S. market. Instead of purchasing millions of dollars in research, Japanese manufacturers will often send their engineering and development teams to a foreign nation to study not just market conditions, but also the nuances of a given customer base as well (Aldridge, 1990). This will allow for greater insights into unmet needs, including the need to see the foreign manufacturers as being a contributor, not detractor, to national welfare. Toyota and Honda did this exceptionally well, as does Panasonic and Samsung with Google Android smartphones today.
2. Do you feel that there is really any difference, in a consumer's mind, between a Toyota Camry manufactured in the United States and an identical Camry that was manufactured in Japan but sold in the United States?
The indirect answer is that it depends on the individual consumer and their perceptual biases. From those consumers with a high level of ethnocentric mindsets, then the differences would be significant and driven more by ethnocentrism, less by fact. As Toyota continues to promote its state-of-the-art...
And the significant influx of jobs they are creating, in addition to showing many of the workers in television commercials, the biases are beginning to erode. The psychographics of a given consumer will dictate how long an ethnocentric mindset continually stays in place despite messaging and continual reinforcement (Halfhill, 1980). For the majority of Americans, there is no perceived difference between a Toyota Camry produced here rather than in Japan, and the Toyota market share figures and significant financial success in this country are evidence of that.
References
Aldridge, D.N. (1990). Marketing strategy: The Japanese Approach. Marketing and Research Today, 18(4), 239.
Genestre, a., Herbig, P., & Shao, a.T. (1995). What does marketing really mean to the Japanese? Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 13(9), 16.
Halfhill, D.S. (1980). Multinational marketing strategy: Implications of attitudes toward country of origin. Management International Review, 20(4), 26.
