Introduction

After an international marketer has decided to enter a particular foreign market, further marketing decisions must be made. In particular, international marketing managers must address four things: How to develop the firm’s product(s), How to price those products, How to sell those products and How to distribute those products to the firm’s customers internationally. These elements are commonly known as the marketing mix and popularly known as 4 Ps. It can be argued that product decisions are probably the most crucial as the product is the very epitome of marketing planning. Errors in product decisions are legion. These can include the imposition of a global standardized product where it is inapplicable, for example large horsepower tractors may be totally unsuitable for areas where small scale farming exists and where incomes are low like the Ethiopian market; devolving decisions to affiliated countries which may let quality slip; and the attempt to sell products into a country without cognizance of cultural adaptation needs. The decision whether to sell globally standardized or adapted products is too simplistic for today’s market place.

Many product decisions lie between these two extremes. Cognizance has also to be taken of the stage in the international life cycle, the organization’s own product portfolio, its strengths and weaknesses and its global objectives. Unfortunately, most developing countries are in no position to compete on the world stage with many manufactured value-added products. Quality, or lack of it, is often the major letdown. As indicated earlier, most developing countries like Ethiopia are likely to be exporting raw materials or basic and high value agricultural products for some time to come. In this part, we shall discus things related to marketing mix elements from international perspective.

A number of frameworks for classifying products have been developed. A frequently used classification is based on users and distinguishes between consumer and industrial goods. Both types of goods, in turn, can be further classified on the basis of other criteria, such as how they are purchased (convenience, preference, shopping, and specialty goods) and their life span (durable, non-durable, and disposable). These and other classification frameworks developed for domestic marketing are fully applicable to global marketing.