this is the type of marketing which the firms are aiming at a single market
in the business market. Generally, the small and medium-sized businesses are aiming at this
marketing level in the overseas representative arrangement. This is because the firms have to
face only one set of competitive, economic and market issues (De Mooij, 2015). Here the
companies are having essentials to deal with only one set of national customers, although the
firm may serve several segments in this set.
For example, eBay is a multinational e-commerce company which is selling its products and
facilities to the customers through its website. The company is based in San Jose, California. So
the domestic market for the company is the areas near to California and US state.
International marketing: here the companies are aiming to make available its products and
services to more than one country’s customers for use. So it can be stated that the
international marketing is the process of marketing beyond the country’s borders.
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Figure 1: Ways of International marketing
Following are the major importance that is observed by Ebay Company as they have adopted
international marketing in their workplace:
 Expansion opportunities
 Increased market share
 Career opportunities
 Reaching new customers
 Investment opportunities
 Increased standard of living
 Diversification opportunities
International marketing is the major focus of the companies like eBay hence following are the
major strategies that are followed by the company:
International niche marketing strategies – here the company is focusing on the marketing of a
differentiated product or service to a specific segment in the overseas market.
For example, the company has tried to start their business in the countries like China in order to
gain more potential customers across the overseas markets (Dalgic and Leeuw, 2015). For this,
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International
Marketing
Global web
licensing
and
franchising
direct
investment
joint
ventures
exports

the company is using e-commerce in its marketing and selling strategy. Its domestically
produced services or the niche services are marketed to China’s markets. Hence, the company
tried to export its domestically produced produces directly to the overseas market i.e. in
China’s market.
Global strategies – in this the companies can adopt the strategies like global standardization,
global adaptation or customization and regional strategies to get into the new markets that are
targeted by the company (Rugman and Verbeke, 2017).
Entry strategies – here the company like eBay; is using exporting, e-commerce, direct
investments, franchising and using export houses and licensing to enter a new market like
China’s market (Glowik, 2016).
Global marketing: it is the ability of the firm to market almost all of the countries on the planet.
Hence it can be stated that the global marketing is the wider concept of international marketing
and hence it retains the capability, reaches, knowledge, staff, skills and expertise in order to
deliver their values and products to the customers worldwide (Gillespie and Riddle, 2015).
Following are the major advantages that a company can observe when it expands its services
and products to the global market:
 Economies of scale in production and distribution
 Low marketing costs
 Power and scope (Kotabe and Helsen, 2014)
 Consistency in brand image
 Ability to leverage good ideas quickly and efficiently
 Uniformity of marketing practices
There is a difference between international and domestic marketing in the terms of culture,
markets, data, politics, governments, economies, finance, stakeholders, business and control.
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6

LO3 - Role of Governments and impact of Worlds Trading Blocks on
International Sales and Marketing
Following are the main reasons why the government of a country is taking involvement in
trading:
 Protection of jobs and industry becomes easily
 National security can be assured
 Protection of customers can be done
 Promotion of foreign policies becomes easily
 Protection of human rights becomes easily
(Goworek, McGoldrick and McGoldrick, 2015)
There is a small role of government in the international trading as they are making rules and
regulations that need to be followed by the companies like eBay in order to export their goods
to the overseas. Following are some of the roles that the govern net is playing in the
international trading processes:
 The government is focusing on the foreign exchange and the policies that are related to
them.
 Government is also setting trade fairs so that proper standards can be made.
 Export risk insurance is also the duty of government in the international trading.
 Government is also looking for quality control and pre-shipment inspections.
 Proper rules and regulations are made by the government in the trading section so that
the possibility of conflicts can be reduced (Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes, 2015).
World trading blocs are a form of economic integration and increasing shaping the pattern of
world trade. A regional trading bloc can be defined as the group of countries that lies within a
particular geographical region and they are protecting and safeguarding themselves from the
import of members that are not a part of that region or bloc.
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There are different types of trading blocs that are impacting in the international marketing and
selling:
Preferential trade area – this is the first step towards the creation of trading bloc. PTAs are
impacted in the world trading activities because they are existing when the countries within
particular geographical areas agree for reducing and eliminating tariff barriers on particular
goods and services that are imported from the other members of that area (Yang and Martinez-
Zarzoso, 2014).
Free trade area – they are impacting in the international trading sector in FTAs, two or more
countries in a particular region are ready to reduce barriers to trade on all the goods and
services that are coming from other members (Chang, Chen and Saito, 2016).
Customs union – in this trading bloc the removal of tariff barriers between the members, this is
done by the members that may be negotiating as an individual bloc with the other parties.
Common market – it is the first step in the full economic integration process this is because the
companies here are freely trading goods and services in all the markets. Here all the barriers
are removed by the members such as capital, services, labour and goods (Kotler, 2015).
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LO4 - Role of culture and ethics in International Selling and Marketing
A company can face a large of differences in entering a new market in the international market.
These differences can be in the form of various beliefs, values, culture, ethics and customs of
the customers.
For example, eBay has faced many challenges while expanding its market in China's market and
the main reason behind this is the cultural and ethical conflicts and differences between the
two nations.
Culture, ethics, beliefs and values are playing a major role in international selling and marketing
as they are satisfying a need of customers within a particular society. But, differences and
conflicts can be observed as the culture and the ethics of the local communities are changing
from place to place (Deresky, 2017).
The cultural values of the local communities are putting a significant impact on the customer's
behaviour. For example, the people who are having values like material comfort are possessing
features like “good” life and accept the products that are luxury in nature. On the other hand,
the people who are average and upper medial class are having values of youthfulness and
hence accept the products and services that are promoting youthfulness. Hence it can be
concluded that different values and ethics are having a heavy impact on the customer
behaviour (Murphy, Laczniak and Harris, 2016). It can also be understood by taking the example
of eBay, has it has failed to launch in China at the very first time. This happened even if the
company is having a strong customer base of 157 million active buyers and market value of $18
billion. The company is facing difficulty in competition with the local rivals after entering China
but tried to merge up with them in order to learn more about their ethics, values and culture in
order to sustain in the market (Hope, 2015). After suffering from many challenges, the company
has to accept the defeat and shut down its main website in the country.
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Recommendation for the steps and decisions that must be kept in mind while; planning for
international marketing.
Figure 2: Steps for entering a new market
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Decision on
entering
international
markets
analyze
macro and
task
environment
selecting the
market
select entry
strategies
marketing
program
designing

Conclusion
From the above report on international selling and marketing, it can be concluded that there
are many aspects in the field that need to be kept in mind while expanding the business in the
international markets and overseas. The governmental bodies are also having a significant role
in the trading marketing as they are setting policies and regulations. Before expanding the
business into international markets, a company needs to analyze the culture and ethical values
that the local communities of a particular place are following. This is because the success and
failure parameters are based on these.
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References
1. Chang, W.W., Chen, T.L. and Saito, T., 2016. The Size of Symmetric Free-Trade Blocs and
World Welfare.
2. Dalgic, T. and Leeuw, M., 2015. Niche marketing revisited: theoretical and practical
issues. In Proceedings of the 1993 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 137-145). Springer, Cham.
3. De Mooij, M., 2015. Cross-cultural research in international marketing: clearing up some
of the confusion. International Marketing Review, 32(6), pp.646-662.
4. Deresky, H., 2017. International management: Managing across borders and cultures.
Pearson Education India.
5. Gillespie, K. and Riddle, L., 2015. Global marketing. Routledge.
6. Glowik, M., 2016. Market Entry Strategies: Internationalization Theories, Concepts and
Cases of Asian High-Technology Firms: Haier, Hon Hai Precision, Lenovo, LG Electronics,
Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TCL, Xiaomi. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
7. Goworek, H., McGoldrick, P.J. and McGoldrick, P.J., 2015. Retail marketing management:
Principles and practice. Pearson Education Limited.
8. Hope, K., 2015. The challenges of going global. [Online available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-33224596] [Last accessed on: 30 June 2018].
9. Kotabe, M. and Helsen, K., 2014. Global marketing management.
10. Kotler, P., 2015. Framework for marketing management. Pearson Education India.
11. Morschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H. and Zentes, J., 2015. Strategic international
management (pp. 978-3658078836). Springer.
12. Murphy, P.E., Laczniak, G.R. and Harris, F., 2016. Ethics in marketing: International cases
and perspectives. Taylor & Francis.
13. Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L.A., 2014. Product-country images: Impact and role in
international marketing. Routledge.
14. Rugman, A. and Verbeke, A., 2017. Global corporate strategy and trade policy.
Routledge.
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15. Yang, S. and Martinez-Zarzoso, I., 2014. A panel data analysis of trade creation and trade
diversion effects: The case of ASEAN–China Free Trade Area. China Economic Review,
29, pp.138-151.
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