Rethinking the international marketing strategy: new dimensions in a competitive market

The internationalisation has been a slow process for most companies and it has often been a question of gaining experience of other countries step by step. However, during the last two decades, companies have developed their international activities more on a contingency basis. The international market behaviour has also been influenced by a need to take advantage of different market opportunities and by an increasing need to serve customers in the global market environment. Due to the competitive situation, it might also have been necessary to introduce products more quickly on different international markets. In other situations it has been of importance to acquire companies to be able to build up a market position in the local market The purpose with this paper has therefore been to study the need for changes in the international marketing strategy due to requirements from the customers in the local marketplace.