PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION VS HOMOGENIZATION IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Companies marketing their products and/or services in overseas market are faced with the dilemma of whether to regularize or alter their product offerings. This decision concerns firms commencing to market their products in foreign countries as well as those already operating internationally and is considering expansion into further markets. The evenness of products across cultures is increasingly becoming an important issue that the managers of global firms are today facing. As international marketing receives significant research attention in today's generation, it seems the cost benefits and administration of standardization strategies has simplified the international marketing approach as well as being an attractive choice for many firms. While the desirability of marketing adaptation vs. standardization has long been debate within both academic and business circles, empirical studies investigating the conditions under which each strategy becomes appropriate have been rare. This article provides a formal investigation of the correlates of product and promotion adaptation in MNC ventures. A conceptual framework of product and promotion adaptation in multinational ventures is proposed to integrate the diverse perspectives on the issue of standardization versus adaptation. The conceptual framework is further specified in a testable form and tested via data collected by a series of in-depth interviews with different forms of customers. The results support the contingency perspective recently emerging in the standardization literature, and suggest that the degree of the various aspects of product adaptation (i.e., upon and after entry) and promotion adaptation (i.e., positioning, packaging/labeling, and promotional approach) are significantly influenced by company, product/industry, and export market characteristics. However, the profile of the correlates varies across the various aspects of product and promotion adaptation.