Unit 4- BUSINESS: The Art of Marketing in a Global Culture

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i now want to look at an increasingly

important aspect of international

marketing globalization

globalization is the idea that as

international travel and communication

expand

the world's becoming more homogeneous

different cultures are converging as

people everywhere become increasingly

similar in the way they live

there are the fads and fashions people

follow the products they buy

how they relax the heroes they look up

to and so on

so as we travel around the world we've

become accustomed to seeing the familiar

cyber cafes cds of bands we love

starbucks coffee houses

advertisements for well-known brands

in fact i but you can think of plenty of

other examples think google cell phones

mtv the familiar faces of top fashion

models and sporting icons right

let's consider then first some of the

causes of globalization

then let's think about its implications

for businesses looking to market their

products globally

first then the cost of globalization

clearly

flight has been a key factor here

perhaps the key factor

and as its popularity has increased so

is its affordability today most people

travel by air

for those traveling to holiday

destinations it's the preferred way to

go

it allows us to go further

quicker

and for business people it enables them

to do business face-to-face on the other

side of the world and reduces time away

from the office

the resulting interaction between

cultures has surely promoted shared

values and attitudes

this is an important feature of

globalization

then there's the news and entertainment

industry

we can't really talk about global

culture without considering the huge

influence of the internet tv radio

newspapers magazines and film

today these are multi-million dollar

industries and most films documentaries

quiz shows and soap operas are made in

the hope that they'll be bought and

shown around the world

many eventually become powerful and

lucrative international brands

popular tv series are watched on every

continent and have near universal appeal

why

well because they're based on common

human experiences

they evoke feelings and emotions we all

share

and this brings me to a key element of

the news and entertainment industry and

its role in helping create a global

society

advertising

ads are a common feature of television

magazines and of course internet sites

don't you just hate those pop-up windows

advertising works through the media

driving fads and fashions

so this makes the media a potent

marketing tool

see

because it spreads ideas incredibly

widely

quickly and effectively

the third and final cause of

globalization i want to highlight is

politics

i want you to think specifically about

the dissolution of social and economic

barriers to political activity and

international agreements

take the european union for example

here a group of countries with quite

different and distinctive cultures and

traditions have come together in the

spirit of cooperation

many europeans now have begun to feel

that they're members of a larger

pan-european culture

increasingly heads of government and not

just in the eu appear to be consulting

and acting in unison on issues affecting

the entire world

issues like the environment crime world

poverty etc

arguably these things are lessening

ideological differences between nations

and because they're reported on news

channels like cnn and seen by millions

they help create a sense of pulling in

the same direction

they create a feeling that there's a

common culture of humanity if you like

now these phenomena have created easier

access to global markets no doubt

but marketing success as measured by

sales figures is not guaranteed

and this brings me to the second part of

my lecture the implications of

globalization for marketing

you know although different markets may

share common human wants and needs

marketing successfully to those wants

and needs is never universal

marketing professionals must be mindful

of the local culture's values and buying

behaviors when deciding strategy

this distinction between global and

local culture is sometimes referred to

in terms of the universal and the

particular respectively

a product becomes a universal icon only

because it has particular appeal to many

individual cultures across the globe

it's the job of a company's regional

manager to ensure that the product has

local appeal

another challenge in marketing messages

across cultures is understanding

differing communication styles

anthropologists make a distinction

between high context and low context

cultures

in high context cultures asian and

hispanic cultures for instance

communication depends heavily on context

this means the non-verbal aspects of

communication

in low context cultures like the u.s for

example communication is more explicit

and verbal

so an example

in japan

an ad promoting a luxury car might

contain very little dialogue but a lot

of impressive scenery sophisticated

gadgetry and stirring music

these elements rely on the power of

association

in contrast in america the ads emphasis

might be on a spoken message explaining

the technology behind the car

something more explicit

now

as a lesson in what not to do

let's take a look at two examples of

companies goofing up in their efforts to

market their products internationally

a company tried introducing its instant

coffee to france a country where the

casual image of the product didn't fit

into the french practice of preparing

real coffee which is a fixed part of the

french morning routine

then there's campbell's soups which lost

thirty thousand dollars in advertising

in europe before realizing the british

consumers weren't familiar with the

concept of condensed soup

this particular case highlights how

easily marketing departments can fall

into the trap of assuming that just

because two countries share a language

and cultural heritage they'll be enticed

by the same message

this can be a costly miscalculation

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