International marketing culture, defines the atmosphere and the concepts in which the business expands and thrives. However a thumb rule for any company is that it can have one of the following five types of orientations towards international markets:
1.The Production Concept
This concept is the oldest concepts in business. It focuses on, that the consumers are going to prefer those products that are widely available and are inexpensive. Managers focusing on this concept, concentrate on achieving high production efficiency, low costs, and mass distribution. Their assumption is on the fact that consumers are primarily interested in the availability of the product with low prices. This kind of orientation makes sense in the developing countries, where consumers more interested in obtaining the product rather than in its features.
2. The Product Concept
This kind of orientation holds that the consumers are likely to be favoring those products which are offering more quality, innovative features, and performance. Managers focusing on this concept should concentrate on making superior products and improving them over time to time. They assume that buyers admire well made products and appraise the quality and performance of that product.
3. The Selling Concept
Another common business orientation, which highlights the fact that consumer and the businesses, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the selling products. The organization should therefore, promote the product with aggressive selling effort. This concept assumes that consumers show typically buying inertia or resistance and must be coaxed into buying.
4. The Marketing Concept
This is a business philosophy that challenges the above 3 dimensions. And it holds the idea of company to achieve its organizational goals and these consist of the company being more effective than its competitors in terms of communication, creation and delivery. This adds customer value to its selected targeted customers.
5. The Societal Marketing Concept
This concept revolves around the notion that the task of an organization is to determine the needs and wants of the target market in order to deliver the expected package of solutions as compared to its competitor. Additionally it holds that all this needs to be done in such a way that enhances the society and the consumer’s well being.
The international marketing culture rests on the following four pillars;
• Target market (the potential customers)
• Customer needs
• Integrated marketing (approaching customers through product offers, marketing communication, distribution and pricing)
• Profitability
Types of Customer Needs
Although marketing is about meeting needs profitably, understanding customer needs and wants is not always a simple task. Some customers have needs of which they are not fully conscious. Or they cannot articulate these needs. Or they use words that require more interpretation.
Consider the customer who wants an inexpensive car, the following 5 types of needs can be identified;
• Sated needs (the customer wants an inexpensive car)
• Real needs (the customer wants a car whose operating cost, not its initial price, is low)
• Unstated needs (the customer expects good service from the dealer)
• Delight needs (the customer buys the car and receives a complimentary gift)
• Secret needs ( the customer wants to be seen by friends as a value oriented savvy consumer)