New perspectives on marketing mix programme standardisation

The marketing mix programme standardisation/localisation policies of 63 UK multinationals operating in a developing market (the six Gulf States) are examined, using a three-factor, 53-variable model of country, firm and marketing mix programme factors. The research framework is unusually broad compared with other standardisation studies, which have also tended to concentrate more on the developed than the developing economies. Three firm variables and three country variables correlate closely with differing degrees of marketing mix programme standardisation. Product strategies are much more standardised and promotion, distribution and price more localised. Unexpectedly, industrial product firms appear to be no more standardised in marketing mix programmes than consumer goods firms in the Gulf. British Multinationals tend to treat the six Gulf states as a single market cluster with only minor variations between each state.