BUS615: International Marketing

Welcome to BUS615: International Marketing

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

Course Description

Apply your marketing skills to international markets by exploring how to manage dynamic communications, how international advertising works, how to set appropriate product pricing and policies, and how to market to customers with different cultural and economic realities.

Course Introduction

Smart global companies like Amazon, Toyota, and Nike have all made major missteps when entering foreign markets. This course explores these and other strategic international marketing errors and some of the models businesses use to think through, plan for, and avoid these problems. After you complete this course, you will be able to craft excellent international marketing strategies for sophisticated investors, company executives, and managers of international marketing operations.

As nations once competed with one another, companies are now competing across the globe. Attracted by growing foreign economies and new sales opportunities, many companies have decided to provide products and services internationally in the business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-business (B2B), and business-to-government (B2G) markets. Internet and digital marketing techniques are also evolving rapidly, and they have become critical strategic elements for every company's marketing department. While much is written about customer preferences in B2C and C2C markets, there is comparatively little information on the B2B and B2G markets, particularly since international buyers often have different attitudes and levels of receptivity toward products or services from foreign companies. Therefore, it is critically important to recognize and appreciate these differences and incorporate them into your marketing strategy – and then track your marketing efforts to ensure you enter the market successfully.

This course includes the following units:

• Unit 1: Introduction to International Marketing
• Unit 2: International Business Cultures
• Unit 3: International Marketing Departments
• Unit 4: Market Research and Selecting International Markets
• Unit 5: Trends in International Marketing
• Unit 6: Strategies for Entering International Markets
• Unit 7: Measuring Marketing Success

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• explain why companies choose to enter foreign markets and how they decide which markets to enter;
• assess the advantages and disadvantages of standardization and adaptation in international marketing;
• evaluate marketing performance by choosing appropriate business thinking models based on real-world scenarios where companies have had marketing successes and failures;
• assess the importance of customer-oriented models such as the Customer Value Chain, Customer Value Proposition Canvas, the 4Cs of marketing, and the 4Cs of marketing communications when developing product offerings for international markets;
• explain the role of marketing research and marketing information systems in preparing an international marketing plan;
• choose market segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies for entering an international market;
• analyze why companies are successful or unsuccessful when marketing in other countries by evaluating their marketing processes and strategies;
• evaluate alternative market entry plans for entering an international market;
• track marketing efforts through the use of different analytical and measuring tools such as return on investment (ROI), key performance indicators (KPIs), or Google Analytics;
• identify the main elements of an integrated international marketing plan for a product, service, company, e-commerce platform, or individual; and
• design your own marketing plan for entering an international market.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

Course Materials

This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course by clicking on Resources in the navigation bar.

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.

There are also end-of-unit assessments in this course. These are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want until you understand the concepts and material covered. You can see all of these assessments by clicking on Quizzes in the course's navigation bar.

Tips for Success

BUS615: International Marketing is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or an assigned schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 32 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a comfortable pace that allows you to make regular progress. It's also a good idea to schedule your study time in advance and try to stick to that schedule as best as you can.

Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:

• Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
• As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.

Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.

• To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to log in to your Saylor Academy account and enroll in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access the course materials without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.

For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, is available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.