ABSTRACT
Technological innovations in the 1990s, particularly in the area of information and communications, have helped transform the world into a giant global marketplace. In the mid-to-late 1990s, multinational corporations (MNCs) in developed countries, such as the United States, faced market saturation, increased competition and declining profit margins within their own geographic boundaries. Consequently, they increasingly looked toward penetrating the rapidly expanding economies in many developing countries. The Asian region, in particular, presents some of the fastest growing economies in the world. In the mid 1990s, the World Bank had projected that Asia would account for more than half of global GNP growth and half of the global trade growth by the end of the decade (Frith, 1996a). Thus, billions of US dollars are being spent on advertising in Asia, targeting a burgeoning middle class and aiming to increase consumerism and build loyalty to multinational brands.
