Discussion

1. What are the benefits and repercussions of entering international markets? Please provide at least two examples of each.

2. In today's competitive marketplace, companies are under intense pressure to lower costs; one way to do this is to locate manufacturing and other activities in low-wage countries. In theory, this situation bestows great flexibility on companies.
Several factors may figure into the sourcing decision: management vision, factor costs and conditions, customer needs, public opinion, logistics, country infrastructure, the political environment, and exchange rates.

3. Argue for or against the use of the corporate name in global branding. Please use at least two examples to demonstrate your thoughts.

4. A global company possesses a critical marketing advantage with respect to branding and marketing communications: It has the opportunity to successfully transform a domestic branding campaign into a worldwide one. Alternatively, it can create a new global campaign from the ground up.

Global campaigns with unified themes can help to build long-term product and brand identities and offer significant savings by reducing the cost associated with producing ads. The potential for effective global branding also increases as companies recognize and embrace new concepts such as "product cultures."

An example is the globalization of beer culture, which can be seen in the popularity of German-style beer halls in Japan and Irish-style pubs in the United States. Similarly, the globalization of coffee culture has created market opportunities for companies such as Starbucks.