The Global Integration and Local Adaptation Dilemma : Does it Apply to Premium Brands?

• This article deals with how automobile manufacturers design their products and organize their international marketing channels to respond to global and local pressures. The integration-responsiveness framework assumes that international marketing decisions mean tricky trade-offs between adapting to local market conditions on the one hand, and reaching the efficiencies that standardization across countries and regions imply on the other hand. According to this framework, a standardization approach entails efficiency advantages at the cost of the adaptation to local market conditions. No studies so far have related the integration-responsiveness framework to the brand profile. At a first glance, integration and responsiveness appears to apply to any across-market marketing setting, under limited influence from brand profile. However, recent evidence reveals a high degree of success for premium brands, although they engage a lot less in local adaptation compared to volume brands. The empirical data reveals interesting differences in the application of integration and responsiveness for premium and volume brands, and provide a number of explanations for the success of premium brands also in areas where local adaptation is very limited. The findings suggest that premium brands may benefit from not emphasizing local responsiveness, since the very reason the brand is attractive is that it represents product design, a consumption culture and values that differ from what is expressed in local products.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)