Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Solution Manual For Marketing Management Global Edition 15th Edition Philip Kotler Kevin Lane Keller
Solution Manual For Marketing Management Global Edition 15th Edition Philip Kotler Kevin Lane Keller
SUMMARY
1. Despite shifting borders, unstable governments, foreign-exchange problems,
corruption, and technological pirating, companies selling in global industries need to
internationalize their operations.
2. Upon deciding to go abroad, a company needs to define its international marketing
objectives and policies. It must determine whether to market in a few or many
countries and rate candidate countries on three criteria: market attractiveness, risk,
and competitive advantage.
3. Developing countries offer a unique set of opportunities and risks. The “BRICS”
countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—plus other significant
markets such as Indonesia are a top priority for many firms.
4. Modes of entry are indirect exporting, direct exporting, licensing, joint ventures, and
direct investment. Each succeeding strategy entails more commitment, risk, control,
and profit potential.
5. In deciding how much to adapt their marketing programs at the product level, firms
can pursue a strategy of straight extension, product adaptation, or product invention.
At the communication level, they may choose communication adaptation or dual
adaptation. At the price level, firms may encounter price escalation, dumping, gray
markets, and discounted counterfeit products. At the distribution level, firms need to
take a whole-channel view of distributing products to the final users. Firms must
always consider the cultural, social, political, technological, environmental, and legal
limitations they face in other countries.
6. Country-of-origin perceptions can affect consumers and businesses alike. Managing
those perceptions to best advantage is a marketing priority.
The instructor is encouraged to open up the class discussions to students from other
nations present in the class, and to ask these students to describe the shopping
experiences in their homeland. Students with international business or international
marketing experiences should be especially encouraged to present to the class
descriptions of what marketing is like outside of the United States.
PROJECTS
1. If the project is to be exported to another country, then student’s submissions
regarding how the product is to be distributed should be included here, otherwise this
begins the presentation phase of the project, and student groups should begin their
presentations to the class.
3. Sonic PDA Marketing Plan: Global marketing offers a way for companies to grow by
expanding the customer base beyond the domestic market. However, the complexities
of global marketing demand careful planning and implementation. As Jane Melody’s
assistant, you are researching markets outside the United States for Sonic’s first PDA
product. Review the recommendations you have made for Sonic’s marketing plan.
Then answer these questions about how Sonic can approach global marketing:
• Should Sonic use licensing, joint ventures, direct investment, or exporting to enter
the Canadian market? To enter other markets?
• If Sonic wants to start marketing a PDA in other countries, which of the five
international product strategies (straight extension, communication adaptation,
product adaptation, dual adaptation, product/forward invention), is most
appropriate and why?
Summarize your answers in a written marketing plan or enter the answers in the SWOT,
Issue Analysis, Marketing Strategy, and Marketing Research sections of Marketing Plan
Pro.
ASSIGNMENTS
Have students read the March 8, 2014 Economist article titled “Business in emerging
markets: Submerging hopes,” at http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21598640-
boom-emerging-market-investment-rich-world-firms-has-led-plenty. Ask students how
marketers should balance current risks, and lower than expected returns, with future
potential. Share student comments in class.
Major marketers are using the power of the Internet to engage in global e-commerce.
Visit a foreign Web site for an American company and evaluate the similarities and
differences between the U.S. Web site and its foreign Web site. What
differences/similarities strike you as significant? Could the differences be readily adapted
to other foreign countries?
Finding free information about trade and exporting has never been easier. Web sites such
as www.cia.gov.; www.ita.doc.gov, www.exim.gov, www.sba.gov, and
www.bxa.doc.gov, provide valuable information for marketers. Visit each site and
compile a list of information that you, as a marketer, might find valuable in deciding how
to market internationally.
Table 8.3 shows some famous “blunders” in international marketing. Students should
research these examples (and find others) and provide insight into why they think such
“blunders” were allowed to occur. This can lead to a classroom discussion into the
complexity facing many firms in international and multi-cultural marketing.
Have the students prepare an international campaign and marketing plan for one
consumer product. Ask them to refer to Global Marketing Pros and Cons (Table 8.1) and
being cognizant of these international companies, decide on how much to adapt their
marketing strategy to local conditions. Students should pick an international corporation
and in researching the products sold by the firm overseas, see if there are some significant
differences in brand characteristics for each country. For example, Pringles, Always, and
Toyota, have made some changes in product features, packaging, channels, pricing, in
different global markets. The assignment is for the students to provide additional
examples of products changed to suit the country’s consumers while at the same time,
maintaining the international brand name.
END-OF-CHAPTER SUPPORT
MARKETING DEBATE—Is the World Coming Closer Together?
Take a position: People are becoming more and more similar versus the differences between
people of different cultures far outweigh their advantages.
Pro: The world is becoming homogeneous. At least the “world” of consumers, that is. The
growth of the Internet, the speed of communication, and travel has succeeded in exposing
people to differing lifestyles and preferences that they are finding appealing and desirable.
Consumer preferences for products tend to become similar as the economic conditions of the
target markets achieve certain levels. Economic affluence and political stability foster
increases in consumer affluence and product attractiveness. In marketing, we target
“markets”—defined as groups of people who share similar characteristics, wants, needs, and
ability to pay. These “target markets” exist in the aggregate not as belonging to one country or
another. There exist numerous examples of products first produced for a national market
finding it fully adaptable to foreign sales and vice-versa because consumers in those “target
markets” have similar characteristics, needs, and wants that the product meets. The youth and
teen markets of the world share almost instant communication of ideas and products from
around the world while at the same time, share similar learning and growing experiences,
feelings, and concerns. The audience does not change, we are still human beings after all, and
as such the message can connect to the audience or audiences around the world. The
difference in marketing is neither the message nor the messenger that influences these
similarities; it is the economic situations facing the people involved.
Con: Cultural differences, in language, environment, physical, economic, and geographical
areas contain key differences that will never be overcome by marketing. Marketers should be
very aware of these differences and excellent marketers will capitalize on these differences in
their marketing messages. These differences especially apply to the second and third world
markets. Countries are communities and people in their particular country will always insist
on their individual identification and nationality. Nationalism is a strong motivator for product
purchase and/or how a product is used. Some products extend national boundaries—this is a
fact that no marketer can ignore. However, products that extend past national boundaries are
just a small part of a person’s total product consumption or usage on a daily basis. Niche
marketing and nationally produced products will continue to exist at the local and national
level. Some of these products are due to consumer eating, sleeping, cultural, and religious
differences that will remain specific to that country or culture.
Twitter transformed the way we share and get news. It gives a small group of people a
new way to reach the masses, and records history in real time. It has had a role in the
Arab Spring and in other political venues, like the presidential election. It wants to be a
medium to reach everyone in the world. It operates in 35 languages and 70 percent of
users live outside the United States. In 2014, 500 million users were registered on
Twitter, 250 million were active, and more than 400 million tweets were posted each day
around the globe.
2. Who are Twitter’s biggest competitors? How does Twitter differ from other social
media companies?
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google are large competitors. Instagram is popular, but that’s
led to market entrants like Snapchat and WhatsApp, who focus on messaging (like
Twitter). Twitter does not have as many visitors or mobile phone users as Facebook and
Google, nor does it engage users for as long a time period. It also has to worry about
entrants from other markets, like KakaoTalk, which has about 100 million users in Asian
countries.
3. What marketing challenges does Twitter face as it continues to expand its brand
globally?
Because Twitter has many uses (e.g. promoting a brand or company, raising money for
charities, breaking news, following favorite celebrities, political activism) but a relatively
small audience, it is vulnerable to competitive entry by niche players – and to the next