Discussion

1. Achieving a competitive advantage is often very challenging. There are many specific approaches available to companies. For example, uniform pricing strategy can become difficult to achieve whenever different taxes, trade margins and customs duties are involved. Yet, when firms that start out with identical prices in various countries soon find that prices have to change to stay in line with often large currency fluctuations. Although it is becoming increasingly clear that market-by-market pricing strategies will cause difficulties, many firms have found that changing to a uniform pricing policy is rather like pursuing a moving target. To better prepare for this, companies consider modified uniform pricing by carefully monitoring price levels in each country and avoiding large gaps that encourage the marketers to move in and take advantage of large price differentials.

2. In general, if anticipated marketing goals are to be achieved, a product must be made accessible to the target market at an affordable price. In many markets, the biggest constraint to successful marketing is distribution. Getting the product to the target can be a costly process if inadequacies within the distribution structure cannot be overcome. Forging an aggressive and reliable channel of distribution may be the most critical and challenging task facing the global marketer.