Global vision, regional focus, 'glocal' reality: global marketers, marketing communications, and strategic regionalism'

Global marketers have long been perplexed with the question of how to make global branding work. Historically, this issue generally pivots around whether, in what situations, and to what extent advertising across national and regional borders should be 'standardized', or alternatively, 'localized', that is, made specific to each market. While questions of cultural diversity and geographical difference have dominated debate, other factors also affect the success of standardized advertising. This paper focuses on organizational structures, management, products and marketing efforts in an investigation of the shifting attitudes of global marketers to the issue of corporate and advertising standardization versus localization. It surveys the advertising trade-press literature of the past ten years to examine the corporate strategies of two global marketers: Procter & Gamble and McDonald's. This examination reveals that 'glocalization' - an amalgam of global strategy and local adaptation - continues to be the dominant global marketing approach. Furthermore, there is also evidence of increased efforts towards regionalization of corporate operations and marketing strategies. Finally, it is also found that certain singular individuals, such as company CEOs and other senior executives, exert a clear influence on global corporate strategy. This influence goes some way to explaining the dramatic shifts and changes of marketing direction that often characterize the stance of global marketers on global advertising strategy.