International Marketing in Germany – From a cultural perspective

6.4
 
Place 
The place mix seems to be hard to standardize. All companies apply adapted distribution 
channels and market coverage according to the German market structure (see table 6.4). In 
matter of industrialization West Germany has an advantage, which can be one of the reasons 
why Precimeter Group is situated in the west as well as why Filippa K has all its stores 
situated in West Germany. Germans often perform their shopping on the internet. This implies 
that it is important to have a good geographical coverage of the market in Germany.
Table 6.4 A Comparison between Standardized vs. Adapted Place Mix 
 
Food Companies 
 
Beverage 
Company 
Garment Companies 
 
Industrial 
Company 
PLACE MIX 
Wasa 
Bröd AB 
Göteborgs 
Kex AB 
The Absolut 
Company AB 
Nudie 
Jeans 
Marketing AB 
Filippa 
K 
AB 
Precimeter 
Group 
Distribution 
Channels 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Market Coverage 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Assortment 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Standardized 
Standardized Standardized 
Inventory 
Adapted 
Adapted 
Standardized 
N/A 
Standardized N/A 
Transport/delivery
Adapted 
Adapted 
Standardized 
Standardized 
Adapted 
Adapted 
N/A = Not Available 
Regarding the assortment all food and beverage companies in the study adapt it, having a 
smaller range of products, because Germans don’t consume as much products as Swedes per 
capita. Concerning the food companies, the products are in their initial phase which decreases 
the assortment offered to the German market compared to the Swedish market.

---

74 
Only Filippa K AB has its own shops, which means that it is the only one having store 
inventory, which it has standardized to fit the Filippa K concept. However, Göteborgs Kex 
AB and Wasa Bröd AB have their own product shelves which they adapt according to 
German standard and language. The German inventory standards for the food industry are 
smaller than the ones in Sweden. This is probably due to the fact that the Germans have less 
space per capita to live on. The Absolut Company has standardized its inventory used during 
campaigns. 
The way of transporting and delivering the products to the stores seem hard to standardize, 
but due to the similar transporting laws within the European Union it isn’t necessary to have 
completely different procedures. The infrastructure in Germany is well developed and similar 
to that of Sweden implying that standardization of the transport is possible. 
The adaptation seemed mostly to be since the companies find the German market hard to 
enter and hence they offer free delivery etc. to get the products available to the end customer. 
Only Nudie Jeans Marketing AB has free delivery as standard to all markets.