Frito-Lay honed a strategy for moving into new countries where a local snack industry is already established. Rather than face the costs of building a new business in an unfamiliar market, the company identifies the leading local snack manufacturer and offers to buy it out. If the local manufacturer refuses to sell, Frito-Lay moves into the market on its own, using its size and marketing experience to cut into the local manufacturer's sales. Often, at that point, the local company gives in and sells, sometimes for a lower price than the original offer.

　　If the preferred local snack is already a potato chip, Frito-Lay rebrands it. After buying Walkers, the dominant chip in Britain, the Texas company refashioned the Walkers logo into the red "banner sun" design, as a first step toward changing the brand to Frito-Lay outright. Similar plans are under way for Sabritas in Mexico and Simba in South Africa. "We just say, 'You know that stuff you love? Well, now it's going to be called Lay's,'" said Riskey.

　　If the locals are used to eating something other than potato chips, Frito-Lay devises "differentiated products" that bridge the way to the chip. For the Indian market, the company created Kurkure Twisteez, a potato snack that comes in local flavors like Masala Munch.

　　Sometimes Frito-Lay's products are so unfamiliar that the advertising campaigns focus on educating consumers in the hope of changing their "consumption habits." In China, Frito-Lay ads show potatoes actually being sliced, so people know where the chips come from. In Turkey, the company distributed pamphlets suggesting new recipes and eating habits: "Try a tuna sandwich for lunch, and join it with a bag of chips."

　　Looking for 'New Occasions'

　　Like other multinational companies, Frito-Lay has learned that the best managers are often locals who know the market and culture well. Although they must follow certain global standards — such as the company's long-held marketing theme of "irresistibility" — regional managers are encouraged to look for for new "occasions" to increase sales in their specific areas.

　　In Holland, where the Dutch tend to eat potato chips only at night, as an after-dinner snack, manager Eugene Willemsen focused his efforts on changing their habits by distributing free samples on the streets during the day. He also targeted high schools, knowing that children were driving Frito-Lay's growth in Holland. "For us, the biggest opportunity for growth is to penetrate new occasions with salty snacks," Willemsen said.

　　In South Africa, national sales manager Arnold Selokane boosted sales in native townships by hiring local drivers to make deliveries, making the product seem less foreign. In China, sales director Jackson Chiu raised sales by 57 percent in one year, in part by focusing on girls and young women. "We market to girls and the boys follow," he said.

　　The company encourages such initiative by flying promising managers to the Frito-Lay headquarters in Plano, Texas, or the PepsiCo campus in Purchase, N.Y., for intensive courses on marketing and business development. Selokane and Chiu were among 200 PepsiCo employees honored at the company's annual "Ring of Honor" ceremony in 2001. With honorees from 50 countries, speaking 30 different languages, the four-day program resembled the United Nations' General Assembly, complete with headsets and banks of translators.

　　Not Just Potato Chips

　　The executives behind Frito-Lay's global expansion acknowledge that they try to swing national eating habits to a food that was created in America, but they deny that amounts to economic imperialism. Rather, they see Frito-Lay as spreading the benefits of free enterprise across the world. "We're making products in those countries, we're adapting it to the tastes of those countries, building businesses and employing people and changing lives," said Steve Reinemund, PepsiCo's chief executive.

　　Frank Wong, who runs Frito-Lay's operations in China, believes that by training Chinese managers the company is helping build up an educated middle class that will play a major role in the country's economic transformation. "We bring a lot to China, a lot more than just the brand called Lay's," he said.

　　21. It is the belief of Frito-Lay’s head of global marketing that _____.

　　A) potato chips can hardly be used as a weapon to dominate the world market

　　B) their company must find new ways to promote domestic sales

　　C) the light golden color enhances the charm of their company’s potato chips

　　{D) people all over the world enjoy eating their company’s potato chips}

　　22. What do we learn about Frito-Lay from Paragraph 2?

　　A) Its products used to be popular among overseas consumers.

　　B) Its expansion has caused fierce competition in the snack marker.

　　C) It gives half of its annual profits to its parent company.

　　{D) It needs to turn to the world market for development.}

　　23. One of the assumptions on which Frito-Lay bases its development strategy is that _____.

　　{A) consumers worldwide today are attracted by global brands}

　　B) local brands cannot compete successfully with American brands

　　C) products suiting Chinese consumers’ needs bring more profits

　　D) products identified as American will have promising market value

　　24. Why did Riskey have the Frito-Lay logo redesigned?

　　A) To suit changing tastes of young consumers.

　　{B) To promote the company’s strategy of globalization. }

　　C) To change the company’s long-held marketing image.

　　D) To compete with other American chip producers.

　　25. Frito-Lay’s executives claim that the promoting of American food in the international market _____.

　　A) won’t affect the eating habits of the local people

　　B) will lead to economic imperialism

　　{C) will be in the interest of the local people}

　　D) won’t spoil the taste of their chips