Global Marketing- Effect of Global Politics on Corporate Stratedgy

It is imperative for todays multinational firms to have a good feel of the current political environment when coming up with a global marketing strategy. Take the case of Coca-Cola in the 1960's. This was an era where tensions between the Arab world and Israel were sky high. At this time, Coke was serving the lucrative Arab market while furtively avoiding the Israeli market out of fear of a boycott from the Arabs. Coke gave economic reasons for not locating in Israel, which although worked for some time, eventually was exposed leading Coke to be labeled as anti-semitic which damaged its image and reputation. Under pressure from the Jewish community, Coke decided to open a bottling plant in Israel, leading to a boycott of Coke in all Arab countries. Competitor Pepsi, took this opportunity and launched in a Coke-free Arab Market.

This is important because todays companies should learn a lesson from Coke's fiasco. It lost a considerable share of the global market and lost a lot of sales while damaging its reputation. Hence companies should be more careful when designing global marketing strategies. you can read more about what happened by clicking on the following link:

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/israel.asp