Standardisation versus adaptation

Standardisation versus adaptation is international marketing's classic debate: run the same campaign and positioning everywhere, or adapt per country? Standardisation brings scale, consistent brand assets and lower cost; adaptation brings cultural relevance and local sharpness. The evidence pushes toward a synthesis separating strategy from execution: brand positioning, assets and price logic travel surprisingly well, while execution, media and sometimes product details need local tailoring. The real mistake sits at the extremes: flattening everything globally into blandness, or restarting per country until the brand is recognisable nowhere.

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