THE GLOCAL STRATEGY OF GLOBAL BRANDS

A few years ago, globalization was the new paradigm in international business, however from a branding perspective it has lost its initial efficiency giving the fact that consumers do not seem to feel a connection anymore with the standardized products of global corporations, catered to them in mass marketing communication programs. With their centralized decision making, most companies simply stopped having a connection with the new global marketplace and neglected its emergence. Hence, the influence of local characteristics arose, and with that a new term that encapsulates the global and the local – glocal. “Glocalization ” encourages companies to “think global, act local”, and they could do so by using the global brand, while localizing certain elements of that brand in order to suit a particular country