Email Marketing

E-mail Marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:

- sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,

- sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, - adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers, and - sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the Internet.

Email Marketing is still the most effective and widely used type of online advertising. Not only is it inexpensive to implement, it is also very well-received by consumers when done in a thoughtful way. What I mean by that is that you have to be able to think from the perspective of the people you are marketing to. You make them an offer that is appealing to them, and you deliver on that offer without becoming an annoyance. If you follow these seven simple steps, you will have no trouble taking advantage of this increasingly important marketing avenue.

1. Don’t skimp on market research

Email marketing is just like any other type of marketing. You have to know who you are marketing to and develop an understanding of what motivates them to take action. Then you will be able to design messages that appeal directly to the people most important to your success.

How can you offer a good value if you don’t know anything about your audience’s values? How could you ever counter their objectives if you didn’t know what makes them feel uneasy? Taking the time to analyze your market prior to launching your campaign will definitely pay off.

2. Plan your email campaign

Once you understand your market, you are ready to make decisions about what kind of email campaign you will mount. Take the time to do this in advance so that you can use the medium strategically and effectively based on what you already know about your audience. What sort of thing will they be happy to see in their inbox?

Many new email marketers imagine they’ll just toss out a newsletter every time they have a sale. And in some industries that will work. But you have to make sure you are providing a solid value to your recipient. In most cases, you’ll see better results if you use your newsletter as a venue to offer insider tips specific to your industry and your audience. By providing real value to your readers, you’ll not only retain them as readers but also earn their trust. And trust leads to better sales.

3. Build your mailing list with confidence

You’ve researched your target market and developed a plan to provide them with real value, so by this point you should feel very confident asking clients and contacts to subscribe to your newsletter. Every contact is an opportunity to promote your email list, both online and offline.

Your web site is a great place to start building up your mailing list. Begin by placing a large, attractive sign-up form in a prominent location on every page of your web site. Be sure to describe the benefits of joining, the frequency of your mailings, and an assurance that you won’t sell their email address. But remember, there is no reason to limit your promotion to the web. The people you interact with face to face are great candidates for your mailing list, whether they are customers standing at a cash register, clients sitting at a board table, or audience members at a speaking engagement.

Also, a word of caution: Don’t buy mailing lists.

When people think about starting an email marketing campaign, the next question tends to be “Where do I buy a list of email addresses.” This is entirely the wrong question, for a number of reasons. First of all, purchased email lists are not cheap. Second, you can kiss that money goodbye. The conversion rate that you’ll see on mailings to lists you didn’t build yourself are usually going to approach 0%.

If that isn’t bad enough, consider this: spam filtration is distributed. There are just a few main sources for the blacklists that prevent billions of spam messages from being delivered every day. That means that every person who marks one of your messages as spam makes it much less likely that all your other messages will be delivered. And that threatens the long-term viability of your email marketing efforts. So it behooves you to make sure that you never send a mailing to anyone who doesn’t specifically want to receive what you’re sending them.

4. Segment your mailing lists for laser-targeted campaigns

One of the biggest benefits of email marketing is the incredible degree of personalization that it makes possible. You can break your mailing lists apart by demographic, location, or even the types of actions they’ve taken in response to prior mailings.

It can be a little more work writing separate mailings for every little market segment, but the more work you put in the more benefit you’ll see. Plus, over time you’ll gain a better sense of which groups respond to which messages, and be able to combine and target them with an unmatched level of expertise. The more your messages approach the level of a one-to-one, personal appeal, the more effective they will tend to be.

5. Make it easy to unsubscribe from your list

Naturally, everyone would prefer that their subscribers continue to receive their email messages. But if they ever do decide they’ve had enough, it will be much better for you if they have an easy and highly visible unsubscribe link to click on.

Think about what you do when you can’t figure out how to unsubscribe from a mailing list. I know that, personally, if unsubscribing feels like a hassle I’ll just flag the message as spam. After doing that once or twice, Gmail never shows me messages from that mailing list again. As a list owner, this is something that you do not want to have happen to your messages, because every message that gets flagged as spam reduces the overall deliverability of your mailings.

6. For a great response, write great copy

The principles of great copy-writing are all pretty much the same for email marketing as for every other medium. Your content should meet the expectations that you built up for your list. If your subscribers signed up just to hear about your sales and special offers, then just write great sales copy. But they are expecting to receive information about news in their industry, weave your promotional content into that framework.

7. Split-test your messages

Email marketing software gives you the ability to test multiple versions of a message against one another so that you can see which one performs the best. This is something you should take advantage with every mailing: test the effectiveness of different headlines, layouts, images, and calls to action. Over time you can accumulate some incredibly powerful knowledge about what your market does and does not respond to.

Internet Advertising Methods

People opt for internet advertising methods because practically half of the world's population knows HTML. If you have your own business, you have to decide on what internet advertising method works for you. Ask yourself what are you going to avail of: the expensive internet advertising methods or the cheap ones? Others will pipe in "expensive!" immediately, but they don't know cheap internet advertising method attracts great benefits as well.

Here's the lowdown and a comparative look on the cheap and expensive internet advertising methods:

The Expensive:

1. Pop-ups. Not only is this expensive, but also outright annoying that visitors close pop-up windows without even bothering to know what they're all about. This is an internet advertising method that you can do without.

Fly ads are derivatives of pop-ups which are also equally irking to the visitors.

2. 1. Pop-ups. Not only is this expensive, but also outright annoying that visitors close pop-up windows without even bothering to know what they're all about. This is an internet advertising method that you can do without.

Fly ads are derivatives of pop-ups which are also equally irking to the visitors.

2. Pod casts.

Broadcast is to TV as pod cast is to internet. It's one sophisticated internet advertising method that can somehow hamper your budget. But if you're thinking results, pod casting is worth the money.

3. Paying the search engines.

How does this one work? When someone types in a keyword related to your site, your URL is automatically included in the first page of the top results. Fixed payment for the search engine allows just that. Expensive, yes, but if we're talking about Google and Yahoo search engines here, then don't give it a second thought.

This is associated with another internet advertising method: the pay-per-click system.

The Cheap:

1. Blogging

Go along the bandwagon and blog about your website. This is an internet advertising method that is popular as of the moment, so you never have to worry that this will never spur outcome. All you have to do is sign up for a blogging account, post and voila! You don't even need to pay!

2. Submit to not-so-big search engines.

This is cheap and dependable. If you submit your site to smaller search engines, you have bigger chances to get bigger results. Remember that the search engine giants can dwarf and overlook your site easily, so this internet advertising method might just be the right one for you.

3. Text links.

This is not just cheap...this is virtually free! Let someone text link your site and return the favor.

Cheap versus expensive, that's always the question that hounds on whenever we're trying to get something. In the field of internet advertising, just be wise enough to figure out what will suit your needs. Go for what you want as long as there are visible results.

Mobile Marketing

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising, and sales.

Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular ever since the rise of SMS (Short Message Service) in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off wanted (or unwanted) content.

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it not only refers to the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media, but it includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising, and sales.

Affiliate marketing is the practice of rewarding an affiliate (comprising a person, group of people, company or organization) by a business for the number of customers or visitors brought to it through the affiliate’s marketing efforts. In simple terms, it is the paying of commission for referring customers to a particular business. This is primarily an internet based activity.

Being a comparatively a new form of internet marketing, so far there has been a lack of standards to measure different affiliate marketing methods. Training and certification is practically non-existent and there has been little self regulation.

Which leads us to the point of why some affiliate marketing sites work so much better while many others don’t?

From the individual’s point of view the following areas could be a pointer on how successful that person is as an affiliate marketer:

• Join affiliate programs that interest you. That way you would have the interest to research, know and possibly even buy the product to experience it. Becoming an expert would be to the person’s benefit.
• Make a sincere effort to know your audience. By doing this you would be able to relate to the customers and position the product suitably. It goes without saying that being truthful and helpful adds to the site’s credibility.
• The use of your own website allows for customisation. Differentiation, especially if the person is good at designing the site, would pull in more customers and viewers. Having reciprocal links with other marketers in the niche can be a double-edged sword; if the marketer is new to this format, it can reap benefits, but for more mature sites, stand-alone might be the better option.
• Notwithstanding the above, joining forums and discussion boards helps. You can then devise customer centric solutions and have better participation.
• Having your own newsletter and / or an e-zine always allows your site to stand out especially if you have an outstanding presentation.
• Having your own email list reduces the risk of your page being recorded as a spamming site. It also allows the individual to target the most appropriate customers, increasing the strike-rate.
• Having an auto-responder program connected to the site would help save time for the individual to pursue more creative work.
• The individual writing timeless but relevant articles and posting these on a separate page o the website would stand out. Most customers who are interested in a particular product would be looking for the additional information.
• Provide good content to whatever you put on the website. Select material carefully and keep changing as and when required. In this fast changing world, with all the options, don’t get left behind!
• You may have to try different programs before you hit on the right ones (or basket). However do give each its rightful space, before moving on.
• Be patient – the rewards may not be immediate, but the sincere effort (and a bit of luck) will lead to Success

Mass Selling

There are two major forms of mass selling, the advertising and publicity.

1. Advertising
According to Kotler (2000; 578) "Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by a sponsor identified"

Meanwhile, according to Arnold in Nawary Saragih (2003; 34 / states that advertising is only able to reach consumers concerned with the vast amount sparingly.
Based on the above definition, that advertising is an effective way to reach buyers who are geographically dispersed with a relatively low cost for each appearance.

2. Publicity
According Swastha Basu (1997; 273) publicity is: "Some information about the person of goods or civic organization that distributed through the media and free of charge, or without any oversight from the sponsor."
Meanwhile, according to Fandi Tjiptono (2001; 228), "Publicity is the presentation and dissemination of ideas, goods and services in non-personal, where people or organizations that benefit from not paying it."

From the definition above can be drawn the conclusion that publicity is the use of news values contained in a product or products to form the corresponding image without the need for cost. "

E-marketing/Internet Marketing : Market Research

The internet is a great tool to help the organization conduct research. Secondary data can easily be collected online, and primary data can be collected via clever use of online surveys. Market and Marketing research is essential for the company to stay ahead of its competitors and for the firm to provide what customers need. Technology is advancing and the way firms conduct their research is changing. The internet can be used to conduct research in a number of ways.

Cookies

Each time a user visits a website small text files called cookies are left on the computer, these files give an indication to the web companies what pages you have visited, and if you log into your account you have a customized view all the time. In terms of research cookies tell the website owner what pages you visit frequently, how long you spend on that page and how you navigate around the website. This information can help the firm develop a better customized experience for the user and help them develop a website which becomes more user friendly over time.

Competitor Analysis

The internet allows the company to research a competitor to analyze their marketing mix strategy online, their financial information, by looking at annual report of accounts or financial analysis done by independent websites. Also any rumors of product launches can be investigated online.

Usage Analysis

Businesses need to know how popular the internet is, and how long users spend online and what purchase patterns are like online. There are many websites that will give you this information. A quick Google search will give you a list of websites that will offer you that data to buy. The trend in the UK is towards more users spending time online not only for online shopping but also for social interaction via the use of Facebook and MSN.

Online PESTLE Analysis

Every business needs to conduct an environmental analysis. The internet enables an organization to monitor the external environment quite easily. RSS feeds from news websites can keep companies updated, as with newsletters, forums and posts. All PESTLE factors can be monitored easily online.

Online Questionnaires

A simple form of primary research online is the use of online questionnaires. When the user visits a website they are asked to complete an online questionnaire. The data is usually analyzed fairly quickly, with the results being used to improve online experiences.

Validity of data

The internet is becoming saturated with lots of data and information. When a company uses this data online they must make sure that the data is accurate and valid. Sources should be checked, the date of publication should also be checked to makes sure it is valid.

E-marketing/Internet Marketing : Objectives

Every business needs to have objectives which should be SMART. Whether you are an online business or a combined clicks and mortar business, you need to have targets to aim for.

Objects of an online business (clicks business)

If your business is solely based online your objectives could be:

1. To inform users of your web presence and the benefit your website offers over its competitors.
2. To persuade users to use the services of the firm. This could be done by offering a discount for a limited time.
3. To make sure the business is listed in all the most popular search engines and directories.
4. Keep customers updated of any new products or changes to business services.
5. Make sure that customer have a pleasant website experience by continuously improving the navigation of the site.
6. To aim for sales of x amount and net profit of x amount in a given period.

Objectives of a clicks and mortar business

If a business has a clicks and mortar strategy their objective maybe:

• To reduce costs by moving some of their operations online.
• To integrate online and offline strategies to maintain and improve relationships with customers. This could be by offering reserve online and pick up in store strategies like some retailers do.
• The company’s strategy should support the overall marketing objectives of the firm this maybe to increase overall market share or profit.
• To promote both online and offline activities.

E-marketing : Relationship with Customers Online

Relationship marketing is all about keeping the customer for the long-term. The life time value the customer has to offer. Traditionally the firm would develop a number of strategies to try to get the customer coming back to their stores. These strategies have evolved for the online world, and it is has become a challenge to try to make customers visit and purchase products from their websites regularly. Some strategies used to develop relationship with customers online include:

Customization: Customer can customize their products online to give them a unique experience. Shoe manufacturer Nike and car manufacturer Mini Cooper allow their customers to customize their products when visiting their website. Giving users an interactive experience online.

Online questionnaires: Many retail websites are asking customers to feedback their experience of using the website almost instantly after they complete using their site. The information has the advantage of being analyzed very quickly so the firm can offer what users need.

E-vouchers: Regular customers are often sent e-vouchers that give them discounts off their next purchase. Vouchers can be targeted around what the customer frequently buys. Firms may calculate that this particular customer has not purchased from them for a while and send a voucher enticing them back, to try and re-establish this online relationship.

Online chat: To recreate the shopping environment some websites are offering the ability to chat via webcam or chat window. This gives the opportunity for user to talk to sales persons via the web. Dell offers this facility online, where user can query computer specifications. By trying to recreate this interactivity customers may shift or secure their loyalty to a particular online firm.

Customer Service and Contact: A key to maintaining online relationships are how the customer is looked after, after the sale is complete, the post-transactional strategy. If a product is faulty, is it easy for the customer to return it? Some online electrical firms allow the customer to log the fault, print a returns number, and a date for pick up from their home. This is quite straight forward. If the customer feels that the process for returning and liaison with the online retailer is rather long, the chances are loyalties would shift.

With technology changing at a very fast rate the experience of the user will become more interactive and this interactivity maybe the key to secure long-term online relationships.

E-marketing : Benefits

Whilst there are many benefits for consumers shopping online, business that start their operations or transfer their operations online greatly benefit from doing so. Some of these benefits will be briefly discussed.

Data collection

Every time a customer transacts with the company online, that transaction is captured. The firm can use this data in a number of ways. Firstly information can be analyzed to find out most popular products/services sold. Secondly the data can be used to assist in segmenting their customers, profiling them and sending customers promotional material based on past buying habits.

There has been much controversy over the amount of information that is being collected online by various companies in particular social networking sites and whether customers should be able to opt out of that information being shared to third party users.

Personalization of web experience

When customers log into their accounts businesses can make their web experience almost unique. From offering special offers to that particular customer, offering add on to their recent purchase, much like Amazon.com does, or by allowing the customer to personalize their own products, like Nike does with their trainers . Personalization allows the firm to form stronger bonds online with customers and form long term online relationships ensuring customers come back regularly.

Competitor analysis

The internet allows businesses to analyze their competitor’s online strategy. A firm can keep abreast of new products that are released, react to price changes, or use the internet to discover secondary data on their competitors. The internet allows a firm to react quickly to a change in their competitor’s strategy, and try to provide a service that allows them to match or beat their competitors.

Cost reduction

One of the major benefits of setting up or moving a business online is the cost advantages of doing so. A firm can save a number of costs. These include:

1. Staffing costs: Fewer staff are needed online then in the high street thus reducing costs.
2. Premises: The Company will not need retail outlet just a centralized office and possibly warehouse space, saving on potential retail costs.
3. Disintermediation: The channel of distribution is shorter online as the consumer has the opportunity to buy directly like with Dell. As one of the intermediaries is cut out this process is known as disintermediation.
4. Financial management: As consumers pay for the product before it is dispatched, this improves the cash flow for the company, making sure for the firm that they can pay their suppliers and other costs on time.

E-marketing : Viral Marketing

An online marketing technique that involves creating awareness of a product/service through the use of emails, social networking sites or any other form of online networks. P.Tailor 29/04/09 www.learnmarketing.net

With any viral marketing campaign the objective of the firm can differ from creating product or brand awareness to increasing market share. With marketing budgets now squeezed because of the credit crunch, viral marketing is seen as an effective way to promote a firms products or services.

YouTube has been a popular way to start a viral marketing campaign. Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent received over 100 million views and has become an international star in approximately 8 weeks.

Dr Ralph F. Wilson of Marketing Today suggested that there are six simple principles to viral marketing.

1. Give away valuable products or services.

To grab attention something has to be given away for free!.

2. Provide effortless transfers to others.

The marketing message should be easy to transfer and spread, usually by email. This is the whole point of viral marketing.

3. Scales very easily from small to large.

You have the resources available if the campaign moves from small to large in a short period of time.

4. Exploits common motivation and behaviors.

A viral marketing campaign should exploit human desires. Facebook and Twitter work on the fact that it is cool to have a Facebook or Twitter account.

5. Utilizes existing communication networks.

Will your viral marketing campaign take advantage of social networks that users have. Is the message easily spread able via social networking sites?

6. Takes advantage of other resources.

Can others help your distribute your message. Can you piggy back of someone else’s website to help you spread your message? Again the use of YouTube or Twitter can be to help spread the word.

A more detailed coverage of this article can be found at http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm

Viral marketing is one of the promotional mix strategies a firm can use to help them increase their brand presence within the market and a cost effective way which can result in high popularity.

E-marketing : Website Optimisation Strategies

Want to build traffic to your websites? Here are a few tips that may help you succeed.

Register a domain name. It does help if you can register a domain name indicating what you have to offer. However if that is not possible then you will have to create awareness about what your website offers. www.elephant.co.uk is a website that sells insurance, heavy advertising must remind consumers of what the website is offering.

Content: Good content is vital. Users need a reason to come back to your site and recommend others to it.

Website coding: make sure your website has the correct tags so search engines can index your website correctly.

Submit to search engines: Submit your website to the popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Create links with other websites, this will help improve your ranking and search results among search engines.

Update your content. Remember you must give users a reason to come back so keep your content updated.

E-Marketing Mix

Traditionally the marketing mix is co-ordinate so efficient product, price, promotion and place strategies are developed for products purchased over the counter.
The internet is changing the way we sell our products and services. That’s a fact. Consumers now use the internet to research and purchase products/services online.
Organisation now needs online strategies to attract and retain customers. The e-marketing mix considers the elements of presenting the marketing mix online. Let’s look at it in more detail.

E-product strategies

We walk into a shop and see a product we like, we can assess it, touch it. Online, this immediate tangibility disappears. But, is that a disadvantage? Within the UK e-commerce sales are increasing at extremely high rates. Why? What does buying products online offer over one to one sales? Firstly there are clear online facts about the product you are purchasing. The buyer knows immediately about product features, the facts, not sales persons assumptions. www.comet.co.uk a UK electrical store offers clear information on products and their specification, consumers know what they get if not there is a customer service number where they can find out more.

The buying process is also customized for returning visitors, making repeat purchases easier. Organizations can also offer immediately ancillary products along with the main purchase. For example, the chance to buy extra printer cartridges along with your purchase of your printer online. The product can also be customized to consumers needs. www.nike.com offer customized trainers to users online. Users can design and see their trainers online before they order!

E-price strategies

As mentioned in our marketing mix section, pricing is always difficult to do and must take into account many considerations. Traditionally pricing was about finding about your costs, discovering how much consumers are willing to pay, taking account competition pricing then setting your price. The internet has made pricing very competitive. Many costs i.e. store costs, staff cost have disappeared for complete online stores, placing price pressures on traditional retailers.

The internet gives consumers the power to shop around for the best deal at a click of a button. Website such www.kelkoo.com compare products from different websites informing consumers of where the best deal is. Such easy access to information helps to maintain prices within the online world.

The growth of online auctions also helps consumers to dictate price. The online auction company www.ebay.com has grown in popularity with thousands of buyers and seller bidding daily.

E-pricing can also easily reward loyal customers. Technology allows repeat visitors to be tracked, easily allowing loyalty incentives to be targeted towards them. Payment is also easy, PayPal’s, or online credit cards use allows for easy payments. However the downside to this is internet fraud, which is growing rapidly around the world.

E-place strategies

One of the biggest changes to the marketing mix is online purchasing. Consumers can purchase direct from manufacturers cutting out retailers totally. The challenge for online retailers is to ensure that the product is delivered to the consumer within a reasonable time. Location is important within our place strategy. Online location can refer to where links are placed on other websites. Placing a link on www.google.com home page would generate high consumer traffic for you. Knowing your customer and knowing where they visit should help you understand where to place your online links and advertisements.

E-promotion strategies

Promoting products and service online is concerned with a number of issues. Having a recognizable domain name is first stage towards e-promotion. Organisation such as egg.com has successfully positioned the brand on the online world as an online bank.
Most organizations today have some form of webpage used in most if not all advertisements. Placing banner advertisements on other WebPages is a common form of e-promotion. Banner ads must be placed where potential customers browse. Web public relations (WPR) are another approach to promoting online. News worthy stories based on product or service launches can be placed on the company’s webpage, or WPR articles sent to review sites for consumers to read. Hopefully this form of online promotion will pull the consumer in. Direct email is a popular and common form of e-promotions, although slowly becoming the most hated my many consumers. Organizations can send e-leaflets to hundreds and thousands of respondents, hoping a small percentage will reply. The problem is that for every 100 emails sent the response rate will be 1-2! Direct emailing is also known as SPAM which stands for Sending Persistent Annoying email. (SPAM). To summaries e-promotion includes:

• Banner promotions
• Web public relations (WPR)
• E-leaflets
• Having a domain name.

The e-marketing mix must work together and support each other if the company is to have a successful online marketing strategy.

International Marketing : Mix

When launching a product into foreign markets do you standardize or adapt your marketing mix to the foreign market? A company can adopt to use a standardized marketing mix around the world or an adapted marketing mix in each country.

International Product Strategies Standardization Vs Adaption

So what should an organization do? Adapt or sell a standardized product? Basic marketing concepts tell us that we will sell more of a product if we aim to meet the needs of our target market. In international markets, we have to take into consideration consumer’s cultural background, buying habits, levels of personal disposable income etc in order to deliver a tailored marketing mix program to suit their needs.

The arguments however for standardization suggest that if you go through the process of adapting the product to local markets it does little but add to the overall cost of producing the product and weakens the brand on the global scale. In today’s global world, where consumers travel more, watch satellite television, communicate and shop internationally over the internet, the world now is becoming a lot smaller. Because of this there is no need to adapt products to local markets. Brands such as Coca-Cola, MTV, Nike, and Levis are all successful global brands where they have a standardized approach to their marketing mix, all these products are targeted at similar groups globally.

In many circumstances a company will have to adapt their product and marketing mix strategy to meet local needs and wants that cannot be changed. McDonald is a global player however; their burgers are adapted to local needs. In India where a cow is a sacred animal their burgers are served with chicken or fish. In Mexico burgers come with chili sauce. Coca-cola is some parts of the world taste sweeter than in others. Yes we can argue that standardization is better for the organization because it reduces cost, however many organizations will have to ‘think global, but act local’ if they are to successfully establish themselves in foreign markets.

International Promotion Strategy

As with international product decisions an organization can either adapt or standardize their promotional strategy and message. Advertising messages in countries may well have to be adapted because of language barriers or the current message used in the national market may be offensive to overseas residents.
The use of certain colors may also need to be thought about. In India red is the color worn by the bride in weddings, white is the color for mourning in Japan. The level of media development has to also be taken into account. Is commercial television well established in your host country? What is the level of television penetration? How much control does the government have over advertising on TV and radio? Is print media more popular then TV? Many organizations go for a strategy of adapting advertising messages to local markets to best meet consumer demand.

International Pricing Strategies

Pricing on an international scale is difficult. As well as taking into account traditional price considerations (see marketing mix pricing) i.e.:

· Fixed and variable costs,

· Competition,

· Company objectives,

· Proposed positioning strategies,

· Target group and willingness to pay,

The organization needs to consider the costs of transport, any tariffs or import duties that may be levied on their product(s) when they are sold on the international scale. Also what currency do you expect to be paid in? Will it be home or international currency? Exchange rate fluctuation will also impact profitability and influence pricing decisions.

Other factors to consider include local incomes, what are income and PDI levels. What is the general economic situation of the country and how will this influence pricing?

The internet is now making pricing more transparent for consumers. Goods can be purchased online from any overseas organizations at local currency prices,

International Distribution Strategies

A standard distribution channel in the UK may go from a Manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer to consumer or direct from a manufacturer to a retailer. In an overseas market there may well be more intermediaries involved. For example in Japan there are approximately five different types of wholesaler a product goes through before the product reaches the final consumer. In your international market, is it dominated by major retailers or is the retail sector made up of small independent retailers? Is internet distribution common for your product?