Strategy Development for Manufactured Exports of Third World Countries to Developed Countries

This paper addresses the problem of developing consumer patronage in high income markets for the autonomous manufactured exports of third world countries. Specifically, the focus is on overcoming consumer bias in high income markets against products of third world origin. Such bias exists; it has been established and tested in a twenty-year stream of research. This paper extends that research and, more importantly, for the first time sets the problem in a real world, managerial context. The research presents an illustrative, hypothetical case, somewhat simplified but realistic. A new Mexican microwave oven is introduced into the U.S. market and positioned against competing U.S. brands. A multifactored marketing strategy is built from several levels of three strategic factors: price, warranty, and endorsement. The findings are promising and establish the following: (1) the power of the different strategic elements against consumer bias varies significantly, (2) the power of different multifactored strategies varies significantly, and (3) some multifactored strategies prove effective in overcoming consumer bias establishing position against U.S. brands.