Jaguar, one of F ord's luxury car subsidiaries, brought out its S Type model simultaneously in ea ch market. Jaguar ran the same advertisi ng campaign for the S Type everywhere, assuming that senior executives of the wo rld have similar tastes. Yet cars with the Ford name are promoted differently ac cording to national and regional tastes. We don't sell differently to different national markets. In part, it gains from national association.
Swedish virtues are generall y thought to include reliability and a certain austere style.
Ikea has added Swe dish cafes to many stores to underscore the point. Paradoxically, the com pany that does least to emphasise its national character is Coke, which is indel ibly associated with America in many people's minds. I think that after the war , when people in Europe and elsewhere looked to America as a lucky place, it see med natural then to promote Coke as an American drink. You have to get to feel the difference. Global companies like this one have to devolve to the localities to stay global.