Price in international marketing

The marketing mix is the coherent combination of policies of Product, Price, Distribution and Communication which, well structured, allows us to introduce a differentiated offering in a market with the intention of adequately position ourselves to achieve sales and profits.

Just like in the different elements of the marketing mix there may always exist some element of subjectivity, since it is difficult at times to determine whether a product has higher quality than another, whether a promotional policy is more efficient than another or whether a distribution channel is more suitable than another, when we talk about Price in international negotiations it is obvious that a product that costs 100 euros is cheaper than another one that costs 200 euros. In fact, we could say that with the marketing mix we are just trying to divert the customer?s attention into the rest of the elements of marketing other than price, in order to add value to the offering and try to justify the price that we demand.

Price is such an essential element that, once established, we must make the customer accept it. It is crucial, therefore, to know the use of the concepts, criteria and tactics that are developed below in order to set the pricing policy to be followed in our international sales and maximize performance.

Moreover, Price fixing in the international market setting is much more complicated than in the domestic market, because in addition to the usual difficulties there are constraints derived from different markets (different legal and economic settings, competitive situation, relationship between the different markets, etc.) And very often our knowledge of foreign markets is not as deep as the one we have of our own market.

On the other hand, the Pricing policy has a potentiality, which is that Price determination allows a Company to have a flexible instrument within the marketing-mix to quickly modify their strategies. It is much slower acting on the distribution policy, for instance.

It should be clear that the pricing policy is first and foremost a «marketing policy», i.e a system or method that enables us to achieve our objectives and not just a check list on which to calculate our costs. It is a marketing tool that should allow us to (Bertrán, 1994): (1) obtain some profits on the investments made, (2) gain a position in the market and (3) face competition. But all in a manner that is consistent with the other elements of the marketing mix and in a dynamic way.

Contents
1. INTRODUCTION: PRICE AND INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY
2. BASIC FOR PRICE SETTING
3. COMPARISON BETWEEN DOMESTIC PRICES AND EXPORT PRICES
4. DETERMINANTS OF THE EXPORT PRICE
5. METHODS OF INTERNATIONAL PRICING
6. INTERNATIONAL PRICES QUOTATION
7. PRICING POLICY IN PERIOD OF INFLATION
8. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER PRICES
9. MEHODS TO CHANGE PRICES
10. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBSITES