Comparative Marketing

Introduction

With the increasing international operation of many companies, the study of comparative marketing has also attracted increasing attention.The growth of the field may have reflected practical reason, as well as academic interests. For the companies which have the desire to enlarge their operation overseas, the comparative studies would help to answer to such questions as: How much of the marketing procedure they use at home can be applied abroad? How much must be modified, and in what way? Academicians seek knowledge about domestic marketing in foreign countries, because "such knowledge is interesting for its own sake" and

help them to understand their own system better. (Cox, 1968) However, despite the expanded literature dealing with the subject, "progress has been slow in developing explanations of how the marketing systems of different nations operate and interact to supply goods and services that people consume". (Barksdale & Anderson, p.57) According to Cox,"the greatest weakness in our attempts to make effective comparisons of domestic marketing systems lies in the shortcomings of the concepts."

In this paper, the brief review of the development of comparative marketing will be made to have an overview of the field first. Then the emphasis will be shifted on examining the conceptual frameworks available for the study of comparative marketing.

Comparative Marketing as a Field of Study

we should consider what is the "substance" of the subject: What is comparative marketing? Bartels stated that the subject still lacked identity. Because it had not been conceptualized, it lacked academic status, scholarly respect, and sufficient theoretical content to earn a consensus on its substance. (Bartels, 1968) With the lack of consensus,several different definitions of comparative marketing could be found in the literature dealing with the subject.

Before defining "comparative marketing," we would also like to clarify somewhat the confusion of the related terminology: "domestic," "foreign," "international", "multinational," and "comparative." When the term "comparative" is used, we usually consider "international" marketing in contrast to "domestic" marketing. Before "international" marketing can have meaning, the term "marketing" itself must be understood to be related to other concepts. Although we would find various definitions for "marketing", Terpstra defined "marketing" as "the collection of activities (marketing intelligence, product development, pricing, distribution, and promotion) undertaken by the firm to relate profitably to its market," and went on to define "international marketing" as "the performance of one or more of these activities across national boundaries." "multinational" marketing. In his terms, "the international marketing manager has a threefold responsibility: "international marketing (marketing across boundaries); foreign marketing (marketing within foreign countries); and multinational marketing (coordinating marketing in multiple markets)."