The levels of involvement are not same for all the firms. It varies from firms to firms depending upon its internal and external factors. Internal factors are monetary and non monetary resources and external factors are govt. policies and market potential.
After a company decides to enter into international market, it must decides the degree of marketing involvement. A firm may get itself involve in foreign marketing in any of the five following ways.
1. No foreign marketing: In this stage, the firm doesn’t involve itself in international marketing. It continuous to operate in the domestic market. No serious effort are made by the firm to enter the foreign market, however its products enter the international market indirectly. The indirect ways are—
The firm sells the products to foreign buyers who actually come for tourism and purchase the products according to their needs.
The firm sells its products to export house, or to some domestic manufacturers or to other agencies who ultimately export those.
Dwellers in abroad send sometimes in their motherland.
2. Infrequent of temporary foreign marketing: in this stage, the firm gets involved in foreign marketing just to dispose its temporary surplus or to utilize excess capacity. Because it finds similar market as home in terms of domestic, geographic, cultural similarities. Temporary surplus may be caused by fluctuations of in production levels or demand. As a result it infrequently markets its products abroad. Export of aluminum in the last decade was only of temporary nature because its export was allowed only when its domestic demand was much lower than its production. Again, for example- Aromatic soaps are exported under this method too. Here, no serious effort for international marketing is taken.
3. Regular foreign marketing: it’s the full process of internationalization. Here the firm is serious to foreign market commitment. It produces a fixed amount especially for export. The firm makes serious effort to develop the foreign markets. It appoints foreign or domestic middlemen or sets up its own distribution channel and sales force in foreign markets to explore the marketing potentials. It frequently visits to the foreign countries. Here, it’s considered some of the countries as its target market.
4. International marketing: in this phase the firm gives full effort in marketing internationally. Firm will now fully concentrated both in domestic and international market. Here it installs different production unit in different countries and produces, set prices, advertises according to those segments’ specifications. So, it’s also called multinational marketing. For example- Uniliver does its business according to this phase.
5. Global marketing: At this stage, companies treat the world, including their home market, as one market. Market segmentation decisions are no longer focused on national borders instead; market segments are defined by income levels, usage patterns or other factors that often span countries and regions. All marketing strategies regarding pricing, advertising, policies etc. are taken considering the whole population of the world. For example- coca cola with red can.
In the first two stages of involvement, the firm relies more on other for marketing its products in foreign markets while in the later stages, it may engage its own personnel in selling the products. The marketing task in the earlier stages is simple, i.e. only selling, while in the later stages, serious research is necessary and serious attempts are made to locate and satisfy the needs of the customers. However before entering into the international market the firm should undertake a thorough analysis of the markets and its resources to get a success.
