The Globalization of Markets by Theodore Levitt
The globalization of markets, as described by Theodore Levitt, can be observed through the worldwide success of popular products that have become well-known in households. This success indicates that consumers around the world are becoming increasingly similar, despite their cultural differences. Levitt refers to this phenomenon as "homogenization." He argues that multinational companies (MNCs) that continue to tailor their products to different markets may face disadvantages when compared to competitors who develop advanced, functional, and reliable standardized products at a global level and at the right price. The driving force behind this shift towards commonality is technology, which has had a proletariat-like effect on communication, transport, and travel.
The advancement of technology has created a desire for modernization in remote regions and among disadvantaged population
...s. People from all around the world aspire to possess the same goods and experiences they have been exposed to through these new technologies. As a consequence, a novel commercial phenomenon has emerged – the development of worldwide markets for standardized consumer products on an unprecedented level. Companies that align themselves with this new reality enjoy significant advantages in terms of cost efficiency in production, distribution, marketing, and administration.
By translating these advantages into lower global prices, companies can effectively eliminate competitors who still adhere to outdated beliefs about the functioning of the world. Gone are the customary disparities in national or regional preferences. Gone are the times when a company could successfully market outdated models or inferior variations of advanced products in less developed regions. Additionally, the days when prices, profit margins, and overall profits were typically higher abroad compared
to domestic markets are no longer. The era of global market integration has arrived. Consequently, multinational commercial enterprises are nearing their end, as are multinational corporations.
The McKinsey Quarterly
The distinction between a multinational corporation and a global corporation lies in their level of operation. A multinational corporation operates in multiple countries and adapts its products and practices accordingly, leading to higher costs. On the other hand, a global corporation maintains consistency in its operations throughout the world or major regions, resulting in lower relative costs. It sells the same products using the same methods across all locations. Global vs.
Both multinational companies and countries recognize the importance of embracing modernity. The constant flow of worldwide communications brings the potential to improve work efficiency, raise living standards, and offer entertainment. While these countries stress the need to preserve their unique cultures, they also expect to benefit from the transfer of modern goods, services, and technologies. Modernity is not merely a desire, but a widely adopted way of life for those who simultaneously hold onto their ancient traditions.
During the 1979 Iranian uprisings, young men in fashionable French-cut trousers and silky body shirts embraced Islamic fundamentalism while wielding modern weapons. Similarly, in Brazil, thousands migrate from preindustrial Bahian darkness to booming coastal cities where they set up television sets in crowded corrugated huts. Next to battered Volkswagens, they offer fruit and fresh-killed chickens to Macumban spirits by candlelight. The televised reports during Biafra's fratricidal war showed soldiers with bloodstained swords and transistor radios drinking Coca-Cola. In the isolated Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, where news is censored and there are no paved streets, occasional Western travelers
are discreetly solicited for cigarettes, digital watches, and even their clothes. The smuggling operations that bring electronic equipment, used automobiles, Western clothing, cosmetics, and pirated movies to primitive locations are even more extensive than the underground trade in modern weapons and military mercenaries. The desire for advanced goods of the highest quality and reliability at the lowest price is evident in countless ways worldwide. Consequently, the world's needs and desires have become uniformly globalized.
The multinational corporation is rendered obsolete and the global corporation becomes absolute. According to Daniel J. Boorstin, author of The Americans trilogy, our age is defined by the Republic of Technology where convergence is the dominant principle. Convergence refers to the tendency for everything to become more similar. In the business world, this trend has led to global commonality in markets.
The same standardized products such as autos, steel, chemicals, petroleum, cement, agricultural commodities and equipment, industrial and commercial construction, banking and insurance services, computers, semiconductors, transport, electronic instruments, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications are sold by corporations worldwide. This globalization is not limited to just raw materials or high-tech products where universal customer language allows for standardization. The influence of globalization reaches all aspects of life through communication and travel. McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, rock music, Greek salad, Hollywood movies, Revlon cosmetics, Sony televisions, and Levi jeans have all achieved global success. These "high-touch" products are just as widespread as high-tech products.
Starting from opposing sides, the high-tech and the high-touch ends of the commercial spectrum gradually consume the undistributed middle in their cosmopolitan orbit. No one is exempt and nothing can stop the process. Everywhere everything gets more and more like everything else as the
world's preference structure is relentlessly homogenized. Consider the cases of Coca-Cola and PepsiCola, which are globally standardized products sold everywhere and welcomed by everyone. Both successfully cross multitudes of national, regional, and ethnic taste buds trained to a variety of deeply ingrained local preferences of taste, flavor, consistency, effervescence, and aftertaste.
Both products, cigarettes and American-made ones in particular, have a significant presence worldwide. They continuously expand their market share even in regions previously dominated by local blends. These examples are not isolated incidents; they reflect the overall trend of shaping a more unified global market by companies when it comes to the distribution, financing, and pricing of products. It is worth noting that trade barriers hinder their full potential for global expansion.
All countries are affected. The industrialized world's products and methods have a global influence, resulting in uniformity of taste and business practices. Differences between nations disappear as a result of shared preferences, leading to standardization in production, manufacturing, and trade institutions. Previously limited national markets transform and grow.
Efficiency in production, distribution, marketing, and management is crucial for success in worldwide competition. Price becomes the main focus in this competition. Superior quality and reliability are incorporated into the cost structures of the most effective competitors. These competitors sell the same type of products in all national markets as they do in their largest export market. Their competition is based on offering appropriate value, which is the best combination of price, quality, reliability, and delivery for globally identical products in terms of design, function, and fashion. These factors explain the remarkable success of Japanese companies in various tangible and intangible products worldwide. These products
include steel, cars, motorcycles, hi-fi equipment, farm machinery, robots, microprocessors, carbon fibers, textiles, banking, shipping, general contracting, and soon computer software. Contrary to popular belief, high-quality and low-cost operations are not incompatible according to consulting organizations and data engineers.
The reported data are incomplete, wrongly analyzed and contradictory. The truth is that low-cost operations are the hallmark of corporate cultures that require and produce quality in all that they do. High quality and low costs are not opposing postures. They are compatible, twin identities of superior practice. To say that Japan's companies are not global because they export cars with left-hand drive to the United States and the European continent, while those in Japan have right-hand drive, or because they sell office machines through distributors in the United States but directly at home, or speak Portuguese in Brazil is to mistake a ' In a landmark article, Robert D.
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