Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Internationalisation and globalisation 
While Western, developed economies have struggled to maintain momentum during the 
recession, the inexorable rise of China and India as the economic super powers of the future 
has continued. By 2050 it is estimated that the population of India will overtake China at 
around 1.6 billion in each, compared with 700 million in Europe and 400 million in the USA. 
While Western economies stagnated or declined during the recession, the Chinese economy 
continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate than previously. Growth in 2015 was estimated at 
3.3 per cent compared with 13 per cent in 2007 (and an average for the previous 30 years of 
over 10 per cent). Early in 2019, China’s economic growth was reported to be at its slowest 
in over 25 years (growing at 6.6 per cent in 2018 compared to 7.3 per cent three years earlier), 
contributing to a reduced growth rate in other world economies. 
The last decade of the 1900s saw dramatic changes in East–West relationships. The dis-
mantling of the Berlin Wall, the liberalisation of the economies of central Europe (Poland, 
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia) and the break-up of the Soviet Union signalled 
many potential changes in trading patterns. 
While the political barriers have been coming down in Europe, there is some concern 
that the emergence of regional trading blocs (‘free trade areas’) will have a dramatic impact 
on the future of free world trade. The European Single Market post-1993, closer economic 
relations in the Asia Pacific region (Australia, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea – the 
Trans-Pacific Partnership signed in January 2016) and the North American Free Trade 
Alliance zone (the United States, Canada and Mexico) were emerging as massive internal 
markets where domestic-based, ‘international’ trade was becoming freer. 
However, US President Donald Trump’s trade agenda is very different. His ‘America 
First’ priority has led to threats (and imposition of tariffs) on allies, of withdrawing from 
the WTO, use of tariffs and sanctions as a national security tool and a focus on bilateral 
agreements that do not fit into a global free-trade economy. It may be that these policies 
are only short term, but there are concerns over their long-term impact.
3.3 
The social and cultural environment 
Coupled with the changing economic environment has been a continuous change in social 
attitudes and values that are likely to have important implications for marketing manage-
ment (see Figure 3.4 ). Examples include the following.

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