Non-Market Strategies Resource Document

Integrating Market Strategy and Non-Market Strategy

Most of us tend to think about business as being exclusively about markets: dealing with products, pricing, customers, competition, and so on. However, in today’s interconnected world, the success of a product or company depends not only on market strategy factors, but also on social sentiments, political forces, government policies, and ecological trends.

For example, consider Coca-Cola’s water stewardship project. This is Coca-Cola’s response to the realization that in many parts of the world, water is a scarce resource – and that they have to improve their internal operations to reduce waste, so as not to exacerbate water issues in their locations.

Similarly, consider Apple’s supplier responsibility project, which was initiated after the company faced severe criticism for poor working conditions in factories operated by suppliers in China. Both these examples go beyond the traditional “Corporate Social Responsibility” model, which was largely seen as outside core business operations such as production, supply chains and marketing – and often attempted to lessen the negative impact of core operations through philanthropic activity.

Non-market strategy is not necessarily new – businesses have used approaches like corporate social responsibility and lobbying to address non-market elements. However, today’s companies integrate these non-market elements with core market strategy, in order to be successful in a global marketplace.

Use the cases about Coca-Cola and Apple (below) to help guide your thinking while making sure to touch on the following questions when developing your marketing campaign:

·         Will the proposed marketing and advertising approach help the firm achieve profits?

·         Is the marketing and advertising approach socially acceptable in the target country? (but also keep in mind company standards globally)

·         Does the marketing and advertising approach conform to legal standards in the target country? (also keep in mind any applicable U.S., international headquarters’, and international standards)

·         Non-Market Strategies: What social sentiments, political forces, government policies, ecological trends etc., should the firm be aware of while marketing their product?

·         How can you evaluate the impact of your integrated strategy?

Coca-Cola & water:

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainabilityreport/world/water-stewardship.html#section-recycling-wastewater

Apple’s suppliers in China:

https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/

Other useful resource:

http://nonmarket.ie.edu

CCA thanks the International Business Center https://business.pitt.edu/international-business and Ravi Madhavan, Professor of Business Administration & Alcoa Foundation International Faculty and Director of the International Business Center, https://www.business.pitt.edu/people/ravi-madhavan for developing this document.