BK005: Analyzing IBM's Success Strategies in International Marketing

This case study provides an in-depth analysis of IBM's international marketing strategies, covering various aspects such as PESTLE analysis, product lifecycle, and market entry approaches. The PESTLE analysis examines the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors influencing IBM's operations in the global market. The study also delves into IBM's contributions to international markets, including its Watson recruitment program and research capabilities. Furthermore, it explores the product lifecycle theory in the context of IBM's software development, highlighting the different stages from project organization to implementation and improvements. The case study also discusses the benefits and challenges of mergers and acquisitions as a mode of entry for IBM. Finally, it analyzes international marketing trends such as global customer engagement and new market entry strategies, focusing on IBM's approach. The opportunities for IBM in the Asia-Pacific region, driven by technological advancements and economic growth, are also discussed.

Running Head: MARKETING 0
Success Strategies for International Marketing
[Document subtitle]

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Introduction
Every organization operates in an environment which is surrounded by various political,
social, legal, and technological forces. These forces offer opportunities and threats to the
company where it operates. The timely analyzation could bring profits to the company. one such
company is IBM which is a US based software company and its highly designed software are
valued globally. In the following report the task related to IBM company are done. The tasks are
related to marketing trends, product-life cycle of IBM and pestle analysis.
Task 1
Part 1
Pestle Analysis of IBM
Political factors
The government of various countries have taken steps to bring digitization in the country.
This has opened ways for the opportunities to the company as such steps will provide political
support to the company to go for e-digitization of its operations. The intrusion of detection
system by government had opened gateways for implementation of technologies. (Aithal, 2017)
Economic factors
The increasingly stable markets in many countries have led to the exploitation of them by
the company (Amado, 2019). The growth in developing market is also helpful in the growth of
the market. in many markets the demands for online products are rising.
Social
IBM is a multinational company which employs global workforce in the company. the
employees from various countries work together. The workers in the company are heading
towards the retirements and moreover, the diverse workforce have dynamic desires and needs.
There changing needs and desires and high level of diverse workforce pose the problems of
collaboration or teamwork. (Botos, 2018)
Technological

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The company is considered a market maker and trendsetter in new technology. The
company needs to innovate on a regular basis as chances are that competitors might copy them.
The continuous innovation is the key mantra for the company to succeed in the market (Gao &
Jia, 2016).
Legal
There are various legal factors that affect the operations of the company in the market.
The improvement in the intellectual property protections in a country offer the opportunities to
IBM in expansion of their business while the unprotected intellectual property rights poses the
threat to the business (Gao & Jia, 2016). The environmental impact of the business can be
improved by following the electronic waste regulations of the country.
Environmental
The environment where the IBM is operating is global. In today’s global environment,
the trend of sustainability is taking up in the market. The companies like Icebreaker are
following the environmentally sustainable policies. Such environmentally sustainable policies
include caring for the workers, environment. IBM should also push itself for sustainable policies
(McNeill, 2015).
The domestic and international market environment of the IBM differs. The rules and
regulations of the domestic market are far simpler than in the international environment. The
international environment is usually not in the mood of accepting the foreign companies as they
would offer competition to their domestic companies. (Pourzolfaghar & Helfert, 2019) The
change in the political environment also poses the problem for the company. As the government
of the countries, their policies and strategies also differ in the market. Every country is at a
different technological level, As IBM is US company which is technologically far ahead of other
countries so the company must adjust a lot in establishing itself into a developing country
(Politikos, 2015).
Part 2
IBM has contributed a lot to the international market. The first contribution is
The Watson recruitment program of IBM –

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The company has developed the program for the effective recruitment of the workforce.
The company had contributed to the cognitive computing application to the countries. It had
developed the effective way of recruiting by analyzing the social listening, their attitude and
belief system of the candidate (Schmidt, 2017). The easy prediction of the candidate’s abilities
and capabilities through the cognitive application program had contributed to the technology in
the international country. Such kind of recruitment programs have brought changes in the
marketing environment.
High level of research capabilities –
The company has high-level research capabilities in its product and service design. The
effective research capabilities had developed superior products and services with exquisite
design. The products are attractive to various international markets. Such products offer the good
competition to the competitors. Such initiatives could lead to better opportunities for other
companies to learn and innovate.
Task 2
Part 1
Product lifecycle theory
Every organization goes through the product development lifecycle to come up with the
product of appropriate quality. The product life-cycle has five stages. The stages of product life-
cycle consist of development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline phase. IBM is a
company that deals in the development of hardware software. The software development has the
following stages.
This is the stage where the project is organized in a proper team. The leader of the project
is appointed and its team members are allocated with various responsibilities of the project. The
responsibilities include configuration management, internal quality assurance, machine language
experts and many more (Wasilewski, 2016). All the team members work in coordination to come
up with the time, resources, and cost. The proposal of the project is prepared that includes.
Clarifying various requirements that include scope, client, and contractual obligation, coming up
with operational process, and preparing the plan structure of projects.

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Analysis of requirements and specifications
In this stage, the requirements and specifications of the users are analyzed. The activities related
to the project development are designed and scheduled in an appropriate way. There are
situations where the project might have to face with various emergencies. It becomes important
to formulate a back-up plan (Schmidt, 2017).
Designing a system
Once, the requirements of system are analyzed. Various elements of the system are considered.
The levels of designs are considered that to design according to the requirements of the
consumers.
Unit and code testing
In this stage, the coding and the unit testing of functions, programs, and copy libraries is done.
People responsible in the phase are testers, analysts, and programmers.
Testing of system
The testing stage of the software involves testing through STS, STP and other system data. There
are various types of testing that company choose beta and Alpha (de Paiva Britto, 2019).
Test of acceptability
In this stage, once the software gets developed. The test of acceptability is done to ensure that the
product is done of good quality. All the requirements of the software are met.
Implementation
Once the software reaches the acceptability criteria, the product is launched in the market.
initially, the project is launched to the small market segment to test the response of the
consumers at the market place. Depending upon the success of the project, it gets available to
other market places.
Making Improvements

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The next step that come is doing improvements to the programs or software according to the
needs of the population. In this stage the company brings changes in the software for it to be
accepted.
Windup of project
After the program or product has served the target market for a period. Then it comes to a
decline stage where the product is withdrawn from the market.
Part 2
Mode of entry of IBM
Benefits of mergers and acquisitions
Gains from Tax
One of the most important benefits of mergers and acquisitions is enhancement of revenue from
increased market share. The value of the firm also increases when the companies merge.
Efficient cost
The economies of scale are created as the companies come together to achieve the strategic goals
thus resulting in lower cost of production.
Better ways to solve the current situation
As the expertise of both the company come together to share each other expertise its operations
better and efficient. (ao, 2016)
Challenges
Challenges of communication
When two companies with different strategies come together, there are gaps of communication
between them. The gaps cause the confusions between them.
Problems in retaining employees

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There is problem regarding retaining of employees when the two companies merge. The
problems regarding adjusting in the newly evolved organizational culture of the company.
Task 3
International marketing trends
Global customer engagement-
One of the evolving marketing trends are engaging the customers with the company’s
products and services. In an article by Pansari, Gupta and Kumar, the engagement depends upon
the economic and cultural aspect of the country. By considering these aspects, one can achieve
the high-level of engagement among consumers (Zhang & Leng, 2015). The trends may affect
the IBM company as it has to consider the software requirements of different countries. Once the
software are developed according to the needs of customers then the company can achieve the
high global engagement. The technological competence of the country decides the requirements
of software of a customer group.
Companies like IBM are leveraging the power of Watson by putting the customer at the
center of all the important activities such as supply, production, and distribution. It is creating the
values for its customers by analyzing the purchase behavior, trends in pricing and supplier
patterns with the help of cognitive computing. The cognitive computing is helpful in deciding the
consumer pattern in all the countries. The cognitive computing is highly useful in creating the
good market base in every country as it is successful in analyzing the differential needs of the
customers and customizing the products accordingly.
New international market entry strategies: Digital, Relational and hybrid approaches-
One of the other most important evolving trends is usage of digital, relational and hybrid
approaches that deals in the using the technology and other forces for market entry in foreign
countries. The IBM company is using the digital, relational and hybrid approaches for entering in
the market. The globalization has made the entry of the market forces easier due to the
availability of the technology globally. The IBM goals are to penetrate in the developing market
as the developing markets provides the company with the cost advantage and moreover it uses its
developing markets for outsourcing its work related to software. The main reason for it outsource
the work in other countries is the availability of talent at low cost. The increase in outsourcing is

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possible, due to the high level of digitization at the global level. The generic strategy used by the
IBM is cost leadership. The company uses the strategy to enter in the foreign market with the
help of website. The digitization has been of great help for the company to expand its approach
to the markets (Wasilewski, 2016).
Task 4
Opportunities in Asian -Pacific Region
The opportunities of IBM in Asia -Pacific Region are-
Technologically upward trend –
The technologically upward trend in Asia pacific region would offer opportunities for
IBM for its establishment. The business strategies in the region are driving it towards
advancement in technologies that include Machine learning, 3D printing, Artificial intelligence,
and robotics. These changes in the country are making it easier for the company to establish in
the region as the company is an information technology company and is a trendsetter in the
information technology. Moreover, the company does not have to struggle in technological area
as the region would already be equipped with technology (James & Haff, 2017)
Improve economic status of the country-
The economic status of the Asia pacific has improved exponentially. The improved
economic status of the region had led to the increase in growth of the companies and business. it
is a great opportunity for IBM to exploit in the country. As it is always good to establish
enterprise in a country which is economically strong (Smets & Tatikonda, 2016). The
economically strong countries will make the availability of the resources and funds easier. The
banks will be in the position to grant loans at lower interest rate. In the country, there will be
more favorable policies for the enterprises to set up. There will be availability of land,
machineries, and other equipment at lower price. The government will enact the beneficial
schemes for the business to set-up. As the economy of the country is in good health, various
counselling programs for starting the business would be organized. Such programs will be
helpful for the companies to build their market share in the region (McNeill, 2015).

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Conclusion
The report dealt with the Pestle analysis, marketing trends and opportunities in various
region for its establishment. The pestle analysis of the company is very useful in determining the
opportunities and threats of establishing the company in other markets. The right usage of the
components of the analysis is helpful in the deploying the right methods and practices in the
company established in a country. In the other parts of the assignment, the marketing trends of
the organization were discussed.
The trends are helpful for the company to utilize them effectively to achieve the
competency in the market place. IBM’s decision to utilize the trend of artificial intelligence was
the right one as it is the company that deals with the information technology and it had the
capacity to utilize it to the best possible manner. The product life cycle stages of the company are
also very effective as it has all the elaborated steps to bring the products in the market. These
steps are helpful in bringing the best products or software in the market as it goes through all the
important stages such as acceptability criteria.

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