Abstract:

At a time when American and Japanese companies are exhibiting great interest in the new market opportunities to be found in a fully integrated EC, European companies are achieving the scale and competitive strength to seize their own opportunities overseas. This paper presents a hypothetical encounter with three such companies- a Scandinavian marketer of modular housing, a joint venture between a French food manufacturer and an English food service company, and a German industrial and financial concern. Each company has achieved considerable success with segments of the European marketplace. Each also has the resources to consider expanding operations to the United States and Japan. The strategic issue this paper treats is: Will consumers in these new markets be equally receptive to their marketing efforts? In each case, the answer can be found in GLOBAL SCAN, a worldwide consumer study being conducted by Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide that is the largest such survey done by any advertising agency in the world. Now in its sixth year, GLOBAL SCAN has discovered the existence of five common classes of consumers in virtually every country analyzed. The richness of GLOBAL SCAN’s readings on these consumer segments allows each of the hypothetical marketers to uncover a detailed portrait of the most promising target market. GLOBAL SCAN also warns these would-be global marketers on how to vary their products and marketing communications messages to suit the local nuances of each market they are entering.