The task of international marketing is an already complex process for companies operating in a single foreign national market. When companies operate in several foreign country markets, the process becomes more complex still. Globalization is the growing interdependence of national economies involving primarily customers, producers, suppliers, and governments in different markets. Global marketing therefore reflects the trend of firms selling and distributing products and services in many countries around the world, and it is associated with governments reducing trade and investment barriers, firms manufacturing in multiple countries, and foreign firms increasingly competing in domestic markets. In these situations, marketing programs must adapt to the needs and preferences of customers that have different levels of purchasing power as well as different climates, languages, and cultures. The orientation of this course is twofold:

- It is descriptive in that it is designed to provide you with a solid grounding in and working knowledge of marketing in an international context.
- It is analytical and applications-oriented in that it provides you with the opportunity to gain experience applying your working knowledge to concrete case studies and rendering judgments on those studies.

In the end, you will develop your management skills by applying, analyzing, and solving 'real' problems of international marketing as presented in the case studies.