Oct 01 2008
Globalisation issues for new product launch
What does the shorter new product cycle and drive towards global economy mean for managers and individuals in an international business environment? Developments will be trace dsimplistically in terms of opportunities and threats.
What are the implications of a global marketplace?
Globalisation ensures specialisation in production of goods and services as more competition ensures unique needs are catered for. – “A good thing?”.
There will be an increase in the super rich and the divide will increase daily between the wealthiest and the poorest. There are billionaires created every day in this marketplace FACT. – “A bad thing?”.
What are the opportunities that international business can take advantage of?
Speed of communication – (Information can be sent with the push of a button from anywhere and be received in seconds. A product launch can be emailed to millions of email addresses with the click of a button.)
Automation – Product may be mass produced at reduced cost per unit. Sales processes can be automated scripted from a call centre. Sales can be automated your web presence can be your 24 hr sales team. (Customer Services, R&D can be automated based on customer feedback depending on your website architecture.)
Centralisation – Can reap economies of scale not only on production but on human resources, a central legal and financial unit would also be sensible options to have on board. Massive cost savings can be had and everything here can be scaled.
Product Lifetime Extension – A re-launch of a mature product in a less developed environment can breed new life and sales. A change of package or presentation can do the same. Do you sell an ebook online? Get it turned into an audio an sell it pre-loaded on an mp3 player on ebay.
Some threats posed by the increase in globalisation
Technology becomes more available - Michael Porter has mentioned five forces in a competitive environment. With the rise of the internet then each individual will face an increase in all five namely
New Potential Entrants
Increased Customer Choice
More Power to existing suppliers
Threat of substitution of product increases
Rivalry among competitors in the marketplace.
Socio-Cultural issues – often called “psychic distance” there are barriers created by cultural disparities between the two countries, problems arise due to differences in social perspectives, attitudes and language. ( It would be wise for international marketers to target countries that are psychically similar to begin launching new products into.)
Some examples of translation issues
A Thai Dry Cleaners – “Drop your trousers here for best results.”
A Spanish Sports shop – “The athletes foot.”
Even for the giants
Come alive with Pepsi – translated “Rise from the grave with Pepsi” :happened in Germany.
Political/Legal – An understanding of the general attitudes of foreign governments to imports and foreign direct investment will be extra specially important. ( Some legal issues will be involved with certain types of MLM type organisations as they are deemed pyramid and illegal.)
The Chinese governments censorship of information has been a barrier to the early entry of Google into that country.
Understanding the processes is key online there are many - How I Quadrupled My Blog’s Traffic In 3 Months Is an awesome post.
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