The globalization of markets Daniel Arthur Lapres（市场的全球化丹尼尔亚瑟Lapres）.pdf

The globalization of markets Theodore Levitt The worldwide success of a growing list of products that have become household names is evidence that consumers the world over, despite deep-rooted cultural differences, are becoming more and more alike - or, as the author puts it, homogenized. In consequence, he contends, the traditional MNCs strategy of tailoring its products to the needs of multiple markets may put it at a severe disadvantage vis-a-vis competitors who apply marketing imagination to the task of developing advanced, functional, reliable standardized products, at the right price, on a global scale. A powerful force drives the world toward a converging commonal- ity, and that force is technology. It has proletarianized communica- tion, transport and travel. It has made isolated places and impover- ished peoples eager for modernitys allurements. Almost everyone everywhere wants all the things they have heard about, seen, or experienced via the new technologies. The result is a new commercial reality - the emergence of global markets for standardized consumer products on a previously unim- agined scale. Corporations geared to this new reality benefit from enormous economies of scale in production, distribution, marketing and management. By translating these benefits into reduced world prices, they can decimate competitors that still live in the disabling grip of old assumptions about how the world works. Gone are accustomed differences in national or regional preference. Gone are the days when a company could sell last years models - or lesser versions of advanced products — in the less developed world. And gone are the days when prices, margins and profits abroad were generally higher than at home. The globalization of markets is at hand. With that, the multinational commercial world nears its end, and so does the multinational corporation. THE McKINSEY QUARTERLY The