International marketing is the performance of business activities designed to plan, price, promote, and direct the flow of a company’s goods and services to customers in more than one nation for profit. The core concepts of international marketing are the same as those of national marketing; the difference is in the environment. Competition, legal restraints, government controls, weather, fickle consumers, economic conditions, technological constraints, infrastructure concerns as well as cultural and political situations render the international marketer’s task both more complex and more interesting. In short, distance matters.

The course begins with an examination of key aspects of the international marketing environment: culture, politics, trade theory and reality, and multinational market groups. Emphasis then shifts to the 4Ps of marketing, product, price, promotion and place, assessing how international marketers adapt the marketing mix to the complexities of the international environment. Students develop a thorough appreciation of the interrelationship between international environment and marketing techniques by bringing the concepts together in the form of an international marketing plan.

  By the end of the course students will be able to:

• Identify opportunities and threats in international markets
• Appreciate the origins and importance of culture
• Understand political risks and how to manage them
• Know about the most important international market groups
• Adapt domestic marketing techniques and practices to international markets
• Make written and oral presentations on international marketing strategies

Students who miss a case study discussion (for whatever reason) will receive no credit for that day's discussion. Students are allowed THREE absences for which no reason need be given and no excuse is required. Further absences beyond that will lower class the participation grade. Similarly, repeated late arrivals will lower the class participation grade.