Developing global products and marketing strategies: A construct and a research agenda

The U.S. trade deficit brings to question the effectiveness of international marketing strategies of American firms. Multinational corporations must develop better international products and improve their performance in their international marketing efforts. They must know when to globalize or localize their marketing practices. This article incorporates learning, involvement, diffusion/adoption and culture context as dimensions of a global product and marketing strategy development decision model. The model developed is “be global, act local.” The interrelationship of consumer behavior models in the context of a multinational product development decision is emphasized. This article raises research issues which need to be addressed for future success in multinational and/or multicultural markets.     

International alliances: Why now?

Conclusion Varadarajan and Cunningham (1995) suggest several items for further research, including “Why are strategic alliances more pervasive in some industries relative to others?” (p. 294) and “Which objectives are best pursued using an alliance strategy?” (p. 295). The speculations offered here suggest that such research can be more deeply grounded in the industry structure. For example, one can suggest that the competitive intensity and the degree to which markets are global will help explain why ISAs in distribution and manufacturing are formed. It is also possible to advance the hypothesis that where the objectives of the alliances revolve around R&D, the speed of new product introductions will predict an increasing reliance on ISAs. The main proposition emerging out of the theoretical speculation is that international SAs in R&D have arisen because unique and protected technological know-how is a thing of the past. No firm in a competitive industry can any longer expect to be alone with a unique technological capability. Thus there is no reason to avoid collaborating with “the enemy,” the competitors. The second proposition is that some firms need to be in multiple markets and products to compete effectively and that alliances are an efficient way to leverage scarce resources. Distribution and manufacturing ISAs are organizational consequences of lean manufacturing and re-engineering. He is an expert in the areas of international marketing strategy and consumer decision making, especially as applied to Japanese and European companies and markets, and has published extensively. Johansson has held faculty positions at the University of Washington and the University of Illinois and has held several visiting appointments in Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States. He is on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals. Johansson earned his Ph.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree (Civilekonom) at the Stockholm School of Economics.     

“Add-on” purchasing: Consumer behavior in the trial of new products

The research reported here examines consumer behavior in the trial of new consumer packaged goods. Panel data tracking purchase patterns over the first two years of introduction for seven low-priced consumer goods was utilized to study both the timing and quantity of individual household new product trials. A behavior termed “add-on” purchasing (buying trial brands in addition to regularly purchased brands) was exhibited across all seven new products. Implications of this “add on” behavior are discussed.     

Rethinking the effect of perceived fit on customers’ evaluations of new products

Prior research has demonstrated that customer evaluations of a new product are directly related to the degree to which a company’s skills are perceived to “fit” with those required to provide the new product. This finding has led to recommendations that firms focus on perceptually close new product areas. However, many firms have successfully entered perceptually distant markets. We reconcile this apparent contradiction by proposing that the effect of perceived fit on new product evaluation is not direct, but is mediated by the certainty a customer has that a company can deliver the proposed new product. Our findings indicate that, by itself, perceived fit has a positive impact on industrial product evaluations. However, the relationship between fit and new product evaluations, previously held to be direct, is instead mediated by customer certainty. That is, when the effect of customer certainty is considered, the direct effect of fit disappears. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. His research interests include management of brand equity, and competitive analysis. His research has been published inJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Services Marketing andPlanning Review. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests are in “marketing creativity,” and the management of mature products. Her research has been published in theJournal of Services Marketing and in the proceedings of the American Marketing Association. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.     

Underlying dimensions of barriers to market entry in consumer goods markets

The importance and underlying dimensions of twenty-five market entry barriers in consumer markets were examined through a survey of marketing executives from 151 U.S. firms. The results indicate that there are three major underlying dimensions of entry barriers.     

How good is the overseas competition?: A survey of car dealers in America

This paper reports on a survey of car dealers in six states. Dealers were asked to rate cars “made in the U.S.A.” in comparison to imports from four overseas countries. The results suggest several potential areas for product improvement in U.S. models but also identified a number of areas where U.S. makes were judged as superior. Foot Locker, Incorporated     

Marketing and the multinational: extending internalisation theory

Introducing marketing explicitly into the internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise considerably extends the power of the theory. In particular, it enables a comparison of marketing-led and technology-led multinationals and highlights the benefits of collaboration between them. It facilitates the analysis of outsourcing, and in particular of R&D. It highlights the importance to marketing-led firms of owning product rather than facilities. The analysis addresses key issues relating to “hollow firms”, “flagship firms” and the “global factory”.     

Segmenting international industrial markets

This study “links” Japanese purchasing agents’ attitudes of the United States and U.S. suppliers of products to buyer intentions. A Multiple Analysis of Variance procedure (MANOVA) is utilized to detect similar variances between attitudes and homogeneous demographics. The result of the research is a method that defines industrial market segments in Japan.     

A provider-cost/patron-effort schema for classifying products

Since the commodity-oriented thinkers of marketing’s early history, marketers have sought a valid schema for classifying products. Currently, the marketing literature is dominated by two types of schemata for classifying products: product-based and consumer cost-based. Despite marketing tenets such asexchange is the focal notion of marketing andgood marketing theory integrates the perspectives of firms and consumers, no existing schema embodies either exchange or a dual firm/consumer perspective. After reviewing the existing classificational schemata, one such schema is proposed and evaluated. The two classifying dimensions of this schema are providers’ relative variable costs (PRVC) and patrons’ relative effort (PRE). Crossing high and low levels of PRVC and PRE yields four product categories: low cost/effort, patroneffort heavy, provider-cost heavy, and high cost/effort. His work has appeared inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Business Horizons, Business Ethics: A European Review, and other journals. His current research interests include marketing theory, advertising, and ethics. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Purdue University. will soon receive his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of North Texas. His work has appeared inAcademy of Management Journal, as well as the proceedings of the American Marketing Association, the Decision Science Association, and the Society of Franchising. His research interests include building and testing models in international marketing, consumer behavior, and marketing management. His current research interests include self-referent processing of advertisements and consumer satisfaction.     

Transparent pricing: theory,tests, and implications for marketing practice

In today’s retail markets, products display opaque pricing, i.e., a single number that provides no information about the allocation of the retail proceeds among agents who bring the product to market. We study transparent pricing, which is an alternative strategy in which allocation information is revealed. We differentiate transparent pricing from related marketing practices such as social marketing, cause-related marketing, and pay-what-you-want. Using controlled experiments in multiple product categories with diverse sampling frames, we find that transparent prices systematically alter consumer utility functions and stated choice behavior. Our results support explanations drawn from both neoclassical and behavioral economic theory, including inequity aversion, procedural justice, and altruism. Classical theory predicts that price transparency should have little effect on consumer behavior. However, results from behavioral economics suggest that consumers may relax “self-interest” in the face of transparent prices, leading to counter-intuitive preferences. For example, in one set of studies we observe a significant proportion of consumers selecting the more expensive of two replicates of the same product. In another study, a subset of motorists willingly pays higher gasoline taxes for the same gallon of gas, increasing the overall price per gallon. We explain this behavior via parameterized utility functions that contain both self-interested and other-interested components moderated by characteristics of the decision-maker and characteristics of the choice context.     

Changing marketing opportunities in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

The changes in the business environment of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union indicate that U.S. firms must adjust their perceptions of socialist markets if they are to compete successfully with Western European and Japanese firms. Consensus among the managers of socialist enterprises agree that U.S. firms fail in these markets because they have made little effort to understand the general business environment and the market dynamics that are characteristic of countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet union. The purpose of this article is to identify and discuss the key elements of the techniques needed to penetrate socialist markets. Sufficient understanding of these factors should produce a strong competitive position for the U.S. firms that are actively pursuing these marketing opportunities.     

The home purchase process: Measurement of evaluative criteria through pairwise measures

Although the purchase of a home represents a sizable investment for the average family, relatively little consumer research pertaining to the home purchase process has been reported. This investigation utilized Thurstone's Case V methodology to identify key attributes used by consumers to make housing choices and to show how these attributes are perceived by consumers of different tenure and socioeconomic status. The pairwise comparison analysis showed a strong preference for the attributes “safety and security from crime” and “quality construction” by the respondents. In addition, the analysis revealed several important differences in attribute preferences between former owners and former renters. Former home owners, for example, were more likely than former renters to prefer school quality when it was pitted against several other attributes. Thurstone's Case V techniques was found to be an effective method for measuring consumer preferences. Implications which focus on home product development and marketing strategies are discussed.     

The moderating effect of organizational cohesiveness in knowledge use and new product development

This study examined the influence of cohesiveness, an organizational cultural variable, on knowledge use and organizational learning within the context of new product development (NPD). The authors surveyed NPD managers from 323 firms, representing a wide range of product classifications, about their firms’ levels of cohesiveness and NPD efforts. Using structural equation modeling, the authors demonstrated that organizational cohesiveness has a moderating influence on both an organization’s use of its existing knowledge to develop innovative new products and the resulting performance of those products, which emphasizes how influential organizational “mind-set” can be. By considering cohesiveness an influence in new product innovativeness and new product performance, the authors incorporated a cultural variable that has received little attention in the NPD and more general marketing literature. This research reveals that much is left to learn about cohesiveness and that understanding it can advance knowledge use, organizational learning, and innovation. Beverly K. Brockman (bev-brockman@utc.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She holds BBA and MBA degrees from the University of Kentucky and a PhD from the University of Alabama. Her specialty areas include marketing strategy, entrepreneurship, product development, and organizational learning. Dr. Brockman has been an American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium Fellow, and her work has been published inDecision Sciences, Journal of Services Research, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, and others. Robert M. Morgan (rmorgan@cba.ua.edu) (PhD, 1991, Texas Tech University) is Phifer Faculty Fellow and department head, Department of Management and Marketing, in the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of Alabama. His interests focus on relationship marketing and marketing strategy, and his research in these areas has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theAcademy of Management Journal, Decision Sciences, and other journals and book chapters. His article “The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing,” coauthored with Shelby D. Hunt and published in 1993 in theJournal of Marketing, was recognized in 2004 by the Institute for Scientific Information as the most cited article in business and economics journals over the previous decade. His article “The Comparative Advantage Theory of Competition,” also coauthored with Shelby D. Hunt and published in 1995 in theJournal of Marketing, received the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award in 2004.     

Who are your successful salespeople?

Utilizing a systematic sample of 200 sales managers selected from manufacturing and wholesaling firms listed in the Dun and BradstreetMillion-Dollar Directory, a survey was conducted to determine whether or not a general profile of “successful” salespersons and another profile of “unsuccessful” salespersons could be constructed. A seven-point semantic differential scale was used to obtain ratings by sales managers of salespeople on each of twenty-four personal attributes. Profiles of “successful” and “unsuccessful” salespersons were found which showed large differences in ratings on the twenty-four personal attributes. Using factor analysis, a reduced set of personal characteristics was determined to predict “successful” and “unsuccessful” salespersons.     

Materialism, status signaling, and product satisfaction

The consumer satisfaction literature has not, for the mos part, integrated individual values into the product evaluation process. Yet a comprehensive understanding of consumer satisfaction can best be attained by including both consumer and product factors. To demonstrate the usefulness of including individual values, this research focuses on one consumer value, namely, materialism. The authors empirically explore how this individual value is linked to consumers’ evaluations of products they have purchased. Using surveys, the authors collected data from a sample of college students (n=211) and a sample of adults (n=270). Across these two studies, using divergent samples and products, they find consistent evidence that materialism is negatively related to product satisfaction in product categories with high potential for status signaling, but unrelated to product satisfaction in product categories with lower potential for status signaling. The consumption goals that produce these product evaluations are empirically addressed Jeff Wang (jianfeng76@yahoo.com; PhD, City University of Hong Kong) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Faculty of Business at the City University of Hong Kong. This work was conducted when he was a doctoral student of marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. His research interests include social networks and consumer behavior, consumer satisfaction and well-being, materialism and consumption meanings, and consumer interests and public policy issues. His dissertation studies credit card debt as a socially embedded phenomenon and investigates how consumers leverage their interpersonal ties as they accumulate and repay their debt. Melanie Wallendorf (mwallendorf@eller.arizona.edu) is Soldwedel Professor of Marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. She holds an MS in sociology and a PhD in marketing from the University of Pittsburgh. Her articles on the sociocultural aspects of consumption have been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Advertising and Society Review, Addiction, Journal of Macromarketing, andAmerican Behavioral Scientist, among others. Her coauthored article on “The Sacred and Profane in Consumer Behavior” won theJournal of Consumer Research Best Article Award in 1992. Her research has been featured in theWall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, American Demographics, andFortune, and has been funded by the Marketing Science Institute, the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission, and the Office of Earth Science at NASA.     

Why “service”?

“Service-dominant logic” appears to have found resonance in the marketing community since its introduction as the evolving, “new dominant logic” in the Journal of Marketing (Vargo and Lusch 2004a, Journal of Marketing, 68, 1–17 (January)). But, on occasion, so has the question of whether the concept “service” captures the essence of the new logic. This article addresses the role of “service” as the heart of value-creation, exchange, markets, and marketing, as well as its considerable implications for research, practice, societal well-being, and public policy. The purposes are both to clarify the issues and to foster the continuing dialog around the service-dominant logic for marketing, as well as for other disciplines.     

Consumer life styles and market segmentation

Consumer behaviorists faced with the task of segmenting markets increasingly turn to the study of consumer life styles. The life style concept and its role in predicting consumer decisions are analyzed here. One methodology known as AIO or life style research has proven especially useful in identifying heavy users of specific product categories. Three representative AIO portraits—for beer, eye make-up, and bank credit cards—are outlined. An evaluation of life styles as a systems concept suggests bright prospects for presenting research findings to clients, formulating creative strategies, positioning products and services and selecting media. C. W. Post Center, L.I.U. Doubleday Advertising Co.     

Unidimensional (global) vs. multidimensional composite performance appraisals of store managers

This study attempts to demonstrate: 1) that weighting performance dimensions produces evaluations very similar to the unweighted approach; 2) that “unidimensional” or “global” assessment based on employees' overall value to the firm produces results similar to the multidimensional approach. Both propositions were supported by the data employed in this study, providing encouragement to organizations using the simpler and less expensive “global” evaluations.     

工业化进程中专业市场作用的实践考察与理论探讨

历史经验表明,任何大国要实现工业化都离不开国内外专业市场的作用,专业市场建设的差距是决定工业化进程的最重要的因素之一.通过对资本主义早期实现工业化的英、法两国和资本主义晚期实现工业化的美、德两国工业化进程的分析,提炼和总结专业市场对推进我国工业化进程的有益借鉴.     

An examination of the effects of perceived difficulty of manufacturing the extension product on brand extension attitudes

This paper examines the relationship between extension difficulty, defined as the perceived difficulty of manufacturing the extension product, and attitudes toward brand extensions. Although extant literature has hitherto modeled this relationship as a simple monotonic relationship, a study by Bottomley and Holden (Journal of Marketing Research, 38(4):494–500, 2001) has questioned its empirical generalizability. We suggest that the relationship between extension difficulty and extension attitudes may be far more complex than a simple linear relationship. Based on theoretical evidence drawn from the concept of evaluation difficulty, we suggest that the relationship between extension difficulty and extension attitudes is best modeled as a curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship. Further, we explore the specific role of perceived transferability as a moderator of this curvilinear relationship. Empirical tests conducted using two studies provide support for both the theoretical mechanism and the proposed hypotheses. Entry into “easy” or “extremely difficult” extension categories carries its own penalties while entry into “moderately difficult” categories appears to garner high consumer attitudes for brand extensions.