International Marketing Guide for Business Professionals

International marketing is becoming an increasingly important strategic function for businesses looking to expand and stay competitive in their industry. 

The United States accounts for roughly 4% of the world’s population, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which means companies that have reached the limits of their domestic market still have far more potential customers waiting in regions abroad.  

The data shows that investment is moving in this direction: 

  • PwC’s 28th annual Global CEO Survey found that more than half of CEOs plan to make international investments in the year ahead.  
  • Grant Thornton’s International Business Report points the same way, with 52% of midmarket firms planning to concentrate on international markets as part of their growth strategies. 

The ways that businesses operating in multiple countries plan, operate, and compete is different from that of companies serving a single home market, which is why an international marketing guide can be a valuable tool for business professionals. International marketing skills have also become sought after capabilities for business professionals.  

What Is International Marketing? 

International marketing is the broad term for all of the efforts made by a company to enter, grow, or change its position in foreign markets. The main goals of international marketing, also known as global marketing, are to establish and grow a customer base in other countries, increase the company’s revenue, and improve its profitability. These goals are achieved by marketing and selling the company’s products or services in other countries.  

International marketing is the part of international commerce that connects companies with customers worldwide and facilitates the exchange of goods, services, and capital.  

International marketing initiatives can vary by organization, but they typically involve the following: 

  • Creating, placing, and promoting products or services worldwide while adapting them to the tastes and regulations of each region 
  • Reading economic trends, consumer behavior, legal systems, and competition in every market a company enters 
  • Studying how cultural values shape purchasing decisions, then adjusting messaging, pricing, and distribution to fit what local audiences respond to 

International marketers seek to build relationships and trust with people in other countries so that they recognize the brand the marketers are promoting and choose to buy it. 

How Is International Marketing Unique? 

The scope and complexity of international marketing set it apart from the domestic version. Understanding the differences between international marketing and domestic marketing can make it clear where the two diverge and why it matters for strategy. 

Domestic Marketing  

Domestic marketing is focused on audiences within the country in which a business operates. For example, individuals with native knowledge of their target audiences’ cultural values and economic conditions design most domestic marketing programs.  

Domestic marketers also know the regulations in their own country and how to comply with them. These regulations can be challenging for small businesses. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 69% of small businesses find complying with regulation more burdensome than their larger competitors do.  

In general, operating only in domestic markets offers businesses advantages such as ease of entry, lower operational costs, and better market familiarity. But for companies seeking to expand beyond their home country’s borders, successfully reaching international audiences can help them achieve unprecedented growth. 

International Marketing  

International marketing is focused on audiences outside of a business’s home country. International marketers therefore need to account for differences across regions in consumers’ expectations, language, and culture. What works in one region can flop or even offend customers in another, and international marketing failures can be costly.  

Ford learned this in Belgium, when a campaign meant to advertise “Every car has a high-quality body” was translated as “Every car has a high-quality corpse.” Other brands have faced boycotts after running imagery or slogans that consumers saw as insults to their culture or national identity, such as a recent campaign that faced a backlash in China for invoking racist tropes used historically to mock Asian communities. 

Taking a company international also means dealing with different, possibly more challenging regulations, as every country has its own business and commerce laws and rules. Understanding and complying with each region’s regulations and requirements can require extensive resources.  

The biggest items companies need to consider when they decide to pursue entry into international markets include the following: 

  • The four P’s of marketing — product, price, place, and promotion — all need to be reworked for local tastes and conditions. A single marketing playbook designed for a domestic market is not likely to translate to global markets. 
  • Marketing investments often increase due to additional market research, localization, and regional vendor relationships. These are extra costs that domestic campaigns do not have. 
  • Global brands face competition from both local players and other multinational companies chasing the same customers in the same markets, making the determination of what sets a brand apart ever more critical in a marketing campaign. 
  • Coordinating across global supply chains requires different and often more extensive efforts than working through familiar local networks does. 

International markets can be more volatile than domestic markets, and are affected by political shifts, currency swings, and changes in trade policy. For companies expanding abroad, assessing the potential impact of any political risks in the region, looking at the local regulatory environments closely, and staying flexible when conditions change can help them be resilient. 

5 Benefits of Expanding Into International Markets 

Expanding into international markets can deliver strategic benefits to companies, including enabling them to achieve growth and increase their brand awareness, reduce their risk, and build their customer base. Examples of how global markets can deliver long-term benefits for companies include the following: 

  1. A wider customer base. Entering new regions opens up new customer segments and revenue streams. The move to maximize a company’s global reach creates opportunities to diversify and reduce its dependence on any single economy. 
  2. Economies of scale. Higher production volumes across multiple markets lower per-unit costs of products. While a company’s initial investment in a new international market might be high, over time, economies of scale can improve the company’s profit margins and its price competitiveness. 
  3. Innovation and learning. Different customers’ needs and competitive pressures push brands to evolve their products and messaging in ways that can benefit the whole business. Sometimes, innovation can derive from lessons learned, turning a company’s shortcomings into opportunities. 
  4. Greater brand awareness. Customers tend to trust brands they recognize across regions. Having greater global brand awareness can help a brand gain a stronger position and leadership in the brand’s category. 
  5. Risk diversification. By managing risk and spreading their exposure across regions, businesses can improve their resilience when faced with economic downturns, regulations, or consumer trends shifting in any one market. 

Tips for Developing an International Marketing Strategy 

Developing an international marketing strategy takes time and research, and every organization will face unique international marketing challenges that it will have to navigate. Here are four key tips that can help companies take a measured approach to entering international markets: 

Market Research and Analysis 

The first step in creating any international marketing plan is to conduct a market study. For a complete picture of the target market, organizations need to gather global marketing data by conducting both primary research and secondary research.  

Examples of primary research include obtaining first-hand data through surveys, focus groups, and interviews with specific audiences.  

Secondary research relies on collecting data from existing, credible sources such as reports, industry studies, and public data. Examples of trusted secondary research sources that can be useful in assessing potential new international markets include the following:  

A SWOT analysis of a foreign market — evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to entering the market — can also help businesses determine their readiness for global expansion and can help inform their international marketing strategy. 

The Right Strategic Approach 

Effective global marketing strategies often take one of three approaches: standardization, internationalization, or multinationalization. The right approach for a company depends on the product, the audience, and how much variation the brand can absorb. Here’s what each approach entails: 

  • Standardization is the approach used when a company sells the same product everywhere and keeps everything under central control. This approach makes it easy for a business to coordinate its international marketing efforts and helps the business maintain a consistent brand image. 
  • Internationalization is the approach used when a company focuses on its home market first, then expands abroad. The company makes their products at home and uses imports and exports to get into foreign markets. A key benefit of this approach is that the company doesn’t have to invest as much and can test the waters to see if its product will sell internationally. 
  • Multinationalization is the approach used when a company sets up shop in the countries they’re expanding into. It is common for an international company to become a multinational one once it has seen sufficient demand for its products in its home country. This approach involves hiring local people and either buying or leasing local building facilities in each region. A multinational company tailors its products, prices, and operations to each market, which enables the company to connect with its local customers and be flexible with pricing. 

A Global Marketing Mix That Optimizes the Local 

Once a business chooses a strategic approach, the next step is to adjust the four P’s of marketing for each region it is entering. Balancing local relevance with global consistency keeps the brand’s core identity intact and helps make it more recognizable across target markets.  

Digital channels are often the best way to reach international audiences. For those leading an international marketing effort, this often means optimizing the brand’s content for local search engines and localizing its websites for the languages and currencies in each of its foreign markets. Social media campaigns that focus on engaging with the social platforms people use in each region can be part of the mix. 

By pursuing local partnerships with agencies, distribution agreements, and joint ventures, international marketers can have access to expertise that an outside team can’t easily replicate. These relationships can provide access to local networks, an understanding of local market nuances, and credibility with local consumers who often prefer familiar brands. 

Cultural Competency 

Whether a business is using a standardized, international, or multinational approach, it can benefit from building its international marketing campaigns based on internationally accepted marketing standards and the customs and values of the people in the countries it’s targeting. This requires leaders to have cultural competency, which can help the company achieve the following: 

  • Make clearer business decisions and remove the guesswork from how teams read situations 
  • Build more stable partnerships that hold up longer because they’re built on cultural understanding  
  • Have clear communication rather than making assumptions, reducing friction and misunderstandings 
  • Become more flexible in international markets, adapting with help from local experts to maximize campaign results 

Resources for International Marketing Strategies 

Being able to adjust the marketing mix, reach local audiences online, and build partnerships on the ground all require solid research. The resources below can help business professionals develop or refine an international marketing strategy.  

Building Skills to Help Take Organizations Global 

International marketing efforts influence every stage of a business’s cross-border growth, from its initial market research to the evaluation of its campaign results. This international marketing guide offers a starting point. The work of applying the insights and tips included here is what can separate brands that grow internationally from those that try to expand but are forced to retreat. 

Professionals planning to lead this work often build their expertise through hands-on experience, the support of a strong professional network, and graduate study in business or international management, particularly in a program designed to help students build their cross-cultural and analytical skills. A program that offers students the opportunity to study abroad allows them to immerse themselves in different cultures and gain firsthand knowledge of how international markets work.

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