The Relationship between the Local and the Global - Essay Example

The relationship between the local and the global for international marketing Globalization represents an expansion of free-market capitalism along with the values of liberalism and democracy as they inform modernism and scientific progress, and this may be viewed as a bias against local, indigenous cultures, their traditional values, and knowledge systems. International marketing operates through channels and budgets primarily, carrying also an agenda or ideology. The channels relate to the technology of communication or “the medium” and the advertising or content, of whatever value or moral tone, is “the message”. Following Marshall McLuhan’s interpretation of the structural power of technology to transform societies, one aspect of the introduction of international values into indigenous cultural systems is a change in value systems locally. This relates to what was described before as budget and agenda. Mass-market channels such as TV with its commercial-driven business model may not be a medium through which indigenous voices are traditionally heard or their values represented in the programming. There must be recognition of “planes of locality” and also the relative nature of minority status for cultures. For example, each nation-state may have a vibrant local media with a wide distribution of networks and local programming in native languages. Multinational corporations may translate their products and advertising campaigns easily to introduce new products into the local markets, and make available the resources in the company to hire local talent for this goal. Indigenous minorities within the developing States may have a different plane of locality than the national media, and become a type of sub-minority when considered internationally. These traditional indigenous societies and their cultural views may become lost, ignored, and extinct, as in tribal cultures across the world in the 20th Century when confronted with the overpowering commercial messages of mass-media and social programming through advertising. In this manner it is important to understand how a nation like Brazil, China, Korea, or Indonesia may have various degrees of locality with reference to national media but also indigenous minorities within the larger polity. The national culture may compete in a “minority status” on the word stage, and struggle to have its national voice heard within the larger international dialog. At the same time, these nations may experience “one way” communication with the West in mass-communication, with the continual introduction of “Western” values but may be similarly unable to influence the dialog by being able to respond reciprocally. Smaller countries may have more difficulty competing internationally against established multinationals in the West, and this relates not only to production and distribution but also marketing and advertising. The internet is a great leveling force against the centralization inherent in mass-media communication channels, but it also leads to a fragmentation of locality and a smoothing of the plane of locality internationally, which fuels globalization’s spread. What “the mall” represents to local European culture, in contrast to the ancient history and vibrant traditions of open markets, small businesses, and independent bookshops or cafes, is fundamentally similar to what globalization offers on a mass-scale to every culture worldwide, namely the same homogenization of values and simulated model of reality as the mall. Indeed, in developing countries with swiftly expanding “middle classes” such as India, China, Brazil, Korea, etc. the mall appears locally on the same model as in France or America forty years ago, and offers the same promise of homogenization and hegemony to indigenous cultures. The mall provides the fashions, styles, and intellectual ‘products’ for the middle class, and all of the prices are targeted to the salary scale of the office and factory worker hierarchies. The products in the mall are usually multi-national brands and similar if not the same in most countries. These same international brands are “made local” everywhere through fresh marketing and advertising campaigns that appropriate the biggest stars and greatest talents of the indigenous culture for their sales pitch. 2. Evaluate Jean Baudrillard's claim that contemporary consumption is not about the satisfying finite individual needs but is rather an "infinite social activity". “Infinite social activity” is seen as related to the late-capitalist consumer model of excess, which Baudrillard sees in the presentation of supermarket shelves and the always abundant racks of merchandise on sale at the mall. Baudrillard recognizes the model is unstable, that the Western societies consume obesely, while billions of the world’s poorest live on a few dollars a day without access to the basic standards of life. The variety of production based on lifestyle is that everything must be multiplied repeatedly with changing styles and fashions to keep the sales flowing; there are outfits for every activity, social or sport. All of these images of identity are created by the ‘supermodels,’ paid actors and actresses of the corporations, who sell their talents, beauties, and reputations to give validity to the product and in turn become the “royal” celebrities, made by the economic system and its management, who reap its highest rewards. "This is not to say that culture here is 'prostituted'; that is too simple,” Baudrillard writes. “It is culturalized." (Baudrillard, 1970, p.32) What is important is that people are owned, by their employers who control their behavior, dress, and manner of speech, both in the office and in the commercial realm. The multinational will simply hire the most attractive, most popular, and most talented “stars” and celebrities in any local environment in the world, translate the marketing material to the local language, building the ad campaign to target local community identities. Thus, the advertising internationally and locally becomes a way that identities are made into commodities, and then the symbols of those identities, the clothes, the fashion, the shoes for every occasion, drive the commercial system and keep it flowing. Baudrillard illustrates the means through which this system of identity commoditization leads to cultural homogeneity, docility, superficiality, and loss of critical thinking which in turn create a more subservient workforce and political community for social control. When Baudrillard writes about the total commoditization of the social sphere of activity in locations such as Parly 2 in “Consumer Society,” the wider context is portrayed in the array of objects in the media environment of mass-production, marketing, and advertising. (Baudrillard, 1970) In contemporary, late-capitalist societies such as France or the U.S., Baudrillard sees a type of totalitarianism in “lifestyle” culture where every aspect of the personality is commoditized - bought, sold, directed, and defined by the marketplace system led by the corporate entities and their endless array of products. All of these products are given an idealized space in the mall where the artificiality of the environment is total, from the fake trees, climate controlled air conditioning, restaurants, entertainment facilities, theatres, arcades, libraries, and bookstores, all in one massive, fortress-like location. “Here we are at the heart of consumption as the total organization of everyday life, as a complete homogenization,” he writes. (Baudrillard, 1970, p.34) Baudrillard views the analysis of consumption as related to need, and as such is required to construct a theory that accurately explains post-modern marketplace identities as they intersect with the political milieu, the State, and other group institutions. Baudrillard shows how the late-capitalist economies based upon systems of surplus, advertising campaigns, mass-marketing, mass-production, multi-nationalism, and the objectification of people all form a reinforcing system of worker management and social control. Another issue he highlights is the way that this system of production is not focused on actually fulfilling the needs of society, but actually hyper-inflating or making hysterical its aspects of desire. (Baudrillard, 1970, pp.47-49) Baudrillard recognizes that desire as a fundamental human instinct cannot be fulfilled, but also that a desire-driven economy is very different than a needs-driven economy. 3. Discuss the skill implications and contemporary relevance of Taylorism and Fordism by critically engaging with the deskilling and upskilling theses. As Taylorism and Fordism both represent the specialization of labor in machine-like, mass-production environments in order to promote efficiency and increased profits, these processes can be can be questioned as to whether they are healthy and safe for the workers, but also more fundamentally whether they value and enhance the experience of quality in life or merely exploit humans for the sake of quantity. Quantity relates to mass-production and profit, but the workers are typically paid the lowest price possible and forced to work in Taylorism and Fordism as human robots on assembly lines, often doing mindless and repetitive work, rather than that which creatively develops the self or is reflective of their love in life and ideal career. Thus, one needs to establish a life ideal and a workplace ideal to effectively discuss the skill implications and contemporary relevance of Taylorism and Fordism. The capitalist economies of the world in application have mixed-socialist systems incorporating various aspects of a social safety net. This in turn, may have an effect in setting market prices for labor at higher levels than in an absolute free market. A free market system advancing as population and industrialization expands rapidly, where people are increasingly becoming landless, unable to support large families through agriculture, and forced to support themselves and their loved ones through the sale of their labor on the free market, may take advantage of population dynamics for cheap labor. The number of skilled and unskilled jobs required in a society may be influenced by the underlying social factors such as the need for “full employment,” even if it is meaningless and degrading, because no one can survive without money in the environment (totalitarian). For example, the “deskilling” hypothesis would state that Taylorism and Fordism inherently prefer uneducated workers who can be taught very simple and repetitive tasks, implementing them on an assembly line, because unskilled workers are likely to be willing to work for less money on average than skilled workers. Upskilling suggests that Fordism and Taylorism actually provide for or enable the upwardly mobile path for families and generations. This is evidenced by the increased standard of living in America since the management and organizational techniques were introduced in the assembly lines. Yet, many factories and production environments have moved away from the extreme forms of mechanization of labor due to progressive workplace reforms. The modern equivalent of both Fordism and Taylorism can be seen in the McDonalidization of employment opportunities across America. Upskilling suggests that in a large and dynamic population, there are innumerable service industries that require daily operation, and on a practical basis, society is not ideal, and many lack the higher employment and training skills for other jobs. Deskilling suggests that the corporate model is actually based on the specialization of labor and increased efficiency of production so as to increase profit, and this has led to what Marcuse and others call “the One Dimensional Man”. This is the modern individual completely tied to the job in identity, and the entire social life increasingly reduced to more and more superficial and homogenized levels, as in McDonaldization. Yet, in emerging markets such as China, the Philippines, India, and others, when upskilling occurs through training in information technology and outsourcing, these workers have a much greater choice of quality, higher-paying jobs from other employers than if they were deskilled. Read More