ABSTRACT
In this chapter an attempt is made to identify the strategies with which a transnational marketeer should be familiar. It is, however, to be stressed that each market has its own unique features. Nevertheless, a knowledge of transnational marketing strategies generally is useful in negotiating business with a foreign market. The purpose is not to develop a comprehensive list of all strategies, but to dwell upon some of the most important ones, which seem to be applicable in all markets.
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the word ‘strategy’ refers to ‘the art of war’ or ‘management of an army’.1 This word has therefore a military connotation and two dimensions: offensive and defensive. In marketing a product in a foreign market, it is of central importance that a marketeer determines his offensive and defensive strategies. The offensive strategies in this context stand for those strategies which he must consider for gaining a market and staying in it. This may be achieved by good planning, management, public relations, distribution, market research and of course by producing/manufacturing goods of a high quality. Defensive strategies, on the other hand, should be considered by a marketeer from two points of view: first, the kind of cautionary measures he should take in entering a foreign market and, second, the measures he should take to ensure that the domestic market for the product is also secured. This latter point is particularly important for two reasons: first, if the domestic market is not maintained, then a foreign competitor may gain that market; in other words, the self-sufficiency of the market will be lost although accommodation of foreign competitors in the domestic market currently seems to be a trend: second, it is often necessary to service the foreign market from the resources of the home market.
