The article under consideration is Participating International Management Case: MTV Goes Global with a Local Beat. There is no strict date when this article was written, still it is possible to conclude that it may be related to the beginning or the middle of 2000s. The broad area of the article is MTV Network. One of the main ideas discussed in the article is that being International, this global network became local.
The problem discussed in the article is closely related to International Business Course as each company entering the international market should pay attention to the cultural and national peculiarities to make the company products popular and demanded there. The focus of the article is the MTV Network, it history from being global to becoming local.
First, MTV was oriented on English-speaking countries broadcasting, mostly USA and UK music, but with the increase of the competition, MTV has increased its market segmentation and offered its product to different countries, like Germany (MTV Germany), Latin America MTV, MTV channels for Nordic nations, MTV brazil, etc.
It is really interesting to read this article as it is connected with music and because the ideas mentioned there are easy to implement in business and make it effective and more profitable.
The key learning point in the article is the ways to compete at the global market by means of using the local strategies. Thus, MTV Network became global by means of providing different Networks on the basis of the national peculiarity, language. Now, MTV is broadcasted on different languages of the world and with the increase of the national music, making it available for wide range of people in the world.
The title of the article says for itself, “MTV Goes Global with a Local Beat” (“Participating International Management Case” 61). MTV, local, global, Europe, music and broadcasting are the words kept repeating in the article.
While reading the article it is possible to identify its building blocks: MTV International broadcasting, the history of making MTV local and becoming more global, and MTV generation. Frankly speaking, it is rather complicated to divide the article into the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. Thus, here is a brief description of the information provided in each article building block.
The first part is MTV International broadcasting which states that MTV is the program that managed to become global by means of being local. Furthermore, the age of the program fans always remains on one and the same level, from 18 to 24. The company motto is “Think globally, act locally” and 340 million houses in more than 140 countries enjoy this.
The history of making MTV local is rather long. MTV began its broadcast for 61 million people in the USA in 1987. Understanding that it is possible to increase its influence, MTV Network started MTV Europe and MTV Australia.
At the same time, this was not exactly what we mean when say that “MTV goes global with a local beat” (“Participating International Management Case” 61) as US and UK music was predominant if not to say the only on the channel. The main challenge for MTV Network was in 1993 when Germany’s VIVA began its broadcast.
The main advantage of this channel was that veejays spoke German there and German music was dominant on the contrary to MTV or MTV Europe. MTV was still popular and people of the whole world watched this channel, but the managers of the channel understood that their popularity was in danger. The company strategy was changed dramatically.
The main idea of the change was to create more possibilities for people who lived in different countries. MTV created the channels which broadcasted in different countries depending on the language they spoke. Thus, MTV Germany, MTV Latin America, etc. appeared what made the company absolutely global.
Therefore, a deep consideration of the problem makes it possible to conclude that MTV Company became global by means of becoming local and more assessable for people in different countries due to the cultural distinguishing.
Living in Germany, people have an opportunity to watch the channel on their native language with the domination of German bands and singers. The same occurs in other countries of the world where MTV is broadcasted.
Using the notion MTV generation we mean that about 30 years after the channel began its broadcasting and has entered each country on the local basis, teenagers became involved into the MTV culture.
People listened to the music presented there. It may be said that it was MTV that established the world proprieties and tastes in music. Being the only music channel of such scale, MTV managed to gather the whole Planet (aged between 18 and 24) before the TV sets.
I was really happy to read the article. First of all, music is the topic which really interests me. Second, I was really impressed when understood that the strategy used in music industry may be easily implemented in other industries. Business is always business no matter what is taken as the basis for it, an industrial manufacturing or a music product. Conducting a critical analysis of the article, its pros and cons should be identified.
The main advantage of the article is that it dwells upon not only the actions provided by the company to make it global by means of local intrusion, but also explains the reasons for such actions and the activities which have been provided. The article is helpful for those who are interested in how the system works, as the sites are offered to each of the networks discussed.
One of the main disadvantages of the article is that there is no any evaluation of the localization of MTV Network for making it global. Being one of the members of MTV generation it is easy for me to evaluate the level of the success of the MTV actions directed at network localization. But those who do not know the problem cannot understand whether the actions provided by the company were successful or not.
As it was mentioned above, the ideas of the article may be easily implemented to any organization which wants to enter the global market. If the company can create a product which may be localized, like music or culture, this method may be easily applied to. Let us consider the method on a specific instance.
For example, Al-Futtaim Technologies is one of the best system integrators in Dubai. Even though, there are a lot of different countries which work in the same direction in the world, using the technique MTV has applied, the company may easily enter the world market. Thus, being regional in Dubai, the company may easily establish headquarters in other countries of the world and become regional there.
The local presence across different countries in the world will make it possible to become global in the relation to its spread. Still, the company may face the great problem within the context, the software and technology financing.
Being a developed and successful company in Dubai, it may evaluate its financial opportunities and, that is why, refuse from applying this method of entering international market in reality. The method is rather effective, but many investments should be involved to realize the project.
In conclusion, the article under consideration was really interesting and instructive. I have learnt that there are a number of different methods which may put the company on the international market. The article is devoted to one of the methods. Therefore, I have got to know that to become an international company, it should try to become local in different countries.
The assimilation to the culture and other distinctive features of different countries (still being an international brand) may increase the trade mark popularity within the boundaries of that country. This article opened my horizon on the information that thinking globally may lead to the localization of the business, which seemed to be impossible in my opinion before.
Thus, taking this article as a starting point, the executives of the companies should check the products which they may offer on the local markets in different countries. It is important that the product should be labeled under the company trade mark, but it should be specific and appropriate only for this concrete country or a set of countries with similar cultural signs.
Works Cited
“Participating International Management Case: MTV Goes Global with a Local Beat.” Globalization. Print.