International_Marketing_Paper

International and Domestic Marketing comparison paper: Spain and The United States What is Comparative marketing' It is analytically comparing two or more countries' marketing systems to identify similarities and differences. I chose Spain as my country for the basis of this assignment. According to the American Association, marketing is "the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals." Trade on an international level has increased over the past decade and continues to increase today. There are many companies who do both domestic and international marketing, and many foreign companies that operate in the United States domestic market today as well. When a business decides to operate on an international level, there are several factors that must be taken into consideration. The purpose of this paper is to examine those factors, which include the cultural, political, legal, and economic influences in Spain compared to that of the United States. Spain is located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea. Spain is a democracy organized in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the ninth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP, and very high living standards. It is also the third largest world investor. Understanding the principles of culture as well as the individual cultural diversity and similarities of target locations allows marketers to recognize that one standardized strategy can never reach an entire global market. The cultural /environment Let’s compare cultural differences now, that in my opinion are crucial to understanding how to market a country like Spain, Let’s begin with family; Family is the first priority and Children are celebrated and sheltered. It used to be that female fulfilled the domestic role but today women are working equally as men and stay a lot less around home ,Mobility is limited, only when relocated by a company most of the times, as opposed to the United States where Family is usually second to work. Children are often minimally parented; and are more independent. Wife often fulfills dual roles, Mobility is quite common .Religion: Long Roman Catholic tradition. Fatalistic outlook. "As God wills." In the United States there are several religions, not possible to focus an entire marketing campaign with a religious content for the entire country like it is done in Spain, for example like when the Pope will visit the country, it will be announced weeks in advanced in national television, Spain is faith driven, truth is a relative concept, in the United States truth is an absolute value. The political/legal environment The political/legal environment in Spain is quite different from that of the US. Spain is very regional, politically speaking they cannot be considered nationalists, even the north region of Spain has separatist ideologies every region has its own very distinct characteristics such as traditions, festivities, holidays and even culinary dishes. One very distinct feature is that the United States has become self-reliant and has raised their status in the eyes of the rest of the world. This is the essence of patriotism. The patriotic spirit that exists in many nations has led them to engage in practices that have been very damaging to other countries' marketing organizations. For example, foreign governments can intervene in marketing programs in the following ways: • contracts for the supply and delivery of goods and services • the registration and enforcement of trademarks, brand names, and labeling • patents • marketing communications • pricing • product safety, acceptability, and environmental issues Political stability Business activity tends to grow and thrive when a nation is politically stable. When a nation is politically unstable, multinational firms can still conduct business profitably. Their strategies will be affected however. What this translates to as having higher priced products within the host country and the corporations engage more in exporting than producing which will ultimately mean less jobs for that country and corporations will exchange profits into their own currency. Language Since we are talking about two completely different countries in many aspects , language of course is one of the first things that need to be taken in consideration, we are not talking About translating from a computer word translator from English to Spanish or vice versa, it is about a complete cultural transfer now called “Advertising localization” . I found this article on line that cites a great example of the importance of “advertizing localization” another U.S.-based company in the motor industry tried to market a car named “The Matador” to Spanish audiences, Unfortunately, the name connotes to “killer”, so it’s was not a very good idea and precisely popular to be driving the “killer car”. CONCLUSION Countries have opened their cultures to globalization and no matter how much corporations try to standardize a marketing campaign, it will always be important to take in consideration cross-cultural aspects, such as Religion, Language, Politics, Personality, Wealth and all demographic factors as well. Marketing a different country might seem like an easy task but it is necessary to thoroughly study our prospective market, I remember a few years ago I applied to Schwan’s in Minnesota and got accepted into the company because of my dominion of the Mexican market, the position required to deal with senior buyers for Wal-Mart and try to introduce a few of their products to the Mexican market. Spaniards are a lot more conservative and faithful to one brand which might make it seem that are more reluctant to changes than their counterpart consumers in the US. References Works Cited Butod, M. (2009, Sep). International versus domestic marketing strategies . Retrieved from Typepad.com: http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/09/international-versus-domestic-marketing-strategies.html Libman, L. (2009, August 23). http://blog.onehourtranslation.com. Retrieved 2010, from Cross-Cultural Marketing Bloopers in Translation: http://blog.onehourtranslation.com/professional-translation/cross-cultural-marketing-bloopers-in-translation/ McCubbrey, D. D. (2010, Sep 29). Marketing on a global scale: The international marketing environment. Retrieved from Connexions: http://cnx.org/content/m35432/latest/