Product Localization Case Study

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Along with localizing the product, businesses should adjust their advertising strategy to better suit the intended market in order to “…promote consumer awareness of its products” (Ramarapu, Timmerman, & Ramarapu, 1999). This is the third issue that U.S. businesses should address. Advertising characteristics, regulations, and customs differ between cultures. For example, it may be perfectly legal and socially acceptable to advertise a product on a billboard in the United States, but this practice may be illegal or frowned upon in a foreign market. Researching a country’s advertising customs might be needed in order to effectively target the intended consumers.
The fourth issue that should be addressed is how and when the product or brand …show more content…

Mattel localized their product by creating a Barbie that looked and dressed like a Chinese girl (Carlson, 2013). They named the localized doll “Ling,” but it didn’t prove successful. Mattel’s localization strategy could’ve used a lot of help. They misread the market by thinking that a localized version of their dolls would be welcomed. They also misread Barbie’s popularity within the Chinese culture. They thought that they could get away with selling expensive clothing, spa and nail services, and other Barbie goods (Voigt, 2012). If they had localized the entire brand, then perhaps they would’ve received more interest. On the other hand, by localizing the Barbie brand, Mattel would’ve realized that a mega-store like the “House of Barbie” was a bad …show more content…

Instead of taking a slow approach to launching Barbie into the Chinese market, Mattel decided to jump right in with a standalone mega-store. An analysis into Mattel’s failure in China states that the strategy that Mattel employed was “…a major contributor to the store’s losses” (Close-Up Media, 2012). Mattel should’ve introduced Barbie in increments until the brand became popular among the Chinese consumer. After all, “Since Barbie is not a cultural icon in China as she is in America, Chinese consumers couldn’t care less about Barbie-branded products” (Wang,

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