Global Marketing

A. Definition of Global Business & Marketing

B. Challenges of successful Global Marketing

A. Starbucks Corp. Overseas History

B. Starbucks Corp. Successes & Failures

1. Marketing Cultural Attitudes & Values

2. Cooperative Marketing/Business Strategies

A. Global Marketing Lessons from Starbucks

According to Bishop (2002), "Global business can be defined as those business transactions among individuals, firms, or other entities that occur across national boundaries," (4). The speed and nature of today's global business are faster and more complex than ever before. To be successful in global business, global marketing plays as critical a role in success as it does in domestic business. Dibb (et al. 2000) defines global marketing as a total and comprehensive concept for the organization: "A total commitment to international marketing, in which a company applies its assets, experience and products to develop and maintain marketing strategies on a global scale," (73). Despite the definitions of global business and global marketing, achieving the goals of global marketing is beset by a number of challenges.

Giants in international business like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Starbucks face a number of challenges

Another stems from cultural differences that may make patrons in some countries resistant to patronizing Starbucks. For example, Starbucks is planning on opening a store in France but it has decided to enforce a no-smoking policy. As one marketing expert, "Starbucks green-and-white log is instantly familiar in the U.S. but barely known in France. Will frequent caf�-goers enjoy the experience if they cannot light up? Coffee is a centuries-old experience in France, and many traditions�like kaffeeklatsch in smoky bistros with grumpy service from bow-tied garcons�die hard," (Keaten 2003, 48). To offset some of these dilemmas, Starbucks had devised a number of global marketing and business strategies. Starbucks marketing plan is based on geographic expansion known as the "waterfall model" of entry into international markets, (Kotabe and Helsen 2000, 370). As Kotabe (2000) maintains, "The whole process of geographic expansion may last several decades. The prime motive for the waterfall model is that customization of the product for the foreign market launch can be very time consuming. A phased rollout is also less demanding on the company resources," (370). For Starbucks, the waterfall model of entry has been quite successful

Category: Economics - G