Victor Liang
International Relations POL 5900 01 [16273] (Kingsborough CC)

Globalization Photo Essay

                                    Globalization is an important idea incorporated with global fortune and poverty. Globalization is when a businesses or organizations develops internationally or starts operating on an international scale. It suggests a view that the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and groomed into a shared social space by technological advancements, while simultaneously increasing the production of goods and services. Globalization impacts the standard aspects of an individual’s life including, religion, food, transport, language, music and clothing. Increased globalization can speed up movements and or exchanges between different regions and populations from around the globe.

            Throughout reading the article, “Global Poverty and Wealth” written by James Arvanitakis and David J. Hornsby, it provided examples on how globalization is seen in both a positive and a negative view. The “negative” or “alternative” view explains how globalization can actually cause poverty and economic inequality. “For example, the internet has allowed many individuals to establish successful businesses and sell their goods all over the world. But how can you take advantage of this technology if you live in an area without access to the internet due to poor infrastructure, poverty or war”? The alternative view of globalization helps explain how the simply, common household possessions may be simple to obtain, but are hard to attain for others. These goods are “geographically” diverse among different communities, counties and regions, meaning some countries common folk are more accessible to these common goods than others.

Throughout my day I use a variety of items, with a span from food to, selfcare to, electronics and or appliances. My first item I will discuss is Listerine:

Listerine is owned by the company, Johnson & Johnson. This mouthwash brand is 135 years old with many varieties of Listerine types available. Listerine is used by many surgeons, hospitals and everyday homes of millions of people around the globe. According to an article on, Drugwatch.com, titled “Johnson & Johnson”, written by Kristin Compton,  Johnson & Johnson is the world’s largest health care company and the highest paid drug company (https://www.drugwatch.com/manufacturers/johnson-and-johnson/ ). Johnson & Johnson have over 250 subsidiaries, meaning multiple companies and or brands that make up Johnson & Johnson. As technology and everyday life changes throughout the world, in order to keep up with globalization, Johnson & Johnson continues to keep up with these changes while providing medical goods, innovations and everyday healthcare necessities.

The second item I will be discussing is Dove:

Dove is owned by Unilever, which is the world’s biggest food and soap company while owning brands such as Lipton tea, Dove soap and Magnum ice cream. The sub brand Dove and its products are mainly used as toiletries such as; body washes, hand and body lotions, facial cleansers, deodorants, shampoos, conditioners and hair styling products. The aimed audience typically for Dove is women from ages 18 to 35. Considering their first advertisement during the 1950’s, according to https://strategyonline.ca/2007/12/01/tributedove-20071201/ , Dove aimed their products to housewives at that time who “dreamed” of being the “perfect wife with clear skin” because their first product was the Dove soap face bar. This advertisement was aimed at women during those times whose skin was not clear, according to standards they were not the “perfect wife” for their husbands to come home to. The advertisements of Dove are directly persuasive and have globalized messages with every product, for example, many Dove body washes or hair shampoos are aimed to make the targets hair or skin “soft, silky and manageable” because it is implied universally that heavy or dry hair is unattractive or that rough skin is also unattractive.

I enjoy playing video games a lot, it’s a fun way to spend extra time. The Nintendo switch is a portable gaming console that is developed by Nintendo. Nintendo’s main headquarters is in Japan but Nintendo established subsidiaries in America and Europe. This was done so they could be able to expand globally while becoming closer to their customers worldwide. Nintendo is originally a Japanese company, but the reason why it has grown so largely is due to the fact that they aimed to fit into many cultures by not solely focusing on a certain type of video game or culture. For example, Mario who is an Italian-American plumber from Brooklyn, is a very widely known character who is included in games such as Super Mario Bros and or even Super Smash Bros and many more. But the reason he is famous in almost every country, is because of the smooth character backgrounds that allow the company and its products to enter and adapt into any culture. (https://psmag.com/news/super-mario-and-cultural-globalization). The marketing and cultural design on a global scale has placed Nintendo at an international operating scale.

The PlayStation gaming consoles are owned by Sony. Sony is a globalized company best used for consumer electronics, including gaming consoles, camera’s, and televisions. Sony’s headquarters are in Japan but overtime to promote global expansion, they have established manufacturing bases in China, Europe and America. The largest markets for Sony are firstly the U.S., then China, Japan, and India. Sony expands their consumers by establishing these sub headquarters in other countries to make products that appeal to the public and people of a certain region. This helps Sony distribute its content on an international level of globalization. (https://www.sony.com/en_us/SCA/company-news/press-releases/sony-pictures-television/2009/citing-globalization-of-entertainment-sony-pictures-unites-domestic-international-television-divisions.html).

My keyboard is a Yamaha portable electronic keyboard. Yamaha is a Japanese brand that has grown to become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of musical instruments, including pianos, drums, guitars, brass instruments, violins, etc. Yamaha started in 1887 as Torakusu Yamaha built his first reed organ in Japan. Over time after focusing on musical instruments and products, Yamaha was simultaneously becoming globalized as one of the biggest corporations. In 1954 Yamaha Motor Company broke off from Yamaha music and created their first motor in the motorcycle market while competing nationally and internationally throughout japan and the word to showcase their product(s). For both companies, both have made changed to adjust to societies rapidly growing ages. For example, Yamaha first developed this specific keyboard in 2007, but they started making keyboards in the 1980s. All of these types of musical instruments or versions have all changed or enhanced to keep up with the global need or want for these items. Yamaha has a large amount in diversity in their products with a long line of change and sells for people from around the world.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/40480-the-globalization-of-the-piano-market/ https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/yamaha-to-develop-local-leaders-in-global-drive/article8523964.ece

iPhone is made by Apple, it is a product of Apple that first started firstly on January 9^th 2007. (https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/news/apple/135231-the-apple-iphone-is-10-years-old-look-how-much-the-iphone-has-changed). Apple began globalizing its products by establishing factories in other countries for a wider distribution. Apple products are aesthetically pleasing and user friendly due to their simplicity. According to https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/apple-retail-stores/, Apple manages over 500 retail stores across 25 countries and regions. This is a good example of globalization because it brings people easily together through a product and a brand while expanding their company.

LG is a southern Korean brand and it was the first Southern Korean company to enter the chemical and plastics industry in 1958. Over time LG has caught up to Samsung- another electronics leading company (http://www.lgcorp.com/about/history/1) . LG also sells electronics with a range of stylish and innovative home entertainment products such as, mobile phones, home appliances, commercial displays, air conditioning systems and solar energy solutions(https://www.lg.com/us/authorizeddealers/lg_online_authorized_retailers). LG is certainly globalized because LG focused on outsourcing with marketing when they entered a country, and when they built factories in other countries, they used local people to manufacture their products. This provides an opportunity to see what each consumer population would want in different countries. This helped allow LG to operate on an international level while creating efficient products for the consumers.

Samsung, which is another Southern Korean company that produces consumer and industry electronic devices with a huge variety of products that range from consumer electronics such as TVs, tablets, home theater and audio, desktop computers, laptops, monitors, printers, home appliances and also security/monitoring systems. Samsung originally started in 1938, as the owner began trading produced goods around the city. But after the Korean war Lee Byung-Chull expanded his business into textiles and focused on industrialization to help his country redevelop from the war. Samsung first entered the electronics industry around the early 1970s, with several electronics-focused divisions and they began growing even more. Overtime Samsung spread throughout the world producing a number of items, and as the world evolved Samsung even brought the Samsung Galaxy smart phone.  Samsung is a globalized company and has continued to make expansions with its technology and or more global products for exporting to consumers around the world while making slight adjustments of change as trends or needs change as well.(https://www.lifewire.com/history-of-samsung-818809)( https://hbr.org/2011/07/the-globe-the-paradox-of-samsungs-rise ).

Clorox is a Large American chemical company that leads in many products surrounding cleaning supplies and its namesake bleach. Clorox also owns other brands known as Burt’s Bees, Brita, Pine-sol and many more. Clorox started out in the 1910s as Clorox’s liquid bleach product firstly, many other companyies knew how to make bleach but, they just didn’t know how to market it to the public. William and Annie Murray both believed in the product and had invested in the Electro-Alkaline Company (https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/who-we-are/our-heritage/timeline/). They eventually had the idea to market Clorox liquid bleach to homemakers and overtime, even throughout war, the great depression, Clorox never stopped growing. People continued using it more and more, especially in the 1990’s it became more globally known. Clorox has become a very globalized company that produces for the world, they have expanded their trade, business and production in many countries to build themselves a “name” and status. Today the Clorox Company manufactures products in 25 countries and markets globally as their products are sold in 100 global markets. Clorox also owns 16 global plants around the world to manufacture its items. (https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/making-the-leap-into-emerging-markets-an-interview-with-cloroxs-beth-springer# )(https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/blog/manufacturing-clorox-pride/).

Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer and a prominent cloud services provider. Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, he founded the e-commerce colossus Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amazoncom). Over the years, amazon continued to grow and expand its success, because of the large availability of products on amazon this has helped to grow its accomplishments globally. There are three possible reasons as to why Amazon has become so globally known and they are: Amazon has a very large selection of products and this helps consumers always find what they are looking for, consumers pay as little as possible for a product sometimes and Amazon shipping is typically fast. Amazon has incredible traffic among its customers meaning, if they have a good shopping experience it is more likely the customer would come back and buy more. More selling means more production and or product selection. This is why Amazon has such a wide scale reach to the people and the world. Amazon products ship to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, China, India, Mexico, and new ones are always being added, making it a very international shipping service of goods (https://algopix.com/questions/what-countries-does-amazon-operate-in). A common pattern among all globalized products and or companies is their ability to quickly adjust to their consumers/customers wants and or needs. Amazon was able to become the second most valuable company in the United states worth more than 1.7 trillion dollars right behind apple and even while working around the COVID-19 pandemic, amazon managed to still serve the customers.

            Globalization is the process of which businesses or organizations develop and start operating on an international scale A common trait all of these globalized products, companies or brands have is the ability to work around global issues to reach the people, issues such as a global pandemic, war, market crashes etc. A large amount of these companies started out fairly small as well, with just a simple idea that even sometimes, isn’t the same as to what they end up selling in the future or now. All of the products I mentioned are very globalized, they have reached the homes of people all around the world while dominating the markets. Globalization can have critical effects on economies, cultures, regions living standards and or technology, especially as technology continues to make breakthroughs and or inventions in the upcoming years, but it can change nations and the whole world.

Self-Assessment- Honestly, this paper took a lot of work. It was interesting to learn how globalization impacts our daily lives. I met all the requirements in this paper, as there is 10 pictures with a paragraph for each picture, relating them to the topic of this paper. So my self-grading would be an A+, meaning 15 points…like seriously.