Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

32 BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS INTERNET MARKETING
service, support, and, in the case of software and information, live product.
With the advent of Internet telephony, companies will be able to
interconnect the Internet and voice response, so customer service will
take on a new level of quality.
Approach Global Marketing with Caution
Despite all the apparent benefits of global Internet marketing, it should
be pointed out that marketers cannot take other countries and their populations
for granted. The European countries are a good example. Europeans
live on a single continent, have open borders, trade freely, and are
currently engaged in moving to a unified European currency, yet each
country retains its very distinct personality and, in the case of marketing,
individuals in each country may react differently to promotions.
Additional issues may occur that could create barriers to Internetrelated
marketing activities. For example, Europeans generally are less
likely to share personal profile information. In fact, some countries have
regulations restricting the use of such information. Stringent privacy
regulations covering all of Europe, effective October 2001, make it illegal
to solicit via e-mail without the express permission of the consumer.
E-commerce may also be less desirable to Europeans because of individual
country currencies, individual country taxes, shipping products
across borders, and other issues. As a result, you cannot assume that an
Internet marketing program that works successfully in the United States
will automatically succeed globally.
If you are going to make a serious effort to market in Europe or
anywhere else in the world, you would do well to learn about the likes
and dislikes of the business population in each target country. You will
need to know what kind of messaging works and does not work, and
how much of what you routinely use in the United States will work in
other countries. You will also have to recognize the fact that, to best
appeal to a specific country’s population, you will need to understand
cultural differences and communicate in that country’s language. U.S.
companies that have mailed English-language material into the Quebec
province of Canada have learned that lesson the hard way.
Generally, concentrating on any specific country means doing your
marketing homework by enlisting the help of an outside resource within
that country or by relying on your own local country representatives.