The internationalization process of the companies was started primarily by American multinationals that, having saturated markets in the U.S. were forced to turn into new markets. Gradually, this process has allowed the advent of other companies worldwide no longer necessarily on the stage of the global market. Initially the main strategy implemented by the new global brands was that of globalization. The concept of standardization of advertising was born in 60s, but have been successful with Levitt only in 80s, when he declared in the Harvard Business companies that companies had to operate as if the world was one huge market, ignoring the superficial differences between regions and countries and selling the same products, in the same way, all over the world. The strategy adopted by these brands is invasive: they remain practically the same in every nation, same identity, same name or logo, same positioning, same communication strategy, same personality, same product, same packaging and the same way to appear and be perceived. Even the transmitted values remain the same in all countries, they have a significant market shares and high levels of loyalty to the brand. Examples are brands such as Marlboro, Nike and Coca -Cola .
A dominant culture, such as the American one, can export more or less easily products and services that convey symbolic features globally known and desirable, but less strong cultures can not expect to get benefits from global campaigns that convey values, so to speak, of niche .
The standardization basic form is to offer the same products in all markets, through the same channels of distribution, with prices approved and with identical sale promotion systems. This strategy entails, therefore, the increasing use of the English language, as a means of international communication par excellence, minimizing the need of any translations to locate the various campaigns in the different countries of destination.
As Michael Perry, marketing director at Unilever, said: “Be on the lookout: those successful brand, that presume to be able to travel without taking into account cultural differences, have an arrogant attitude and they will pay the consequences”.
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