The gold price in U.S. dollars has appreciated nine consecutive years an annual average of 17.1%. During this period of increased gold price compared to other currencies in double-digit annual rates, including an average annual rate of 11.9% in euros. Clearly, gold has been one of the assets which have increased this decade.

With these excellent results over a long period of time as is reasonable to ask if the gold bull market is over. The answer is a resounding no. The reason is that the purchasing power of all national currencies, worldwide continues to be devalued.

The gold bull market is the face B of the same coin which measures the bear market of the national currencies that began in 1971. In that year became the currency “fiat” that are no longer redeemable in gold. Since then, all fiat currencies are in a downward race to see which will be the first completely lose their purchasing power and be discarded.

Many currencies have already crossed the finish line. In the ’80s, several Latin American currencies collapsed completely. The currency suffered the same fate of the Balkans in the ’90s and more recently, Zimbabwe. And while other currencies like the Mexican peso, Russian ruble and the Turkish lira has not completely collapsed, they buy much less now than at its peak.

In these countries, governments, through their central banks resorted to the “printing press” and what today is called “quantitative monetary expansion.” Stated simply, the central banks bought national debt and the currency became either printing money or by using the accounts to add newly created currency in the government’s checking account to be spent extending checks. Indeed, central banks convert currency debt can be spent and can create as much currency as they want, because without a direct link to gold, there is no discipline.

Until 1971, the currency could only be created if you had gold reserves, and thus the national currency was circulating a suitable substitute in place of the less desirable gold coin. But all this has changed. Removing the requirement that controlled the creation of currency, governments create new currency rather than reducing costs. So currencies are degraded, which explains why the gold price is rising.

National currencies continually buying less because of government policies. Until this changes, the gold bull market will continue.

Global marketing is nothing but marketing done on national and international level and which involves understanding the similarities, dissimilarities and taking advantage of the opportunities to attain the goal. Concentrating on global marketing is as important as concentrating on domestic marketing if a company is aiming to increase sales.

The domestic market has become saturated in most categories of products and services, in all industrialized countries and hence, they started to deal with other countries to increase their sales. Usually in such case, goods that are too expensive for the domestic customers to buy are exported to other well-off countries.

When a company does marketing within the boundaries of a specific county, it has to compete with other domestic companies as well as international companies who are a part of the market. The marketing steps taken by the professionals are based on the taste of a specific audience. The product might not suit the taste of customers at a higher level. The other domestic companies that plan to go global hinder the growth of such companies. They become invisible at the international level as they are unable to cope with the growing competition and might not be aware of potential competitors. The product development is dependent on the need of the local residents. Such kinds of businesses are ethnocentric and are only bothered about their performance in the domestic marketplace.

Companies planning to go global should start with export to a foreign client first. The returns wouldn’t be satisfying in the beginning. The export department can be introduced at the headquarters that deals with all the laws. There can be a possibility of becoming secondary exporters by bringing export management company into the picture, who will deal with the language problem, time difference, paperwork and customers. If managing the exports without any help, the export department can be started at an office located abroad. This office works in collaboration with the regional headquarters. But the respective offshore offices take the marketing decisions, as they will have best knowledge about the particular market they are operating in.

Multinational marketing involves marketing in many countries. The marketing is based on the requirements of different countries and the returns are rewarding. Each region should be studied individually based on development, production and marketing. Such kinds of markets are known as region centric. Global marketing involves the whole globe. The entire world is summarized as a single market and the products that are released in the market should fit the needs of any regional marketplace. Marketers all over the world make the marketing decisions. Such a kind of market is known as geocentric.

Automotive industry is one such market that saw a global boost in sales during the last fifty years. Earlier only the local companies like Ford and General Motors used to produce cars in America, but today other international competitors like Toyota and Honda are operating in the same market and have out done the local companies. Another key factor to the global marketing is the Internet, which introduced e-commerce. Businesses went going online and global. This encouraged the sales of the company and the figures are only increasing because of ever increasing Internet users.   The geographical location of customers is no longer a hindrance. Global marketing management and business-to-business e-commerce is growing rapidly.

Product, price, placement and promotion are the elements of global marketing. The product created should be such that it can sell anywhere using the same method.  It should consider the primary elements of all the markets. However, the language in which the product is named can be changed, where as the content can remain the same. The price is never constant. It should be decided after reviewing the market and the currency of the country. The variables which affect prices are location where the product is being produced, cost of ingredients, transportation charges, labor charges, etc.

Placement is how the product is distributed and how it reaches the targeted market. Like in third world countries, there is a lack of superstores, so they can be placed or sold at ordinary shops. After the product is developed and distributed, it should be promoted precisely known as advertising, promotion is one of the major steps of marketing and consumes major part of the budget. If it is possible to send out the same message worldwide in a relevant and cost-effective way, it sure must be put into practice but the challenge is really big.

Marketing tactics helps organizations to focus their attention to complete resource utilization to increase sales and win over their competitors. Every company applies some kind of marketing tactics to maintain existing customers, attract potential customers and also to maintain and enhance their reputation in the market.

When designing a marketing plan, first a marketing tactics is taken into consideration. The marketing plan consists of steps to be taken so as to attain success in the implementation of the marketing tactics chosen. Big projects involve selection of different strategies at different levels. Usually a strategy consists of well-sketched tactics. They are meant to meet the needs and finally reach marketing objectives. Each of the strategies has pre-calculated results because when a particular strategy is chosen at a particular level, its outcome becomes the goal of that particular level. If there is an absence of a well thought strategy in a marketing plan means it is supposedly lacking a good foundation. A reasonable marketing tactics should not only facilitate marketing goals, but also the action sequence of a campaign.

At regular time intervals the firm should analyze the marketing decision. This is done with the help of strategic models and the 3C’s model is considered for this purpose. To calculate the company’s strategic position, an off matrix is used. The 3C’s model determines the factors, which leads to the success of a marketing campaign. There are three key parties involved in this model the corporation, the customer and the competitors. The involvement of all the three key parties leads to positive results and this involvement is known as the 3C’s or strategic triangle.

The role of the corporation is to increase the strength of the company in the success critical areas, when compared to that of the competitor. The customer and his interest form the basis of any strategy. The competitor also plays a vital part. The competitor-based strategies are based on the functioning of business competitors like design and engineering, sales and servicing, and purchasing. (more…)