Global Market Development

1. Global Market Development

Dr. Levitt brought up the idea that with the development of technology and what people saw and hear, this world is no longer the world that companies can took advantages of information delay, treat people differently by region, or sold “lesser versions of advanced products—in the less-developed world” (Levitt, 13). This world is coming into a new age that any well-managed companies would transfer themselves from focusing on fulfilling the needs of a group of people to establish a new standard that provides advanced, functional, reliable and low price product. Multinational corporation, which concentrate on specific customer’s need, has come to the end of its age and can no longer able to performs its role in international market. It comes to an age that global corporations will achieve a success by setting a specific standard and focusing on what general people want and need, “he will never assume that the customer is a king who knows his own wishes”. (Levitt, 16)

The nature of the foundation of Levitt’s argument of homogenization is that with the development of technology and the wide of people’s eyes to the world, the information delay is no longer exist, people start to eager the similar product and have similar will of expectations toward products and service. Though they may live under completely different conditions, with different culture background, different income level and different religions maybe, technology give people all around the world to see what the world today looks like. Changing the strategy of international marketing from multinational corporation to global corporation is something that must be done other than an option. Even some of the things people see through internet or TV are not yet come to their real life, but it gives people a picture of what life can be, which made all the consumes in the same platform, and they request for the most advanced modern goods, service and high technology.

Homogeneous is a word means the same kind, and is often used to describes a group of people with same race, gender, religion, etc. Becoming homogeneous in Levitt’s article means people’s needs and wants are no longer depend on the geographic difference, race difference or culture difference. Levitt provides several examples in his article like Iranian young men in fashionable trousers and silky body shirts with blood and a modern weapon, soldiers in war carry bloodstained sword with Coca-Cola in their hands and listening to transistor, and organized smuggling of modern products to underground trade. All these appearances show that people nowadays, regardless of country or any difference that might exist, are pursuing the same kind of thing, as Dr. Levitt said “goods of the best quality and reliability at the lowest price”, so that is what means homogeneous.

The nature of the argument that present by Douglas and Winds’ article is that though global standards may exist when doing global marketing, but the global marketing is made of uncontrollable elements, so marketers should take the differences of culture, behavior, economic environment in to consideration.

The fundamental differences between these two argument is that Dr. Levitt suppose the world trend to be homogeneously in the future, the world is becoming “as if the entire world were a single entity” (Levitt, 13), plus the development of high technology, under this circumstance, people want the same thing which appears as best quality, reliable and low price product. While Douglas and Wind suggest that the world is made of uncontrollable elements, so does global market. The idea of homogeneous and global standard can be used when it comes to global marketing but only in limited conditions, marketer should focus still on consumer behavior, local political, economic conditions and marketing infrastructure of each single region (Douglas and Wings, p.25)