Key Points in Global Consumer Culture - Essay Example

? Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Table of Contents Introduction 3 Key points in global consumer culture 3 Extent of existence of a global consumer culture 5 Analysis and evaluation of the various options open to marketers when launching their products in a different country/culture 8 Conclusion 11 Reference 12 Bibliography 14 Introduction In today’s multicultural marketing context, the compatibility of the ethical values between different cultures has gained critical importance over the last few years. More and more number of countries has been entering the world markets as they have been attaining economic development. Emerging economies like India, China, ASEAN countries and other African countries are slowly but surely joining the mainstream world economy. Culture plays a multidimensional phenomenon which is much more than nationality of a country. Today, marketers, functioning in a multicultural scene are commonly confronted with two questions; “What is culture in the marketing context?” and “What is the role of culture as a factor influencing individual ethical decision making?” (Srnka, 2004, p.1). The project makes an analysis of the cultural differences between nations and how they influence the marketing strategies of companies launching products in those countries. It discusses about how a particular marketing strategy impacts on its consumers. It explains to what extent the global consumers culture prevails in society. Finally, it makes an analysis of the various options present before the marketers of companies when they launch a new product in a different country having a different culture. Key points in global consumer culture Consumer culture refers to the system where a common “set of behaviours” is found across all the places. Culture refers to a uniform set of values that exists among a selected group of individuals (University of Northern Iowa, 2008). The concept of global consumer culture gets impetus from the expansion of the businesses across all the global corners. According to Mazzarella (2004) global consumer culture is “at one and the same time, ideology and social process, as something continuously made and remade through constantly shifting relations, practices, and technologies of market mediation”. To be more specific the dissemination of the global consumer culture is shaped by the flow of varying cultural resources which are referred by Appadurai (1990) as mediascapes, ideoscapes, technoscapes and financescapes. Globalization is mainly envisioned as few selected global brands like Mc Donald’s, Coca-Cola and Nike. To some extent this is a result of the marketing executives in America who view global village as one where people travel in the same car; have same food; and have a similar television program viewership. These views are further reinforced by a group of international editors and journalists who associate globalisation with Mc Donald’s and Coca Cola pictures which indirectly refers to the gradual spread of the small American brands throughout the world. These two American brands rank forty-second and thirty-first respectively and represent the face of globalisation. As per Belk, a uniform global culture leads to homogeneity of global consumption. The consumers are increasingly listening to a similar type of music, adopting the same fashion technique, dining in the same restaurant etc. As per Alden, Steenkamp and Batra look upon global consumer culture as common sets of consumption linked symbols that facilitate to categorise members. Financescapes refer to the international flow of currency, capital and different financial instruments which facilitate running of the market. The examples include remittance business, flourishing derivative markets etc. Technoscapes refer to the flow of mechanical and informational techniques across the globe. A common example here can be the global revolution of cell phone. Smith (1991) states that a global media helps in the spread of global consumer culture thereby developing its global identity. Mediascapes refers to the co-existence of media empires like NewsCorp with the fragmented and decentralised small media houses. Therefore, the global consumer culture entails internationalisation of desires; needs towards conformation; of homogenized good life images (Sheth, 2009). The spread of transnational culture has primarily resulted from the globalisation of the production popularised through cultural forms and standard development models. Consumption is one such common theme of global culture. Advertising presents a visual and synthetic form of this ideology. The consumer democracy is portrayed to the poor people across the globe as a replacement of political democracy. As most of the people are unable to express their desire for social change they resort to changing brands. Transnational advertising plays an important role in the dissemination of the transnational culture and gradual drifting from the traditional culture. This form of transnational culture strives towards the elimination of the variations in the local culture. The concept of an international marketing strategy is highly effective. The process of worldwide marketing is relatively more efficient and economical even though this may clash with the prevailing local conditions. In this respect the role played by the information systems and communications cannot be overlooked. These systems facilitate the global dissemination of a message through news, television programs, comics, magazine and films (Janus, 2010). Extent of existence of a global consumer culture In the words of Mc Luhan electronic media is a mere extension of human beings that enhance the activities of the people but do not make them perfect clones. According to him electronic media fosters diversity and uniqueness. The assumption of the global marketing that global consumers live in a global village is a fallacy. With the advent of new technology the world seems to have transformed into a global city where theoretically one can see and hear anything at any point of time and place (Jones, 2000, p.62; Lee & Collin, 2006, p.15). This gives rise to the question whether the same holds true in the real world and further if this results in similarity of people. In academics there is a belief that the presence of a global media, technology and increased global trade tend to bring together the global masses. Assael states that various statements have also been made relating to convergence of value & lifestyle convergence in the books on consumer behaviour and international marketing however these statements cannot be corroborated by any empirical evidence. The introduction of global cable networks has made television an important global medium. The international television channels like CNN and MTV are promoting a similar set of values and norms across the globe. This has generated a whole new young age group of consumers who have similar tastes and aspirations irrespective of their geographical location. In reality the viewership of the international TV programs is not very regular. The cross-border English language channel of CNN had to design versions in national language. Similarly MTV has also made variations in the contents of its local channels across the European countries. This shows that the extent of exchange across the people of the various nations is limited. Besides there exist no empirical evidence to suggest that international or global media works towards convergence of consumer behaviour and consumption across the globe. Globalisation is often said to spread Western imperialism and capitalism (K de Mooij, 2009, p.7). This has imparted a negative meaning to the word ‘globalisation’. Its critics protest the emergence of the global monoculture comprising of Barbie dolls, American television, Nikes, Levi’s and Mc Donald’s. Despite the global reach of TV and internet accessibility the lives of the people in the various corners of the globe differ in terms of entertainment habits, consumption, music and sports. It is believed that globalisation has revived the national cultural identities across the globe. The different countries participate in different sports. Like the people of Britain are big cricket buffs. Rugby is one of the popular sports of New Zealand. Netherlands, France and Spain enjoy cycling as sports activity. Malaysia is popular for badminton. Even though soccer can be regarded as a global sport however its popularity in United States is much less as compared to the European or Latin American nations. Sports personalities like Michael Jordan have become sport stars across the globe but this does not signify that the sports in which they participate is global. The idea of music stars famous across the globe is also rare as music is increasingly localised. There are no empirical evidences to suggest similarity in tastes or appearance of various consumer segments. Empirical evidences promoting convergence is actually based on a set of macro-developmental data like numbers of television sets, telephones, etc. According to Alex Inkeles, US based sociologist this type of macro-level data conceals the diversity that exists at the micro-level. The macro-level convergence does not always indicate convergence in the tastes of the consumers. The countries with a similarity in the economic condition of the people do not necessarily have a similarity in their media usage and consumption behaviour. With the rise in the number of educated and affluent individuals the tastes tend to diverge. There is also no evidence to support the view that an increase in global mobility leads to homogeneity in the lives of the people. Therefore, this implies that convergence exists only at the macro-level. Analysis and evaluation of the various options open to marketers when launching their products in a different country/culture The global launch of a product is much more than a big bang US or European launch. There is an increasing awareness among the marketing professionals about the need to take account of the culture while operating in diverse and global markets. The issues like branding in different cultures and developing marketing strategies for the same are some of the fundamental questions in front of the markets today. An example would make the above statement very clear (Woolliams, 2006, p.1). When General Motors launched Chevy Nova, the company had not checked that ‘no va’ in Spanish meant ‘no go’. The red colour represents danger in most countries, however, in China the colour is a symbol of success. Similarly, the yellow colour when used in marketing promotions is considered to be offensive in many Arabs. On the contrary, it symbolises freshness in the western countries (Woolliams, 2006, p.1). Collective cultures are those where the individuals remain integrated in strong and cohesive groups (ITIM International-a, 2009). Driven by the specifics of a collective culture as that in China, Japan and Russia, Unilever has decided on a marketing strategy to use its corporate name in all its products and brands. Initially it faced a scandal for not using the corporate name of the company. The reason for doing this was that Netherlands collective culture raised collective resistance because of the fact that nitrite was used in their “Oglo frozen foods in 1980” (Mooij, 2009, p.272). There were apprehensions that the collective nature of society would instigate people to move away or reduce consumption of other Unilever products (Mooij, 2009, p.272). The same strategy was also adopted by Proctor and Gamble in China by using the company’s signature in its products. Nippon Lever also has been using its corporate mane on its Japanese products (Mooij, 2009, p.272). In both the individualistic and collective societies, companies should use strategies which align the brand vision with the corporate vision and mission of the company. In such societies, if the brand and the corporate missions matches and enhances each other, it results in gaining trust of the consumers towards the company and consequently towards the brand. If brands are launched with contradictory values, protests might arise in many of the western nations because they expect consistency in brands and their products (Mooij, 2009, p.272). Business strategies also depend on the culture’s attitude towards time. In busy cultures, where time always seems to be short for getting things done, little importance is given in building long term relationships. In cultures where time is not a constraint, greater values are assigned to personal relationships. While in America, it is expected that a meeting would begin and end at the just the stipulated time, in Latin America, people would generally arrive later than the time scheduled (Herbig, 1998, p.21). The time perspective varies across cultures. That is why companies establishing a business in places like China and Moscow would be different from that in America. McDonald’s had to negotiate for more than ten years regarding opening its first restaurant in Moscow. It took two years for IBM for securing an agreement for building computer plants in Mexico (Herbig, 1998, p.21). Thailand represents a culture where animals are viewed as a low form of life with low self respect. An eye glass company advertising featured a number of cute animals wearing glasses. The advertisement failed miserable because people would not wear anything that was worn by some animal. This represents a case of lack of market research about the cultures and social traditions of Thailand (Kumar, 2005, p.1). The Arabian countries demonstrate strong cultural values, traditions and social customs. The regions long term orientation index is low which reflects the fact that it is short term oriented. Some of the characteristics associated with such countries are that they are highly respectful of their traditions, social obligations and protecting one’s image (ITIM International-b, 2009). A certain soft drink was launched in the Arab countries which had a label with six pointed stars. This was interpreted as pro-Israeli and the product was refused to be bought in the market. Another label appeared in ten different languages, out of which one was in Hebrew. Again, this was rejected by the Arabs (Kumar, 2005, p.3). Culture also constitutes the presence of racial differences. Product marketers would have to consider the physical features of the individuals residing in a place. This is critical for cosmetic product companies, hair salons etc. This is because the types of cosmetic products or hair care that would be required in USA would be different from that required in the Asia countries. Besides, hair styles and cosmetic products are also influenced by cultures prevailing in the place (Kumar, 2005, p.4). Personality traits vary significantly across individualistic cultures. One particular brand may not be equally attractive to other cultures. In such societies which demonstrates high uncertainly avoidance, trustworthiness would be considered to be an important and attractive tool in its brand. Likewise, prestige would be given greater priority in cultures which demonstrates high power distance index. In collective societies, people would choose to buy from companies they have trust in. Also, in these societies, the most purpose of marketing is to build up strong relationships between the company and its consumers (Mooij, 2009, p.273). Conclusion Thus, it is seen that marketing is not a completely separate function of the management but a whole business as viewed from the perspective of the consumer. Thus marketing strategies are greatly influenced by the culture of the place it operates. Significant implications can be expected from the different influence of different cultures on various stages of the marketing of products. It is evident from the project how a particular branding strategy may not be accepted in a culture and rejected. Marketers need to identify whether the consumers are looking for a functional product which has a utilitarian value or are they looking for status. Societies are also constituted of individuals with different status. In such societies products would have to be launched considering the social status of people they are targeting. In the achievement oriented cultures, greater emphasis is given on performance. 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