When companies decide to sell their products in other countries, they must decide whether to use a standard product or to customize it to the particular country. Some products such as cars can be sold in a similar format; however, some restaurants, such as McDonald’s might modify their product to meet different needs. Companies must also decide whether they will standardize their marketing plans, such as advertising campaigns in different countries. Go online and find one product that is produced by a company from each of the following categories that is doing business internationally and explain how the company has customized the product for a market in another country. Be sure to cite your sources. Provide an analysis and rationale why the company has taken this route.
Choose your companies from the following list:
A petroleum company:
Product: Royal Dutch Shell: Shell Oil
Over the years Shell has occasionally sought to diversify away from its core oil, gas and chemicals businesses because of their globalization. These diversifications have included nuclear power (a short-lived and costly joint venture with Gulf Oil in the USA); coal (Shell Coal was for a time a significant player in mining and marketing); metals (Shell acquired the Dutch metals-mining company Billiton in 1970) and electricity generation (a joint venture with Bechtel called Intergen). Royal Dutch Shell’s Oil is their primary source of revenue, but since they globalized their company they have access to resources that might be abundant in that specific countries like Dutch minerals which can be refined to make coal as a source of energy. Another reason to why they have customized their product in another market is the countries rules and regulation for Oil, some countries are very strict about the environmental damage Shell’s Oil can have, so Royal Dutch Shell has to customize the oil into a less environmentally dangerous product.
A software company:
Product: Microsoft Corporation’s Microsoft Windows
Microsoft has dominated the market for computers and technology and one of the reasons to their success is their unique product for almost every country they market to. A common example of this is their language feature on all of the newer versions of their operations system intended to automatically design their computer based on where they live in the world. It chooses the preferred language, all the updates are for that geographic area, and time, location services and even programs like Windows messenger are changed to suit the geographic area. Microsoft has done this to completely specify what people like in their technology in different parts of the world to gain a better product. They didn’t want to make one product like an operating system generic to all the users throughout the world because they knew that cultures are different throughout the world and they based it on that. They also wanted a unique experience for each user to have to their preference and changing the product dependent on the market is a good way of doing that.
A soft drink company:
Product: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s Coke product is sold in more than 200 countries worldwide and almost every product they sell to these individual countries are different. Several times a decade Coca-Cola released a specific type of drink they’ve created that’s exclusive to certain countries in the world like Coca-Cola C2 which was only available to Japan, Canada and the United states of America or its newest invention Coca-Cola Orange which is only available in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar. Coca-Cola definitely changed its product depending on the market it’s selling to because Coca-Cola wants to appeal to different people’s tastes and in North America our diet is different from someone in Europe.
A food chain:
Product: McDonald’s Hamburgers
McDonald’s predominantly sells hamburgers, various types of chicken sandwiches and products, French fries, soft drinks, breakfast items, and desserts. In most markets, McDonald’s offers salads and vegetarian items, wraps and other localized fare. Portugal is the only country with McDonald’s restaurants serving soup. This local deviation from the standard menu is a characteristic for which the chain is particularly known, and one which is employed either to abide by regional food taboos (such as the religious prohibition of beef consumption in India) or to make available foods with which the regional market is more familiar (such as the sale of McRice in Indonesia). McDonalds likes to appeal to people’s tastes and diets are different in countries like Europe, Asia and North America, so to have more people buying their food they change the products. Also in countries like India and Indonesia a majority of the people have certain religious beliefs which prevent them from eating meats, so to get around this McDonalds invented McVeggie burgers in India and McRice in Indonesia.
A car company:
Product: Toyota’s automobiles
Toyota initiated the “Innovative International Multi-purpose vehicle” project (IMV) to optimize global manufacturing and supply systems for pickup trucks and multipurpose vehicles, and to satisfy market demand in more than 140 countries worldwide. IMV called for diesel engines to be made in Thailand, gasoline engines in Indonesia and manual transmissions in India and the Philippines, for supply to the countries charged with vehicle production. Also Toyota has begun to design multiple product lines for countries demands like Electric technology, Plug-in hybrids and all electric vehicles. Toyota develops their cars based on research and what’s available in the country. Toyota is not going to market plug-in hybrid cars in a third world country like Africa because Africa doesn’t have the charge stations needed to use the cars. Toyota markets depending on the geographical location of the country so if there are more uses for a pickup truck in North America; they develop better lines of pickup trucks and also the demand. If people in China need a family car to get around, Toyota develops more family cars like sedans or trucks.
Herbal medicine industry:
Product: General Nutrition Centres’ Herbal Plus
GNC has over 6,000 stores in the U.S. (including 1,100 store-within-a-store locations within Rite Aid) as well as locations in 49 other countries. GNC LiveWell in Australia currently has 41 Stores located in Brisbane (Queensland), Sydney (New South Wales) and Melbourne (Victoria). GNC’s Herbal Plus is a worldwide brand that sells many products like Standardized Echinacea Extract and since their company has globalized there not much they have to customize to sell to different markets. There strategies for marketing might be appealing to the interest of people that country more than people in a different country but the product stays pretty much the same.
Environmental Management Company:
Product: Environmental Resources Management’s Contaminated Site Management
ERM helps clients safely deliver on their business objectives for contaminated land management while protecting human health and ecology, satisfying regulatory obligations, controlling costs and managing local community expectations. ERM’s global services include decommissioning, demolition and redevelopment strategies to help capture value from discontinued operations across the globe. ERM’s skill sets combine remediation technology, risk assessment, financial and project management, regulatory negotiations and field services. ERM has to change its product for every country it markets to but for almost every job it does in that country. ERM helps with disposing, soil handling efficiency and redevelopment which is different in every environment. ERM developed tactical and strategic approaches to manage the complex technical, regulatory, and business demands of the property throughout the product and this in turn means ERM has to constantly change their product to suit what consumers want.
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