Paradoxes in Global Marketing - Assignment Example

The presenters included concepts that expounded on convergence and divergence through the provision of specific consumer purchasing behavior; where apparently the behavior could be evaluated and reviewed from a macro perspective. Likewise, the concept was further explained with the assistance of delving in describing homogeneous and heterogeneous economies or that which measures a country’s level of wealth.

Presentation of the topic (4): Domestic Consumer Predispositions: Ethnocentrisms and Disidentification.

          The presenters used the theoretical concepts of ethnocentrism and concepts of consumer disidentification to make students aware of how these concerns impact global marketing.

How One Contributed

          A relevant topic (1) that was presented focused on Paradoxes in Global Marketing. One’s contribution to the topic stemmed from research and review of the article entitled “The Paradoxes in Global Marketing Communications” also of the same author. From the reading, it was deduced that the value of paradoxes lies in the fact that “value paradoxes are found in the opposing values in value systems such as freedom-belonging, tradition-innovation, order-chaos. Value paradoxes are part of people’s systems; they reflect the desirable versus the desired in life” (De Mooij, 2005, p. 2). The reading, therefore, presented relevant concepts pertaining to paradoxes in global marketing especially in the following topics: the global-local paradox, technology paradox, media paradox, and explicitly explained paradoxes in marketing theory. Therefore, one’s contribution in this module would be in terms of relaying one of the global paradoxes learned from De Mooij which could include paradoxes in consumer trends or the global advertising paradox (De Mooij, 2005).

          On the topic (2) of Dimensions of Culture, one contributed by likewise determining the dimensions from one’s cultural orientation. As verified and supported from the information using online link, for instance for Saudi Arabia as the country of origin, one found information that supports one’s cultural practices and norms (Anon., n.d.).  

Thus, to make the discussion more interesting, the same online link provides options to compare the cultural dimensions in one’s country of origin to that of another. For instance, the dimensions of culture in Saudi Arabia’s country could be compared with the dimensions of culture in the United States. The results revealed that these countries manifested significant disparities in the dimension of individualism and power distance; while both countries seem to be on equal footing in the dimension of masculinity (Anon., n.d.).

          One’s contribution to topic (3), Convergence and Divergence in Consumer Behavior stems from the reading of (De Mooij, 2003). From the article, it was learned that “effectiveness in marketing means adapting to cultural values… Countries can now be compared by means of dimensional scales and culture quantified and correlated with various aspects of consumption” (De Mooij, 2003, p. 190). Therefore, the study significantly corroborates what one has learned from the dimensions of the culture module. It was therefore emphasized through the findings that “the model developed by Hofstede explains most of the variation of consumption and consumer behavior across countries and enables marketing managers to quantify the effects of culture” (De Mooij, 2003, p. 198). As such, the relevance of studying the dimensions of culture across varied countries would assist in designing global strategies that would be deemed effective in a global sphere.

          For topic (4), Domestic Consumer Predispositions: Ethnocentrisms and Disidentification, which apparently was initially perceived as complex and intricate concepts due to the terms alone, have realized that through the presenter's assistance in expounding on the theoretical frameworks of these terms, one could appreciate how they impact global marketing. For one, the concept of ethnocentrism was also clearly understood through the early definition provided herewith: “having a view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it” (Summer, 1906, p. 13). It was learned that “all of the six marketing factors (language, message, image, content, brand, and cultural positioning) were found to have cultural implications for consumer purchases” (Tony, 2002, p. 75). This, therefore, corroborates the importance of culture in designing global marketing strategies.

External Material Read as Background for One’s Contribution

          The relevant material read which augmented the required readings for the topic (1) on Paradoxes in Global Marketing is as follows:

• Vandermerwe, S., 1998. Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes. Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes, 15(3), pp. 234 - 235.

          The external materials read as background for one’s contribution on the topic (2) regarding dimensions of culture included the following:

• Soares, A., Farhangmerh, M. & Shoham, A., 2007. Hofstede's dimension of culture in international marketing studies. Journal of Business Research, Volume 60, pp. 277-284.

The material which supported one’s contribution for the topic (3) which focus on Convergence and Divergence of Consumer Behavior is as follows:

• De Mooij, M., 2003. Convergence and divergence of consumer behavior: implications for global advertising. International Journal of Advertising, Volume 22, pp. 183-202.

The background reading materials for the topic (4) on ethnocentrism are as follows:

• Summer, W., 1906. Folkways. Boston, MA: Ginn and Company.
• Tony, A., 2002. A Comparative Case Study of Global Marketing and Ethnocentrism, s.l.: Georgetown University.