Global Marketing at AOL Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global Marketing at AOL - Case Study Example The success of any company is closely connected with its management team, a structure of the company and people work with it. The structure of AOL in Japan is not appropriate for the company of this type. The first problem is that only one person from eight, J. Barber, is involved in day-to-day operations. According to the report results, it is not enough for such a company as AOL because it needs more management control and adjustment on the upper level. The second problem is that the five groups report only to the President, who coordinates their work, but the other members of the board are unaware of the company's problems. The third and major problem is the unstable management team of the company (Hoecklin, 1995).During recent years 3 persons have held the office of the company but did not succeed. This is closely connected with the recruiting procedure used by AOL, who committed to his partner Mitsui this mission. Even if it was difficult to find top local people the company cou ld employ a US citizen on the President post. This experience is widely used by other companies in their foreign offices and proves its efficiency (for instance, the Coca-Cola company is used to appoint non-residents on the post of General Manager). The Barber should recommend to AOL to employ an experienced leader on the President's post (if the current will not be able to take AOL on the next level), and be involved in the process of staff selection itself (Griffith, Hu, Ryans, 2000).If AOL continues the present structure it will not gain any results in foreseeable future. Only a new radical strategic approach for management and the company's structure could take AOL on a higher level. The main impediments of AOL in Japan are that it employs the same marketing strategy that used in America. It uses bundling, magazines inserts and direct advertising, which cannot work on the Japanese market at all. And AOL did not take into account the difference that in Japan (in contrast to the U SA), the PC manufacturers are much more active in the ISP business.The overcome the obstacles AOL should use cultural approach to its marketing in Japan. Many problems associated with the relationships between people of different cultures stem from variations in norms and values. At its deepest level, however, culture comprises a set of basic assumptions that operate automatically to enable groups of people to solve the problems of daily life without thinking about them.