INTERNATIONAL MARKETING: IMPORTING COMMODITY FOODS AND BEVERAGES INTO THE UNITED STATES
This research examines the factors involved in the marketing of imported commodity foods and beverages in the United States. Consideration of these factors is addressed in discussions related to the tailoring of the products for the American market and to the promotion of these products in the United States.
Tailoring the Products for the American Market
The approach to the tailoring of products for specific international markets in the 1990s is through the application of the concept of mass customization (Voss, 1991, pp. 30-33). Mass customization is a relatively new concept in business strategy that, while appearing to be a contradiction in terms, is a rational evolution in competition and marketing theory (Pine, 1993b, p. ix). In effect, the term mass customization refers to a practice of mobilizing technological innovations in communications, information systems, and production processes to mass produce products that are designed to satisfy the demands of a particular market segment as opposed to being designed to satisfy an assumed universal demand (Boynton, Victor, and Pine, 1993, p. 42).
Mass customization is defined as "making products tailor-made for each individual buyer, but wherein production levels provide economies of scale (Westbrook and Williamson, 1993, p. 38). Mass production by contrast is the production in high volumes of standardized products under conditions of design and process change stability (Boynton, Victor, and Pine, 1993, p. 43). The concept of mass production is based on assumptions of stability in both product and process change (Boynton, Victor, and Pine, 1993, p. 43). Within the framework of such assumptions, both "product specifications and demand are relatively stable and predictable" (Boynton, Victor, and Pine, p. 43).
The emergence of the mass customization concept stems from the dynamism o...