Marketing is the process of focusing the resources and
objectives of an organisation on environmental opportunities and needs. It is a
universal discipline. However, markets and customers are different and hence
the practice of marketing should be fine tuned and adjusted to the local
conditions of a given country. The marketing man must understand that each
person is different and so also each country which means that both experience
and techniques obtained and successful in one country or countries.
Every country has a different set of customers and even
within a country there are different sub-sets of customers, distribution
channels and media are different. If that is so, for each country there must be
a unique marketing plan. For instance, nestle tried to transfer its successful
four – flavour coffee from Europe to the united states lost a 1% market share
in the us. It is important in international marketing to recognize the extent
to which marketing plans and programmes can be extended to the world and the
extent to which marketing plans must be adapted.
Prof.Theodore Levitt thought that the global village or the
world as a whole was a homogeneous entity from the marketing point of view. He
advocated organisation to develop standardized high quality word products and
market them around the world using standardized advertising, pricing and
distribution. The companies who followed Prof. Levitt’s prescription had to
fail and a notable failure amongst them was Parker pen. Carl Spiel Vogel,
Chairman and CEO of the Backer Spiel Vogel Bates worldwide advertising agency
expressed his view that Levitt’s idea of a homogeneous world is non – sensible
and the global success of Coca Cola proved that Prof. Levitt was wrong. The
success of Coca Cola was not based on total standardization of marketing mix.
According to Kenichi Ohmae, Coke succeeded in Japan because
the company spent a huge amount of time and money in Japan to become an
insider. Coca Cola build a complete local infrastructure with its sales force
and vending machine operations. According to Ohmae, Coke’s success in Japan was
due to the ability of the company to achieve global localisation or
‘Glocalisation’ i.e. the ability to be an insider or a local company and still
reap the benefits of global operations. Think global and act local is the
meaning of Glocalisation and to be successful in international marketing,
companies must have the ability to think global and act local. International
marketing requires managers to behave both globally and locally simultaneously
by responding to similarities and dissimilarities in international markets.
Glocalisation can be a source of competitive advantage. By adapting sales
promotion, distribution and customer service to local needs, Coke capture 78%
of soft drink market share in Japan.
Apart from the flagship brand Coca Cola, the company produces
200 other non- alcoholic beverages to suit local beverages. There are other
companies who have created strong international brands through international
marketing. For instance, Philip Morris has made Marlboro the number one
cigarette brand in the world. In automobiles, Daimler Chrysler gained global
recognition for its Mercedes brand like his competitor Bayerische. Mc Donald’s
has designed a restaurant system that can be set up anywhere in the world. Mc
Donald’s customizes its menu in accordance with local eating habits.
