Firms participating in international marketing require specialized expertise regarding the global marketplace. These firms rely on professional international marketers to (1) identify market opportunities, (2) select and execute market entry strategy, and (3) design and manage a successful marketing mix. International marketers face efficiency and cost pressures to standardize their activities across markets as well as pressures to adapt activities to meet specific demands within markets. Identifying the optimal mix of standardization and adaptation to achieve local and international success is the goal that international marketers must accomplish.
The objective of this course is to provide you with a method for analyzing world markets and their respective consumers and environments, and to equip you with the tools needed to develop marketing strategies for an ever-changing global market. We will accomplish this objective through lecture and discussion of relevant concepts, readings from the business press, case analyses of actual global marketing issues, and through a computer-based international marketing simulation game, CountryManager. The simulation will entail selecting a new international market for entry, establishing a brand presence in that market, and expanding into additional foreign markets.
