Unit 5 Listening 5(13)

Int: Keith, you mentioned erm, some very famous names there, erm, companies which compete in the global market place. Are there any particular problems faced by companies who, who wish to be competitive in the global market?

KJ: Well yes there are. I mentioned Virgin and Coca-Cola for example, these are global players in the soft drinks market, erm they do face particular problems. We could take another example – McDonald’s in the food retail business. For example McDonald’s, the main part of their selling strategy is the quality of their products, the standardized quality. It is very difficult for a company to control or guarantee the quality of their product on a global scale. Erm particularly where they have to be sensitive to or adapt to local cultures and customer expectations. A good example with regard to McDonald’s is the fact that they do not sell beef burgers, so burgers made of beef, in India, for example, because that would possibly offend local cultures there. Of course globally marketing becomes a particular problem – can companies erm communicate the same or a similar standardized message about their product in different language regions of the world? And McDonald’s we know are very lucky in this respect because they have a good product in the sense that the product they offer is recognized among a large population, youthful population of the world as symbolizing the American lifestyle, for example, so McDonald’s are very lucky in the power of the product and the message they have on a global scale. Other companies of course have much greater difficulties with their products.