■ The gradual opening of major new markets, namely China, India, eastern Eu-
rope, the Arab countries, and Latin America.
■ The increasing tendency of multinationals to transcend their locational and na-
tional characteristics and become transnational firms.
■ The increasing number of cross-border corporate strategic alliances—for example,
MCI and British Telecom, and Texas Instruments and Hitachi.
■ The increasing ethnic and religious conflicts in certain countries and regions.
■ The growth of global brands in autos, food, clothing, electronics, and so on.
■ Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive test-marketed Total, its antibacterial
plaque-fighting toothpaste, in six countries: the Philippines, Australia, Colom-
bia, Greece, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The team in charge of the
global launch was a veritable corporate United Nations of operations, logis-
tics, and marketing strategists. Their efforts paid off handsomely: Total was
soon a $150 million brand worldwide, selling in 75 countries, with virtually
identical packaging, positioning, and advertising (Figure 2-1).^7
Within the rapidly changing global picture, the firm must monitor six major forces:
demographic, economic, natural, technological, political-legal, and social-cultural. Al-
though these forces will be described separately, marketers must pay attention to their
Scanning the
Marketing
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