German auto engineering, Swiss chocolate, French perfume - this month's issue looks at which countries are in the Top 20 of the 'made in' index and why. Which are the world's most valuable brands? How much do consumers really care where a product is produced? And are there some types of products where 'made in' matters more?
The road to innovation is littered with failures. In reality, picking obvious winners isn't hard. Unfortunately, throwing away more genuinely innovative ideas is easy too! Research, in its drive to minimise risk, often fails to spot ideas which could become huge in the future. An analysis has uncovered the factors that drive success and one dimension in particular has emerged as a crucial factor: excitement. This paper outlines the building blocks of excitement which will provide invaluable guidance along the road to innovation success.
In this paper we describe various examples of the common practises of customising imported concepts or creative ideas to Asian markets. We see that many efforts are aimed to enable the target only to borrow these ideas. We argue that the essential objectives for customisation is to drive the target's ownership, making these ideas a personalised and important part of their life. This leads to the thinking that uniformity in brand positioning across continents may not be something for which to strive.
Looking into the future, it is tempting to believe that markets, increasingly, will become 'globalised' and it is even more tempting to believe that therefore there is hope for standardised products in international markets. These temptations, I would urge, must be resisted for two reasons: It is wrong to assume that all markets (I mean the markets for all kinds of products and services) will show a detectable tendency to globalise. Some products and services are already in global markets. It is wrong to assume that a tendency for a consumption pattern to become global means that you can invariably meet it with a standardised product offering. Ford motor cars are a very good example of this approach to product design and manufacture. So my conclusion is that global markets will gradually continue to emerge, but that that does not invariably mean that a standardised product offering is appropriate.
The conflict of targets between manufacturers and traders with regard to the product-line to be carried is already existing as long as there are dealers selling merchandise produced by somebody else, the producers. This target cannot be solved even in future to such an extent that both partners, manufacturer and trade arrive at an optimum, that means that they are completely satisfied.
What are the marketing objectives of a large publishing house, and where are the problems? The activities of a publishing house are divided along classic lines into the major activities of advertising, editorial and distribution. In the field of marketing, the scientific method of bringing an article on the market, we would be well advised to consider specially editorial production, because this is the central marketing problem for the publisher. Production in other industries is largely a matter of operational research. In the publishing business, and here I refer to the editorial phase of our work, it is anything but easy to manage.
When the A.O.I.P. acquired the Beyraud patents concerning a starter for electric motors based on an entirely new principle, the problem arose of choosing between the different models of this equipment. For this choice, we have had recourse to a method which makes use of operational research. This method is in general use, but I believe it is desirable to explain it in relation to this product so as to put it into more concrete form. To postulate the problem more precisely, we should state that a starter for an electric motor is an apparatus which enables the motor to be "set going at speed" in a proper manner. However, its characteristics vary in close agreement with the power and frequency of the starting of the motor. At the' present time quite a considerable number, of models of starters are manufactured by some ten constructors of electro-mechanical equipment. Most of these starters consist of a metallic resistance progressively eliminated, either by hand or 'automatically. The demand for them is being fully met. Our purpose, therefore, was to select these models so as to meet all requirements, while keeping the cost of production to a minimum.
When the A.O.I.P. acquired the Beyraud patents concerning a starter for electric motors based on an entirely new principle, the problem arose of choosing between the different models of this equipment. For this choice, we have had recourse to a method which makes use of operational research. This method is in general use, but I believe it is desirable to explain it in relation to this product so as to put it into more concrete form. To postulate the problem more precisely, we should state that a starter for an electric motor is an apparatus which enables the motor to be "set going at speed" in a proper manner. However, its characteristics vary in close agreement with the power and frequency of the starting of the motor. At the' present time quite a considerable number, of models of starters are manufactured by some ten constructors of electro-mechanical equipment. Most of these starters consist of a metallic resistance progressively eliminated, either by hand or 'automatically. The demand for them is being fully met. Our purpose, therefore, was to select these models so as to meet all requirements, while keeping the cost of production to a minimum.