Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Global Consumer Culture
Global Consumer Culture
and religious differences. It is therefore a dangerous fiction for the marketing manager to engage with while developing Marketing Mix strategies.
Prepared for Dr. Abu Yousuf Md. Abdullah Course Instructor International Management
QUALITY SIGNAL
Consumers watch the fierce battles that transnational companies wage over quality and are impressed by the victors. That perception often serves as a rationale for global brands to charge premiums. These are the few opinions on brands as stated by a study: "The more people who buy [a] brandthe better quality it is." "I like [global] brands because they usually offer more quality and better guarantees than other products." Global brands are expensive, but the price is reasonable when you think of the quality." Global brands are very dynamic, always upgrading themselves." Global brands are more exciting because they come up with new products all the time, whereas you know what you'll get with local ones." This is a significant shift. Until recently, people's perceptions about quality for value and technological prowess were tied to the nations from which products originated. "Made in the USA" was once important; so were Japanese quality and Italian design in some industries. Increasingly, however, a company's global stature indicates whether it excels on quality.
GLOBAL MYTH
Consumers look to global brands as symbols of cultural ideals. They use brands to create an imagined global identity that they share with like-minded people. Transnational companies therefore compete not only to offer the highest value products but also to deliver cultural myths with global appeal. "Local brands show what we are; global brands show what we want to be." In the post-World War II era, companies like Disney, McDonald's, Levi Strauss, and Jack Daniel's spun American myths for the rest of the world. But today's global myths have less to do with the American way of life. Further, no longer are myths created only by lifestyle and luxury brands; myths are now spun by virtually all global brands, in industries as diverse as information technology and oil.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
People recognize that global companies wield extraordinary influence, both positive and negative, on society's well-being. They expect firms to address social problems linked to what they sell and how they conduct business. In fact, consumers vote with their checkbooks if they feel that transnational companies aren't acting as stewards of public health, worker rights, and the environment. As infamous cases have filled the airwaves Nestl's infant-formula sales in Africa since the 1980s, Union Carbide's Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, the outcry over Shell's plan to sink its Brent Spar oil rig and the protests at its Nigerian facilities in 1995people have become convinced that global brands have a special duty to tackle social issues. The playing field isn't level; consumers don't demand that local companies tackle global warming, but they expect multinational giants like BP and Shell to do so. Similarly, people may turn a blind eye when local companies take advantage of employees, but they won't stand for transnational players like Nike and Polo adopting similar practices. Such expectations are as pronounced in developing countries like China and India as they are in developed countries in Europe.
Global Brands compete primarily in these three issues to gain the edge over others. This view has been amplified by people all around the world who are increasingly becoming aware of these multinationals and expect a consistent amount of service/products from them. However, even though it might seem that these views are the result of a combined global culture, marketers must keep in mind that none of the multinationals go along with the aim of selling to the world with a single message. A similar view on a matter from different people does not necessarily mean that it was achieved through a single process but rather a combination of many, customized as per every specific persons attitude. This means to achieve a combined similar opinion on a matter, one must use different methods on the consumers as per their attitudes and beliefs, i.e. their culture.
COCA-COLA
COCA-COLA IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Eager to avoid the Arab League boycott and sell to the much larger Arab market, Coca-Cola was content not to sell in Israel. In 1961 the issue came up again when an Egyptian civil servant mistook Amharic writing on a Coca-Cola bottle for Hebrew, and accused Coca-Cola of doing business with Israel. The manager of Egypt's Coca-Cola bottling operations quickly informed the press that Coca-Cola would never do business with Israel; forced to elaborate upon this, Coca-Cola officials explained that Israel was too small a market for a Coca-Cola operation. The issue arose again on April 1, 1966 when Moshe Bronstein, a Tel Aviv businessman, accused Coca-Cola of boycotting Israel to appease its Arab market. The Anti-Defamation League took up this cause in the United States, and questions were raised about Coca-Cola's previous explanation for not operating in Israel: If Coca-Cola could have an operation in Cyprus, whose market was onetenth the size of Israel's, why then was Israel too small for a Coca-Cola operation? Pressure on CocaCola grew, and faced with potential American boycotts, Coca-Cola promised to open a bottling plant in Tel Aviv. In response, the Arab League boycotted Coca-Cola from August 1968 to May 1991, as part of the economic boycott of Israel.
COORS BEER
Coors Beer had a similar translation problem as to PepsiCo when they promoted their product in Spain. Their slogan Turn it loose roughly translated to Suffer from Diarrhea.
PEPSICO
PROMOTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
PepsiCo International chose a new approach to communicate with their consumers by entering the world of movie entertainment; they produced a full length musical feature film entitled Bahr Al Nujoom (Sea of Stars) which hit theatres in spring 2008. The movie combines the astounding voices of talented celebrities specifically chosen to represent the Pepsi brand in this original movie.
MARKETING IN TAIWAN
In order to keep a singular identity throughout the world, many companies stick with the same marketing campaign and brand message in every country. However, this occasionally creates difficulties. For example, in Taiwan, Pepsis advertising slogan Come alive with the Pepsi generation was translated as Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.
CONCLUSION
Globalization has merged cultures like never before and thus companies has to at first look to create an unique message to convey to all its customers but at the same time keep in mind that not everywhere is the culture the same. Religion, language, ethics, etc. differ from region to region, from country to country and even within countries. An unintentional mistake in not realizing the differences may lead to the company not succeeding in that particular area but also facing a degradation of image.
REFERENCES
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International differences in work related values. Beverly Hill, CA, Sage. Holt, Douglas B. (2004), How Brands Become Icons. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.