Global Business chapter 17

• refers to identifying distinct groups of consumers who's purchasing behavior differs from others in important ways.  Markets can be segmented by: 
• geography
• demography
• socialcultural (social class, religion, values, etc) and
• psychological (personality)

a few retailers supply most of the market

there are many retailers supplying the market, no one of which has a major share of the market.

• The number of intermediaries between the producer (the manufacturer) and the consumer. 
• the more fragmented the retail system, the more expensive it is for a firm to make contact with each individual retailer.

• one that is difficult for outsiders to access
• ie often difficult for a new firm to get access to get shelf space in supermarkets.

refers to the expertise, competencies, and skills of established retailers in a nation, and their ability to sell and support the products of international businesses

• 1. cultural
• 2. Source and country of origin effects
• 3. noise levels

• occur when the receiver of a message evaluates the message on the basis of status or image of the sender.
• E.g when there was "Japan bashing" in the US in the early 90s, Honda responded by making commercials that emphasized how American the firm had become

• the extent to which the place of manufacturing influences product evaluations
• these can either negatively or positively affect a firm

• tends to reduce the probability of effective communications
• refers to the amount of other messages competing for potential consumer's attention and this too varies across countries

• emphasizes personal selling rather than mass media advertising in the promotional mix
• requires intensive use of a sales force and is relatively costly

depends more on mass media advertising to communicate the marketing message to potential consumers.

• product type to consumer sophistication: is the product new to the market? can the people understand what the product does and the benefits of such a product?
• channel length
• media availability

• for industrial products or complex new products
• when distribution channels are short
• when few print or electronic media are available

• for consumer goods
• when distribution channels are long
• when sufficient print and electronic media are available to carry the marketing message

a measure of the responsiveness of demand for a product to change in price

demand is said to be elastic when a small change in price produces a large change in demand

a large change in price produces only small change in demand

the concept has three aspects: predatory pricing, multipoint pricing and experience curve pricing

• the use of price as a competitive weapon to drive weaker competitors out of a national market. 
• once the competitor has left the market, the firm can raise prices and enjoy high profits

refers to the fact a firm's pricing strategy in one market have have an impact on its rival's pricing strategy in another market

• as a firm builds its accumulated production volume over time, unit costs fall due to experience effects
• many firms pursuing an experience curve pricing strategy on an international scale will price low worldwide in attempting to build global sales volume as rapidly as possible, even if this means taking large losses initially.

• 1. product development projects are driven by customer needs
• 2. new products are designed for ease of manufacture 
• 3. development costs are kept in check
• 4. time to market is minimized