Consumer desire to buy and use products in international markets - How to capture it, how to sustain it

Focuses on two fundamental issues facing firms competing in the global arena, namely - how should executives responsible for success in international consumer markets allocate their scare marketing resources? And why, based on what methods, should they do this? Concentrating on global/pan-European consumers in the northern European country of Finland, a quasi-longitudinal "gap analysis" of US versus Japanese product and marketing efforts is undertaken. Using empirical evidence gathered every five years (from 1975 to 1995), this research examines which dimensions of marketing contribute most to specific consumers "purchase and use" preferences. And, where (which "gaps") should organizations competing for global consumers concentrate their marketing efforts in order to be successful? if is-argued that the method employed in this research can be utilized in any global marketing setting: to identify the most promising areas for resource expenditures.