It is necessary for most companies in the world who wish to broaden their business to expand to foreign markets. Thus, companies expanding internationally must consider the environment in their new country. There is no better way to explore said environment than by conducting marketing research in the area so as to formulate the most appropriate marketing strategies. Nevertheless, companies entering a new market still encounter difficulties even if they employ a marketing strategy because they make several critical mistakes in their marketing. Be it cultural misunderstandings, systemic political differences, or a poor understanding of the market conditions in a given country, marketing mistakes damage a company’s ability to enter (Ghauri and Cateora, 2010). While political differences or a poor understanding of the market strongly impact success in a foreign market, the slightly larger issue that multinational corporations encounter are due to cultural misunderstandings. However, the impact that cultural misunderstandings have on success in a foreign market is dependent on the industry in question.
In some industries, international marketing mistakes can often be rooted in the lack of understanding of different cultures such as the aspects buying behavior and product preference. Take the retail industry for example, since the purchasing behavior of customers varies by region, foreign retailers might usually make marketing mistakes due to insufficient knowledge of a given region’s preferences. Tesco, one of the biggest supermarket brands in Europe, failed in the U.S due to their insufficient understanding of American consumers’ shopping behavior with regards to groceries. Tesco had found success selling ready meals in European markets and applied that logic to the American market. The ready meals plan was a strategic failure since American consumers do not buy them