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The opinion of the CEO is correct in my opinion. The world is segmented into various countries and countries into cities not just because of their geographic meaning but due to the differences within these locations. Each country is made up of different languages, dialects, cultures, religions, etc. Furthermore, the people of one particular region are different from another in their common traits and their general personalities. Therefore if a marketing manager decides on a marketing mix, it is fairly probable that a particular marketing mix will be appropriate for one region while completely inappropriate for another. (Ball et al, 2006)
Lets take an example of the AXE deodorant and body spray brand. This brand breeds on casting its sex appeal and all its advertisements have a certain amount of sexiness involved. The purpose of the ad is to show that by using AXE, women cant resist a man (AXE, 2009). When this ad is played on national television in Dubai, its get a high credit and likability since Dubai is a multicultural and non-conservative society. On the other hand, the playback of such ads is prohibited in other Muslim countries since these countries are more conservative and reject public behavior that incites sexuality. On the outlook, a brand that is highly successful on what its main characteristics are in one part of the world is a complete sham in another part.
However, this may not be always the case, as marketing managers try to find the common characteristics of all of their target population and send one standardized message across the globe to that particular segment of targeted people. This is an attempt to reduce the cost involved in advertising a product by using the same promotional materials. Whereas this strategy does indeed lower advertising costs, its impact made on the public is quite less. This is because when the common characteristics of the people are found, the focus of the marketing campaign becomes too broad and blurred. (Ball et al, 2006)
Lets take a fictitious example of a global brand of bakery whose major selling proposition is their creamy raspberry pies in the US, their fresh and aroma-filled biscuits in Europe, Pastries in Asia, and Breakfast items in Africa. Based on these highest selling products in the world, this bakery had been doing a roaring business. However, to reduce marketing costs in this time of recession, the marketing department tried to go for an advertisement campaign that could be applied to all the people.
However, to do that, the bakery could not focus on any of their specialty since a specialty for a region isnt the specialty for another region. Thus the marketing team decided to adopt the theme of a simple bakery that serves its people whatever they want. Even though this message remains true to all of the people, it loses focus and would most probably fail to attract new customers since they cant relate to the bakery and differentiate it from other bakeries.
Even though both the examples used in the above response have been on the extremes and global companies can find a perfect line in between the two extremes, this is still a problem for many global brands who try to adopt standardization. In my opinion, in our current globalized markets, glocalization is ever so important to make a mark upon the people to persuade them into buying the companys products (Tech Target, 2009).
References
AXE. (2009). The Axe Effect. Web.
Ball, D. A., McCulloch, W. H. Jr., Frantz, P. L., Geringer, J. M., & Minor, M. S. (2006). International business: The challenge of global competition (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tech Target (2009). Glocalization. What is. Web.
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