In International Marketing Report V: Promotional Strategies, the reconciling international advertising, and sales promotion effort with the cultural uniqueness of markets is the challenge confronting the international or global marketer. There is an influence on media choice, cultural issues to be considered, as well as the media choices themselves – personal selling, advertising, and others. The global advertiser is confronted with legal and tax considerations in linguistics limitations, media limitation, cultural issues, and production and cost limitations. These limitations must all be dealt with effectively, however; these problems are generally mechanical and can be easily overcome by long-range research.
In Russia, corruption is one of the biggest problems both Russian and international companies have to deal with. In the poll carried out by the Advisory Council for Foreign Investments in Russia, more than 150 foreign companies named bureaucracy as the main hindrance for their activities in Russia. Corruption stood in the second place. These issues will directly affect the promotional activities as the U.S Company is dealing in the Russian markets where bureaucracy can delay the implementation of the promotional strategies and corruption can increase the cost of promotional activities (Warren, 2008).
Hence, for the U.S Company who wants to penetrate in Russia would encounter these problems while exporting the IT-based medical treatment services. However, with the help of agents mentioned in previous reports, the U.S Company will be able to resolve a lot of problems. The U.S Company would take the services of lawyers, researchers and project manager to undertake all the necessary information for knowing the trends of the Russian
society and embedding the same in their promotional services.
PROMOTION MIX:
While analyzing the promotional mix it is important to evaluate the three important elements. They are Cost, outreach, and effectiveness. Based on these factors following promotional plan is suggested. There are seven main aspects of a promotional mix. Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, corporate image, directs marketing, and exhibitions. However, we will use four of them. They include the following (USC Marshall, n.d).
- Advertising –In Russia, the most popular media is TV (covering about 74% of the population) and the newspaper. The company will use the services of the two most widely watched televisions that include First Channel and Rossiya Russia has a very wide range of print media. There are over 400 daily newspapers, covering every field, and offering all kinds of perspectives. (BBC News, 2008).
- Personal selling – personal selling of the services to the hospitals and clinics would be helpful. As people would rely on the advice of doctors. Personal selling would be done face-to-face or via telephone.
- Public relations –the company will use the most common and popular medium of communication of Russia. These include Newspaper and magazine articles/reports, TV. This will facilitate in planting significant and favorable news about medical treatment services that are based on IT (USC Marshall. n.d).
- Corporate image –The need to capture consumer confidence is of vital importance. Positive image building would be done by the past performance of the services rendered in other countries and the feedback of previous users. The good word of mouth would ease the process of building the customers trust (USC Marshall. n.d).
CULTURAL DOS AND DON’TS
Russia is a country of contradictions. There exists a double standard for Russians and foreigners. What one is allowed to do and say, the other is not. Therefore, understanding of Russian social and business culture is key to the success. A lot of cultural issues are confronted
Do’s: One can ask the Russians personal questions about their health, family, and problems.
And also can discuss one’s own personal problems. This builds a close personal relationship with Russian people. So, the promotional strategy would be to use such advertisements that address the problems of the Russians thus creating a bond with them. In Russia caution is to be taken to run promotional advertisements as Russians view all foreigners as wealthy, so they will charge extra large prices.
Don’t’s: the promotional activities should not advertise anything that is against/criticizes the Russian Government. This is not permissible. Do not be impatient. Success in Russia is a slow process. Russians are never in a hurry. Hence, the need for the patients in executing the promotional campaigns is required (Hauser, n.d).
ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS
The establishment of business relationships is very vital and differs from other marketing forms. The concept recognizes long-term values of customer relationships and extends communication beyond intrusive advertising and sales promotional messages. for the establishment of long-term relationships,
the company will adopt the defensive marketing strategy for building an enduring relationship. Defensive marketing describes attempts to reduce customer turnover and increase customer loyalty(Hauser, n.d). This strategy will help a company in eliminating the unsatisfied customers and increasing the good word of mouth.
Moreover, with the advancement of the IT infrastructure, the establishment of good relationship has been facilitated by several generations of customer relationship management software that allows tracking and analyzing of each customer’s preferences, activities, problems, feedback, queries, and complaints (USC Marshall, n.d).
Russian perceives foreigners good and hence expects a lot from them. Slight deviation of a foreigner from their perception leads to the great problem. So, working in Russia or any other country imposes great social responsibility in the foreign country to take care of their interests. Thus, as a part of social responsibility, the objective of the company is to provide the services that will help in eradicating the medical complications in the society. Further, providing such customers services would become the first choice to be consulted for the ailment of medical treatments in the long run (Warren, 2008).
