ABSTRACT
The year-long standoff in the case of Miss Castrol was essentially mirrored across the spectrum of MNCs’ advertising and promotion strategies in postcrisis ASEAN. As a generalization, we found that the corporate “standardization/harmonization” push in the immediate postcrisis period was progressively relaxed over time – reconceding some level of control back to the local sales/marketing managers. Broader moves were also noted with regard to an increasing (re)turn toward local advertising agencies – held as being cheaper and domestically driven. As recounted to us by a former Shell Vietnam executive, the general feeling has been that head office can be “overly worried” as to the regulation of strict corporate branding guidelines.
