Chapter 13
The International Promotional Mix and Advertising Strategies
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter students should be able to:
• Describe international promotional mix and the international communication
process.
CHAPTER SPOTLIGHTS
• International Promotional Mix: Components of the mix are international
advertising, international sales force management, international sales promotion,
and public relations.
to support the campaign.
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter describes the international promotional mix and the international
communication process. The chapter explores international advertising formats and
CHAPTER OUTLINE
13-1 International Promotional Mix:
Components of the promotional mix are international advertising, international
13-2 International Communication Process:
It is a process that involves using the entire promotional mix to communicate with
the final consumer. The following are involved in or affect the communication
process:
1) The sender: The sponsor of the ad, usually represented by an advertising
agency. The sender encodes the message into words and images and
communicates it to the target market. The sender’s goal is for the message to
be received as intended.
13-3 Advertising: Defined as a nonpersonal communication by an identified sponsor
across international borders, using broadcast, print, or interactive media.
13-3a Media Infrastructure:
The media infrastructure provides challenges to sponsoring firms in low-income
or middle-income countries.
1) Media Challenges: Problems that arise due to economic development or
differences in cultural traditions and language.
a. Media Availability: The extent to which the media needed for
particular communication exists locally and can be used by the
2) Media Formats, Features, and Trends around the World:
a. Advertising Posters on Kiosks and Fences: Used extensively.
Represent a valuable and inexpensive mode of communicating to the
target consumer.
b. Advertising on Sides of Private Homes: Typically located in high
advertising.
g. Infomercials and Television Shopping Networks: Exist in much of the
industrialized world; growing business in emerging markets and low-
income countries.
h. English in Local Advertising: English is used more and more, not just
13-3b Advertising Infrastructure: A company can approach its international advertising
strategy using the following options:
1) Hiring Local Advertising Agencies: This strategy is more likely to be used by
a company that uses a localized marketing strategy, appropriate when
2) Hiring International Advertising Agencies: International agencies are
generally used by multinational companies. There are many firms that use the
13-3c The Advertising Strategy:
1) Standardization versus Adaptation in Creating Message Strategies: Using a
standardized strategy worldwide reduces costs, allows for more effective
2) Budgeting Decisions for International Advertising Campaigns: Different
approaches to advertising spending decisions exist:
a. Objective-and-Task Method: Involves first identifying advertising
goals in terms of communication goals, then conducting research to
determine the cost of achieving these goals. Based on this research,
firms allocate the necessary sum for advertising expenditures. This is
the most popular method for multinational firms deciding on their
advertising budgets.
KEY TERMS:
Adaptation of the Advertising Strategy: The act of changing a company’s promotional
mix to each country or market, or creating local campaigns.
All-You-Can-Afford Method: The process of allocating the maximum amount possible
to advertising; this method is used by small and medium-size corporations.
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Channel of Communication: The medium used to communicate a message about a
product to the consumer.
Competitive-Parity Method: The strategy of using competitors’ level of advertising
spending as a benchmark for the company’s own advertising expenditures.
Historical Method: An approach to budgeting that is based on past expenditures, usually
giving more weight to more recent expenditures.
Infomercials: Long television advertisements (one-half to one full hour in length) that
are positioned as programming.
Media Availability: The extent to which media are available to communicate with target
consumers.
Media Infrastructure: The media vehicles and their structure in an international target
market.
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Medium/Media: The channel(s) of communication that a company uses to send to the
target consumer a message about its product or services.
Noise: All the potential interference in the communication process.
Personal Medium: A communication channel that involves contact between the seller
and the consumer.
Sender: The sponsor of an advertisement, usually represented by an advertising agency,
who encodes the message into words and images and communicates it to the target
market.
Standardization of the Advertising Strategy: The process of globalizing a company’s
promotional strategy so that it is uniform in all its target markets.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
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1) Describe the challenges involved in the international communication process and
suggest how each challenge could be addressed by a firm’s international marketing
manager in conjunction with an advertising agency.
One of the more important challenges in the communication process is making
sure that the message is understood in each target market in the way it was intended. In
2) What are some important traits of the international media infrastructure that are
likely to affect local advertising strategies?
One of the most important challenges of the international media infrastructure is
its availability, or the extent to which the media needed for a particular communication
3) Describe how media formats, features, and trends differ around the world.
Most popular in developing countries, kiosks display advertisements for the
international products they sell, providing valuable and relatively inexpensive
communication venues. Advertising on the sides of private homes, especially in high
4) What are the advertising agency choices that international companies have for
communicating with local markets? Describe each choice, its advantages, and
disadvantages.
In order to develop an international advertising strategy, the firm has several
options. It can hire local advertising agencies, hire international advertising agencies, or
5) Ideally, multinationals should standardize their message worldwide to benefit
from economies of scale and other cost savings. What prevents companies from
using a standardized message worldwide?
Companies are hindered from standardizing their message worldwide. First,
communication infrastructure differs from one market to another – media may not be
6) How do multinational firms determine their budget for advertising?
There are several methods to determine the firm‘s advertising budget. Using the
objective-and-task method, the firm first identifies advertising goals in terms of
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REVIEW QUESTIONS:
True/False
1) True
Multiple Choice
1) C
CASE 13-1
YouTube Connecting with Consumers through New Media
1. How did YouTube revolutionize advertising to the final consumer?
YouTube has revolutionized advertising for the final consumer in a number of ways.
Perhaps the most significant is that viewers can always choose what they watch; when
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2. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages for established
multinationals if they choose to advertise on YouTube?
Any revolution in advertising used correctly can be to the advantage of the multinational
corporation. First, the technology behind the search itself presents advantages for
multinationals. YouTube (with Google as parent company) has become the beneficiary of
3. How can companies enhance their advertising portfolio with new media?
The YouTube phenomenon has resulted in an enormous surplus of video footage
becoming available to the public. Any single piece of this media will typically only be
seen by a very small percentage of the population. As a result, companies can recycle this
CASE 13-2
Selling the Donnelly Brand in Romania
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1. Should Donnelly use in-house produced advertising in the Romanian
market? Why or why not?
The advertising produced for the regional market in the Southeastern United States is
probably drown in the sea of glitz that other cigarette makers provide.
2. What advantages would Donnelly have if it decided to use a U.S. advertising
agency present in Romania? What would be the disadvantages of using a
U.S. agency?
Using a U.S. ad agency operating in Romania makes sense: The U.S. agency is probably
3. Which advertising agency should Donnelly choose for advertising the
Donnelly brand in Romania? Explain.
Ogilvy Romania, Graffiti/BBDO, or Olympic DDB would all be excellent choices. These
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