International Marketing Practices

Promotion Strategy Fi ms use promotion to effectively reach their consumers, and it is often tailored to target consumers, specifically accounting for cultural differences overseas [224]. To effectively execute promotional strategies overseas, firms should conduct market research to gauge receptivity and ensure that messaging will land, working to ultimately increase awareness, trial opportunities, positive attitude toward the product, and temporary sales [223]. Types of promotional platforms must also be considered; effectiveness varies between personal selling, point-of-sale promotion, direct mail, etc. between industries [220, 224]. Media considerations are also vital to effective messaging and appeal to consumers, including word of mouth, social media, television, print, and events like international trade shows [224]. Print, social media, and webpage content will be generated to reach consumers abroad, specifically to educate, build a brand, and outline available products. Urbanwood Insights will also pursue the potential for local product representatives abroad, as well as social media influencers. Content will be translated into Japanese to ensure overseas consumers are receptive to available urban wood products. Urbanwood Insights will explore attendance at lifestyle and design trade shows abroad, like the Design Tokyo Products Fair, Lifestyle Week Tokyo, or JapanTex Interior Trend Show. Promotional messages utilized overseas will primarily include exclusivity, as messages of local production are lost abroad, as well as quality and unique designs. Planning Budget To properly carry out all other marketing operations, a firm needs to adequately allocate funds, often accounting for future operating costs and comparing sales with expenditures with a three- to five-year time frame in mind [223, 224]. Forecasts will include sales and market share estimates as well as costs and profitability. Forecasts should be presented as profit and loss (P&L) statements, including a break-even analysis. As discussed in Chapter 3, a break-even analysis should be conducted to determine the number of units that need to be sold to balance the sales revenue with total cost of production and sale, as outlined below: Break– even point = Fixed costs Unit selling price − Unit variable cost From the break-even point, firms must determine how to best price their products to optimize profits and continue operations, of which the two most common methods are cost-plus pricing and marginal costing. Cost-plus pricing is carried out by calculating total costs and adding a mark-up for the desired profit margin. Marginal costing calculates the differential costs of manufacturing products for

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