6.4 The international marketing plan  (Page 4/5)

For these reasons, it is important to recognize at the outset that the development and implementation of pricing strategies in international markets should follow the following stages:

1. analyzing the factors that influence international pricing, such as the cost structures, the value of the product, the market structure, competitor pricing levels, and a variety of environmental constraints
2. confirming the impact the corporate strategies should have on pricing policy
3. evaluating the various strategic pricing options and selecting the most appropriate approach
4. implementing the strategy through the use of a variety of tactics and procedures to set prices
5. managing prices and financing international transactions

Perhaps the most critical factor to be considered when developing a pricing strategy in international markets, however, is how the customers and competitors will respond. Nagle [link] has suggested nine factors that influence the sensitivity of customers to prices, and all have implications for the international marketer. Price sensitivity reduces:

The more distinctive the product is:

• the greater the perceived quality
• the less aware consumers are of substitutes in the market
• if it is difficult to make comparisons
• if the price of a product represents a small proportion of total expenditure of the customer
• as the perceived benefit increases
• if the product is used in association with a product bought previously
• if costs are shared with other parties
• if the product cannot be stored

Finally, there are several inherent problems associated with pricing in international markets. Often companies find it difficult to coordinate and control prices across their activities in order to enable them to achieve effective financial performance and their desired price positioning. Simply, how can prices be coordinated by the company across the various markets and still make the necessary profit? Difficulty answering this question has led to two serious problems. Dumping (when a firm sells a product in a foreign country below its domestic price or below its actual costs) is often done to build a company's share of the market by pricing at a competitive level. Another reason is that the products being sold may be surplus or cannot be sold domestically and are therefore already a burden to the company. When companies price their products very high in some countries but competitively in others, they engage in a gray market strategy. A gray market , also called parallel importing , is a situation where products are sold through unauthorized channels of distribution. A gray market comes about when individuals buy products in a lower-priced country from a manufacturer's authorized retailer, ship them to higher-priced countries, and then sell them below the manufacturer's suggested price through unauthorized retailers.

Considerable problems arise in foreign transactions because of the need to buy and sell products in different currencies. Questions to consider are: What currency should a company price its products? How should a company deal with fluctuating exchange rates?