Abstract:

Global marketing - the practice - is not new. The term Global marketing is new and has the merit of helping us to distinguish between operating in successive foreign countries and catering for a cluster of common needs emerging from a clearly identified segment of customers from a politically heterogenous geographic area. In no product area are constraints upon international marketing greater than in food and drink markets. Recognizeability of the product formulation and the occurrence of the 'age-of-usage symptom' place particularly heavy constraints upon food products. There are three fundamental strategies for expansion into international food and drink markets: 1. The shot-in-the-dark; 2. Phased internationalizing; 3. Global marketing. The latter two are wholly responsible in marketing terms; the first is not. Successful international marketing practice, however, shows the least responsible practice to have been the most effective. The need for a choice of international development strategy is inescapable, as is an understanding of the likely constraints thereon. The architecture of the knowledge gathering exercise to support development is strongly influenced by that strategy and will dictate the relative importance of and priorities between the three methods of inquiry: Scanning; Inferencing and Propositioning. Developing shot-in-the-dark methods may well prove to be the most effective route to global marketing.