INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT

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INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT
SESSION 9 THE GLOBAL STANDARDIZATION DEBATE
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A powerful force (Technology) now drives the
world toward a single converging commonality.
The result is a new commercial reality -- the
explosive emergence of global markets for
globally standardized products, gigantic
world-scale markets of previously unimagined
magnitudes. Corporations geared to this new
reality generate enormous economies of scale in
production, distribution, marketing, and
management. When they translate these into
equivalently reduced world prices, they devastate
competitors that still live functionally in the
disabling grip of old assumptions about how the
world now works. LEVITT (1983)
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• COST SAVINGS
• Economies of Scale in Production/Marketing
• Minimizes Product/Advertising Development
  Costs
• UTILIZATION AND TRANSFER OF KNOW-HOW
• Experience Transfer
• Idea Transfer
• UNIFORM IMAGE OF QUALITY AND SERVICE
• Global Customers
• International Communication
• EASIER CO-ORDINATION AND CONTROL
• Uniform Standards

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• EXTERNAL
• DIFFERENCES IN CUSTOMER CHARACTERISTICS
• AND RESPONSE PATTERNS
• Socio-cultural values and life-styles
• Perception and associations
• GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND RESTRICTIONS
• Product/Advertising regulation
• Tariffs, buy local
• DIFFERENCES IN MARKETING INFRASTRUCTURE
• Media
• Distribution
• LOCAL COMPETITION
• Type of competitors
• Competitive behavior

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• INTERNAL
• LOCAL MANAGEMENT OPPOSITION
• EXISTING NETWORK OF OPERATIONS

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• Issue is not whether to standardize or adapt but
  how far to adapt.
• Some mix elements (e.g. product, positioning)
  easier to standardize than others (e.g.
  distribution).
• Often need to adapt more in some regions than
  others (e.g. emerging markets).

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