International Business Environment
International Business Environment
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Strategies:
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However, it’s worth noting that Apple does make subtle adaptations for local
markets where necessary, such as complying with local laws or offering
region-specific payment methods, without compromising the core aspects of
its products or brand.
3) IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings retailer, has adopted a unique blend of
standardization and localization. While the company offers a largely consistent
product range across different markets, its global standardization strategy is
most evident in its business operations.
IKEA uses a standardized supply chain, sourcing its materials globally to
maintain quality while achieving economies of scale. The store layouts, too,
are almost universally similar, providing a consistent customer experience.
However, IKEA is mindful of local tastes and adjusts its product offerings or
store setups to accommodate cultural differences, such as varying bed sizes
or kitchen setups in different markets.
Companies:
1) The KFC fast food brand realises significant supply chain savings
—but KFC restaurants serve local menus that provide a high
degree of responsiveness to customer preferences. Although
best known for fried chicken and Southern US-style sides such as
mashed potatoes, corn, and french fries, KFC locations around
the world can serve recipes that cater to local tastes. For
example, customers in Thailand can order green curry chicken at
KFC, and in Indonesia, you can get a bento box meal.
2) In order to provide local markets with customized goods, the
consumer products company Unilever uses independent, self-
sufficient subsidiaries and localized production around the world.
Local companies, of which there are around 500 different units,
are able to guide their own strategy to a great extent and manage
their operations with local needs in mind.
The plan that is supposed to guide the operations of your company in foreign
markets will depend on many different factors, such as your resources, the
industry you operate in, the specificities of the markets you target, etc.
According to Prahalad and Doz, the tensions that MNCs face can be global
and local.
1) The Starbucks story started with one store in Seattle in 1971, where the
headquarters is still located. Today, there are 32K Starbucks coffee
houses in 80 countries. The company’s success lies in a unified product
offering and standardized store decoration across markets—making
their coffees appreciated and their logo with the siren easily
recognizable all over the world.
2) For at least a century, all Rolex watches have been made in
Switzerland: Each item has “Swiss made” printed at the bottom,
regardless of the market you buy it in, linking the brand with
Switzerland’s reputation for watch excellence. Moreover, all key
activities, including research and development, design, and sales, are
centralized in their headquarters in Geneva.
3) In 2021, the German sports car manufacturer delivered more than 300K
vehicles worldwide. Every single one was assembled in Germany,
making Porsche a great international strategy example. What’s more
intriguing, all key activities, such as research and development, and
after-sales, are managed from different locations in their home country.
With a localization strategy, your business will determine and define both the
markets to enter and the overall goal for content in those markets
Companies:
1) Netflix is a subscription streaming service that revolutionized traditional
broadcast television. With more than 220 million paying users, Netflix is
today the world's largest video streaming service.
A big reason for Netflix's rapid growth and global success is its
localization strategy. Netflix stays relevant to a global audience by
offering its viewers tailored content based on geolocation. Viewers in
the US will thus see different content than viewers in Spain.
Adapting content to a specific culture will help align yourself with the
audience. Therefore Netflix went into localization all in. Based on
cultural preferences, the platform will suggest everything from original
series to movies. Netflix analyzes cultural influences, interests, and
entertainment trends to improve the user experience in every market.
Localized images help users better relate to the content and feel connected to
the app.
Next, they spend a lot of time adapting content for specific audiences to help
them find the preferable music. Spotify is famous for its playlists. Those
playlists may share a theme in many markets, yet the playlists are different.
The playlist "Songs to sing in a car" in Norway may contain different songs
than in other countries.