Standardization potential within the marketing mix in Central Europe

The subsidiaries of the KIA Motors Europe GmbH in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are forming the company internal KIA Motors Central Europe business division, while all four parties are single legal entities lead by local management. Looking at current macroeconomic facts and figures of these countries, it becomes clear that KIA is operating in four completely different markets but also cultures and peoples. Analyzing further the concept of standardization in international marketing and addressing standardization respectively differentiation approaches within the marketing mix policies, similarities or differences in the marketing mix execution of the four subsidiaries are claimed. In order to research concrete standardization potentials for the KIA Motors Central Europe business division expert interviews are held with managers of the four subsidiaries and analyzed accordingly. Consequently the achieved results are presented and depending on the marketing mix area common functional approaches or even completely different functional approaches are identified.