The debate on global vs. local marketing (and research) is one of these debates which have been going forever. The basic question is can you apply the same advertising/packaging/ positioning (fill in the blank) on a global basis or are there local cultural norms that require a more nuanced approach? To which the answer has been, for as long as I can remember, local culture will always trump standard globalisation. The same goes for research too - you cannot (however much you insist you can) simply apply one standard methodology worldwide to a research survey without taking local culture into account. Another old chestnut is the debate on how to rate the quality of research agencies. A better route down which to go would be to check on the agencys public credentials: does the agency subscribe to the ICC/ESOMAR Code?
More discussion and debate about intercultural issues is needed. Instead of talking about globalisation, generally from the suppliers viewpoint, it is more meaningful to focus on the challenge of managing diversity, and on the impact and consequences of culture on consumer behaviour. Marketing and opinion research can provide an important contribution to this, by making the cultural map more transparent and pointing the way, in particular through modern, qualitative research.
The paper describes the future of ethnic marketing and the implications for marketing and strategies that can be adopted in ethnically diverse markets. It explores the impact that the conciliation between local and global will generate changes to the existing rules in marketing strategies. The Genius Loci approach is explored as it identifies new mind-styles, values and behaviours, becoming a new marketing program allowing companies to understand and invest in the multicultural market. This paper identifies how and why the central position of relationships produce a new culture ethnic mix.
Ford of Canada has approached the problem of a heterogeneous Canadian market with a great deal of sensitivity. Historically, Ford has not been as successful matching its penetration of the Quebec market to levels obtained in the rest of Canada. This has meant that Ford has had to wrestle with the dual market nature of the Canadian automobile industry in very practical terms. The following paper discusses how Ford has approached a marketing strategy within Canada and Quebec. While this approach has involved both organisational development and informed market practices, it is the latter which will be the primary focus of this paper.
This paper examines the extent to which the old cliche think global, act local is relevant when marketing to young children. We argue that this hypothesis is most definitely valid for youth markets on a global basis. A global strategy is valid because children and teenagers do share similar aspirations, interests and values to a large extent. But some cultural differences and local preferences remain, and must be taken into account when marketing to young people.
Multi-cultural Marketing has existed in Asia since colonization. While a number of multi- national companies have been very successful in this region, their success was not, necessarily, due to their understanding of the markets in which they operated. Success was mainly achieved by, as a senior executive of Coca-Cola (Taiwan) expressed on one occasion, 'filling holes'. Colonization resulted in that those companies, who came first, held, and still hold to this day, the largest marketshares, in spite of continuous attacks from other, sophisticated, multi-national marketers.In order to enter new markets, marketers need to generate a whole new set of Consumer Benefits and Needs, totally ignoring those Need/States established by the pioneers. Since most of the early brands are based on Generic/Intrinsic Positionings and have thus become the CATEGORY, success of new entries is only possible by going beyond and finding Synthetic/Transcendent Positionings. While the paper will concentrate on Asia/Pacific, I believe that its recommendations are universal and can be applied anywhere in the world when entering new market
The high purchasing power of many of the countries in the Arab World has encouraged the increasing presence of a wide variety of multi-national corporations (MNCs) in this region. In the quest for a unified corporate identity and aided by the fact that Arab countries are already unified by one language and one basic culture, MNCs are usually encouraged to utilize one advertising message to address all the peoples of this region. This paper examines why this approach may or may not be appropriate in a market which may not be as homogeneous as some might believe. The paper presents three main approaches to global advertising. The least expensive approach-and the one most often fraught with problems is straight standardization. With straight standardization, a message developed in the Western World is run in other regions with dubbing into the local language. The second approach is regional advertising, which involves the development of one message to be used in one apparently "homogeneous" market consisting of several neighboring countries. The third approach is to use a localized message which is developed and executed in each nation. While this is the most costly option, it provides the least opportunity for costly cross-cultural mistakes. Advances in broadcast technology have compounded the problems of global advertising in the Middle East. Messages aired on television in one country can be seen in other countries. This requires that advertising messages be standardized in countries which broadcast to other Arabic-speaking countries. Such cases present a dilemma for MNCs, which had hoped that the Middle East was one homogeneous region that could be addressed by one main message. This paper presents several case studies which indicate that the Arab market may not be as homogeneous as believed, and which show how the pre-testing of advertising messages can prevent cross cultural problems inherent in global advertising. This paper also presents an example of how "localized" advertising fared well in one Middle Eastern country and tested poorly in a sister country due to the history of each product and its position in each market.
A proposal for the conceptually desirable Global Marketing Strategy is presented. This effective global strategy which has a standardised pattern across nations should be adapted to national cultures in order to be most efficient. First, the basic strategic framework and the method of identifying market size over dozens of countries is presented. The correlation of GNP per capita and product market size per capita, expressed as logarithms, proves most useful. This finds that the elasticity of any product over GNP explains the character of each product. Having identified the markets, the conceptual framework for introducing global marketing strategy is presented. This covers the sales response theory and in particular, the international application of one of the PIMS principles (market share/profitability correlation). A higher market share in a limited number of major markets is recommended. The second part discusses the cultural environment and its influence on aspects of marketing. The cultural factors are split into two groups. Group I is the cultural factors which relate to the attributes of the people as individuals and has a stronger influence on the product and promotion strategies. Group II consists of the cultural factors which discuss the attributes of the people as a group, such as low/high context, individual/group oriented society. Group II relates more closely to the place (distribution channel) strategy and management of the company. As the conclusion, the actual application of conceptual global marketing strategy and the identification of the cultural factors, particularly Group I, are encouraged.
With the growing internationalisation of markets it is not surprising that both researchers and marketers are more often intrigued by European communalities than differences. But generalisations across markets and countries, although quite plausible conceptually and intellectually, prove sometimes much less useful at an operational level. In fact, the growing fragmentation of individual demand calls for a profound understanding of consumer cultures and the dynamics of change. Markets are moving from mass products to products designed to meet highly differentiated consumer needs in various cultural settings. This calls for an equally sensitive and flexible approach to cross-cultural research.
The recent events in Eastern Europe draw a renewed attention to the impact of the environmental and cultural factors in marketing and management. Our marketing and organisational thinking are still dominated by the "country approach" while important restructuring towards a more fully integrated economic space is underway. The evolution towards an economic space also creates the necessity of an evolution towards a psychological space and simultaneously stimulates the creation of that space. The challenge to management is important and marketing research can be a powerful contributor provided their research and researchers understand the full implications of what is happening and what is at stake.
The method of study and assessment of television programs and programming set forth here neither seeks nor cares to replace existing approaches insofar as it meets neither the same needs nor the same demands. It seeks rather to complete and enrich them so as to allow the constitution of a complete marketing strategy that extends from product conception to distribution. It is based on the fact that television today should be built more on a supply-side marketing than on that of demand, and is grounded in a dual approach, ever comparative, which allies in a complementary manner: - socio-semiotic analysis, - taking into account intercultural phenomena. It may be used as a testing tool for existing programs and programming, although it is mainly destined to be employed in up-side applications, prior to even program conception and programming layouts. This method may be fruitfully used by all parties concerned with audio-visual production and broadcasting: - broadcasters (refining programming schedules, assistance in defining purchasing and co-production policies) - producers (assistance in the drafting of bibles, analysis of broadcaster policy and programming) - sponsors (analysis of image correspondances and associations) - advertisers (qualitative media planning).
Economic integration is a worldwide phenomenon produced by the development of transport and communication technology. Economic interdependency of countries and continents has never been greater than today. Economic integration in Europe has been underway for a long time, and is accelerating as a result of the political will to undo artificial barriers. Whatever our own personal perception of the present may be, it is truly astounding what has been accomplished in the last twenty-five years. Present economic integration is accelerating due to the 1992 programme which will remove the last barriers towards a fully integrated common market. What does "common market" mean? To many people it seems to mean uniformity within the European space. Obviously within Europe, absence of barriers does not imply similarity. A common or European market simply means that the administrative barriers will have been reduced to the point where the free flow of capital, goods and people will not be interfered with significantly. Countries and governments will continue to exist as highlighted by the discussions around the European Monetary System and the future European political organization. Local legislative differences will continue to exist as well as differences in languages, habits, value systems, tastes as well as discrepancies in the standard of living. Specialization of countries and regions will probably grow - but one should be realistic. Even today in the United States, the federal structure has not done away with a number of administrative distortions between the states. Economic integration, however, is proceeding. Multilingual packaging is frequently used and common brand names and products create a feeling of similarity throughout important parts of Europe. What is the issue? After all, many companies have been operating across Europe or have had a presence in several European countries for some time now. In many cases the European market was seen as the juxtaposition of a number of markets (in reality countries) due to the political organization of the continent. Europe was seen not as one marketing space but as a number of spaces in which the company had a presence.