Foreign Customers -- Same or Different?

In an earlier post, I raised the question whether the information age has changed the rules of Ted Levitt's original orthodoxy of globalization, moving from a model where standardization should be the mantra to a global market place where all consumers unavoidably want it their way.  A recent post on Seth Godin's Blog (author of "Purple Cow" and many other inspirational business books) raises perhaps a middle ground in a post entitled "What People Want".  His first conclusion as to what people want is: "The same thing everyone else is having, but different."  Customers frequently want to know that they are getting a good value by some global standard, but they also want you to know that their needs are not identical to everyone else's (even though sometimes they are).

A number of other items on Seth's list of what people want will also ring true for anyone who has sold into export markets, including:

• A slightly lower price than anyone else;
• Access to the best customer service person in the shop, preferably the owner;
• Being treated better, but not too much better;
• Being noticed, but not too noticed.

In this high level view of the marketplace, it strikes me that people are not so different the world over.  Of course the challenge in entering any new market is how to determine critical data such as what is that difference that will make the difference in getting your product accepted, and what is the perceived price that you need to be a little bit lower than.  As usual, the devil is in the details.