Gurus On Marketing

He writes:
‘The multinational corporation knows a lot about a great many
countries, and congenially adapts itself to their supposed differences.
The global corporation knows one great thing about all
countries, and lures them to its custom by capitalising on the one
great thing they all have in common. The global corporation looks
to the nations of the world not for how they are different but for
how they are alike.’
He gives the examples of global successes achieved by organisations
such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sony, Levi and Revlon.
Globalisation of markets does not mean the end of choice or market
segments. Levitt argued that the global phenomenon meant the beginning
of price competition for quality products aimed at larger global
segments. If one, for example, considers the acceptance of Indian food
especially Indian curries in the United Kingdom (Curry, we are told
has become number one ‘English’ food), it means that the curry market
is aimed at much larger segment than a narrow ethnic market.
The globalisation process affects products and services, high tech as
well as ‘high-touch’ products. What matters is producing such goods
and services at high quality and selling them at low prices.
Levitt also argues that his globalisation thesis does not mean a disregard
of national differences. As he writes:
‘The difference between a distinction and a difference is that differences
are perfectly consistent with fundamental underlying and
surrounding sameness. Persistent differences can complement
rather than simply oppose the advancement of commonalties – in
society and business no less than in physics and space.’
Source: The above extracts are from: Theodore Levitt: The Globalisation
of markets’. Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1983.
©1983 by the President and Fellows of the Harvard College: all
rights reserved.
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GURUS ON MARKETING