Global ‘Place’: Why Marketing and S&OP Must Co-Lead International Expansion
Eric Rambeaux, & Thierry Fausten
April 22th, 2025
When companies expand internationally, they often act as if “Place” were a simple “translation”: convert distribution strategy, plug it into a new country, launch.
But they can get lost in translation….
Indeed, international expansion need recalibration of everything. And at the heart of this recalibration lies a silent friction: Marketing dreams of reach; S&OP fights for feasibility.
Let’s make this tension productive.
International “Place” Isn’t a just a Channel.
In your domestic market, “Place” is a familiar chessboard. Globally, it becomes a shifting, multi-layered puzzle made of tariffs, route volatility, multimodal transport coordination, import compliance, temperature-sensitive storage, fragmented retail ecosystems opaque or unreliable data.
Here’s the trap: Marketing sometimes assumes customer demand drives distribution strategy. But internationally, it’s often the constraints of distribution that dictate what demand you can serve and how.
Unless both functions build the plan together, you’re not expanding, you’re exposing.
Four realities that make international “place” unique and collaborative
1.Regulatory complexity
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In many industries such as pharma, medtech, wellness, automotive, product registration isn’t uniform. What’s approved in Germany might will require new labeling in Japan or full revalidation in Brazil.
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Marketing can’t just localize the message. S&OP must localize the flow, and both must plan timelines together, or launches stall indefinitely.
2. A local distributor is not just a vendor, it is a strategic interface
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Marketing views distributors as a channel. S&OP sees them as inventory and risk.
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In new markets, distributors shape brand perception, pricing power, and reliability. Choosing the wrong one creates not just stockouts, but strategic misalignment.
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Both functions must co-assess distribution partners—not just for reach, but for control and coherence.
3. Forecasting is harder, so collaboration must go deeper
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In new markets, you don’t always have the data to forecast like you do at home. Feedback is also slower and possibly skewed.
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Marketing brings assumptions based on research; S&OP brings caution based on variability.
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Success lies in jointly developing dynamic, scenario-based models that evolve with the market.
4. Omnichannel is fragmented and culturally defined
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Marketing can map preferences, but S&OP can confirm if those preferences can be served without inflating costs or timelines.
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Collaboration will help figuring out which channels are not just desirable but sustainable.
From alignment to co-design
Winning in international markets requires a fundamental mindset shift: This is not: “Marketing plans, then S&OP executes” This is: “Marketing and S&OP co-design each market’s access strategy, end-to-end.”
It is not just about physical placement, it is about building a repeatable model to answer:
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Where are we allowed to sell?
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How fast can we reach those customers?
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At what cost?
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Through whom?
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With what level of brand control?
Unless Marketing and S&OP are answering those questions together, geographical expansion is just an expensive experiment.
Your companies want global presence without local chaos? Use this simple rule: Marketing must internalize operational risk, S&OP must engage with market ambition.