Porter (1986)

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Product varieties

There are 3 physical product varieties:

1. Universal product – the design is the same and not changed.
2. Modified product – the basic design is the same, but is modified slightly to accommodate each country.
3. Country-tailored product – the product is substantially changed for each country.

A good way of learning within a company is by segmenting the market in order to understand it. Ironically, this act of separating the market can help the firm develop and generate a more universal product, but with the ability to market it differently in each country.

Porter states that, although Levitt is correct in his observations about the homogenisation of the world market, he has not remarked upon the fact that there is also more segmentation within countries. This means that a company can keep the product the same, but can use its knowledge of the different market segments to more effectively tailor its marketing strategies, or modify the product, to the different countries.

“The largest role of marketing in international strategy is probably to help other functions of the business get advantages of scale and learning.”