Multinational Marketing Information Systems Term Paper

Multinational Marketing Information Systems - Term Paper Example The strategy usually involves a choice – to either standardize or adapt. Most of the time, the company chooses a strategy that is a combination of both standardization and adaptation. Standardization refers to the application of a marketing mix to the whole global market – the same solution applied in the company’s home (North American) market, for instance, is used likewise employed in its newly opened Southeast Asian operations, for instance. This obviously has its drawbacks at first glance. Total standardization seldom works across different countries because of differences in language, consumer preferences, culture, laws, marketing infrastructure, and competition structure. (Alimiene et al, 2008) On the other hand, seldom does the total adaptation of marketing solutions work for a multinational enterprise, either. In such situations, the company could not take advantage of the economies of scale, marketing expertise, and information acquired in the other markets where the company maintains its presence. The ideal marketing strategy is one that exploits the advantages of being able to address the cultural differences of foreign markets and separate products that comes with adaptation, while at the same time employing the economies of scale and global market knowledge gained through standardization. The diagram below is presented in order to better highlight the complications involved in multinational marketing strategy formulation. During product development, a stage of the business cycle wherein marketing information plays a determinative factor, the multinational company employs a variety of internal strengths that may emanate from different locations around the globe. For instance, in the example given the product concept is hatched in Singapore, approved in Houston, and designed in Singapore and Taiwan. The final assembly involves production plants in various regions of the world, for local markets.