This paper addresses the issues arising from an objective review of a dozen years observing and participating in brand building exercises in the Asia Pacific region. An examination of the way in which available budgets are deployed led to questioning the objectives of the researches conducted. A recognition that even fully globalised brands performed differently in different environments led to an examination of what really drives brand success. Two conclusions were reached: 1) that robustness of a brand - a measure of its likelihood of realising its potential - is a vital and easily measured aspect of brand management. 2) that whilst global brands and hence global positions can be achieved, the elements of the actual marketing mix will have to be adapted to achieve those positions in different socio-marketing environments. This process is referred to as glocalisation.
Shiseido Co., Ltd., the world's fourth-largest cosmetic manufacturer, was established in 1872 with a Confucian concept of aiming to discover and create new values with global resources." From its inception, self-reform efforts to always react quickly to social changes have been valued as the corporate ideal. This has enabled the company to overcome several major crises over its 120 years of corporate history, and the process has proved to be a source of rejuvenation. In 1987 Shiseido undertook a major restructuring, clearly setting its mission and business domain as discovering new values with depth through meeting many people and creating a beautiful living culture, building upon its history, and defining corporate culture as the accumulation of intelligence and sensitivity, the company began to consider its corporate culture as a powerful management resource. The competitive edge of Shiseido's cumulative culture has become internationally recognized. Its corporate culture has equipped the company with originality, which is a synergetic integration of research and technological capability, marketing and image building. Shiseido began its international activity in 1936 with a belief that beauty transcends national boundaries. After struggling for many years, learning specific features of each market and fostering human relations, Shiseido's name gradually permeated. Since the 1970s, the company began to manufacture products specifically tailored to international markets, renovated visual styles used domestically back in the '30s and AOs, and applied its corporate culture to the global strategy. High quality, high service, and high image are features of Shiseido products throughout the world. Consequently, overseas sales account for 12 percent of its total sales today. Shiseido's corporate culture is an intangible asset. The company will continue to refresh its traditional corporate culture through ceaseless self-reforms and resuscitabiiity.
After reviewing and defining what global marketing is (or should be), the talk develops three themes: I. Global marketing will accelerate dramatically: Very powerful economic forces compel leaders of the business community to think globally and act globally. II. Executing multi-national research studies, especially tracking studies, requires a detailed understanding of the system and how variation can affect it. III. Designing, approving, using and applying a multi-national research study requires very different organizational disciplines within the sponsoring company than one-country studies do.
Culture is a word frequently used but insufficiently defined and delineated, especially in the marketing context. This paper offers some definitions of culture and its component dimensions, which are intended to be of use to marketing decision-makers. The importance of exploring and cataloguing the new cultural dimensions of the consumer society is stressed, and some candidates for inclusion are proposed.
The increasing internationalisation of business activities, both in Europe and elsewhere, has led to a growth in demand for management development services with an international focus. Ashridge Management College and the Center for Creative Leadership, two organisations already active in this field, wished to develop a new concept whereby the services offered concentrated on helping businesses to plan and implement strategic change in the new international environment. In light of the competitiveness in the market and the investment risk involved, research was used as an aid to deciding; whether to go ahead with the project; and what modifications, if any, were needed to the concept proposed. The paper describes the design and implementation of the study which took place. It explains the difficulties encountered in terms of sampling, recruitment and interviewing, and discusses the steps and solutions taken to overcome these problems. It describes some of the findings, and explains how these findings were used: to gain greater understanding of the needs of potential user organisations; to amend the focus of the concept so that the services offered became more interesting, appealing and distinctive for the target market; to give an assessment of whether the opportunity was sufficiently 'real' to justify the investment of Ashridge and C.C.L.'s funds and resources, and their commitment to its implementation.
We note in this case-study that the support of pan-European marketing information is decisive to understand the complexicity of the challenging European market which needs a lot of preparation for the total opening of the frontiers. It is indispensable to integrate all information sources to get the right picture of the market. To get a well harmonized information picture across the different countries is an important step but not enough to understand it. To analyse international figures we need a proper knowledge of the various local particularities. The durables good industry should be prepared to the geographical extension of the large retailer organisations with purchasing departments for the European market and set up pan-European key account marketing function as well as capabilities to face this new dimension which is becoming more and more important in the near future. To get the parallel-import phenomena under control, the industry should be supported in the marketing information by a pan-European pricing monitor. Setting up an international marketing strategy either based on consumer research or on retailer panel information without integration of both of them in the analysis of the market situation is very risky and can lead to wrong strategic issues. To be successful on our challenging European market in the durables field we need for the international marketing strategy the support of global pan-European marketing information with the integration of the knowledge of the local environment and the different source of information like the qualitative and the quantitative ones.
The prevailing belief is that Japans markets are protected from the entry of foreign competition by a host of complex barriers. These range from conventional trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas on the import of certain items and complex product regulation to more subtle barriers such as Japans unique culture and traditions and its labyrinthian distribution channels. Nonetheless, despite these barriers, a number of Western firms have been successful in penetrating Japanese consumer markets. Although no single formula for success is apparent, all appear to have developed an understanding of the unique characteristics of the Japanese market, and adapted their products and marketing strategies accordingly. A number of examples of successful Western products in Japan are discussed here. These show the importance of creating a strong brand or corporate image, attention to product quality and packaging, and establishment of an effective distribution and service network by fostering strong personal relations and trust with distributors.
The New Europe represents a unique challenge to companies and the research industry alike. Its structures and market dynamics are not yet firmly established. There are no valid "maps" or orientation systems which would be needed for reliable decision-making in this pan-European market. A critical review of the traditional practices in international ad-hoc research demonstrates that it fails to meet the new requirements. It leaves the manager alone with the task of discovering and designing the New Europe as a market. Decisions are taken without the active contribution of marketing research. The intercultural approach opens up new perspectives for the solution of these problems. It defines modes of thinking, procedures and research designs in which old and new marketing research techniques are used in rearranged form. In addition, it is an approach which includes the transformation of styles of cooperation between researchers from different countries and of the relationship between the users and suppliers of marketing research. We are still far from having resolved all tasks and problems involved. But we are probably closer to a solution than might be assumed, provided that we agree on the targets and improve our skills in recognising and utilising the opportunities inherent in this confrontation of different cultures, traditions and research styles. The present paper deals primarily with the type of research which is generally classified as "qualitative". Its findings and conclusions, however, can equally be applied to large sections of what is habitually referred to as "quantitative" research, at least to the extent to which the latter is concerned with the analysis of markets.
The New Europe represents a unique challenge to companies and the research industry alike. Its structures and market dynamics are not yet firmly established. There are no valid "maps" or orientation systems which would be needed for reliable decision-making in this pan-European market. A critical review of the traditional practices in international ad-hoc research demonstrates that it fails to meet the new requirements. It leaves the manager alone with the task of discovering and designing the New Europe as a market. Decisions are taken without the active contribution of marketing research. The intercultural approach opens up new perspectives for the solution of these problems. It defines modes of thinking, procedures and research designs in which old and new marketing research techniques are used in rearranged form. In addition, it is an approach which includes the transformation of styles of cooperation between researchers from different countries and of the relationship between the users and suppliers of marketing research. We are still far from having resolved all tasks and problems involved. But we are probably closer to a solution than might be assumed, provided that we agree on the targets and improve our skills in recognising and utilising the opportunities inherent in this confrontation of different cultures, traditions and research styles. The present paper deals primarily with the type of research which is generally classified as "qualitative". Its findings and conclusions, however, can equally be applied to large sections of what is habitually referred to as "quantitative" research, at least to the extent to which the latter is concerned with the analysis of markets.
The increasing pace of change in international business environment has led to growing competitive pressure, changing critical success factors, threats and risks. As these changes affect the marketing programme, marketing process and overall marketing management process, the basic problem of international industrial company is related with timely and effective response to changes in international markets. For effective problem solving marketing manager requires a continuous flow of reliable and decision-oriented information from various sources inside and outside the company. The problem is often not lack of data, but the lack of proper information. In international marketing literature one would mostly find a general description of the marketing information system without necessary detailed explanation how this system should be integrated with marketing management process. It is the purpose of this paper to explore this rather neglected field more in detail and to present a comprehensive model of decision support system, based on the analysis of strategic marketing decisions and information needs of decision-makers at various levels of international industrial marketing management. Therefore, my emphasis in the paper is concerned with the logical information structure (conceptual databank) rather than with the physical structure (formal databank design). To manage information resources on a rational basis, the databank model should be flexible, enabling necessary adaptation of a system to changing nature of information needs of marketing decision-makers due to alternative modes of companys international market entry (internationalisation strategies) and differences regarding the commitment of resources to foreign markets and information gathering process. A multilevel approach to databank development is discussed and the International Marketing Information Centre (I M I C) proposed as extension of/replacement for the traditional Marketing Research Department. The major advantage of this approach is a rational and flexible integration of data from various sources with effective marketing management process.
The whole European movement is supply- driven. It is driven by the suppliers of goods and services and it is driven by the suppliers of political and economic policies. Behind it all, of course, is the underlying assumption that all this will end up being of benefit to the citizen and the consumer - but that has not been the principle motivator. The principle motivator has been the fear of competitive failure and the recognition that only united does Europe have a hope of staying in contention with the big boy.