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Selling the Sewing Machine Around the World: Singer’s International Marketing Strategies, 1850–1920

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  • Godley, Andrew

Abstract

The sewing machine was one of the first standardized and mass-marketed complex consumer durables to have been diffused widely around the world before 1920. This global diffusion was almost the sole responsibility of one firm, Singer. Despite its American origins, Singer’s success lay principally overseas. New data provide insight into the company’s international marketing strategies. Although the firm had a reputation for marketing sophistication, Singer did not depend on price discrimination, extensive advertising, or loss-leading expansion of retail networks in its overseas markets. Rather, its success was due to the characteristics of consumer demand for sewing machines, features that combined with its strategic investments in market support services and in its selling organization to create Singer’s enormous competitive advantages in foreign markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Godley, Andrew, 2006. "Selling the Sewing Machine Around the World: Singer’s International Marketing Strategies, 1850–1920," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 266-314, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:entsoc:v:7:y:2006:i:02:p:266-314_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Mohammad Khasawneh & Nurli Yaacob & Rohana Abdul Rahman, 2016. "Current Laws Governing Franchise Agreement in Jordan," Asian Social Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(4), pages 1-45, April.
    2. Leslie Hannah & Robert Bennett, 2022. "Large‐scale Victorian manufacturers: Reconstructing the lost 1881 UK employer census," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 830-856, August.
    3. Chiswick, Barry R. & Robinson, RaeAnn Halenda, 2021. "Women at work in the United States since 1860: An analysis of unreported family workers," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Jean-François Hennart & Alain Verbeke, 2022. "Actionable and enduring implications of Oliver Williamson’s transaction cost theory," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(8), pages 1557-1575, October.
    5. Andrew Godley & Haiming Hang, 2008. "Revisiting the psychic distance paradox: international retailing in China in the long run (1840-2005," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2008-66, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    6. Teresa da Silva Lopes & Mark Casson & Geoffrey Jones, 2019. "Organizational innovation in the multinational enterprise: Internalization theory and business history," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(8), pages 1338-1358, October.
    7. repec:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s1:p:859-883 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Roy Church, 2008. "Salesmen and the transformation of selling in Britain and the US in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(3), pages 695-725, August.

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