essay on international marketing

International Marketing Topics & Essay Examples

In today’s interconnected world, globalization is a priority for every large corporation. Thus, international marketing has become essential as it allows a business to grow across borders. Franchising, licensing, joint ventures, as well as export and foreign investment are all examples of what falls under this umbrella term. Creating better opportunities for companies despite cultural and societal differences is the goal. If you have to write an international marketing essay, the best place to start would be the definitions. Our team has explored them here.

Sometimes, the concepts of global marketing and international marketing are used interchangeably. However, there are some crucial differences between the terms:

Global marketing refers to the whole world as the designated marketplace. The products remain identical globally, with no differences from country to country. For example, global marketing would be utilized by technological companies, such as Samsung. Their products are identical everywhere in the world.

Meanwhile, restaurant chains in particular often rely on international marketing since it is country-specific. The target of such a campaign would be a specific country or even region. For example, Starbucks has menu items restricted to one country to better cater to local markets.

Below, we have listed tips that will guide you in writing your academic paper. You can also find international marketing topic ideas for your paper. Finally, don’t forget to check out free sample essays at the bottom of the page.

Global Marketing Essay: How to Write?

To make sure that your international marketing paper is the best it could be, check the tips in this section.

To compose a great essay, try following the steps below:

• Take time choosing the right topic for you. Your writing process will become significantly easier if you find an idea that is interesting to you personally. With international marketing, try going for something current and relevant. Staying up to date with new marketing strategies will be beneficial in the long run.
• Study your guidelines carefully. Once you have settled on a topic, take the time to go over it. Double-check what is required of you before you begin writing. Ensure that you are following all the assignment guidelines precisely.
• Write down the thesis statement before anything else. Your thesis is the main point you are trying to make. Formulate what you are trying to discuss before you start your research. This will narrow down your focus and will allow you to concentrate on what’s crucial. Besides, our thesis generator can do this for you!
• Add a hook to your introduction and fill it with context. The more you establish from the start, the less context you will need to provide later. Introduce the key details that your audience must know before reading the rest. Catch their attention with a hook. It can be related to ongoing events or surprise your audience.
• Examine the topic in three paragraphs. A narrow idea can be good. Yet, you still have to write at least three body paragraphs on it. This is the bare minimum standard for opening up an idea in-depth. Remember to stay on track and write only relevant information.
• Restate your thesis in your conclusion . Another crucial element of any essay is its conclusion. It should reflect what you have stated in your thesis and add something to it. Plus, it should provide a summary of your findings. Don’t introduce any new information in this part of your paper.
• Double-check and revise your reference list. When you are done writing, make sure your international marketing research is cited accordingly. Ideally, you should note down your references as you go along. Proofread and edit the rest of the paper as well.

15 International Marketing Topics: Best Ideas

When writing any academic work, the selection of a topic is the first step. You can try using our random topic generator – it will give you a completely new idea automatically. Or you can look at our list of 15 international marketing topics for research papers or essays.

• Social and cultural influences that businesses must consider before entering the Indian market.
• An analysis of the international niche marketing strategies for medium and small enterprises.
• Oreo – a case study of challenges and failures in the Chinese market.
• An examination of research strategies and design for international marketing in global corporations.
• The role of social media marketing management in today’s world.
• The benefits and drawbacks of standardization in fast food marketing strategies.
• How to predict customer behavior in a foreign market?
• What is the role of international relations in world trading patterns and barriers?
• How McDonald’s utilizes marketing mix in its entry to new markets.
• Ways of determining the price for international market economies.
• The rules of law and ethics: their impact on the development of international marketing in the last two decades.
• What are the benefits of global marketing for smaller businesses?
• Reasons behind the development of the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
• An analysis of Apple’s product adaptation strategy.
• Henry Ford’s strategies – a study of the genius marketing manager.

We hope that you found this article useful. Below, you will find international marketing essay examples that you can browse through. Thank you for reading!

197 International Marketing Essay Examples

Dyson company’s marketing strategy.

• Words: 4925

A Competitive Analysis of Primark Investments

• Words: 3665

The marketing strategies of Sony and Samsung

• Words: 2703

Luxury Market in Nigeria and International Brands

• Words: 21708

Nestlé Enters China. Global Business Development

• Words: 2597

Green marketing

• Words: 2849

International Market Entry Strategies

• Words: 5410

United Parcel Service in India

• Words: 1679

Starbuck’s Strategic Plan

Coca cola company marketing.

• Words: 2769

Starbucks in the UAE – Distribution Strategy

Entering the indian market: the risks that tesla faces.

• Words: 3302

Market Entry Into a Country With a Large Power Distance Index

Analyzing the global marketing environment.

• Words: 3909

Home Depot Failure and IKEA Success in China

• Words: 1175

Boost Juice Company’s International Marketing

• Words: 1115

F&N’s Sales and Marketing Expansion: PESTLE

International marketing research.

• Words: 2136

Starbucks Company Entering New Iceland Market

Toyota motor manufacturing uk entering the uae.

• Words: 3609

IKEA: Expanding Through Franchising to the South American Markets

• Words: 1426

Import McDonald’s to Mongolia

Aldi süd company: tactical international marketing plan.

• Words: 4362

Subway Marketing Strategy

• Words: 2876

International Company Project: Uber South Africa

• Words: 9152

Huawei’s Pricing Strategies in Global Marketing

Tesla’s quality control for expansion to china, panera bread opens a store in bangkok, thailand, ebay: the entering to the international market.

• Words: 2567

Starbucks: Strategies and Objectives Recommendations

Use of diversification by samsung in the penetration of the saudi arabian market.

• Words: 4121

AMD Company: Strategy and SWOT Analysis

• Words: 1492

International Business: A Managerial Perspective

Vodafone company’s expansion into brazil and india.

• Words: 2325

Retail Services Marketing: McDonalds

• Words: 1375

South Korea Marketing Audit Analysis

• Words: 1657

Acquisition of ACME: Challenges the Company Faced

Tsingtao brewery: international marketing plan.

• Words: 2820

Trinidad and Tobago for International Business

• Words: 2238

International Marketing Decisions: Culture Significance

• Words: 1553

A New Marketing Approach for Nollywood: Developing

• Words: 2888

Transworld Minerals Inc.’s Expansion Analysis

Leveraging culture for china’s smartphone sales in the uk.

• Words: 7471

Global Success in Athletic Footwear Industry

Setting business in bangladesh, international marketing of premium jewelry, business expansion to the united states vs. turkey, emerging markets: opportunities and development, archer-daniels-midland company: entering argentina’s market.

• Words: 1519

The Online Market in China: Entering Plan

Emerging markets for international businesses, licensing and franchising in business management, cultural adaptations in international business, sprecher automation’s market opportunities in the uae.

• Words: 2638

Walmart in Sweden: PESTLE (Strategic) Analysis

The starbucks firm’s expansion problems in china, the harvey norman firm’s international expansion.

• Words: 1777

The FCB Joburg and Toyota South Africa Marketing

The dog deluxe brand conquering the uae pet industry, nissan motors entering the international market.

• Words: 1215

The Danone Firm’s Return to the Chinese Market

How danone can reenter the chinese market, acme electronics’ expansion in china, canada, and mexico, the european union and the us: business expansion options, market skimming and penetration pricing, patchi premium chocolate: exporting to china.

• Words: 2117

International Marketing: Stock Market Volatility

Internationalization of smes: case study of al-jaber engineering in qatar.

• Words: 2577

Internationalization Process of Firms From Developing Country

• Words: 2285

The Coca-Cola Company’s and Nestle’s Global Marketing and Human Resource Strategies

Digital marketing capabilities in international firms, chile’s market analysis for a us company.

• Words: 4120

McDonald’s in the International Fast Food Market

Internet and globalization effects on marketing, perigord bakery’s global marketing environment, european business environment scanning, trade show as expansion tool in biotechnology industry.

• Words: 1505

National Food Product Company: Colombia and Costa Rica Markets

• Words: 3410

Taking Tsingtao Beer to Thailand

International marketing: corporate philanthropy.

• Words: 1416

Comprehensive International Marketing Plan

• Words: 2781

Evaluation of the UAE’s History, Cultural Taboos on Business

• Words: 2289

International Marketing: Strategies and Issues

• Words: 1172

Russian Machinery Industry and Market Entry Strategy

• Words: 2540

Peugeot: Global Value Chains in Turbulent Times

• Words: 3020

Watson Pharmaceuticals’ Environmental Factors in Global and Domestic Marketing

Strategic marketing plan for globalization move.

• Words: 1641

Cultural Integration of Joint Ventures Factors

• Words: 8193

Foreign Market Entry for India

• Words: 3095

Global Marketing Plan for the Organization

“international marketing” by cateora and graham, mainland china’s multinationals in international markets.

• Words: 2478

International Capital Markets, Asset Pricing and Financing the Firm

Origin country effect on consumer perception of products and brands, unilever plc international finance project.

• Words: 1947

Coal India Limited and Store Norske

• Words: 2187

ACME International Expansion Program

• Words: 1348

Multinational Corporations Aiming to Operate in China

China and india in emerging healthcare markets.

• Words: 1222

Maintaining the Partnership

The role of nultinational corporations in the global economy.

• Words: 1395

International Business and Marketing Trends

Panera bread store and bangkok infrastructure, a cross-country investigation of consumer animosity, how mncs uncertainty shapes mncs strategy.

• Words: 2481

Similarities and Differences Found in Each Country’s Cultural

International business. tendering for export contracts, integrating product from a global and social standpoint, country-of-origin effects on product evaluation, load washers and dryers business in the czech republic, trading situation of american and belgian traders, managing risk in us international business in ghana, managing hospitality in the international context.

• Words: 1136

TATA Steel Product: Export Promotion

• Words: 1138

International Business in Argentina and Singapore

• Words: 1311

International Business. Pinkberry Firm in Ireland

• Words: 1491

Pinkberry Company’s Entry in Ireland

• Words: 1365

DFS Expansion in India

Marketing balfour beatty plc in the indian market.

• Words: 1117

Market Size in Russia and Competitive Environment

94 International Marketing Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on international marketing, ✍️ international marketing essay topics for college, 📌 easy international marketing essay topics, 👍 good international marketing research topics & essay examples.

• Marketing Analysis for Nestlé: Nespresso Segmentation & More
• Nestle International Strategy: Marketing Analysis
• Zara International Marketing Strategy
• The Role of Internet on International Marketing
• Uppsala Model in Internationalization Decisions
• International Marketing: H&M Enters Brunei
• Nando: International Marketing Mix Strategy
• Nike Inc.’s International Marketing Strategies The paper has examined Nike’s key international marketing strategies, namely, the use of technology and customer segmentation.
• SPAR International Company: Marketing Plan SPAR International is the world’s biggest food retailer. The work outlines goals for the development of the brand, along with the marketing mix of strategic recommendations.
• Starbucks Company’s International Business Strategy In realizing its future internationalization agenda, Starbucks can consider venturing into more partnerships in the foreign markets and directly compete with existing retailers.
• The Coca-Cola Company’s Strategic Plan in Pakistan Coca-Cola is the most prominent foods and Beverages Company in terms of growth and global market in this industry.
• Mercedes Benz Company’s Marketing Plan for the UAE The paper is a marketing plan for Mercedes Benz. The main objective is to increase the market share of Mercedes Benz in the UAE.
• Globalization’s Impact on International Marketing Strategies International marketing strategies are influenced by globalization. The operations of multinational firms are shaped by the confrontation between standardization and adaptation.
• International Marketing Strategies of Zalando and Asos The essay implement various theoretical concepts, including high- and low-context nations and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions framework, to analyze Zalando and ASOS strategies.
• Starbucks: An International Strategy The current paper discusses the case of Starbucks. It is one of the companies most known for its consistent and large-scale international success.
• National Culture and Aesthetics in International Marketing This paper examines the importance of national culture and aesthetics for international businesspeople, describes using demonstrations effect and analyzes American marketers’ work.
• Amazon Inc. in the Context of International Business Economics and Markets Amazon can focus on the different ways that products can be used to attract buyers in South Africa. Promotions using social media and TV advertisements can be implemented.
• Samsung: The Global Marketing Offering the wide product line that addresses the needs of many different target groups is the main idea of Samsung’s global strategy.
• International Business: Amazon.com Marketing Strategies This term paper focuses on the marketing strategies of Amazon.com and how it has contributed to its continual growth in the competitive e-Commerce.
• Market Entry Strategy on Example Wal-Mart This research is aimed at discovering the entry strategy that shall be employed by the company in entering into this market where it is already saturated.
• Automotive International Marketing in Turkey The study is about international marketing and focuses on the appropriate implementation of communication mix within the automobile industry. The area of study was in Turkey.
• Spotify and South Korean International Market This paper recommends South Korea as an ideal international market for Spotify – a music streaming company. The analysis based on macroeconomic factors.
• International Markets and Its Opportunities An organisation should increase its value than rivals through stocking more resources and distinguishing its capabilities.
• Norrona Company’s International Marketing Plan This paper presents an international marketing plan that will help Norrona exploit the market opportunity presented by a foreign market – South Africa.
• Analysis and Strategy in Global Marketing The paper examines the various strategies used in global marketing. It starts with an introduction then outlines Porter’s five forces model in the industry competition.
• Cross-Cultural Marketing and Hofstede’s Model This paper examines the effect of culture and the importance of cross-cultural analysis on international marketing, with a focus on Hofstede’s model of cross-cultural analysis.
• Internationalization of a Bicycle Company: India & the US The need for internationalization of companies began when firms saw the necessity to increase their export efforts due to the declining domestic consumptions.
• Globalization Influence on Product Development This essay presents a critical analysis of the marketing strategies as they apply to the international marketing efforts of firms in the context of globalization.
• A US Diapers Firm’s Entry into the Brazilian Market The Brazilian market entry of a U.S. manufacturer of disposable diapers requires particular attention due to the differences in conditions between the two locations.
• International Marketing of Coca-Cola When it comes to entering the IFCD market, Coca-Cola will have to overcome many barriers and market risks to be successful.
• International Marketing and Marketing Communications Marketing communications are messages and related media used to communicate with the target market. It involves advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations.
• Marketing Communication Strategies: Domestic and International Markets The essay explores the similarities and differences of the international and domestic marketing communication strategies that are used to market voice-activated braking systems
• International Marketing – Impact of Globalization This paper seeks to identify the impact of globalization in international business and how companies can fully utilize the concept in order to attain their objectives
• Pret a Manger Company’s Foreign Entry Mode Selection The purpose of this paper is to develop a profound strategic plan for international market entry for Pret A Manger.
• Internationalization on Example of Sony Company This essay focuses on one of Sony’s daughter companies, Sony Computer Entertainment, especially on the production and internationalization of gaming consoles called PlayStation.
• International Marketing Plan of Progresso Soups in Santiago, Chile This report presents an international business proposal for the expansion of the GMI company through the marketing of Progresso soups in Santiago, Chile.
• Brasil Foods Company’s International Strategy There are three main international strategies that companies can undertake to achieve higher prosperity and profitability.
• Apple Incorporation: International Marketing This paper tells that the four functions of the management theory are a key aspect in determining the short and long-term success of any business.
• “Beware the Pitfalls of Global Marketing” by Kashani Kashani addresses some of the problems that he believes to be characteristic of the global marketing environment.
• Reasons for Companies to Enter Foreign Market The purpose that guides a particular company’s strategy building is the financial benefits an enterprise expects to obtain from specific interventions’ successful implementation.
• The Importance of Understanding Culture in Marketing When products are being exported across countries’ borders, managers should know the customers’ needs, which are often dictated by the cultures where the consumers reside.
• Rule of Law and Ethics and International Marketing Currently, the attention of the world community is attracted by the rapid development of the “new industrial countries” of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
• Lidl Expansion to Norway and Mexico Lidl, a Germany-based international discount retailer, is considering entering another country’s market. It has narrowed its choices down to either Norway or Mexico.
• McGraw Hill Publisher: The International Marketing Analysis The report is an analysis of the role of marketing concepts, and implications at local and international levels that ensure the company succeeds in promoting products and services.
• Mercury Shoes Company’s New Opportunity in China The Mercury Shoes company has to promote better operational plans to aim the 10 million unit annual sales. China has no injuries from the hit of the global recession.
• Global and Multi-Domestic Marketing Approaches There is a need for aggressive managers who can innovate and initiate skills that are important in navigating the pressures that affect the growth in company sizes.
• Advertising Effectiveness in International Marketing In international marketing, advertising is one of the main tools that a firm can use to gain a competitive edge over other firms.
• A Ceviche Business in the Chinese Market In my business model, I plan to introduce ceviche to the Chinese. This paper gives an in-depth SWOT analysis of the introduction of ceviche to Chinese cuisine.
• McDonald’s in Hong Kong and Taiwan The difference between McDonald’s in Hong Kong and Taiwan manifests itself in non-obvious aspects of the housing issue and attitudes towards marketing.
• Furbo Dog Nanny: International Marketing This paper explores the global pet monitoring industry, with an emphasis on the segmentation and differentiation of Furbo’s strategies for expanding operations in Australia.
• The Hydraloop Water Recycler’s International Marketing Hydraloop H600 water recycler is a water recycling system created by Hydraloop Systems and produced by the Technologies Added factory.
• Impact Confections Company Expanding Outside the US Expanding a company to the international market results in increased employment and healthy financial development.
• International Green Marketing in British and Romanian Firms The main idea in green marketing is to promote one’s product or operation, so that one’s consumers will know that the company and its products are environmentally sustainable.
• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in Singapore The Asian market is the perfect economic destination regarding population growth and financial potential. That is the reason why Rolls-Royce chose Singapore to open its filial.
• International Expansion Strategies to Consider It is more beneficial to expand a business internationally. However, this comes with an array of challenges that might discourage some entrepreneurs from doing it.
• Yogurtland and Micromax: Marketing Strategy To expand, the company has to apply product standardization with the elements of adaptation. The company has to use a global strategy as its primary method to achieve success.
• The Coca-Cola Company in Sub-Saharan Africa This paper discusses the origin of the Coca-Cola Company and the company’s scope of the market in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Environmental Factors Affecting Global and Domestic Marketing Decisions So the main potent of the marketing strategy must be in providing business travel solutions at the lowest possible prices.
• Multinational Enterprises’ Choice of Modes of Entry There is no “one shirt fits all” strategy when it comes to figuring out the best mode of entry (MOE) into foreign markets by multinational enterprises (MNEs).
• Global Marketing: Adaptation vs. Standardization Global marketing is a complex process that must take into account various cultural, legal, and socio-economic aspects to work successfully.
• Nova Energy Drinks Company Nova Energy Drinks company explores new potential opportunities of moving to an international arena, penetrating two foreign markets in South America: Argentina and Venezuela.
• Anheuser-Busch InBev: International Marketing for Success This paper has used Anheuser-Busch InBev to illustrate how businesses can move from operating in a small domestic market to dominating global markets through international marketing.
• International Marketing Management: Advertisement Strategies and Global Market Advertisers in the world or global market encounter limitations, which include media and products that are unique as well as the language, that are also unique in every market.
• Marketing and Research & Development in India The paper reviews the article tilted Dow Chem to Turn Pune Unit into R&D Hub provided by the India Supply Chain Council.
• Multinational Companies’ Marketing in Vietnam Entering the Vietnam market is a rather controversial decision due to the presence of the factors such as corruption and bureaucracy.
• International Marketing: A Case Study of Sanctuary Spa (UK) Global marketing principles and possibilities are precise and realizable; therefore, the worldwide marketplace cannot be compared to the home economy.
• The International Marketing Planning Theory Application International marketing operations are geared towards achieving an organization’s objectives while operating across the globe.
• National Office Machines and Nippon Cash Machines Merge The merging of National Office Machines from the United States and Nippon Cash Machines from Japan brings two different cultures together with contrasting marketing strategies.
• Sprout&Co Firm’s Entry Mode and Internationalization Given the nature of the business, Sprout&Co plans to adopt a licensing and franchising entry strategy into the international market since it offers numerous benefits.
• Potential Issues of Expanding into Foreign Markets The expansion of business abroad is a profitable event and a positive aspect in the context of business development. However, it is necessary to take into account many risks.
• International Marketing News The international market is now facing division, with the governments putting much concern on supporting households and businesses that price regime.
• CarryMore Company’s Internationalization Before the decision to expand its presence abroad, the company was a purely domestic enterprise. It means that CarryMore was limited by exclusively British market orientation.
• Marketing Mistakes Affecting International Marketing Marketing mistakes can affect international marketing in that they can cause destroy brand reputation, increase costs associated, and lowers the market share.
• Swipr Software Company’s Entry Into China Swipr is a software company that runs a microblogging platform. This paper aims to study the viability of the company’s entry ambitions into China.
• Multinational Agricultural Manufacturing Companies’ Standardization & Adaptation The most popular approaches that multinational companies use to serve their customers from various countries are standardization and adaptation.
• The Fresh Direct Firm’s Entry into the Chinese Market FreshDirect is one of the organizations that has been striving to introduce innovative food delivery services. It has strong changes at entering the Chinese market successfully.
• Multinational Enterprises’ Global Strategy Adjustments A global strategy is based on the assumption that the consumption and production patterns of goods and services are homogenous worldwide and countries are interconnected.
• The UK Juicers Company: Internationalization Theories This paper seeks to analyse the UK Juicers Company in correspondence with the theories of internationalization which include economic, learning and network.
• The Disney Difference: Making Magic Happen This essay provides information on the Disney Difference and their impact on corporate, competitive, and functional strategies.
• International Marketing: New Level of Business Global trade increases sales and profits and puts the name of the brand on the worldwide market, which makes it extremely attractive for domestic businesses.
• Expanding Ultima Foods in China Ultima Foods is a Canadian food company that owns two brands of dairy products. The country selected for expansion is China, and it is known for its a growing economy.
• Global Marketing Strategy Development Benefits This paper examines the various marketing strategies that are essential for the success of any company within the global market.
• Factors and Principles of Successful Multinational Marketing Description of a successful marketing strategy in a multinational market and competition of products of the same characteristics.
• FruitRich Private Limited’s International Marketing International marketing plan for the promotion of a new juice brand FruitRich Private Limited, which produces natural fruit juices with various flavors.
• Gender Symbols Usage in International Family-Oriented Marketing The concepts of social structuring and the formation of gender symbols are considered to be the central issues of family-oriented marketing developing on the international level.
• Market Globalization and Global Marketing Pitfalls Customization is fraught with several outcomes that may inhibit the further advancement of a company in the global economy.
• “The Globalization of Markets” Book by Levitt Levitt predicted a range of trends that would occur in the global market, including the need to appeal to different types of customers.
• International Marketing: Global Corporation vs. Company A global corporation needs to be capable of addressing the issues that emerge in the context of a particular culture when promoting products and services to diverse audiences.
• Vehicle Exporting: From United States to Mexico The purpose of the given executive business plan is to demonstrate the underlying ideas, market features, and business approach of exporting vehicle or auto parts from US to Mexico.
• International Marketing: Personal View The international managers have the obligation of adhering to the international policies to ensure that their businesses run smoothly.
• International Market Development at Edutot Japan International markets differ in terms of legal systems, economic status, language, religion, and culture. The legal system affects the operations of a company.
• International Business Management and Marketing This paper considers essays on international business, trade, and investment, financial markets, international HRM, and other articles related to this question.
• Local Cultures in Globalisation and International Markets Globalisation and international markets condition the great importance of the creation of a unique approach that will be able to consider local cultural peculiarities.
• The Wiggles Company in the International Markets The Wiggles company is a well-known brand that will continue being successful in the childhood entertainment industry as they have significant business concepts.

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These essay examples and topics on International Marketing were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 8, 2024 .

The overarching role of international marketing: Relevance and centrality in research and practice

• Published: 18 May 2021
• Volume 52 , pages 1429–1444, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

• Saeed Samiee 1 ,
• Constantine S. Katsikeas 2 &
• G. Tomas M. Hult 3  

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9 Citations

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Classic business literature asserts the central role of marketing as foundational to the existence of organizations, and further notes that marketing must permeate all areas of a business enterprise. Leveraging this premise, we examine marketing scholars’ contributions to the international business (IB) literature – specifically notable works in exporting and market entry. Despite the overarching role of marketing in business, our systematic examination of published works in JIBS identified only 11 marketing contributions among the top 100 most frequently cited publications. More recent Web of Science data for the most cited contributions since 2015 demonstrate a decline in the number of international marketing (IM) and IB-related contributions by marketing scholars. Our goal in this editorial is to re-emphasize marketing’s critical importance and centrality in IB research, especially with reference to its dominant role in such areas as exporting and market entry decisions, customer acquisition, and relationship management. This special issue is intended to highlight IM and to motivate more contributions by IM scholars, as well as to call for greater integration of marketing thought in IB research.

La littérature classique en management affirme le rôle central du marketing comme fondement de l'existence des organisations, et souligne en outre que le marketing doit imprégner tous les domaines d'une entreprise. Nous appuyant sur cette prémisse, nous examinons les contributions des chercheurs en marketing à la littérature du commerce international (IB – International Business ), plus spécifiquement, les travaux importants portés sur l’exportation et l’entrée sur les marchés. Malgré le rôle fondamental du marketing dans les affaires, notre examen systématique des travaux publiés dans la revue JIBS n'a identifié que 11 contributions liées au marketing parmi les 100 publications les plus fréquemment citées. Les données plus récentes sur le Web of Science liées aux contributions les plus citées depuis 2015 montrent une baisse du nombre de contributions relatives au marketing international (IM – International Marketing ) et au IB par les chercheurs en marketing. Dans cet éditorial, notre objectif est de souligner à nouveau l’importance critique et la centralité du marketing dans la recherche en IB, notamment par rapport à son rôle dominant dans les domaines tels que les décisions d’exportation et d’entrée sur les marchés, l’acquisition de clients et la gestion des relations. Ce numéro spécial a pour but de mettre en valeur le IM, de stimuler davantage de contributions de la part des chercheurs en IM, ainsi que d'appeler à une plus grande intégration de la pensée marketing dans la recherche en IB.

La literatura empresarial clásica reivindica el papel del marketing como primordial a la existencia de las organizaciones y además nota que el marketing debe permear todas las áreas de una empresa. Apalancándonos en esta premisa, examinamos las contribuciones de los académicos de marketing a la literatura de negocios internacionales – específicamente los trabajos más destacados sobre la exportación y la entrada del mercado. A pesar del papel global del marketing en los negocios, nuestro examen sistemático de los trabajos publicados en JIBS identificamos sólo 11 contribuciones de marketing entre las 100 publicaciones más citadas. Los datos más recientes de Web of Science de las contribuciones más citadas desde el 2015 demuestran una disminución en el numero de contribuciones relacionadas con marketing y negocios internacionales por parte de los estudiosos de marketing. Nuestra meta con este editorial es hacer hincapié a importancia fundamental del marketing y su centralidad en la investigación de negocios internacionales, especialmente con referencia a su papel dominante en áreas como la exportación y las decisiones de entrada al mercado, la adquisición de clientes y la gestión de relaciones. Esta edición especial busca resaltar el marketing internacional y motivar más contribuciones de académicos de marketing internacional, y también hacer un llamado a una mayor integración del pensamiento de marketing en la investigación de negocios internacionales.

A literatura clássica de negócios afirma o papel central do marketing como fundamental para a existência de organizações e, além disso, observa que o marketing deve permear todas as áreas de uma empresa. Aproveitando essa premissa, examinamos contribuições dos acadêmicos de marketing para a literatura de negócios internacionais (IB), especificamente trabalhos notáveis em exportação e entrada no mercado. Apesar do papel abrangente do marketing nos negócios, nosso exame sistemático de trabalhos publicados no JIBS identificou apenas 11 contribuições de marketing entre as 100 publicações mais citadas. Dados mais recentes da Web of Science para as contribuições mais citadas desde 2015 demonstram um declínio no número de contribuições de marketing internacional (IM) e relacionadas a IB por acadêmicos de marketing. Nosso objetivo neste editorial é reenfatizar a importância crítica e centralidade do marketing na pesquisa em IB, especialmente com referência ao seu papel dominante em áreas como exportação e decisões de entrada no mercado, aquisição de clientes e gerenciamento de relacionamento. Esta edição especial tem como objetivo destacar o IM e motivar mais contribuições de acadêmicos de IM, bem como pedir uma maior integração do pensamento de marketing na pesquisa de IB.

经典的商业文献断言市场营销对组织存在有着基础的中心的作用, 并进一步指出, 市场营销必须渗透到商业企业的所有领域。 利用这一前提, 我们研究了市场营销学者对国际商务 (IB) 文献的贡献, 特别是在出口和市场准入方面的著名作品。 尽管市场营销在商业中起着举足轻重的作用, 我们对JIBS发表的作品的系统检查发现, 在最常被引用的前100篇文章中只有11篇是市场营销的贡献。最新的Web of Science数据 (自2015年以来被引用最多的数据) 表明, 市场营销学者对国际市场营销 (IM) 和与IB相关的贡献数量有所下降。 我们这篇社论的目标是重新强调市场营销在IB研究中的至关重要性和中心地位, 尤其是参考市场营销在出口和进入市场决策、客户获取以及关系管理等领域的主导作用。 本期专刊旨在突出IM和激发IM学者做出更多的贡献, 并呼吁将市场营销思想与IB研究有更大的整合。

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INTRODUCTION

Marketing is the raison d’etre and the force that drives organizations. Among the many axioms advanced by Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, are that the purpose of a business is “to create customers”, and that an organization has only two functions: one role relates to marketing (i.e., innovation) and the other is marketing (Drucker, 1954 , p. 37; Trout, 2006 ; Webster, 2009 ). Drucker further observed that only innovation and marketing produce results (i.e., revenue streams); the rest are costs (Cohen, 2013 ). Product innovation is a key marketing strategy component and an important means of creating and keeping customers, and, hence, a central element of a successful competitive strategy. This marketing-based view is also shared by other management thought leaders. Ted Levitt ( 2006 , p. 129), for example, notes that “the entire corporation must be viewed as a customer-creating and customer-satisfying organism.”

The “marketing-based” position held by seasoned management opinion leaders underscores the “overarching” role and centrality of marketing as a philosophy that should drive virtually all organizations. In fact, McKenna ( 1991 ) takes this notion even further by claiming “…successful companies are becoming market driven, adapting their products to fit their customers’ strategies” (p. 66). Adopting market orientation and becoming a market-driven organization, in turn, require marketing to “permeate” all aspects of organizational decision-making, inclusive of international business activities, before a product is produced or externally sourced. Parenthetically, since marketing represents the interface of all businesses with their customers, it should be expected to play a central role in published academic works in business, including international business (IB) – the focus of attention in this editorial.

Many studies have examined research themes covered in IB journals. One such effort surveyed academic publications in the six leading IB-related journals, and identified and classified 112 articles with at least 20 citations each for the 1996–2006 period (Griffith, Cavusgil, & Xu, 2008 ). Collectively, with over 22% of the most-cited publications, marketing was identified as having the largest number of publications. 1 In keeping with business thought leaders’ position on the purpose of an enterprise, one would expect a higher proportion of (1) internationally oriented marketing topics and/or (2) published works on other topics, such as IB, that actively include marketing in some meaningful way. Surprisingly, much of the published research in IB excludes marketing considerations. As an example, in examining foreign market entry and expansion modes [e.g., foreign direct investment (FDI)], the ultimate goal – beyond the theoretical lens in use, efficiencies, drivers, order of market entry, and resultant models and theories – is to gain or create new customers and/or better serve current customers in markets worldwide. Such an approach constitutes a marketing-centric view of FDI.

The IB literature has demonstrated that firms engaging in FDI invest more in research and development (R&D) and innovation (e.g., Anand & Kogut, 1997 ); however, the IB literature is not explicit about why firms invest in innovation in the first place. 2 A marketing-centric view (e.g., Ellis, 2000 ; Knight & Cavusgil, 2004 ; Leonidou & Katsikeas, 1996 ) does not imply a necessity to include marketing in every (e.g., market entry) project. Rather, it consists of a researcher mindset that conceives of and fine-tunes research projects in light of the ultimate purpose of an organization (per Drucker, Levitt, and McKenna) when marketing is not an explicit aspect of the study. The business worldview from within the marketing discipline is that marketing permeates the entire organization (including innovation). IB scholars recognize the integrated nature of marketing across various firm activities in specific sectors (e.g., in the services industry per Rugman & Verbeke, 2008 , p. 409), however, creating and serving customers necessitate the broadening of this perspective across all industries, as predicated in marketing. Stated differently, framing marketing as a single value chain function, or adopting a strictly downstream view of it inhibits richer and more meaningful customer-centric, as well as increasingly more realistic conceptualizations of critical activities and decisions in IB (cf. Takeuchi & Porter, 1986 ). Among other downsides, the narrow conceptualization of marketing functions as downstream activities in the value chain undermines marketing’s true role and influence in shaping strategy formulation. Global strategy decisions envisioned and designed by the C-suite inherently involve a very significant level of marketing content, without which a sound global strategy is not possible.

Concurrently, Buckley ( 2002a ) voices concern that international marketing (IM) has neglected the proximal issue of globalization in studies of IM strategy. This concern is in line with the broader criticism that IM has also largely abandoned strategy issues (Kotabe, 2001 ). Indeed, the marketing discipline can be criticized for failing to fully embrace the influences of international and global dimensions across the many critical strategy pillars inherently thought of as marketing’s intellectual domain. An examination of research priorities published by the influential Marketing Science Institute (MSI) demonstrates the discipline’s relative inactive posture in IM/IB. In all, the 2020–2022 MSI Research Priorities report includes four internationally oriented topics among 126 research questions listed. 3 It is thus not too surprising that IM scholars have paid only scant attention to research opportunities at the intersection of IM strategy and globalization, which, in turn, has limited our understanding of the crucial role that marketing plays in establishing, developing, and sustaining effective business operations across markets worldwide. In parallel, we assert that investigations of globalization should also include marketing strategy considerations.

IM CONTRIBUTIONS TO JIBS

To develop a better understanding of the contributions of marketing scholarship to the IB literature and, more specifically, to the Journal of International Business Studies ( JIBS ), we examined all highly cited articles published in JIBS since the journal’s inception. We rank-ordered all articles by their total citation frequencies using the Web of Science (WOS) database. We identified 11 marketing articles on topics generally considered to belong to the marketing domain among the top 100 most-cited JIBS publications (Table 1 ). 4 We further observed that scholars with marketing ties have also made highly cited general IB contributions to the literature. Overall, it is evident that marketing scholars have made significant contributions in JIBS to the extant IM and IB knowledge. However, it is also apparent that the most highly cited IM publications in JIBS were published in the 1982–2002 period. This pattern raises a question about the relative impact of IM, as measured by WOS citation frequencies, in JIBS published works. We thus examined the most-cited JIBS publications since 2015 (Table 2 ). The data indicate that, in contrast to pre-2015, fewer marketing studies have been among the top 100 most-cited articles published in JIBS as of late. In addition, fewer contributions on broader IB topics are by authors with close marketing ties.

Despite the centrality and importance of marketing in business, the influence of IM scholars and IM publications in the broader IB discipline via the field’s leading journal has been on the decline. The marketing theme of this special issue of JIBS builds on business and management thought leaders’ (e.g., Drucker, Levitt) view regarding the purpose of a business enterprise; that is, we start with the premise of the critical importance of marketing to all facets of business and leverage broad-based agreement about the declining role of marketing in IB research as well as broader IB contributions by marketing scholars in JIBS . Our overarching objective in this issue is to motivate relevant and rigorous research that advances IM and, in turn, IB thought on an ongoing basis, beyond the confines of this special issue. If one subscribes to Drucker’s vision about the purpose of a business, then IM should be better integrated into and represented within IB publications, notably within JIBS , the leading and most highly cited journal in IB. To this end, our goals in this essay are to (1) highlight the role of IM within IB, (2) detail the many critical roles of marketing in today’s business enterprise, and (3) introduce the marketing contributions in this special issue.

THE ROLE OF IM WITHIN IB OVER TIME

Beyond Drucker’s view of the purpose of a business, IB at its core is inherently intertwined with marketing. For centuries, individuals and firms have sought to expand sales through exporting, which constitutes the most common foreign market entry and international expansion mode; for many firms, therefore, export marketing has defined IB. Indeed, all exporting is strictly rooted in marketing (see, for example, Anderson & Gatignon, 1986 ). 5 This view is implied in the broader perspective of export development, which emphasizes internal and external triggers to exporting (cf. Cavusgil & Nevin, 1980 ; Wiedersheim-Paul, Welch, & Olson, 1978 ), both of which are export marketing centered. Some scholars view all international market entry forms as essentially marketing driven (e.g., Douglas & Craig, 1989 ). Indeed, many early contributors to foreign market entry and the export development process are closely associated with the marketing discipline (e.g., Bilkey & Tesar, 1977 ; Cavusgil, 1980 ; Czinkota, & Johnston, 1981 ; Katsikeas, 1996 ; Samiee & Walters, 1991 ). Over time, some firms continue to reap the benefits of increased sales and profits via export marketing, whereas others, recognizing the broader and longer-term potential of global markets, have sought to establish different forms of engagement in markets abroad. For example, international leasing and licensing (i.e., limited-term rental contract of an asset) as means of foreign market entry or expansion constitute marketing activities, but they are often viewed as activities related to, for example, market expansion and operational strategy (e.g., Contractor, 1985 ; Ricks & Samiee, 1974 ). It may be that the role and critical importance of IM is widely recognized by IB scholars. However, making marketing’s presence more explicit in IB research can result in framing issues such that corresponding research findings will yield greater marketplace and marketing relevance, in line with Drucker’s and Levitt’s views on the purpose of business. In short, regardless of entry mode or a firm’s structural configuration, market expansion and increased sales via (in)direct marketing internationally is central to IB. Such a view highlights the centrality and critical role of IM activities, while emphasizing the significance of IM contributions to the broader IB field.

Interest in and focus on scholarly research in IM began to intensify during the 1980s, and empirical investigations of IM problems and challenges facing firms have received heightened research attention for decades. Initial scholarly research in IM was limited, though there is noteworthy work on export market entry triggers as well as motivations and explanations for internationalization decisions (Ford & Leonidou, 2013 ). Since this early research, IM scholars have amassed a growing, multifaceted, and well-developed body of knowledge. Despite these advances, however, the growing importance and relevance of IM remains underappreciated and understudied (Day, 1996 ). As an unfortunate outcome of this, IM topics in the top IB journals are sparse (cf. Griffith et al., 2008 ), and a current survey of several leading marketing and IB journals reveals a relative paucity of scholarly work on IM issues. 6 Given IM’s centrality to all enterprises, the primary purpose of this special issue is to reinforce IM’s broad-based importance, with a particular focus on IM in the broader IB context.

RESEARCH IN IM

A recent survey of the IM literature published in the top six IB/IM journals during the 1995–2015 period identified 1,722 published works (Leonidou, Katsikeas, Samiee, & Aykol, 2017 ). The knowledge structure on which this body of scholarly work indicates that many of the developments in IM thought are driven by 14 key knowledge nodes identified in Samiee and Chabowski ( 2012 ). 7 It is evident from the results of the investigation by Samiee and Chabowski ( 2012 ) that, in terms of knowledge base, IM has much in common with IB. A relatively high proportion (approximately 40%) of key sources used in IM research are also commonly cited in IB research, including Hofstede ( 1980 , 1991 , 2001 ), Porter ( 1980 , 1985 , 1990 ), Williamson ( 1975 , 1985 ), Buckley and Casson ( 1976 ), Bartlett and Ghoshal ( 1989 ), Nelson and Winter ( 1982 ), Penrose ( 1959 ), and Pfeffer and Salancik ( 1978 ). Of the 26 most influential works in IM, serving as foundational knowledge for the 2004–2008 period, the majority (18) were published in outlets not specifically designated as marketing-related (Samiee & Chabowski, 2012 ), thus demonstrating IM’s shared knowledge and close relationship to IB. Key IM knowledge nodes serving as the foundation of IM scholarship during this period appear in Table 3 .

IM research has evolved across numerous themes, with some areas receiving disproportionate scholarly attention over time (Leonidou et al., 2017 ). Foreign market entry and export marketing are among the oldest topics of interest for IM researchers, and these remain relevant and important. Collectively, origin-related research topics likely constitute the most popular IM theme among IM researchers and potentially the most researched area, with hundreds of publications (e.g., Kotabe, 2001 ; Papadopoulos, el Banna, Murphy, & Rojas-Méndez, 2011 ; Samiee & Chabowski, 2021 ). 8 Origin-related research – or more specifically, the country-of-origin line of research within IM – can be traced back broadly to Dichter ( 1962 ) and, more specifically, to Schooler ( 1965 ). Although the concept was applied strictly to customer product choice, it can and has been applied to other facets of IB (e.g., liability of foreignness). Beyond marketing, explicit recognition of business problems associated with nonlocal origins of firms began to emerge in the IB literature in the 1970s. For example, Buckley and Casson ( 1976 ) refer to the political problems of “foreignness,” and Boddewyn and Hansen ( 1977 , p. 550) note that “American companies were faced with handicaps due to their foreignness.” Although IB challenges related to nonlocal origins of products and firms seem intuitive, international marketers’ close proximity to markets and customers afforded them the opportunity to recognize the issue much earlier than appears to have been the case in the broader IB discipline. We highlight this issue to point to how IM and IB can and should leverage each other for a more comprehensive analysis and rapid advancement of the field.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES GOING FORWARD

Much of the intellectual capital in IM works has been devoted to various aspects of buyer behavior (Kotabe, 2001 ; Leonidou et al., 2017 ). This trend is not surprising given that, in general, a large majority of MSI research priorities ( 2020 ) are focused on customer-related issues (including three of the four internationally oriented themes out of the 126 research questions posed). Among international themes, one research question pertains to gaining global perspectives on prioritizing customer value at all touchpoints during the omnichannel customer experience; another theme seeks to understand whether customer behavior is the same or different in emerging markets; and a third issue addresses ways in which firms might integrate consumer-focused strategies globally. A sharp focus on the buyer and, more specifically, the consumer and his/her behavior highlights an ongoing emphasis on behavioral issues within marketing at the expense of advancing other equally salient issues in need of development. As a result, some important IM research areas are not receiving sufficient scholarly attention. To this end, 25 years ago, Day ( 1996 , p. 15) noted that “studies of cross-cultural differences in buyer behavior or the effect of country of origin do not suffice when the big issues needing answers are about global competitive interactions, global new product development and launch practices, sharing of market insights across borders, or the coordination and integration of multicountry operations.” An overemphasis on the buyer behavior aspects of IM, frequently via experiments, has indeed curbed scholarly efforts to advance IM and the exploration of “big issues”: for example, the short- and long-term effects of radical shifts in the external environment and competitive structures on various aspects of marketing strategy, notably, global supply chain management, innovation, and global product development activities, among others. In general, innovation can be related to and affect any facet of an enterprise’s operations (e.g., processes). The key innovation concern within marketing has centered on product breakthroughs and service delivery, as well as how firms can adapt to a changing landscape often marked by disruptive technological developments. Nevertheless, studies of global innovation or R&D can benefit from cross-fertilization, with significant advances in this area within marketing.

Despite the decades-long practice of international outsourcing by firms, few IM researchers have explored this critical area (e.g., Kotabe & Murray, 1990 ; Swamidass & Kotabe, 1993 ). As a result, scant research is available within this important area to shed light on IM practices [e.g., innovate vs. import (buy) new products; make vs. buy] that can facilitate enhanced IM performance. To this end, a fourth research priority identified by MSI ( 2020 ) is the global supply chain impact of the pandemic (p. 11). Sourcing considerations, such as exporting and importing, are by nature customer-centric and marketing-based. Nevertheless, much of the research in the area is conducted within other disciplines (Buckley, Doh, & Benischke, 2017 ). The importance of a focus on the bigger picture, including the organization, human capital, capabilities, innovation, and metrics, has been stressed in marketing (Moorman & Day, 2016 ). Behavioral components should continue to play important roles in advancing marketing (and IM); however, these topics need to be examined within the context of organizational priorities and not strictly limited to consumer-based studies.

Given the commonality of direct and indirect international involvement across firms and industries, a host of new and exciting challenges related to customers, suppliers, and relationship management are raised. Today’s global marketplace is characterized by disruptive external forces, intense competition from a multitude of foreign and indigenous companies, and heterogeneous customer behavior shaped by differences across a range of host-market conditions, notably culture. Technological advances create marketplace opportunities and novel business models and segments (e.g., social media, collaborative consumption/shared economy, product cocreation), while undermining long-established global brands, product/service markets, and business patterns and processes on a global scale. For example, local and international ride-hailing services such as Ola and Uber competing with long established global car rental firms; collaboratively developed HD DVD losing the industry-wide format war to the technologically more advanced Blu-ray by Sony shortly after its debut which, in turn, lost popularity as the market shifted to streaming services; photorefractive keratectomy developed in the U.S. essentially undermined the Russian-born radial keratectomy; and MP3/FLAC and streaming services largely replaced tangible music CDs developed through an R&D joint venture between Philips and Sony. Concurrently, new technologies are promoting new forms of interaction for businesses and customers that transcend national boundaries (e.g., social media; short message service-SMS; online reviews; using proprietary consumer data via artificial intelligence activated voice recognition to drive host-market demand, as is the case with Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant). Concurrently, innovative breakthroughs and rapid dissemination of information have given rise to intellectual property theft on a global scale, undermining marketing strategies, global brands, and distribution network relationships and their management, while requiring all firms to canvass markets globally to identify potential abuses and to assert control over their intellectual property. 9

Although the Internet and information technology (IT) continue to have a significant influence on customers and businesses (e.g., exporters, importers, concept-testing, global marketing strategy planning), a citations-based review of the IM literature revealed that IT-related topics did not constitute a knowledge base in IM (Samiee & Chabowski, 2012 ). This finding was corroborated by Leonidou et al. ( 2017 ), who noted that less 4% of IM-related academic articles reviewed included various facets of Internet connectivity. In addition, a literature review of 29 academic journals addressing the Internet’s impact on relational approaches to foreign market entry identified only 94 published articles, constituting approximately 3% of all the articles reviewed (Watson, Weaven, Perkins, Sardana, & Palmatier, 2018 ). IT has transformed how firms enter and manage markets globally to varying degrees in ways that are often not self-evident. In addition, IT's ubiquity and intangible nature make its detection and true impact on IM difficult, thus leading to a growing knowledge gap. The paucity of IT-motivated IM research uncovered by these reviews demonstrate the need to incorporate various facets of IT in more IM projects, including initial online export/import information gathering, marketing research, market entry and development, and export customer acquisition by both manufacturers and channel intermediaries. Furthermore, a research focus on cross-border e-commerce, especially as a means of internationalizing the scope of smaller firms’ marketing, is underdeveloped. It is surprising that, while origin-related buyer behavior topics remain popular, almost no effort has been made to explore how origin affects choice in online and, in particular, international e-commerce contexts (e.g., Ulgado, 2002 ). Buckley ( 2002a ) rightfully identified e-commerce as a frontier in IM research nearly two decades ago. Firms allocate significant amounts of financial resources to adopt promising technologies to improve their marketing performance, yet little research has been devoted to assessing the performance impact of digital tools (e.g., customer relationship management software) in terms of establishing new cross-border relationships or maintaining existing ones. Although IM has generally ignored such impactful areas of research as the influence of the Internet in global marketing, the IB literature, and more specifically international management, has also been shortsighted with respect to its limited pursuit of pertinent Internet-related research topics (e.g., international human resource management, global strategy development, management of global collaborative ventures and partnerships) (Chabowski & Samiee, 2020 ).

Social media influence both the demand and the supply side of exchange. On the supply side, firms are engaging people by allowing them to participate in cocreation and product development processes. Enterprises are increasingly engaging the public in idea generation via social media (e.g., Dell IdeaStorm, LEGO World Builder), new product development, and start-up capital (e.g., Quirky, Kickstarter). The degree to which firms engage social media audiences internationally (including both global and local social media sites) for one or more aspects of cocreation, and the influence of such activity on multinational corporations’ competitiveness across markets, remain unexplored. Examining the extent to which customers from around the world participate in knowledge development processes and help firms improve their existing products and/or create innovative ones also remains a fertile research area (Bayus, 2013 ; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004 ).

Equally important research issues on the demand side also warrant research attention. For example, customers located in distant parts of the world use social media, but the impact of such engagement, and the positive or negative ripple effect it creates in or across social networks with respect to local and global brands, has received insufficient research attention (McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002 ). Furthermore, the extent to which various customer segments rely on and ways in which they use social media across markets remain unexplored. This knowledge void, in turn, impacts the development of effective international cocreation strategies on the supply side. Relatedly, the global ubiquity of the Internet and social networks has made these media a major target for cybercriminals. Regular revelations of firm and customer data breaches are bound to have a consequential impact, not only on firm image and the customer engagement process, scope, and depth but also on demands for greater privacy and protection by customers and governments. Thus, IM research should explore the impact of, for example, cross-national privacy regulations on the efficacy of relationship development and management as well as online marketing processes.

Globalization has transformed the way business relationships are formed, managed, and evaluated, and customer engagement is likely to play a prominent role in business-to-business contexts. Business relationships are complex, interpersonal, and interdependent, and relationship marketing efforts can make a difference in promoting common goals and facilitating joint activities that create value for both partners; value that each company could not achieve outside the relationship or with other partners (Palmatier, 2008 ). In an international context, companies need to manage their cross-border relationships more skillfully to address geographic separation, cultural distance, administrative (e.g., currencies, legal jurisdictions) and economic (Katsikeas, Samiee, & Theodosiou, 2006 ; Leonidou, Samiee, Aykol, & Talias, 2014 ; Samiee, Chabowski, & Hult, 2015 ) differences between local and foreign markets, and increased levels of risk and uncertainty inherent in international operations (Johanson & Vahlne, 2009 ; Katsikeas, Skarmeas, & Bello, 2009 ). How does the international environment affect the activities, strategies, structures, and decision-making processes of companies with respect to their business relationships? How can companies manage their overseas business relationships as value-bearing assets? Are cross-border business relationships part of a value-creating network that delivers superior value to the end customer? What is the role of international relationship building and management in overcoming the liability of foreignness? Likewise, the roles of overseas business partners (e.g., distributors, suppliers) in knowledge development, innovation, and goal achievement are relevant and important areas that require research attention.

The fit between IM strategy and international relationships also deserves ongoing research attention. How can companies ensure that their different suppliers and partners abroad are well-aligned with their IM strategy? Strategy standardization offers significant economies of scale in value-adding activities (e.g., R&D, production, marketing), facilitates the development of a consistent corporate/brand image across countries, enhances coordination and control of international operations, and reduces operational and managerial complexity, whereas adaptation is based on the premise that variations between countries necessitate adjustment of the marketing strategy to the idiosyncrasies of each local market. The contingency approach suggests that the appropriateness of the selected IM strategy – typically positioned between the two standardization–adaptation extremes – should be evaluated based on its alignment, or fit, with dominant factors in the international environment, as fit facilitates enhanced performance outcomes (Katsikeas et al., 2006 ). Despite long-standing traditions in these areas, sensemaking in some overarching topics is needed. For example, the pursuit of a market orientation strategy demands sensitivity to local market conditions and IM strategy adaptation. Given the importance of market orientation for many firms, there is a need to better understand how market orientation influences IM strategy. On the one hand, market and customer orientation demand more localized or adapted IM strategies. On the other hand, a high degree of IM strategy standardization seemingly impedes a high degree of market orientation. How do firms reconcile their IM strategy and market orientation efforts? Moreover, how do customer relationships in particular and business relationships in general interact with the perennial issue of adaptation or standardization of IM strategy? Do overseas business relationships help the company determine which specific strategic elements are feasible or desirable to standardize or adapt? If so, under what conditions, and to what degree? To what extent is cocreation possible and appropriate under each IM strategy scenario?

In addition, the assessment of performance in international market operations is an issue that requires particular attention in the IM literature. The relevance and importance of IM resources, strategies, and actions is reflected in the extent to which these favorably influence firm performance outcomes achieved via international market operations and, in turn, contribute to organizational performance. However, there are a large number and wide diversity of IM performance measures employed in the literature, which makes the development of a coherent cumulative body of knowledge in the field particularly challenging (Katsikeas, Morgan, Leonidou, & Hult, 2016 ). Scant attention has been given in IM as to how performance should be conceptualized and operationalized, and studies commonly do not provide a definition or any justification for the assessment of performance that is adopted and for the specific measures used in the context of foreign market operations (Katsikeas, Leonidou, & Morgan, 2000 ; Leonidou, Katsikeas, & Samiee, 2002 ). Given that performance is inherently a multidimensional construct, it is essential that IM researchers be selective in choosing specific performance dimensions, and justify their choice on the basis of some theory-based logic, conceptual framing, and/or for pragmatic reasons. Performance assessment in international market operations should be in line with the theoretical perspective(s) adopted in the study. For example, empirical research grounded in the resource-based view and/or the dynamic capabilities perspective, which underpins much of the strategy-related and competitive advantage work in IM, requires a competitor-centered assessment of performance outcomes; that is, individual performance aspects and items need to be assessed in relation to competition in the foreign market targeted by the firm’s IM strategy (see Katsikeas et al., 2016 ).

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE

The call for papers for this special issue has been received with much enthusiasm, as demonstrated by the large number of submissions covering a wide range of IM topics. Accordingly, manuscripts accepted for inclusion in this issue represent the diversity of submissions, with each making a unique contribution to the IM body of knowledge. The first article focuses on the sharing economy (SE), which is a timely and important issue that influences business operations across industries worldwide. Kozlenkova, Lee, Xiang, and Palmatier’s meta-analytic effort examines the effects of value-based (i.e., utilitarian, social, hedonic, and sustainability value) and governance-based (i.e., trust) factors on SE participation and investigates their relative effectiveness under different global contingencies (i.e., economic/competitive, cultural, societal, technological, regulatory, and demographic factors). Based on 55 empirical articles, with 60 independent samples from 15 countries, representing 123 correlations across 26,377 customers during the 2009–2019 period, the findings suggest that hedonic value exerts the largest effect on SE participation, followed by trust and utilitarian value, while social value and sustainability have the smallest effects. The analysis reveals a complex pattern of global contingency effects that firms should consider when advancing their entry strategies, formulating governance mechanisms, and evaluating promising markets. Kozlenkova et al. integrate their key insights into three tenets, reflecting the most important and surprising findings. These tenets are grounded in the vitally important roles of inequality, the hierarchy of needs, and governance mechanisms that can serve as a platform for establishing an emerging perspective of global SE participation.

Marketing metrics represent another critically important topic that has received little research attention in IM or IB. Sound managerial decisions and marketing strategy are based on quantitative measures, including outcomes (Moorman & Day, 2016 ). In their contribution to this special issue, Mintz, Currim, Steenkamp, and de Jong focus on metric use in marketing decisions across 16 countries, using a cultural perspective. The authors leverage a rich dataset containing more than 4,300 marketing decisions in more than 1,600 firms across 16 countries. Respondents chose from 24 general metrics pertinent to marketing (12) and financial (12) decisions, plus 6 metrics specific to each of 10 marketing mix decisions. The findings indicate that, for all markets combined, an average of 9 metrics are used per marketing decision. With nearly 12 metrics per decision, South Korean managers use the highest number of metrics, while Japanese managers use the fewest, with approximately 4 metrics per marketing decision. China and India, each with approximately 11 metrics, are close to Korea and are heavy users of marketing metrics, whereas France and the United States, with nearly 6 and 7, respectively, are moderate users of metrics in decision-making. Importantly, satisfaction, awareness, and return on investment are the three most commonly used metrics across markets. In addition, the study finds that metric use is affected by both firm and country culture.

Business-to-business (B2B) electronic platforms (e-platforms) play a critical role in helping exporting firms reach, serve, and penetrate foreign markets. However, the IB literature is unclear about how and under what conditions firms can use B2B e-platforms to boost their export performance outcomes. Drawing on signaling theory, Jean, Kim, Zhou, and Cavusgil propose and empirically test a model that investigates how exporters’ e-platform use affects export sales performance by boosting foreign market contact (i.e., quotations from foreign buyers) and how the institutional environment and export growth strategies influence the e-platform use–foreign market contact link. Using survey and archival lagged data on a sample of 205 exporters that subscribe to Alibaba.com, the authors reveal that e-platform use enhances foreign buyer contact and, in turn, export sales performance. The findings also suggest that the positive impact of e-platform use among exporters is further boosted when they come from regions that have less-developed market intermediaries or under conditions of high institutional distance between the home and host countries. The study also demonstrates that the effect of e-platform use on a foreign buyer contact becomes weaker under conditions of high export market diversification or high product diversification.

Platform-based mobile payments have experienced significant growth worldwide in recent years, partly because they offer unique value for both customers and companies over other digital payment methods. Kumar, Nim, and Agarwal note, however, that patterns of such payment adoption grow differently across countries, with some emerging countries (e.g., China) outperforming developed ones. The authors propose a conceptual model of mobile payment adoption, and develop hypotheses using explanations from the literature on network effects and institutional theory. Based on data collected across 30 countries (17 developed and 13 emerging), the study confirms the existence of network effects and differential influences of perceived value, inertia, and cultural factors on the mobile payment adoption of innovators and imitators. The presence of significant heterogeneity both within and between countries regarding the adoption of mobile payments, which offers additional evidence of leapfrogging by emerging markets with regard to mass mobile payment use, has important implications for theory development and marketing management practice in IB.

Global brands and perceived brand globalness (PBG) research have received much scholarly attention in the IM literature (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 1999 ; Batra, Ramaswamy, Alden, Steenkamp, & Ramachander, 2000 ; Steenkamp et al., 2003 ). Contributing to this growing literature, Mandler, Bartsch, and Han tap the potential aversion to globalization among consumers and examine sentiments with respect to branding as the basis for corporate decisions regarding the appropriateness of global branding. The authors leverage signaling theory to conduct two studies that (1) assess brand credibility on the basis of consumer PBG and perceived brand localness (PBL) across two countries (Germany and South Korea), and (2) examine the role of three moderators (perceived country of origin, category social signaling value, and category cultural grounding). The findings demonstrate that both PBG and PBL are positively associated with brand credibility across markets; a split-sample test offers a contrast between globalized and globalizing markets, and demonstrates a relationship between brand credibility and PBL in Germany but not in South Korea, where brand credibility is associated with PBG. The study reports the impact of brand origin on brand credibility and demonstrates that effect of PBL on brand credibility does not vary with the brand’s origin in Germany, but the effect is stronger for domestic brands than for foreign brands in South Korea. The contrast between consumer perceptions in globalized and globalizing markets offers fruitful theoretical and managerial implications, while raising a series of consumer and IM strategy questions that have the potential to expand the boundaries of IM knowledge.

Origin-related research and animosity with reference to consumer perceptions, preferences, and choice have played major roles in the marketing literature (Klein, Ettenson, & Morris, 1998 ; Lu, Heslop, Thomas, & Kwan, 2016 ; Samiee, 1994 ; Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999 ). In line with this stream of IM research, Westjohn, Magnusson, Peng, and Jung contrast animosity’s effect on product judgement versus willingness to buy. The first part of their contribution consists of a meta-analysis of 43 post–Klein et al. ( 1998 ) published works focusing on animosity, involving 18 nations, to address the inconsistencies reported in the literature. The authors follow this with an examination of the contextual role of culture on animosity effects using six experiments in the United States and China. They leverage three Hofstede dimensions (i.e., collectivism, long-term orientation, and power distance), measured at the individual level. The results indicate that collectivism and long-term orientation lessen the negative effects of animosity and support the position that animosity’s effect on willingness to buy is stronger than it is on product judgments. The findings offer useful insights for managers regarding, among others, consumers’ attitudes toward brands. Although the findings indicate that product judgements are not affected by animosity, the results indicate that product sales could be affected. In addition to demonstrating cross-cultural differences, the authors find that cultural values influence consumers’ willingness to buy.

The establishment, development, and management of cross-border interorganizational exchange relationships has received considerable research attention in the IB literature (e.g., Bello & Gilliland, 1997 ; Robson, Katsikeas, Schlegelmilch, & Pramböck, 2019 ; Skarmeas, Katsikeas, & Schlegelmilch, 2002 ). The starting point for Obadia and Robson’s study is the inconsistent findings in the literature regarding the effects of cooperation on performance in exporter–importer relationships. The authors argue that the relationship of cooperation with performance in IB associations has an inverted U shape; at high levels, the performance impact of cooperation weakens greatly and becomes negative. They also find that the importer’s specific investments mediate the link between cooperation and performance, which advances the idea that relational phenomena affect exporter performance only if they foster an importer’s productive behaviors. The study also points to the role of interdependence in moderating the inverted U-shaped relationship between cooperation and the importer’s specific investments. The findings reveal that a limited increase of interdependence enhances the impact of low to moderate levels of cooperation on the importer’s specific investments.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Overall, criticisms of IM scholarship (e.g., Buckley, 2002a ; Douglas & Craig, 1992 ; Kotabe, 2001 ) are generally well placed and to the point. Marketing and IM are pivotal to a firm’s existence and should play overarching roles in charting firms’ management and strategy. Yet IM has largely abandoned the “big picture” by focusing on microresearch and behavioral questions, notably, country-of-origin, and cross-cultural consumer behavior topics (Day, 1996 ; Kotabe, 2001 ; Leonidou et al., 2017 ).

Much work remains for IM scholars to advance the field by placing greater emphasis and effort on strategy-related topics and exploring macro-areas of business: for example, by bridging IM strategy with regard to market entry modes and globalization and addressing issues related to disruptive external change to global supply chains and e-commerce, among others. Indeed, Buckley’s ( 2002b ) position regarding the past successes of IB scholarship in exploring international market entry (the “big picture”) may seem premature if one agrees that marketing, a central concern of which is the customer and the idiosyncrasies associated with the demand-side, is largely absent from much of this success. The relative absence of “marketing” in much of the market entry literature is a call for IB and IM scholars to leverage this critical aspect of firms’ internationalization decisions. This view is consistent with Drucker’s position that “Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise” (Drucker, 1954 , pp. 38–39). Additionally, the fact that IB and IM are close in their fundamentals, and that the IM knowledge structure significantly taps into management scholarship (Buckley, 2002a ; Samiee & Chabowski, 2012 ), further validates marketing’s relevance and centrality in the broader international business thought. Consequently, the perceived proximity of these disciplines appears to be greater than one might expect. A major strength of IB has been its ability to embrace and integrate other business disciplines from which crucial research questions emerge (Peng, 2004 ). A more marketing- and customer-centric view of IB research is also in line with this position.

There appears to be ample research opportunity to adopt a marketing mindset in IB research and to explicitly introduce marketing considerations to achieve a marketing-based view of IB activities, most notably the macro-issues, including market entry mode choice, international expansion patterns, cross-border buyer–seller relationships, and strategic alliances. Although this special issue is primarily intended to inspire and broadly direct researchers’ focus on developing IM projects that fill key knowledge gaps in IM thought, in keeping with Drucker’s and Levitt’s positions regarding the marketing purpose of all enterprises, we very much hope that this work offers pathways for general IB scholars to embrace, leverage, and contribute to IM knowledge.

The proportion of marketing articles reported by Griffith et al. ( 2008 ) is likely inflated, as two of the six journals surveyed are dedicated entirely to international marketing topics.

This issue maybe exacerbated by the use of varying terminologies across disciplines; however, despite marketing’s centrality in business, “marketing” and “consumer” or “customer” are rare terms in much IB research (cf. Anand & Kogut, 1997 ; Hejazi, Tang, & Wang, 2020 ).

MSI is a non-profit organization led by academic researchers, in collaborations with industry, aiming to address marketing issues faced by firms. Although we do not observe an ongoing internationally related research momentum in its current list of priorities, MSI has periodically addressed selective IM-related topics.

We also calculated citation per year to account for the timing of the published works; however, as Tables 1 and 2 show, among the highly cited works, the most-cited set and the order of articles remain largely the same.

This includes intracorporate export transactions involving parts and semifinished products. International firms frequently require subsidiaries to effectively compete in quality, price, and service with other suppliers, effectively marketing themselves as the premier supplier to the internal customer. Even if intrafirm export sales were guaranteed, as is the case in some firms, the final assembled product must still compete with other firms in every respect. In other words, the marketing function of intracorporate export transactions is merely pushed to the firm assembling and selling the final product.

Several journals, led by Journal of International Marketing and International Marketing Review , are dedicated to publishing scholarly IM research.

This is based on the spatial configuration generated by multidimensional scaling for works published in 34 scholarly journals (2,709 articles) in the 2004–2008 period. Other analyses (factor analysis and clustering) produced slightly fewer knowledge groups.

Estimates of the number of publications in this IM domain vary. For example, Samiee and Chabowski ( 2021 ) identify more than 482 country-of-origin publications listed in the Web of Science database, whereas Lu et al. ( 2016 ) estimate that the number of country-of-origin-related publications exceed 600.

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Saeed Samiee

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Samiee, S., Katsikeas, C.S. & Hult, G.T.M. The overarching role of international marketing: Relevance and centrality in research and practice. J Int Bus Stud 52 , 1429–1444 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-021-00433-2

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Received : 13 December 2020

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Accepted : 29 March 2021

Published : 18 May 2021

Issue Date : October 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-021-00433-2

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Essay on international marketing.

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Read this essay to learn about International Marketing. After reading this essay you will learn about: 1. Introduction to International Marketing 2. Framework of International Marketing 3. Market Identification, Segmentation, and Targeting 4. Entry Mode Decisions 5. International Marketing Mix Decisions 6. Product Decisions 7. Pricing Decisions 8. Distribution Channels 9. Communication Decisions and Other Details.

• Performance and Consolidating International Marketing Operations

Essay # 1. Introduction to International Marketing:

Consequent to the global economic integration, a firm operating in the domestic market can no longer rely upon its home market because the home market is now an export market for everybody else. Earlier, it was believed that in order to compete in international markets, a firm needed to be competitive in the domestic market.

But in view of the liberal economic policies, a business enterprise needs to compete with international firms in the domestic market too.

Thus, in order to even remain domestically competitive, a firm needs to be internationally competitive. As a strategic response to the globalization of markets, business enterprises need to adopt a proactive approach and learn to transform emerging marketing threats and challenges into viable business opportunities.

Thus, the significance of developing a thorough understanding of international marketing has become inevitable for managers not only for operating in international markets, but also as a pre-condition for success in operating domestically.

In the mid-1950s, the orientation towards markets shifted from selling to marketing Earlier, under the concept of selling, the focus was on aggressive selling and sales promotion of products so as to achieve sales maximization, which in turn was expected to maximize a firm’s profit earnings.

Conversely, under the marketing concept, the target market is the starting point in the marketing approach with the focus on customer needs.

Profit maximization under marketing is achieved through customer satisfaction by way of integrated marketing efforts. Marketing scholar Theodore Levitt explains this distinction thus selling focuses on the needs of the seller while marketing on the needs of the buyer.

Selling is pre-occupied with the seller’s need to convert his/her product into cash whereas marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the entire cluster of issues associated with creating, delivering, and finally consuming it.

However, as per the legendary management guru Peter Drucker, there would always be the need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous by developing a thorough understanding about the customer so that the product or service fits him/her and sells itself.

Marketing guru Philip Kotler defines marketing as ‘the human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes’. Achieving customer- satisfaction has been given the utmost significance in the concept of marketing because procuring a new customer costs far more (estimated to be five times) than retaining the existing.

It is likely to cost 16 times as much to bring the new customer to the same level of profitability as the lost customer. Emphasizing on exchange processes, the American Marketing Association defines Marketing as ‘the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals’.

With manifold increase in competitive intensity in the present marketing era, the focus is shifting fast to marketing orientation.

In simple terms, international marketing is defined as marketing carried out across national boundaries. International marketing may also be defined as ‘the performance of business activities, designed to plan, price, promote, and direct the flow of a company’s goods and services to consumer or users in more than one nation for a profit’.

International marketing takes place when marketing is carried out ‘across the border’ or between ‘more than one nation’. Global marketing is the process of focusing resources and objectives of an organization on global marketing opportunities and needs.

The thrust of international marketing consists of locating and satisfying global customer needs in a manner more efficient than competitors, both domestic and international, and coordinating marketing activities within the constraints of the global environment.

Thus, international marketing would involve:

i. Identifying needs and wants of customers in international markets.

ii. Taking marketing mix decisions related to product, pricing, distribution, and communication, keeping in view the diverse consumer and market behaviour across different countries on one hand, firms’ goals towards globalization on the other.

iii. Penetrating into international markets using various modes of entry.

iv. Taking decisions in view of dynamic international marketing environment.

Essay # 2. Framework of International Marketing:

Once a firm decides to enter international markets, it needs to set objectives as to what it intends to achieve out of its international marketing operations.

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Essay on INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

The most important task of strategic management is to establish and maintain a dynamic interaction of the organization with its environment, designed to provide it with a competitive advantage, which is achieved by providing a product to the customer. Therefore, marketing objective occupies the position of one of the leading strategic management functions. For a number of organizations, depending on what goals they pursue and what strategy they implement, marketing is a key feature to ensure their successful operation. Moreover, companies turn to a management philosophy, according to which a company must focus its activity completely on customer needs (market driver management) and not try to make “convenient” products trying to sell it. Therefore, marketing becomes something more than just a separate function of management.

Marketing is increasingly used all areas of business activity of the company. Thus, marketing plays a special role in the strategic management, significantly beyond the scope of functions of sales and demand analysis.

Local marketing research

Today, setting new ambitious goals, every company faces many problems inherent to the market economy. The real problem of doing business has become the problem of finding effective demand. It is not enough to only produce goods, it is necessary to organize the work in such a way to make a profit from the sale of this product.

Local marketing research is a systematic search, collection, analysis and presentation of data and information related to a particular market situation, which the company faces in its country (Lipovetsky, Magnan, & Zanetti-Polzi, 2011).

The objectives of marketing research:

Searching goal – collecting information for a preliminary assessment of the problem and its structuring;

Descriptive goal – description of the selected events, research subjects and the factors affecting their condition;

Causal purpose – check of the hypothesis of a causal relationship;

Test objectives – selection of promising options or assessment of the correctness of decisions;

Forward-looking goals – prediction of the state of the object in the future.

The principal feature of marketing research, distinguishing it from the collection and analysis of internal and external current information, is its target aim to solve a particular problem or set of problems of marketing.

Each company determines the topics and scope of marketing research according to its capabilities and needs in marketing information, so the types of marketing research conducted by various companies can be different.

Iinternational marketing reserch

The term “international marketing research” refers to the collection, analysis and reporting on clearly defined problem of the operation of companies in foreign markets. International marketing research of different depth and breadth of coverage and the underlying information base are the base for all decisions (Webster, & Lusch,  2013).

Before entering international markets and creating information marketing base, a company should collect information about the overall status and trends:

1) industry of manufacturing products,

2) countries, which are producers and consumers of these products,

3) individual manufacturers, consumers and resellers.

The study of international markets is based on the following characteristics:

1) products (industries, types of products, manufacturers, methods and forms of sales and service of products)

2) consumers (industries, types of products, manufacturers and buyers, goals and methods of consumption)

3) location of the market (region, country, territory).

On the first stage of international market research, a company should study the broadest possible segment, that is the world market of the product. It must collect information about what companies in which countries produce, trade and consume this type of product and services (Mihaela, 2010).

The similarities and the differences between local and international marketing research

Local and international marketing research are very similar, as they have almost the same goals and objectives, as well as methods of conducting research. Both types of studies provide a comprehensive study examining objects such as the market, consumers, and competitors. Local and international marketing research have the same scheme of marketing research, which involves the following steps:

• Defining a problem, objectives and methods.
• Developing research plan.
• Data collection and analysis.
• Interpretation of the results and giving them to the management of organization.

Differences between local and international marketing research is that the evaluation of the international marketing environment is carried out mainly from the standpoint of economic purchasing power of the population in various countries, the levels of its income, industrial structure, orientation of the economy (agricultural, raw materials, etc.), overall level of economic development (Levy, 2012). Nevertheless, a potential exporter or importer should explore political and legal environment of the country: stability of government, its laws in relation to the economic sphere (quotas, restrictions, confiscation of property of foreign businessmen, foreign exchange controls). This may also include the availability of market information, organization of statistics, work of customs and tax authorities. Social culture of the country should also be a subject of international marketing research. Local marketing research does not include these questions.

The steps of marketing research

Marketing research process consists of several stages.

• Defining the problem and research objectives. It is difficult to start any research before the problem is determined. Stage of recognition and definition of the problem is the first step in the process of finding solutions. Failure to comply with the tasks of sales, a growing number of unpaid bills and low turnover are the signals or symptoms of more serious problems. Researchers should recognize and identify the problems behind these symptoms. Incorrect definition of the problem can lead to wrong decisions. Objectives are derived from market research to formulate the problem. Objectives should be clearly and precisely defined, and be sufficiently detailed, it should be possible to measure them and evaluate their level of achievement.
• Definition of the objects of research.

When a problem is defined, it is possible to formulate the research problem. As a rule, the study includes a solution to one of the four objectives: to develop, describe, test hypotheses and predict. The study is carried out to develop when you need to get more information on the issue and more clearly formulate hypotheses. Research to describe the problem is held when it is necessary to describe objects such as market, define their characteristics based on statistical data. If the task of marketing research is testing the hypothesis of relationship between the independent and dependent variables, companies conduct research to identify the causes of the emergence of the problem.

• Development of a research plan. The creation of a research project is perhaps the most important step in the process of marketing research. Research project is a general plan of marketing research. It defines the requirements for a variety of data and its collection, processing and analysis. This stage includes not only the choice of certain methods of marketing research and development of specific tasks within the market research. At this stage, researcher determines the need for information, type of required information, sources and methods of its collection.
• Data collection. From the perspective of the process, there are at least three alternative approaches to data collection: by the staff of marketing service, by the specially created group or with the involvement of companies that specialize in data collection. The process of gathering information is usually the most expensive phase of the study. Furthermore, it may have a sufficiently large number of errors during implementation.
• Analysis of the data. It begins with the transformation of raw data (error checking, encoding, representation in matrix form). This allows transferring a lot of raw data into meaningful information.
• Presentation of the results. Results of the research are presented in the form of the final report and submitted to the management of the company (Shaw, 2012).

From national to international marketing

Development of international economic relations, primarily on the basis of the international division of labor, is the characteristic process in today’s global community. These are objective, stable commercial relations between individual countries or groups of countries.

Essentially, each country in addition to conducting internal trade tends to carry foreign trade, implying a complex mechanism of relations arising in the process of sale of goods and services in the international market. Development of the international cooperation significantly increases the tendency towards the internationalization of economic processes, promotes international specialization and cooperation in production, trade, exchange of scientific and technological developments.

International marketing is a response to the world of commercial processes such as growth and expansion of partnerships in the international market, increase of production capacity, quick update of product range, frequent changes in the nature and structure of the market demand, market fluctuations, increased competition, increased and improved quality of information support. International marketing provides a systematic, ongoing, active involvement in the international market at different stages of the promotion of commercial products (services) to the consumer. That is why we should distinguish the concept of “international marketing” from the concepts of “sale” and “export”, since the latter consists in the fact that sellers are limited to delivery of its products to foreign importing companies. At the same time, suppliers are generally not interested in how consumers are satisfied in these products. A distinctive feature of international marketing is a complete and clear orientation on foreign consumers, the desire to satisfy their needs and requirements.

Marketing research is a necessary condition for the success of the company in international markets at all stages of its operation and product life cycle. The better boundaries and objectives of the study are defined, the more useful received information is, and the more accurate calculations are. They help to better understand and adapt to the needs of the buyer, determine the best value for money and quality of the goods, find new customers, find a way to draw attention to your company and products. Market conditions are constantly changing, so there is a need for such work all the time, which greatly increases the effectiveness of company on the international markets (Mihaela, 2010).

There are many examples of successful marketing of companies operating in the domestic and foreign markets. Here are some of them.

Marlboro. Marlboro invented pack of cardboard with flip-top lid, which are now standard package of cigarettes not in order to demonstrate innovation or design ideas but for promotional purposes. Smokers were able to pull out cigarettes from soft packs without removing them from the pocket, so others did not see the brand. Flip-tops made smokers take the pack out of the pocket so that everybody could see it, and the new always attracts attention.

Estee Lauder. There is a beautiful legend about how Estee Lauder began selling its perfumes. The young Miss Lauder came the biggest perfume shop in New York “accidentally” split the bottle of her perfume on the floor. Buyers asked about the wonderful smell and store just had to sign a contract with Estee Lauder.

Heinz. In 1896, Henry Heinz was walking around New York and saw an advertisement of shoe store, which offered clients “21 style of shoes.” By analogy, he decided to write on their ketchup and sauces “57 options”. This number had nothing to do with the actual figures range, but Heinz liked it. And it impressed buyers.

Harley-Davidson. The most famous manufacturer of motorcycles in the world holds the first place in terms of “branded” tattoos for more than a dozen years. It all began with the fact that Harley announced impressive discounts on bikes for those who would come to buy a motorcycle with a tattoo in the form of its logo.

One of the largest tobacco companies, «R. J. Reynolds International», was able to create a special “Russian image”. The company began to produce new cigarettes, which were called “Peter I». Until now, non-standard advertising of the company emphasizes that these cigarettes are created by Russian designers specifically for Russian consumers. Company «R. J. Reynolds International» was able to show how effective PR can work in terms of the binding of marketing programs to local traditions and mentality of the target audience (Slater, & Andriopoulos, 2013).

Marketing research includes studies to support marketing activities, as well as statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, assess of the nature of trading environment of the company and to obtain information from suppliers. Market research use statistical methods such as qualitative and quantitative research, hypothesis testing, chi-square test, linear regression, frequency distribution, binomial distribution, etc. These methods are needed to interpret the results and transform data into information. The process of marketing research covers a number of steps, including identifying a problem, developing a plan of analysis, data collection and interpretation, presenting information in the form of a formal report. The task of market research is to provide management with relevant, accurate, reliable and valid data.

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