International Marketing Strategy

Course code: MKT 530

Term and year: Fall 2025

Day and time: Mondays, 11:15-14:00

Instructor: Emel Yarimoglu, Ph.D.

Instructor contact: emel.yarimoglu@aauni.edu

Consultation hours: Mondays 14:00-14:30

1.    Course Description

This course builds on students' knowledge of marketing strategy gained in undergraduate courses. Understanding the challenges of international marketing is vital for all organizations, whether involved in foreign markets or facing foreign competitors at home. The course provides a detailed overview of these challenges and the skills and knowledge necessary to overcome them. Marketers face increased risk and complexity operating in diverse, less understood, and fast-changing international environments. Students will investigate the principles underlying the development and implementation of effective marketing strategies across and within foreign countries. The international marketing decision-making process will guide the intensive discussion of international marketing strategy at three levels; (a) the macro level – what foreign country/market(s) to select to enter (analyzing the economic, ecological, cultural, political, and legal factors); (b) the national level – what foreign investment (market entry) modes to choose and why; and (c) the market level – what international marketing strategies to design and implement for successfully positioning, branding, planning, pricing, promotion, and distributing the product(s) in the selected foreign market(s). By the end of the course, students should be able to identify, analyze, and solve marketing mix and strategy problems in an international context.

2.    Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

●        Understand and critically discuss international marketing and the difficulties of conducting marketing in non-domestic markets.

●        Identify and critically review the strengths and weaknesses of a company's international marketing strategy to create a sustainable competitive advantage, including branding and positioning.

●        Analyze and assess the marketing strategies, tactics, tools, and practices used to address international business opportunities and their associated issues.

●        Identify and critically review regional economic markets and understand how to qualify and quantify potential opportunities using marketing research, segmentation and targeting techniques.

●        Critically evaluate a foreign country's market's potential and its economic, social / cultural, legal / political, and regulatory environment (using PLEESTIC), identify market opportunities, assess challenges and threats, and critically appraise alternative market entry strategies.

●        Understand and critically discuss the management of the extended marketing mix – product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence – and its impact on international marketing strategy.

●        Identify when and why to take sourcing decisions and understand the impact of competition on an international marketing strategy.

●        Understand and critically discuss topical issues in international marketing, including globalization, country of origin effects, standardization versus localization, Fair Trade, and counterfeiting.

●        Identify and critically review recent research related to international marketing.

3.    Reading Material

Required Materials

Textbook:

●        Warren J. Keegan, Global Marketing Management, Prentice Hall.  ISBN-10: 0130332712 ISBN-13: 978-0130332714

List of required articles:

●        Porter, Michael E. (1996). Competitive Advantage, Agglomeration Economies, and Regional Policy. International Regional Science Review, 19(1-2):85-90.

●        Grönroos, C. (1999). Internationalization strategies for services. Journal of services marketing, 13(4/5), 290-297.

●        Pan, Y., & Tse, D. K. (2000). The hierarchical model of market entry modes. Journal of international business studies, 31(4), 535-554.

●        Yarimoglu, E., & Paker, N. (2024). Analyzing the Direct Effect of Multidimensional Country Image on Purchase Intention: A Preliminary Study on Foreign Student in Turkiye. Journal of East-West Business, 30(3), 267–282.

Recommended Materials

●        Solberg, C. A., & Huse, H. (2024). Strategic International Marketing (2nd ed.). Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.perlego.com/book/4405931/strategic-international-marketing-strategy-development-and-implementation-pdf (Original work published 2024).

●        Philip Cateora and John Graham and Mary Gilly (2013). International Marketing, Mc Graw Hill.

4.    Teaching methodology

The course will include 14 interactive classes based on lectures, in-class discussion, article analysis, and student presentations. Students will have a Reading Assignment individually (A1: R1-R13), and a Project Assignment (A2) during the semester. Reading assignments will be uploaded to NEO before the class every week. The project will be a written as an academic paper. It should be presented in the class as part of the Final Presentation. Students are expected to participate in all classes. Timely submission and being ready on the presentation day are important.

5.    Course Schedule

6.    Course Requirements and Assessment (with estimated workloads)

*1 = Critical Thinking; 2 = Effective Communication; 3 = Effective and Responsible Action

7.    Detailed description of the assignments

Class Participation: General participation in class discussions, contributing to class learning with personal experiences, not disrupting class.

Assessment breakdown

Assignment 1 (A1): Individual Reading Assignments from R1 to R13.

Reading assignments will be uploaded to NEO before the class. Students are expected to read the assignments and accomplish the tasks given regarding the assignment. Submission on NEO before due date.

Assessment breakdown

Assignment 2: Written Project on a selected topic

Select a topic proposed by the professor and make a literature review. Find the gap in literature and write down a paper regarding this topic by enhancing it with another marketing topics as well. Propose a research model or a qualitative research aspect for solving this gap. Project report which will be assessed based on the breakdown below should be around 15 pages with references.

Assessment breakdown

Final Presentation: Present your project at the class. The presentation should last around 30 minutes. 

Assessment breakdown

8.    General Requirements and School Policies

General requirements

All coursework is governed by AAU’s academic rules. Students are expected to be familiar with the academic rules in the Academic Codex and Student Handbook and to maintain the highest standards of honesty and academic integrity in their work. Please see the AAU intranet for a summary of key policies regarding coursework.

Course specific requirements

There are no special requirements or deviations from AAU policies for this course.