Just checked, and no difference whether apply local settings or not were set. Interesting, though, and unexpected, was the fact that setting location which resets origin to world zero still imports into Poser as local, and made no difference (at least in PP2014). I remember older versions of Poser not respecting this, and I always had to hand edit with the Joint Editor.
Tests done with Blender 2.79 and PoserPro2014. Maybe there is an anomaly with the versions you are using, Janet, from whichever side it may be on.
OBJ Export settings from Blender enabled:
* - Z Forward
* Y Up
* Selection Only
* Apply Modifiers (Sub-D, etc)
* Write Normals
* Include UVs
* Write Materials
* Objects as OBJ Objects
* Keep Vertex Order
OBJ Import settings from Poser enabled:
* NOTHING...
One to one translation from Blender to Poser achieved. Cloth dress on figure imported where it should on the figure, and not at ground plane, and figure imported where placed in Blender, on ground plane.