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The recent increase in the presence of emerging market firms (EMFs) in global markets requires a closer examination of their international marketing strategies (including branding). The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors behind the standardization or adaptation of global marketing strategies adopted by EMFs for their cross-border acquisitions.

This paper examines the determinants of the marketing strategies adopted by Indian and Chinese firms for their cross-border acquisitions. The drivers of the standardization/adaptation of marketing strategies (including branding) are identified using both quantitative data collected in 168 cross-border acquisitions conducted by the EMFs mentioned above and the institutional theory and organizational identity literature.

Institutional factors have a stronger effect than organizational identities on global marketing strategies, including branding. The standardization of the EMFs’ marketing strategies is driven by the private statuses of the acquirers, legal distances, target countries’ economic development, and the ethnic ties that exist between the home and host countries. The acquirers’ decisions to retain the targets’ brand identities, thus adapting their global marketing strategies, are related to the cultural distances, economic freedom distances, and sizes of the targets.

In this study, two large emerging markets – India and China – are used to gather the empirical data; future works can expand upon this line of research and examine other EMFs.

The acquiring companies have to decide whether to adopt an adaption marketing strategy, with reference to the acquired targets’ local stakeholder requirements, or to incorporate their targets’ brands into their own global marketing strategies.

Typically, previous work on the adaptation vs standardization of global marketing strategies adopted in the wake of cross-border deals has focussed on acquisitions involving companies from developed countries; this paper extends the field of research to the EMFs of two of the most important developing countries: China and India.

To present a new model for customer targeting when the information in customer databases is limited.

An original conceptual framework is proposed, the customer targeting funnel model, supplemented by a composite mathematical model for optimizing decisions related to customer targeting for marketing initiatives and a flowchart to guide its implementation by marketing planners, all in the business‐to‐context and under conditions of information shortage. This “toolkit” facilitates the targeting of customers most likely to enter into closer relationships with the company, even when a significant proportion of their key characteristics have to be estimated.

A case example from China, describing a computer‐based support system for the implementation of the model, shows that the user company strengthened its customer service strategy, won higher satisfaction and loyalty levels, and achieved sales growth 50 percent above the industry average.

The model is at an early stage of its development, and such additional features of customer behaviour as churn should be incorporated in future. The effectiveness of the model and system needs to be tested in a wider range of cases and situations..

Techniques of customer targeting based in consumer marketing need to be adapted appropriately for transfer to industrial marketing, and this paper offers one case in point. Shortage of customer intelligence is common in various sectors worldwide, and especially in developing countries such as China.

An innovative approach to customer targeting in the special conditions of industrial or business‐to‐business marketing.

Based upon a study of between fifty to sixty case examples of new venture start‐ups, the author presents a screening procedure for entrepreneurs to use when evaluating whether a proposed low‐budget marketing strategy for a new venture shows promise of being successful. The procedure consists of four sets of screening conditions. A well‐designed marketing strategy should have a reasonably good chance of being successful if it (1) will tightly integrate the product/service and price offerings, the intended distribution method, and the intended promotion plan with the new venture’s designated target market, (2) will encounter no serious marketing strategy execution difficulties which cannot be resolved, (3) uses marketing concepts which can be executed with a small marketing budget, and (4) displays three characteristics believed to be strongly associated with marketing strategies that are successful over the long term.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

This chapter provides an overview of the marketing strategy development process in the commercialization of breakthrough technologies. Important concepts and elements that are considered critical when developing market applications are presented with emphasis on three key decisions: target market selection, segmentation, and positioning. These strategic decisions will guide the more tactical considerations relating to the specific elements, or marketing mix, of the product’s marketing strategy. Marketing strategy development is a dynamic process that is impacted by many factors. This chapter highlights the dynamic nature of this process as well as providing insight as to the fundamental considerations in strategy formulation.

Many companies are placing greater emphasis today on the marketing of their mature brands. Notes several reasons for that trend persisting well into the future. Little has been written about how companies can more methodically plan and enact marketing strategies for these brands. Addresses the marketing of mature brands by: (1) providing a guide to the key (and sometimes misunderstood) terms involved with branding decisions; (2) describing a continuum comprised of ten strategic alternatives available to firms with mature brands; and (3) presenting recommendations as to when best to apply the various strategic alternatives.

With African American Millennials being the most intense users of the internet in the USA, based on length of time and frequency, this is a group that should be of particular interest to advertisers investing in online campaigns. The current marketing literature states that minorities respond more favorably to media and imagery that is targeted to them. However, this generalization has not been extended to make sure that this new generation and new medium follow the previous findings. The purpose of this paper is to examine how advertising performance is affected by the use of targeted marketing to African American Millennial consumers online.

Using the McGuire's Distinctiveness Theory as a framework, this study investigates the role of race in online advertising to determine if having a targeted vehicle (a race‐specific website) and or targeted imagery (featuring a race‐specific model) has an influence on an individuals' perception of a product, perception of an advertisement, and intent to purchase a product.

The findings provide interesting insight into the differences present between previously accepted generalizations and what is found when using a new medium with a new generation. Having a racially targeted media vehicle (website) did not have a significant effect on the resulting marketing outcomes (attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the product and purchase intent) but having targeted imagery (ethnic models) did. This shows that extending the current literature regarding targeted marketing to include the medium of internet and include this new consumer group of Millennials may not be a sound strategy.

The accepted practice of using Black models to target African American consumers is still valid in the online environment, even when the audience is a member of the newer generation. However, according to the findings of this study, media buying practices should be examined in order to identify where targets can be reached beyond racially targeted websites. As this study suggests, the location being racially targeted is not as significant a predictor of success as having advertising images that mirror the self‐identification of the audience.

Target marketing is a key decision area for all businesses. Market size, growth rates, competitive forces, customer fit and profitability are just a few of the criteria which can be used by businesses assessing the attractiveness of their target markets. Yet despite the wealth of variables available to managers and the development of a range of decision tools to help them, research indicates that many businesses continue to assess target markets on the basis of short‐term profitability measures. This paper examines the wide range of approaches which have been proposed in the literature for identifying market attractiveness and questions how these fit with managerial practice, utilising the findings from cases and two studies of The Times 1000 UK companies’ target market approaches. The studies’ findings indicate that the literature’s formal, multi‐criteria tools for assessing market attractiveness are not necessarily reflected in the simplistic view adopted by many marketing professionals and brand managers. The paper concludes by offering a research agenda to help define future work in this area.

Target markets of new product brands (niche customers) differ from those of existing product brands (mainstream customers) using conventional new product brand development strategy. The purpose of this paper is to contend that acculturation in the form of cultural pluralism exists in the marketplace and substantiates that contention through an investigation of consumer behavior outcomes resulting from the development of new product brands that target both mainstream and niche consumers through product brand crossover, an alternative product brand development strategy that leverages on cultural pluralism.

A between-subjects experiment was conducted to test whether consumers differ in their behavioral intentions toward existing and new product brands developed through product brand crossover. The experiments include marketing situations of matching and mismatching product brands and marketing communications in the form of marketing messages and advertising images.

The results show that consumers – in general and in segmented groups – do not differ in behavioral intentions toward existing and new product brands as a result of product brand crossover. Matching and mismatching product brands and marketing communications in the form of marketing messages and advertising images do not produce significant effects on behavioral intentions.

This paper offers fresh evidence showing that acculturation in the form of cultural pluralism exists in the marketplace and introduces a new concept in the form of product brand crossover that acknowledges and leverages on cultural pluralism as an alternative approach for new product brand development.