Abstract:

The presentation summarises problems of intercultural marketing research in terms of the emic - etic distinction well known in cross-cultural research. Examples show the importance to start cross-cultural marketing research from the native consumer's world view: cultural symbols and their meanings in context determine how consumers cognitively organise and act in markets and how they perceive and talk about products and brands. Data of a multi-stage paradigm exemplify how to avoid problems of intercultural research by means of empirical 'bottom up' methods.