Phillips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands, was until recently very much following a polycentric orientation, which assumes that each country is unique in terms of its target consumer behavior, as well as demos, psychographics, price elasticities, color affinities and associations, etc. Corresponding marketing approaches are intended to be unique and invariably led by in-country managers with a high-degree of autonomy. This worked well for Phillips until more globally/geocentrically oriented companies such as Japan’s Matsushita began competing with them atop multinational strategies that, as the RAI Foundation presents it, leveraged efficiencies enabled by the integration of marketing activities across borders.
I find it curious, especially with Marshall McLuhan’s global village cinched tighter and tighter every day by broadband strings of 0’s and 1’s, that ethnocentric orientations hold the perspective that one’s home country is superior to other countries. The managers of such strategic approaches tend to assume that the marketing that works at home will work abroad. Doesn’t take a c-level exec to recognize that’s a path to failure today, or at least stagnation, in most cases, particularly with the connectivity of the Internet effectively leveling the playing field for consumers with respect to product knowledge.
It should be noted, however, that Harley-Davidson is by most definitions an ethnocentric company, understandably with respect to its positioning as an ‘all-American’ brand holding a multinational appeal. Similarly, M
ickey and Snoopy are as American as can be, but their red, white and blue heritage is rarely muted, infrequently compromised, mostly capitalized upon.
Another example I found reading Keegan and Green’s text on Global Marketing (2005: 17) cites Nissan’s early international operations as being ethnocentric, in that they did not design cars specifically for, say, the United States; they exported cars that were designed for use in Japan. The authors provide a humorous anecdote, wherein the automaker admitted that they thought that since Japanese owners would place blankets on their car hoods in the winter to keep them warm enough to start that Americans would do the same thing. Um, nuh-uh.
Posted by: Colin Mangham