In 'local vs. global,' bet on local.

• Author: Quelch, John A.
• Position: Brief article

From All Business Is Local by John A. Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz. Copyright [C]2012 by the authors. Published by Portfolio/ Penguin (www.penguin.com).

Experts and observers are always quick to point to the changing business landscape and to predict the demise of old ways of thinking. Digital will displace physical; global will displace local; and new will displace old. But trends are rarely that black and white, and the movement toward one does not always mean the demise of the other.

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Marketers face a complex landscape in which no customer can be purely global or purely local in outlook, and no customer can be purely physical or purely virtual in the way he or she buys.

The forces of globalization have not yet come close to rendering place irrelevant. Nation-states remain the organizing structure for the world's population. Modern communications may enable individuals to build and join virtual communities that cross borders, but we are much more likely to use those resources to connect with our neighbor next door than a...