Extract

C H A P T E R T H R E E The International Marketing and Advertising Environment Demographic and geographic characteristics, and economic and political-legal factors, all are important not only in evaluating a country’s potential as a market but also in designing and implementing the marketing mix for a specific market. Thus, each of these environmental factors will be analyzed in this chapter. The international marketer must consider demographic characteristics (size of the popula- tion, rate of population growth, education, population density, and age structure and composition of population), economic factors (gNP per capita, income distribution, and rate of gNP growth), geo- graphic characteristics (size of the country, topographical characteristics, and climate conditions), and the political-legal environment (political stability, laws and regulations, and the degree of nationalism). Clearly, cultural characteristics also play an influential role. However, this aspect of the international marketing and advertising environment will be dealt with separately in Chapter 4. Figure 3.1 shows the relationship of these environmental factors to the marketing mix. The international marketer generally has very limited, if any, control over these environmental factors. The marketer’s task is to assess these factors in order to identify potential barriers to doing business. Firms operating in affluent markets are accustomed to having extensive secondary data available, but obtaining similar data in developing markets can prove quite a challenge. often, data are inaccurate or simply not available. If no insurmountable barriers are detected, the research on these uncontrollable environmental elements will provide...