ABSTRACT
The vast international network of operating companies and business associations resulting from the explosive growth of global business poses the problem of how and where to perform the marketing function. One ethnocentric point of view assumes that domestic products, marketing experience and marketing programs would be as successful in foreign markets as in the United States. Under the interactive market planning approach, subsidiaries would be responsible for responding to the differences and unique factors in each national market. Headquarters staff at area and world levels would be responsible for strategic planning, and for the coordination and rationalization of product design, advertising and pricing programs. Marketing research provides an excellent illustration of present attitudes toward the collection and dissemination of information in multinational companies. Each company must decide on the basis of its own situation. One force which may tend to delay the development of global product management is the existence of country organizations operating as profit centers.
