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Standardization and Customizing of International Marketing Plans

The majority of the basic principles employed in effective marketing equally apply to global and domestic marketing activity. However, globalization presents numerous challenges unique to operating simultaneously in international markets and different countries. According to Theodore Levitt, a Harvard marketing professor, a new reality has been triggered partly by technological developments. This text discusses the differences between standardization and customizing a marketing plan for countries and all it entails.

There are numerous attractive reasons for companies to standardize products and branding across the global markets. The first reason is that it enables businesses to globalize and leverage economies of scale. Standardization also enables customers to see videos, images, and product descriptions no matter where they are. Additionally, standardization eases content management and creation efforts through ensuring same content gets delivered across channels. Customization of brands and products for countries is beneficial as the marketing efforts tend to naturally satisfy the needs of various customers in various markets (Gremyr, Aku, and Lars, 27). Furthermore, customization helps make a customer more comfortable as they have expectations. Customization also generates positive credibility within the market hence boosting conversion rates. Customization and standardization have unique positive outcomes for growing business. While the one size fits all standardized approach for global marketing is efficient, local customers might not resonate with it. In contrast, customization greatly enhances customer engagement and experiences through meeting the tastes of local customers, but can be difficult to scale. This is the main difference when it comes to standardizing and customizing a marketing plan for other countries. Historically, businesses used standardized products and similar brand messaging in all global markets in an effort to benefit from economies and scale and similar brand efforts. However the downside of the standardizing products is that businesses were not able to capitalize on local market trends. Some organizations changed to decentralized operations to compensate. In such scenarios, local teams lose efficiency and scalability but manage to separate content libraries.

The four Ps of marketing, including product, place, price, and promotion are the key factors in marketing service and product. Customization and standardization have everything to do with these four factors, as these are taken into consideration in the development of key strategies for advertising, marketing, positioning, and promoting your product or brand.

The best circumstance to standardize a marketing plan is when there is minimal competition. Global standardization works best for companies that have services and products that are barely facing competitions within local markets. When there is no rivalry from competing local brands, companies are in a position to tailor-make services and products to suit the needs of their customers (Tien, 44). The best time to customize a marketing strategy is once the company understands the target market. Figuring out the demographics of the target audience is important in creating a persona which is the biggest secret weapon employed by successful marketing companies. The client’s persona includes information such as gender, income, and age and understanding these factors helps in reaching them.

‘Think Global, Act Local’ is a mindset that numerous international brands adopt when planning for both national and international marketing strategies. It is the way that companies customize their brands to meet the individual needs for audiences. For instance, the Coca-Cola Company is an example of an international company that employs this slogan by incorporating the right mix of global and local operations. Although Coca-Cola is an international brand, it ensures it stays locally relevant to every individual market it serves.

Works Cited

Gremyr, Ida, Aku Valtakoski, and Lars Witell. “Two routes of service modularization: advancing standardization and customization.” Journal of Services Marketing (2019).

Tien, Nguyen Hoang. “Customization and Standardization of the Business Strategy of Foreign Enterprises in Vietnam–the McDonald’s Case and the Fast Food Sector.“.” International journal of research in marketing management and sales 1.2 (2019): 44-50.