National vs. international products
A national product is offered to a single market. Sometimes national products
appear when a global company caters to the needs and preferences of particular
country markets. For example, Coca-Cola developed a non-carbonated,
ginseng-flavoured beverage for sale only in Japan and a yellow, carbonated
flavoured drink called “Pasturina” to compete with Peru’s favourite soft drink,
“Inca Cola.” Such examples show the reasons why national products, even those
that are quite profitable, may represent a substantial opportunity cost to a
company. First, the existence of a single national business does not provide an
opportunity to develop and utilize international leverage from headquarters in
marketing, R&D and production. Second, the local product does not allow for
the transfer and application of experience gained in one market to other
markets. The third shortcoming is that a single-country product lacks the
feature of transferability of managerial expertise acquired in the
single-product area.