This course is very influential and very useful for my career. Through this course, I have developed outstanding skills, which will allow me to easily engage in my profession and achieve a high level of proficiency. First, when I started this course, I did not know anything about gender, race or even race, and how these are applied to the international market. Having gone through this class, I have gained high levels of knowledge regarding these perspectives and how they relate with international marketing. I have learned that when it comes to marketing to a foreign market, it is critical to carry out research and learn its cultural traits. Understanding cultural diversity is as important to an organization as a brand is to the same organization.
Second, I have also developed skills on how to develop a marketing plan. Before accepting this course, I had only a superficial understanding of how to develop a great marketing plan. Through this class, I have learned that a company can only reach its target customers through its marketing plan. I have also learned the various functions and elements of a marketing plan.
There are different skills that are pertinent in my career path and even in my industry. Developing a marketing plan is one of these skills. Without this basic skill, a marketer cannot succeed in his or her career. Secondly, forecasting is also an important skill in my career path. Through prediction, ethical and legal issues that may adversely affect marketing efforts can be resolved and solutions can be found.
I want to further study the different aspects of this course. One of those aspects is the development of a marketing plan. I want to improve my skills, from simply being able to design a plan to being able to design a marketing plan, which will help achieve marketing goals and objectives.
Charles
International marketing is marketing that goes beyond just one country, it goes around the World. Domestic marketing would be considered marketing a product in just one country only, Ex: the U.S., the United Kingdom. Cultural ethnicity and diversity when it comes to International marketing. You have to find the right niche market to develop a market in a different country, and multi-national companies need to find out about language barriers, and trying to translate a message into a native language can be tough, and sometimes the meanings are rather different. Such as Pinto in Portugese means small penis, so you wouldn’t want to refer a small car in that regard. Marketing blunders world wide can definitely ruin some business with multi-national companies by having the wrong message for a product.
Using a SWOT analysis, (strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats), find the right product design, in order to get demand high. You can have government problems in allowing some products from different countries, the way how it’s imported from other countries, such as China, North Korea, most of the communist countries control the inflow of goods and services that come into the country. I would introduce a new product based upon market research, what is needed for demand in the country, what is the hottest thing that foreigners want to get their hands on. SWOT analysis would also work, finding someone fluent in the foreign language that has a nack for marketing would be a plus. Then find a supply chain to get the product moving, introduce it, and see what demand it has, how it can be used everyday, etc. Create a demand for it, then let the market become hot. Having a multi-national company can also be challenging ethically, so ethics and rules would be in place that would reward those that worked hard, would punish those that acted unethical, such as bribes, stealing, etc. Have and train employees about the ethics and what is right and what would be considered criminal.
International marketing has opened up my eyes on how different products are marketed Throughout the world, what impacts that American companies have on foreign countries, the unique message that can either be brilliant, or have it’s oops moment. Now working for a multi-national company, Teleperformance, it has opened up my eyes to how a client is perceived, how they want their brand to be perceived, how the product needs to be marketed, and to maintain the profitability that will help the company be successful. I’m excited about what the opportunities will abound, and how international marketing creates big marketing opportunities that will help profitability around the world. Thank you Professor Matula and class for making this experience wonderful
Anthony
3. What issues may arise if your do not identify all the potential disadvantages of your plan?
Main issue if you neglect to disclose potential disadvantages is you can loose trust and permanently damage your reputation. I say this from experience watching some younger employees of a AE firm I was working with try to hide all negatives and see them come out in a meeting. The CEO was brutal to say the least, but a lesson was learned, be honest and do not ever hold back information. A leader cannot make a sound decision if they do not have all the facts, and again it is a career ender if it is even implied that you attempted to hide them. Another way it can be negatively seen is it makes you look less intelligent. “You mean you did not see this problem”? is another phrase I have heard when going over plans. It is just easier to lay everything out and give a honest shake to your idea.
4. Why is it crucial to provide both proactive (during the implementation) and reactive (after completing the implementation) feedback to management?
They need to know what’s going on during a project to keep moving foreword. Sadly management can get disconnected from the day to day of the project, but as a PM we should be plugged in and see any issues that are forming. As we said during my Navy days, “Don’t be the senior guy with a secret when it goes down”.
Reactive is probably the most beneficial feed back. “lessons Learned”, “Hot Wash”, “After Action”, are all names for it, but it is vital so the next project goes smoother and honestly they are a good thing to bring the new guys in to. They also get to benefit from the experience gains and when they are handling their own projects they will at least know of some of the issues that were not covered in school.
Sierra
Hello class,
In this discussion post, I will respond to the third and fourth question.
3.What issues may arise if your do not identify all the potential disadvantages of your plan?
The 15 page comprehensive plan allows us to address the positives, negatives, advantages, and disadvantages. If the potential disadvantages are missed, or not identified, then it could harm the company throughout the process. There could be many unknown errors that happen along the way that could completely affect the plan. The goals for this process are long term objectives and plans, that need to be strategically evaluated and skillfully planned. You can’t just throw together a few ideas and hope that it works out in the long-run. Every avenue of approach needs to be evaluated, so that the potential disadvantages can be identified before they happen. If the disadvantages can be identified, then management and the operating team can be ahead of the game and they can fix a problem before it even happens.
4.Why is it crucial to provide both proactive (during the implementation) and reactive (after completing the implementation) feedback to management?
It is important to provide information during the implementation and after the implementation to see what went right and what needs improvement. There will always be certain tasks that need to be revised and worked on, so through feedback and conversations, management can stay up to date on the processes. Also, documentation needs to happen so that over the years it is easy to reflect back on where the implementation process started, vs. where it’s currently at. With any sort of process or implementation or plan, each step should be documented and given feedback on how to continuously improve each step. Management needs to be on-board with both the proactive and reactive stages.
If management is able to be proactive, then they can address the problems before they arise, whereas reactive tends to see the problem and handle it after it’s already there. Both of them are important when it comes to a business strategy and implementation process.
