ABSTRACT
Studies on multinationals largely focus on manufacturing to explain globalization. US manufacturers of consumer durables and machinery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries expanded overseas by extending their manufacturing operations to fast industrializing countries. In the case of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, Great Britain and Germany were two main international production locations by the 1890s. Marketing, however, accounted for Singer’s success in the rest of the world, which was in more than fifteen countries by the 1920s, including Spain, South Africa, Mexico, and India. This study concentrates on the multinational’s selling strategies that were led by women within the organization and that connected almost personally with the consumer. By focusing on the products that women made with the sewing machine and the selling strategies women used at international and local exhibitions, and in educational courses, this chapter demonstrates that marketing links the study of international business with the realms of culture, allowing for an understanding of how the demand side shapes the making of global business.
