Marketing communication: principles and practice

domestic marketing
: customers and competitors are located within the
corporation’s own culture and geographic/national boundaries
•
export marketing
: some products and services are sold to customers in
other national and cultural territories
•
international marketing
: as above, the focus is domestic customers,
while ‘foreign’ customers are offered the standard marketing ‘mix’
•
multinational marketing
: overseas business is a portfolio of independent
contributors with their own marketing mixes
•
global marketing
: overseas activities are seen as paths to a unified market
with a single marketing mix
•
transnational marketing
: overseas activities are regarded as operating
in a complex network of coordinated cooperative management, flexibly
deploying global resources to best serve local markets
I N T E R C U L T U R A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N
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Communication in an international arena is now almost impossible to avoid,
and indeed is highly desirable both economically and culturally to expand
contact between satisfiers (providers) and needers (consumers and buyers).
Of course, this all started a long time ago (around the thirteenth century in
Western Europe, for example).
Similarity of people greatly facilitates friendly relationship – this is why
intercultural marketing is a special challenge. When people see others as
dissimilar, competition tends to arise in place of cooperation.
CULTURE AND MARKETING 
Trading is a universal way of living a life. We should not be surprised,
therefore, that marketing has apparently been readily adopted in almost all
countries. But we should be aware that the marketing concept arose in the
USA and has been borrowed and adapted when integrated into different
cultures (Usunier, 1993).
Marketing is social – an exchange process based on communication. Thus,
we need to understand how cultural background influences communication
and exchange. Indeed, the very notion of communicating differs among
cultures. Consider the nature of relationships, communication, and other
social phenomena in Anglo-Saxon and Asian cultures. It is important when
importing marketing as a word and as a slogan of developing economy, that
the cultural roots and precise meaning of the concept are not forgotten.
Ironically, perhaps, marketers operating in intercultural environments are
often unaware of the cultural origins of their craft. Not everyone sees
marketing as rational and logical. For some, including customers, the value
is in the irrational art.
As Professor Usunier points out (1993), intercultural marketing implies
commerce. The reintroduction of the term commerce into management talk
emphasizes the social interaction between provider and consumer/buyer (see
also Barabba and Zaltman (1991) and Prus (1989) for further discussion of
this interactionist relationship-oriented style of marketing) rather than the
ritual of strategy.