Global market refers to the activity of conducting business across the world. In other words, this refers to international business activities in a worldwide scale. Global marketing plays a significant role in modern-day business environment. One of the major advantages of this form of trade is that it increases free trade among countries, thus helping to promote good international relationships among nations. This form of trade also plays a key role in the economic development of emerging nations.
More importantly, this type of trade involves many countries as participants, and that way, it makes it possible for people to have access of the widest possible range of commodities. While global market activities present many opportunities, there are also many complexities facing the trade. This paper examines some of the major problems surrounding global market together with the potential solutions that can be taken against them.
Major Problems/Issues
As it would be observed, the activities of international marketing are affected by diverse complexities. These complexities or issues are some of the factors that influence the failure of global trade activities, and are therefore among the many things that companies ought to consider before venturing into global marketing (Fawcett, Roger and Anthony 476). Following is a summary of some of the major complexities associated with global trade.
Linguistic problems
Language is among the most significant factors when it comes to marketing of commodities. Business operations cannot be carried out successfully if the parties involved don’t understand each other. International trade involves people of different national identities, and this poses serious language and communication problems among the people involved.
Legal Constraints
Obviously, nations have different laws to deal with various business affairs that are unique to every country. These laws would tend to have a significant impact on activities of international trade such as marketing and advertising, among other aspects. However, some of the biggest challenges in this context are observed when it comes to advertising, whereby countries tend to have different laws governing commodity advertisement.
For example, some countries may not permit advertisement of some products while others have put strict conditions on advertisements, particularly ones that are being done by foreign companies or nationals. Access to media is also limited to foreigners in some countries and this also serves as a serious complexity in global marketing (Eid and Myfanwy 25).
Cultural issues
There is no doubt that culture values are among the most sensitive areas that should be taken seriously by any investor who is planning to venture the global market (Craig and Susan 55). The main reason for this is because people across the world are defined by different cultural values and beliefs.
In this regard, business ideas presented by a particular company or nation through marketing advertisements could be offensive to people in other countries. This could raise serious accusations against the organisation involved, thus leading to market decline of their products and services in the affected region.
Market differences
As it would be observed, there are many differences across national and cultural boundaries that would tend to affect key elements of the marketing mix. Some of these elements would include things such as channels of distribution, price, advertising, and product promotion. These differences apply in every product category, thus causing serious complexities in the global market.
Management myopia
Management is a key aspect of business success. A company that aims to take part in international trade should not let anything compromise their ability to offer the best to their customers (Zahra 20). Management myopia is a term that can be used to refer to any business organisation which fails to maintain its leadership in establishing customer value in a foreign land.
Potential solutions
There are various potential solutions for the above problems or complexities in global marketing and some of these have been summarised below.
Linguistic problems
Language problems can have serious implications on a business. In this regard, nations and companies should ensure that the words they use in advertising their products in foreign markets are translated properly to give the intended message. More importantly, it would be a good idea for companies operating in foreign markets to employ local professionals who can be helpful in addressing language problems in those regions.
Legal Constraints
In order to address legal constraints better, nations and companies should try to seek the advice of a competent legal expert before venturing some countries. This will help them understand the legislative conditions of their potential trade partners in regard with important marketing practices. It will also be a good idea for companies and nations to conduct a good research on potential business partners to identify anything that might affect their business operations (Govindarajan and Anil 68).
Cultural issues
The best way for companies to address cultural problems in global marketing is by being cultural sensitive. This can be achieved by studying the cultural aspects of potential trade partners to learn how they can affect marketing and advertisement of commodities.
Market differences
Market differences in global marketing can be resolved through the involvement of strong local teams who are capable to adapt the commodities to local demands.
Management myopia
Companies taking part in global marketing should focus more on customer value as one way of remaining strong and successful in the competitive environment of the international market.
Decision criteria for addressing the problems
The first action for companies to take in order to effectively address the problems would be to identify the complexities involved using competitive activities and moves. These activities would include, but are not limited to, conducting regular survey on how products are doing in different regions and carrying out background research using different research methodologies to identify consumer interests (Agarwal and Sridhar 22).
Through these approaches, it will be easy for companies and countries to find influential factors that are likely to play a significant role when it comes to global marketing. Depending on the acquired information, business organisations and countries taking part in international marketing can apply the necessary approaches to attract customers in global market.
Recommendations
The suggestion for dealing with global market complexities is that a study on important influential factors should be conducted on targeted countries before venturing into a global market. In order to thrive in international marketing, countries or companies should have a clear insight of all the factors that need to be put into consideration before starting the business.
Conclusion
Global marketing is surrounded by many complexities that would make it hard for participating countries and companies to succeed. In this regard, countries and companies planning to take part in international marketing should understand all the political and cultural demands of the nations they intend to do business with and abide with them.
Works Cited
Agarwal, Sanjeev, and Sridhar Ramaswami. “Choice of foreign market entry mode: Impact of ownership, location and internalization factors.” Journal of International business studies (1992): 1-27. Print.
Craig, Samuel, and Susan Douglas. International marketing research. John Wiley & Sons, 2005. Print.
Eid, Riyad, and Myfanwy Trueman. “Factors affecting the success of business-to-business international internet marketing (B-to-B IIM): an empirical study of UK companies.” Industrial Management & Data Systems 104.1 (2004): 16-30. Print.
Fawcett, Stanley, Roger Calantone, and Anthony Roath. “Meeting quality and cost imperatives in a global market.” International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management 30.6 (2000): 472-499. Print.
Govindarajan, Vijay, and Anil Gupta. “Leadership Building and Effective Global Business Team.” MIT Sloan Management Review 42.4 (2001): 63-71. Print.
Zahra, Shaker. “A theory of international new ventures: a decade of research.” Journal of International Business Studies 36.1 (2005): 20-28. Print.