Standardizing the marketing mix across different countries is limited by numerous
factors. Focusing specifically on the scope for product standardization in the
car industry, this paper empirically investigates the extent to which consumer
preferences may act as barriers to standardization. Consumers from Korea, Spain
and France—three countries at different stages of development and with distinct
socio-cultural characteristics—are compared in terms of the importance they
attach to various product attributes with particular emphasis on
country-of-origin information and “green “ features. The results reveal a large
number of significant differences between the three subsamples and illustrate
the substantial barriers to standardization that can exist even for such
relatively culture-free products as cars.
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