International Marketing Launch of an Electric / Hybrid Car by a French Manufacturer in the U.S

Introduction

In today's competitive environment, developing an international marketing strategy is common and used by many companies to open business perspective, remain competitive and fulfill customer needs across the globe. According to Catero and Ghauri (1999) International Marketing is the flow of a company's good to consumers in more than one nation with the objective of profit. International marketing allows enlarging the company's target and increase the number of potential customers and probable sales. Nevertheless, international marketing can be source of success or failure if wrongly managed or implemented.

All products cannot be marketed on an international level, the potential demand has to be effective, the product has to provide an added value for the customer and be well marketed according to cultural, economical and many other factors. This paper will develop the implantation of an electric/hybrid car by the French manufacturer Renault in the U.S. Renault is the French leader of the car industry in France, with a turnover of €38 billion and more than 3 million car sold in 2010 , the company recently launched a new range of electric cars in France.

The car market is strongly developed internationally for the production as well as for the marketing and selling process. Thanks to international marketing, several brands have developed a brand strong recognition, increased market shares and it benefited the company. However, implementing an international marketing strategy is a long and expensive process, especially in a competitive market such as the car market of the United States. According to the US Bureau of Transit Statistics (2004), the number of registered passenger vehicles in the US is 243,023,485. Indeed, Americans are important car consumers; the proprietorship and quality of the car are in the social standards. The social status can be defined as the type of car and model of one's and it plays an important role in the social and professional representation. With the environmental issues such as global warming, gas emissions and limits of oil resources, car companies started developing hybrid and electronic cars. This change in product development allows providing innovative cars with an added value of gas consumption efficiency and other environmental friendly aspects.

In this paper, we will assume that the French company Renault is expecting to launch its ZE electric product range in the United States. We will discuss the reactive and proactive motives to this decision, the influence of culture and its importance in international marketing. We will then study the company's international competitiveness at the macro, meso and micro level. Based on this analysis, we will propose a market entry strategy and a marketing plan.

Reactive