This interdisciplinary study, drawing upon the fields of marketing, cultural studies, translation, and web globalization, illustrates the impact of globalization on today’s firms and the various aspects of taking a product global.
After defining the terms and concepts underlying this study, the theoretical foundations and background information with regards to marketing, culture, and localized vs. standard international products are provided. All of this is further illustrated through the example of T-Mobile, a German company that grew into a global corporation over the past decade. Similarities and differences between T-Mobile Germany and T-Mobile USA are identified and discussed, based on the four Ps of marketing.
The second portion of this study addresses the process of globalizing a web site to deal with international visitors and match their wants and needs while meeting cultural conventions. A detailed catalog of criteria according to which web sites can be evaluated and compared is developed and applied to the web sites of T-Mobile Germany and T-Mobile USA.