 A country-cluster analysis of the distribution and promotion infrastructure in Central and Eastern EuropeLalita A. Manrai, Ajay K. Manrai and Dana-Nicoleta Lascu International Business Review, 2001, vol. 10, issue 5, 517-549 Abstract: A country-cluster scheme is developed in this paper classifying 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of their overall attractiveness for international marketing. These 18 countries include Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. When companies examine and evaluate the potential countries for international marketing opportunity, they not only look at the demand potential of the country but also the logistics of marketing operations in the country. While all 4 Ps of marketing are regulated by the government, the availability of infrastructure for efficient distribution and promotion of products is a critical consideration for selection of a country. This is so because compared to the other 2 Ps of marketing mix, i.e. product and price decisions, the success of distribution (place) and promotion decisions is relatively more out of the control of marketers, being tied to the availability of infrastructure. Accordingly, this country-cluster scheme is developed in two stages. First, selected demographic and economic indicators are analyzed to asses the overall market potential and economic strength of the country. Next, several factors related to distribution and promotion of goods in these countries are examined in detail. Finally, the two sets of classification schemes above are combined to develop a two-dimensional country-cluster matrix (demographic-economic as the first dimension and distribution-promotion as the second dimension). The aggregate analysis reveals three country clusters. Cluster 1, the most promising group of countries (attractive on both dimensions) includes Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Cluster 3, the least promising group of countries (attractive on neither dimension) includes Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro. Cluster 2 includes countries which are either moderate in terms of attractiveness on both dimensions or countries with a trade-off between two dimensions (one high, other low). Cluster 2 includes Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Slovenia. Implications for international marketing and future research directions are discussed. Date: 2001 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iburev:v:10:y:2001:i:5:p:517-549 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article International Business Review is currently edited by P. Ghauri More articles in International Business Review from Elsevier |
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