International Marketing

None.

• Internationalization strategies
• Market entry strategies
• Standardization vs. individualization (e.g. regarding products, prices, and communication)
• Measurement equivalence in international market research

In the final session, we will apply this knowledge to the case of Wal Mart. In particular, Wal Mart, despite being the largest retailing company worldwide, failed to successfully enter the German Market. We will discuss Wal Mart’s failure using the methods taught in the weeks before.

Homburg, Christian (2012), Marketingmanagement, 4. Aufl., Wiesbaden.

Doing marketing abroad creates a number of significant new challenges for firms. This class is intended to prepare you for meeting these challenges. In the first session, we will discuss the peculiarities of international marketing. The next five sessions will then be dedicated to methods that can be used to address them. For instance, we will look at the following issues:

• Internationalization strategies
• Market entry strategies
• Standardization vs. individualization (e.g. regarding products, prices, and communication)
• Measurement equivalence in international market research

In the final session, we will apply this knowledge to the case of Wal Mart. In particular, Wal Mart, despite being the largest retailing company worldwide, failed to successfully enter the German Market. We will discuss Wal Mart's failure using the methods taught in the weeks before.

For further information please contact Marketing & Sales Research Group (marketing.iism.kit.edu).

The total workload for this course is approximately 45.0 hours. For further information see German version.

Students

• know the characteristics of international marketing
• are familiar with the Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory
• understand basic concepts of cultural learning (the concept of acculturation, the psychic distance paradox)
• know different concepts that explain international buying behavior (e.g. country-of-origin effects)
• comprehend different concepts for market entries in an international context ("waterfall"-strategy, "sprinkler"-strategy, method of analogy, chain ratio method)
• understand what needs to be considered regarding international market research (dealing with ethical dilemmas, challenges regarding primary and secondary data sources, testing measurement equivalence, linguistic equivalence, differences in the response styles of questionnaires)
• know the particularities of international product policy (standardization vs. differentiation, challenge of branding, fight against product plagiarism, brand counterfeiting and product piracy, protection of intellectual property)
• are familiar with the particularities in the international price policy (BigMac Index, how to deal with price demand functions to achieve profit maximization, arbitrage, price corridor, standardization vs. differentiation of prices, how to deal with currency risks, inflation, exchange rates and different willingness to pay)
• know the characteristics of the international communication policy (different laws, problems regarding international standardized campaigns)
• know particularities of the international sales policy (international channels, differences of contract negotiations)
• are able to organize international marketing departments and subsidiaries
• know the problems of marketing in emerging markets

The assessment consists of a written exam (60 minutes) (following §4(2), 1 of the examination regulation).