Falling prices, competition from multiplying copycat companies and a lack of innovative new products have battered their bottom lines and stock prices. This combination of negative factors has hurt these household names' brands, which had once conquered the world. Coca-Cola managed to hang onto No.1, but just barely. With its flagship brand so beleaguered, the company is looking elsewhere for a boost. They've decided to localize more.
Localization is the latest buzzword in the consumer goods and services industries.
Many hope it's the key to turning a buck in diverse emerging markets like Asia. The Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, which localized heavily in the 1980s, is now in retreat, slashing its portfolio of 1,600 brands down to less than 400. For both Unilever and Coke, Asia has been the testing ground for localization. The sheer diversity of the region, in terms of culture, language and living standards, has forced both companies to modify worldwide strategies for its markets. Many products, like Unilever toothpaste Mentadent, and marketing campaigns that have worked in the rest of the world have fallen flat in Asia.