Mid Term Exam_International MKT

7/28/2019 Mid Term Exam_International MKT

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Midterm Exam

Subject: International marketing

Student: Pham Thanh Hang - MA KREMS 2

Question 1: Discuss the reasons why international business is much more complex today

that it was twenty years ago?

Reasons:

1. Global competition and fiecer competitive pressure (Number of competitors

increases, Growth in relative size of firms, Competition urgency in terms of research

and development, procurement, manufacturing and marketing)

2. Internet revolution: The internet and electronic commerce are bringing major

structure changes to the way companies operate worldwide.

3. Higher educational level customers

4. Higher income: People with higher incomes desires for material positions, ways of

spending leisure time and aspirations for the future.

5. Fascinating phenomenon like marketing around the world and increasing number of

companies interrelated.

6. Customer behaviours change

7. Political and economics events changing environment (economics agreements,

deregulation and privatization, emerging markets)

8. Customers have a wider and more divergent choice set of goods and services to

choose from.

9. Different cultures and globalisation: They do not suffocate local culture but rather

liberates them from the ideaological conformity of nationalism, with consumers

becoming more receptive to new things.

Question 2: Under what conditions should companies pursue universal market segments?

Companies pursue universal market segments in order to identify target, serve effectively

the most attractive segments. It also help to tailor marketing mix to the needs of each

segment and satisfy better the needs of the segment. Conditions:

1. Income levels of customers

2. Differences in material life: differences in the level and type of demand

3. Different languages and social interaction

4. Different religions and educational level

5. Value systems


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Question 3: what challenges do current creators and information providers face due to the

advent and popularity of electronic media? Are current mechanism to protect their rights?

Due to the advent and populartity of electronic media, current creators and information

providers have to face with many challenges. Any negative information can be speaded

quickly worldwide just after some minutes. Moreover, any strategy or programs made by

them can be imitated and lose copyright. In the mean time, they also suffer from much

pressure to renew their programs to defeat their rivals and avoid distorting information.

There are many mechanisms issued to protect their rights. However, current mechanism

does not act very effectively when they can not prevent translation, transliteration

equipvalent and piracy products from creaters and information providers.

Question 4: Certain Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia do not allow advertisers to show

frontal picture of a woman with her hair. This creates a challenge for companies like

Unilever or Procter and Gamble that want to advertise hair care products (e.g shampoo).

How do you tackle this challenge?

Some interesting explanation for this.

In Islamic, there is one word that all the women have to memorize: AURAH. (In English:

Aurat). What is aurah and why they have to memorize it?

"aurah" in Arabic means shame and humility. And basically it means certain part of

the body that we need to cover from others to see.

Aurat for man and woman is different. For men, the part where they have to close is

between the navel untill the lower part of their knee. For women, they have to close all part

of their body except their face and their wrist.

To cover aurat, people wear Hijab in Arab Saudi Countries. In Malaysia, Indonesia,

women wear Tudung. Both Hijab and Tudung are like one kind of scalf, which can help

women cover their hair.

The requirement for women to cover aurat in Muslim countries has been creating a lot of

obstacles and challenges for cosmetic company such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble in

Marketing some products like shampoo. Conventionally, talking about shampooadvertisement, we will think of Thick waves of hair cascade over a womans shoulder. She

gives a flirtatious flick of her locks and tells viewers that they too can get such a luxurious

mane if they buy the shampoo she is holding up to the camera. That is the script for

your standard shampoo commercial.

Thats the reason for decades, many Western companies failed to appreciate the unique

needs of Muslim consumers. Worse, some companies offended potential customers by not

understanding religious sensitivities. But as the Islamic population has grown in size and

affluence there are now 2.04 billion Muslims worldwide more multinationals areseeking to tap into the market.


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The most famous example of that case is NIKE. Nike committed a legendary error when it

released a pair of athletic shoes in 1996 with a logo on the sole that some Muslims believed

resembled the Arabic lettering for Allah. Given that Muslims consider the feet unclean,

producing shoes with the name of God on the soles of the feet is not a good idea, said Mr.

Goodman, who converted to Islam in 1999. They recalled 800,000 pairs of shoes

globally.

Instead of simply importing products and advertising from the West, companies areincreasingly developing marketing campaigns and formulating products themselves

with Muslims firmly in sight. Marketing experts call it Islamic marketing or usage of the

notion of localization andrule No.1 is to avoid causingoffense.Thats the waymultinational companies are using to tackle this sensitive matter.

To conclude, there are many solutions but in this exam I can give some examples only:

Example 1: In order to deal with this matter, companies can choose the indirect advertising

method. It means that instead of showing womens hair to advertise hair care products, they

can use a picture of a typical muslim woman but uncomfortable feeling and looks sleepy

tired because she could not sleep well last night. After being introduced a hair shampoo,

now she looks fresh and actively.

Example 2: Direct advertisement of a shampoo with its prominent characteristics: no scalf,

super smooth and silkyIn this case, Muslim women does not need to show their hair

because the advertising program concentrate on products and its features only.

Recently, in Malaysia, there is one

Advertisement which become a hot topicthroughout the countries. That is the

advertisement of Sunsilk Lively Clean & Fresh

shampoo. In the advertisement, there is no hair

shown. But the advertisement still appeals the

attention of people because of the confidence

of the actress after she uses the shampoo. The

shampoo addresses on the different value:

inner beauty.

Another example to show how cosmeticcompanies tackle the challenge of Islamic

culture is Hijab Shampoo.

Hijab Shampoo means for women who cover their heads

tightly in hijab that leaves their faces exposed. It was

created for people who suffer from oily scalps after

wearing any head covering, be it a baseball hat or head

scarf. After company research showed that many women

who wear the tudung complained of oily scalps, it

introduced the television commercial aimed at them.

Documents

Mid Term Exam_International MKT