This chapter also briefly discusses inflation, government actions, and foreign investment. 4,the authors stress the worth of understanding the cultural environment of buyer behavior, since the various dimensions of culture influence the firm's marketing strategy through changing the pattern of consumer behavior. The dimensions, which are material culture, language, aesthetics, educational system, values and attitudes, and social organization, are discussed separately. Chapter 5 discusses the need for political risk assessment and describes the legal environment for international marketing. National interests and controls, which constitute the political environment of an international firm, are defined.
Legal environment is classified into three dimensions.
One explains how U.S. laws affect the feasibility and profitability of a U.S. firm's international marketing. The third introduces the domestic laws in each foreign market and identifies the types of foreign laws that affect the four Ps of international marketing. Part II, composed of 11 chapters, focuses primarily on the functions of marketing in the international environment. Authors first give an overview of global marketing strategy and then concentrate on the individual elements of the marketing plan by discussing typical marketing decisions and problems in the international arena. Chapter 6 concentrates on the formulation of global marketing strategy and sets the framework for developing global product-line strategy considering whether to standardize policies across markets or adapt them to individual markets.