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Douglas and Wind (1998)
Management
> Global Marketing Management >
Lectures >
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Standardise? >
More on Standardisation? >
Certain circumstances > Factors
Factors
There are a number of factors
which constrain a firm’s ability to standardise successfully.
External Constraints to
Effective Standardization
-
Government and trade restrictions,
including tariffs and promotional regulations. A certain proportion
of a product’s parts may have to be manufactured locally. In Japan,
food product design and composition must conform to a trade body’s
standards, meaning that firms must adapt their products.
- Severe
advertising restrictions in some countries (Germany and
Switzerland), or cartels, which regulate the prices and distribution
channels of products in any given industry.
-
The marketing infrastructure may
differ between nations, such as method and reach. In LDC illiteracy
is high, so printed advertising would be ineffective.
-
The nature of the distribution
channel, such as supermarkets, which are big in the US, may not
exist in other countries, so ‘in store’ promotions and aggressive
low pricing would be useless.
- Physical
and communications infrastructure. There may be lttle or no
access to the internet, transport services may be poor, or the
geographical nature of the land may inhibit logistical systems.
-
The availability of resources
differs in each country. Plastic is used more in Europe than in the
US, owing to the relative cost of the two materials.
- Costs
of other factors vary, such as labour and management. If labour
costs are much cheaper than media advertising, it would be
beneficial to have labour intensive promotion, such as personal
selling.
Internal Factors
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