International Business: Challenges & Choices

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS: CHALLENGES & CHOICES
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(20, April, 2011)
International Business: Challenges & Choices
In order for a product to be marketable internationally, there is need for it to meet the market target of a given nation and some factors need to be considered, which are the cultural background of the market target, their buying habits, the level of personal disposal income, political and economic difference, with the above factors considered, the likelihood of meeting the market target is very high (Nasir, & Altinbasak, 2009). Apart from those factors, the product to be sold globally should also be looked upon so as to have the right market mix. Some of the things to be looked upon are the features of the product, the pricing, the location and availability of your product and the target consumer. For example, a computer software company coming up with a new software in the market, here it can be viewed that the product element should be the software product, the pricing of the software since it does varies subsequently across many borders, getting the consumers feedback on the performance of the software as well as the cost used to implement it while promotion of the is all about competition in terms of unique and new ideas and the location should be the use of some online means to market your product which can be considered to be an advertising means (Sinkovics, & Ghauri, 2009).
There are advantages of marketing your product globally which is the association of the size of operation. This allows the owner of the product to have a bargaining power with a given country. Another thing is the allowance of investment sharing especially from the willing parties but it also depends with kind of product you are marketing in those countries.
The only challenge remains on whether the product to be sold internationally should use a standardized market mix or an adaptation means eve though this kind of standardization depends on the product name, product characteristics, the role of the middlemen, the role of packaging and the force of management sale and the main advertising messages. However, it is known that, the idea of standardization leads us to the fact that, consumer needs and wants have never varied across many markets and countries, hence, the standardization of the element of the market mix factors and the coming up of a single method in the international market promises which should involve the decrease of cost and customer mobility (Susan, & Heather, 1990).
In terms of management, with the increase in the international competition and the economic pressure, more people, companies and retailers have been forced to adapt some means to their international marketing methodologies. This becomes a challenge to the managers of a given company or industry or retailers to come up with technical ways that will enable them compete internationally. Identification of the market target and the organization objectives can ease the managers work of coming up with strategies to compete internationally (Sitkin, & Bowen, 2010).
Developments in information and communication technology and advances in logistics and means of transport have encouraged though competition and economic constraints hence triggering the debate on the issues of standardization and adaptation from both scholars and practitioners. Some of the arguments are the homogenization of the world market of which some prefer the focus on the similarities among the consumers who are using the product globally.
With the above developments, there is the challenge of achieving your goals financially. Improvements in technology and means of transportation have been known to support the idea of standardization of the market techniques and the promotion mix (Nasir, & Altinbasak, 2009). Some of those issues that are known to support standardization are a given company paying its attention to only industrial products instead of putting the focus on the consumer needs and wants of which technical specification can be considered to be of importance hence facilitating standardization, lower cost due to economic scale impact, same needs and wants of consumers across different markets globally, high costs of adaptations, centralization of products due to policies and allocation of resources and same level of development in some countries. Even though are in line with standardization, there have been some major obstacles against this idea of standardization which are the national differences in the taste of the product, the buying habits, laws and regulation of some countries and technical requirements.
As the above development support standardization, cultural differences have been known to support adaptation in terms of economic and industrial developments, the evolution of the product, the pricing, media availability, developments in technology and legal restriction which are meant to determine the market methodologies. Some of the factors that go hand in hand with adaptation are focus on the consumer products, high profitability in products, variation in consumer purchasing, differences in government regulations, decentralization, adaptation ways by competitors and cultural differences in terms of languages, taste and consumption behavior.
For instance, in order for a computer software product to be able to be accepted internationally, it should have to be unique and posses a standardized approach as to whom it targets through its features and the needs and a wants of the consumer so as to market itself. This means of standardization can be considered to be the best because of some advantages that get involved with it which are the cost reduction but this can be achieved if the owner of the computer software product is able to think globally and put its action in local terms so that the product can be able to find its ways in the foreign markets.
It is therefore has to be noted that, with standardization and adaptation, both of them should not be considered to have parted ways from each other but instead they should be seen to be belonging in the same category (Betts, & Blair, 2008). Thorough analysis and assessment should be done about the considered factors before making decisions on adaptation or standardization, any level of strategy on the issue of standardization or adaptation should be evaluated with lots of keenness regarding to the impact on the performances globally. Even though this can be achievable, the product will have to encounter some challenges for it to be successful internationally. The challenges can either be the adaptation or standardization of a given product globally due to the international promotion strategies since there have been no major standardizations of pricing and physical distribution have taken place for some decades (V. A. Nasir & I. Altinbasak).
For example, if one needs to advertise a given product such as computer software internationally, there are some things that need to be considered before the adaptation of the product globally. This is due to the cultural differences that can be seen in different nation. Th...