International agribusiness - Agribusiness Management - page 103

Let's take a look at one important area—marketing—and explore the differences in these
two perspectives. Global marketing is based on identifying and targeting cross-cultural sim-
ilarities. International marketing management is based on the premise of cross-cultural dif-
ferences and is guided by the belief that each foreign market requires its own culturally
adapted marketing strategy. Today, a global market has evolved on many levels and for
products/services that previously did not exist.
How is it possible to develop a global marketing strategy for some products? Information
technology and access to information, goods and services not only in this country, but also
across the globe, has changed our world. Truly the business culture of today is more global
than at any time in the past. In many ways, our familiarity with the tastes, preferences, atti-
tudes, and cultures of other countries has exploded in the past decade or two. Salsa sales in
the United States surpassed the sales of ketchup within the past decade, and ethnic food sales
in general are at all-time highs and continuing to increase. Travel is another factor that has
led to the globalization of today's marketplace. By exposing a greater number of people
from various cultures to one another and to other places, an underlying melding of cultures,
or at the very least, the understanding of them occurs.
A more mobile society has changed the landscape of our marketplace at home as well
as abroad. Demographics from the state of California offer an example. California, the
most populous state in the nation, is also the clear leader in ethnic “mixing” in North
America. Consider that in 1970, 80 percent of Californians were non-Latin whites. As of
2010, heavy immigration from Asia and Latin American has changed California's popula-
tion mix to 42 percent non-Latin whites ( http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.
html ) . California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii are all states where non-Latin whites
are not the majority. This type of mobilization of the population is not isolated to the
United States alone by any means. It is occurring around the globe. For example, diversity
is not limited just to ethnicity, but religion as well. Islam is widely considered Europe's
fastest growing religion, with immigration and above average birth rates leading to a
rapid increase in the Muslim population. France's Muslim population now makes up 10
percent of the total population of the country ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4385768.
stm) . These changes mean that people bring their cultures, their traditions and religions,
their needs, their connections and networks with them from the lands from which
they came.
Each of these factors has provided agribusinesses with more opportunity for marketing
global products that will not only be accepted, but also preferred by the new, informed,
exposed and well-traveled, global consumers. In response, global agribusinesses develop a
universal strategy for marketing products to the world rather than producing single strategies
for individual countries or markets.
International agribusiness trends
U.S. food and agribusiness industries continue to gain momentum in international markets
even though most food is consumed in the country in which it is produced. According to a
recent USDA Economic Research Service report, the United States has a 24 percent share of
world commercial processed food sales ( www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aib794/aib794g.
pdf ). The United States remains the world leader in exports of agricultural commodities and
at the same time is an increasingly important player in the exporting and importing of food
and food products.