Global Branding

Global Branding

Traditionally, the world has thought of McDonald’s as American, Airbus as French and Toyota as Japanese. While perceptions have largely stayed the same, the reality is the opposite. The opening up of global markets have allowed for corporations to become more multinational and operate as global actors. It’s no longer good business to neither have all the factors of production in one country nor do business in that one country. Companies now may have head offices, factories and marketing department all over the world, each catering to the specific need of a particular region.

Toyota is a company that realized this early on in its existence and today it is the largest automaker in the world, overtaking GM in 2006. Toyota is in name, a Japanese company. In reality however, it is much more than Japanese. For one, it has more factories in America than it has all of Japan. It has a separate corporate slogan in every region in which it has a head office and its latest Toyota Tundra, a pickup truck was designed completely in America. In fact, Toyota employs more American employees than any of the American automakers who themselves have more Mexican employees than they have American ones. It is not so clear if Toyota is a clear cut Japanese company.

Creating a global branding is more than just making sure that your product is sold worldwide, it requires a new way of thinking which embraces the differences in cultures that adjusts the company policies to that particular country or region. It requires a adjusting policies to address global needs, not trying to adjust global needs to company policies and that is what will separate successes from failures in a new globalized world.