Choosing between standardization and adaptation in international business operation

International marketing Individual EssayStandardization and adaptationIntroduction:International marketing is far more complex than domestic marketing as marketers are facing many different situations in multiple foreign countries. Businessmen would like to benefit by choosing the right strategy to make the greatest profit. The most challenging issue is that they have to coordinate their marketing activities in different places, where everything may be different, while remaining profitable. There is extremely important for every international company to reconsider the issue of global strategy formulation in light of the great competition in the global market place where companies compete with each others with everything in everywhere. ( David J, 2003) However, while the debate on standardization/adaptation of marketing strategy has been over 40 years, the theoretical framework is still weak (Dickson, Viswanathan, 2007). Instead of taking the traditional approach of examining the merits and disadvantages of standardization and adaptation, unconventional theories and concepts would be overviewed and different strategies would be introduced.

Diversification (marketing strategy)

English: Taken during Auto Expo 2008 New Delhi

A collecting Dabbawala on a bicycle

In this paper, the scope of standardization and adaptation would be examined first. Then the concept and theory of standardization and adaptation would be examined. Then the latest issued and development would be introduced. The practical significances on standardization and adaptation on global market activities is overviewed and my own views would be addressed.

The scope of standardization and adaptation:Terms such as globalization, standardization, adaptation and customization often appear in marketing literature but rarely be defined. Medina and Duffy (1998) pointed out that in order to assess the international marketing activities based on clear strategic understanding instead of just using these words as they sound good to marketers, there is a need to clearly define these terms. They claimed that globalization and standardization are different. They defined standardization as the processing of extending domestic target market-dictated standards to foreign markets. Globalization means the...