Transcultural Marketing and Product Life Cycles in International Markets

This chapter provides an overview of the main issues related to the management of the PLC and the diffusion of innovation across different national markets. Marketing plays a strategic role in establishing the most appropriate actions concerning innovation management and marketing decisions in foreign markets. The relationship between transcultural marketing and the PLC is investigated from consumer and company perspectives to provide an overview of the main criticalities. The design of the chapter follows a three-stage structure. The first section discusses the main issues related to the different shapes of the PLC in different countries, with a particular focus on the analysis of the takeoff point and adoption rate. In the second section, the relationship between consumer culture and the development of the PLC in multiple cultures is analyzed. Finally, the last section is dedicated to marketing strategies developed to manage different phases of the innovation process in different countries, with a focus on the role of the government and public policy makers in pushing the innovation process