Standardization and customization in organizational design

Standardization and Customization

For a website design company in Brazil, it is most important to customize the product and branding part. The reason for this is that the website design company will most likely promote itself as a new company and it needs to have a strong message to attract both internal and external partners. Since website designing is not a differentiated activity, the company needs to bring forward customized products that will actually make the potential customers believe that the company is offering something more than the competitors. This is where the comparative advantage should lay with the Brazilian website design company.

On the other hand, given the fact that the core activity of the company is that of website designing, which needs to be customized, some of its auxiliary activities can actually be standardized. These can include the advertising and marketing approach, which means that the message of the company, elements such as the slogan and/or the logo can remain standardized. These will be elements with which the company will identify itself throughout the company.

If the company would be expanding to the United States, then, in my opinion, the entire portfolio of marketing elements will need to be customized to fit the requirements of the American market. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the company will, again, have a significant number of competitors, but this time they will be from around the entire world. The company will face competitors which will be able to have a similar product at a significantly lower price.

At the same time, it will also face globalization as a challenge, with companies in the U.S. simply hiring an outsourced developer in India or China to develop a website instead of selecting a Brazilian company operating on the U.S. market. This is why, to a much larger extent, the company will need to approach the American market from a unique perspective and customize most of its marketing approach.

One would first start with the products. Some of the products that may appeal to the less technologically developed market in Brazil will not properly fit well into the American market, that may require websites that would include anything from flash videos to large storage capacities. At the same time, the diversity and complexity of designs for a website will certainly need to be higher on a more complex market such as this one.

Pricing will also need to be customized, especially given the business and negotiations characteristics that Americans have. They will tend to see the Brazilian company as a source of lower priced services, but the negotiation position needs to be such that the client will receive a high quality product, but at least for the average, market price. As a customized pricing methodology, the website design company could potentially offer integrated packages with different products and services that can include discounts on the number of emails provided, larger storage capacities, free consulting services etc.

With Apple Computers, the reasoning is perhaps entirely different. Given the company's international presence, volume of activity and established international presence, the preference should be for a standardized global approach, which should include a standardized presence in Brazil as well. Certainly, some voices may propose the idea according to which the approach should be customized to fit exactly the Brazilian market. This opinion does not stand in the case of Apple. For example, the brand is standardized throughout the entire world and the logo is also recognizable in any part of the globe as the bitten apple.