The average American, or individual walking
downtown in any major city in the U.S. is bound to come across, or pass a
number of conglomerate chain restaurants, stores, and corporations within one
block, or a few hundred feet away from each other. This depiction of
common chain industries, such as McDonald's, Starbuck's, JP Morgan Chase Bank
have become a visually common or typical city landmark, whether you are walking
down the streets of Paris, Tokyo, or Sydney.
Growing up in the 21st century, these major
chain industries to the uninformed observer might be viewed as well-established
companies within these cities outside the of the U.S. However, those whom have grown up prior to the 1980s, are much more aware of the
significant increase in the global commercial system, which has led to the increase
in not only in global businesses, but also media networks expanding
across-borders.
The impact of global businesses and media
networks today plays a significant role, if not originally intended, in
representing cultural aspects of a country and creating brand-images that have
become universal symbols. These symbols specifically assist in providing
corporations with a face-identifier to the products and services provided by
the corporations international chains. While the examples previously
mentioned are all American restaurant and bank owned corporations, American
businesses and media networks are not the only influential corporations with
internationally-based locations.
Presently, Kinokuniya Bookstores (Japanese-owned), Caffe Bene
(Korean-owned), or the world's largest state-owned bank, Industrial &
Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
are modern-day examples of non-Western
chain industries that have increased business and expanded their visibility abroad, by opening internationally-based locations.
Generally, the success of many conglomerate
companies is determined by not only their
market value, but also by their brand-image,
visibility to their targeted audience/ customers (via advertisements), and number of domestic
and internationally-based locations they possess. But, while the sea of global businesses,
media, and brand-images is increasing exponentially, it is important to note that the number
of wide-ranging cross-regionally based businesses remains moderately low. Competition,
and obtaining global appeal, which can transcend any culture is essential for competing in the
globalized market. In looking at which regions lack global brand-images, it would certainly
be worthwhile to see conglomerate chains emerge from areas, such as the Caribbean
or Southeast Asia region.
First of all, thank you for bringing up such an interesting topic in your blog post on the spread of global chains. On a personal note, I remember looking forward to weekend visits to the local Kinokuniya bookstore with my family as a child growing up in suburban America. I lived in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles throughout my childhood, and remember going to Kinokuniya bookstores in each city--gone are the days when we'd expect to find just one store per country. How interesting that a bookstore chain carrying mostly Japanese books can find substantial markets for their goods not only in suburban America, but apparently in Bangkok, too, as I found out this summer. Interestingly, Kinokuniya stores in Bangkok carried books in four different languages--Japanese, Thai, English and Mandarin Chinese.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post also got me thinking about the localization of products, services and brand images that all multinational chains undergo in varying degrees to be successful in a foreign market. As you probably already know, Starbucks has seasonal menus and varieties of blended tea frappucinos catering to the Asian market, while McDonalds is famous for its creative, limited release burger renditions available only in Japan. You mention that "Competition, and obtaining global appeal, which can trenscend any culture is essential for competing in the globalized market." While I certainly see your point and tend to agree, I can't help but wonder if unversalistic appeals aimed to transcend any cultural differences is achievable, and whether they would ultimately prove to be an ideal pathway to enhanced competitiveness. Could increasing the effectiveness of localization efforts as a result of more nuanced, continuously updated understandings of a foreign market, consumers and culture be a stronger alternative?
All in all, I too am very interested in the expansion of multinational chains and brand images, and thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post. Thanks for the contribution!