"Global Consumer Culture is a beguiling illusion that completely glosses over the hard realities of national, economic, ethnic

and religious differences. It is therefore a dangerous fiction for the marketing manager to engage with while developing Marketing Mix strategies.

Prepared for Dr. Abu Yousuf Md. Abdullah Course Instructor International Management

Prepared by Nameeb Itmaam (ZR 03) BBA Program Batch 18 (A)

Institute of Business Administration (IBA) University of Dhaka

March 30, 2013

GLOBALIZATION AND GLOBAL CONSUMER CULTURE

A very basic explanation of Globalization defines the term as the worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration . Globalization implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers. However, it does not include unhindered movement of labor and, as suggested by some economists, may hurt smaller or fragile economies if applied indiscriminately. While it is undeniable that globalization of markets has occurred on a rapid scale, with global brands being represented on all corners of the globe, the importance for marketing communication - and indeed the idea that we can sell to the world with one message remains more contested. Culture, is the collective programming of the mind (Hofstede, 1980), and the level of influence remains a hotly contested topic. For example, Walter (1995) argued that culture will never become globalised, but that does not of course mean that there is no globalization in terms of cultural convergence. Many scholars point to increasingly global market segments, and that consumers value global brands (Holt, Quelch & Taylor, 2005).

QUALITY SIGNAL
Consumers watch the fierce battles that transnational companies wage over quality and are impressed by the victors. That perception often serves as a rationale for global brands to charge premiums. These are the few opinions on brands as stated by a study: "The more people who buy [a] brandthe better quality it is." "I like [global] brands because they usually offer more quality and better guarantees than other products." Global brands are expensive, but the price is reasonable when you think of the quality." Global brands are very dynamic, always upgrading themselves." Global brands are more exciting because they come up with new products all the time, whereas you know what you'll get with local ones." This is a significant shift. Until recently, people's perceptions about quality for value and technological prowess were tied to the nations from which products originated. "Made in the USA" was once important; so were Japanese quality and Italian design in some industries. Increasingly, however, a company's global stature indicates whether it excels on quality.

GLOBAL MYTH
Consumers look to global brands as symbols of cultural ideals. They use brands to create an imagined global identity that they share with like-minded people. Transnational companies therefore compete not only to offer the highest value products but also to deliver cultural myths with global appeal. "Local brands show what we are; global brands show what we want to be." In the post-World War II era, companies like Disney, McDonald's, Levi Strauss, and Jack Daniel's spun American myths for the rest of the world. But today's global myths have less to do with the American way of life. Further, no longer are myths created only by lifestyle and luxury brands; myths are now spun by virtually all global brands, in industries as diverse as information technology and oil.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
People recognize that global companies wield extraordinary influence, both positive and negative, on society's well-being. They expect firms to address social problems linked to what they sell and how they conduct business. In fact, consumers vote with their checkbooks if they feel that transnational companies aren't acting as stewards of public health, worker rights, and the environment. As infamous cases have filled the airwaves Nestl's infant-formula sales in Africa since the 1980s, Union Carbide's Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, the outcry over Shell's plan to sink its Brent Spar oil rig and the protests at its Nigerian facilities in 1995people have become convinced that global brands have a special duty to tackle social issues. The playing field isn't level; consumers don't demand that local companies tackle global warming, but they expect multinational giants like BP and Shell to do so. Similarly, people may turn a blind eye when local companies take advantage of employees, but they won't stand for transnational players like Nike and Polo adopting similar practices. Such expectations are as pronounced in developing countries like China and India as they are in developed countries in Europe.

Global Brands compete primarily in these three issues to gain the edge over others. This view has been amplified by people all around the world who are increasingly becoming aware of these multinationals and expect a consistent amount of service/products from them. However, even though it might seem that these views are the result of a combined global culture, marketers must keep in mind that none of the multinationals go along with the aim of selling to the world with a single message. A similar view on a matter from different people does not necessarily mean that it was achieved through a single process but rather a combination of many, customized as per every specific persons attitude. This means to achieve a combined similar opinion on a matter, one must use different methods on the consumers as per their attitudes and beliefs, i.e. their culture.

BRANDS USING A SINGLE UNIQUE MESSAGE

APPLE
Apple can be classified as: A design firm A media platform A publishing company A software powerhouse A computer builder A movement If we break down each of these bullets individually, we will find a company at the top of their respective industry, but combine them into a single entity and we will still have the recipe for building one of the most influential businesses of all time. Apple positions itself as the premium product for almost every product that they manufacture. People dont buy MP3 players, they buy an iPod. People dont buy a Smartphone, they buy an iPhone. Apple isnt content with being a leader in sales alone, they want to own the market itself, which explains why theyve engineered iTunes as the major music provider that it is, and why the iPad, having the luxury of being the first, has now set the trend for future tablet devices. From here on out, everything will be compared to the iPad, iPhone, iPod, and iTunes. Sadly, this sort of thing is tough to duplicate, but its not impossible. A similar single message marketing concept is carried out by athletic footwear produced by brands such as Nike and Adidas, and at first glance they do seem to work. However, as later discussed, even the slightest of things can affect marketing strategies and cause a reduction of image. Furthermore, with technologies constantly developing, organizations like Apple face serious threat from other producers such as HTC and Samsung, who are currently on their way to releasing the new Samsung Youm, predicted to be much more technologically advanced than the iPhone.

CULTURE DIFFERENCES AFFECTING MARKETING

Understanding cultural differences is important to achieve success in any market, let alone on the world business stage. While there are national and local cultures to consider, remember to address political and business cultures, when developing marketing strategies. Sociologic differences around the world largely outweigh the similarities. People in the global community are influenced and driven by different things. When responding to advertising, some value freedom, reward for effort and an entrepreneurial approach, while others avoid individualism like the plague. Lacks of cultural considerations not only can result in a mediocre response to product promotions, but can even impact the company's international image.

NESTLS BABY MILK ISSUE

Nestl suffered significant international criticism when a breast milk substitute marketed in Africa was deemed to be the cause of malnutrition in babies. While there was nothing wrong with their product, Nestl was at fault because the company didn't consider the possibility that reduced literacy levels in Africa would result in their breast milk substitute being misused. There were no instructions to help mothers make up the milk. Governments are supposed to make sure there is effective information, training, and monitoring systems to ensure the code is upheld. It was found that 90% of health providers have never heard of the code, and almost two-thirds of mothers had never received any advice on breastfeeding. Similar problems were faced by DANONE. This shows the fact that these multinationals should consider the culture of the market that they want to penetrate, in this case Africa, who had very low literacy levels and thus required careful training on how to use these products.

CHOCOLATE MAKER GODIVA EXPANDING IN CHINA

Luxury Belgian Chocolate makers Godiva marked China as their main spot for expansion even though it contributed to less than 5% of their revenue. But it was the fastest growing consumer group and thus the Belgian giants decided to focus on the population by introducing chocolates with dragons on them, which would be released during their Mid Autumn festivals.

COCA-COLA
COCA-COLA IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Eager to avoid the Arab League boycott and sell to the much larger Arab market, Coca-Cola was content not to sell in Israel. In 1961 the issue came up again when an Egyptian civil servant mistook Amharic writing on a Coca-Cola bottle for Hebrew, and accused Coca-Cola of doing business with Israel. The manager of Egypt's Coca-Cola bottling operations quickly informed the press that Coca-Cola would never do business with Israel; forced to elaborate upon this, Coca-Cola officials explained that Israel was too small a market for a Coca-Cola operation. The issue arose again on April 1, 1966 when Moshe Bronstein, a Tel Aviv businessman, accused Coca-Cola of boycotting Israel to appease its Arab market. The Anti-Defamation League took up this cause in the United States, and questions were raised about Coca-Cola's previous explanation for not operating in Israel: If Coca-Cola could have an operation in Cyprus, whose market was onetenth the size of Israel's, why then was Israel too small for a Coca-Cola operation? Pressure on CocaCola grew, and faced with potential American boycotts, Coca-Cola promised to open a bottling plant in Tel Aviv. In response, the Arab League boycotted Coca-Cola from August 1968 to May 1991, as part of the economic boycott of Israel.

TRANSLATION PROBLEM IN CHINA

The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke- la," meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or the equally hilarious, "female horse stuffed with wax," depending on the dialect. Coke then researched to find a phonetic equivalent "ko-kou-ko- le," translating into "happiness in the mouth."

COORS BEER
Coors Beer had a similar translation problem as to PepsiCo when they promoted their product in Spain. Their slogan Turn it loose roughly translated to Suffer from Diarrhea.

DOMINOS PIZZA IN INDIA

When Dominos Pizza first moved to India, it thought of transferring its Western offerings directly to the Indian Market. However, the organization soon realized that it had to bow down to local tastes. Therefore, it later introduced local flav ored toppings in the market named Peppy Paneer and Chicken Chettinad. A similar approach was taken by McDonalds when the fast food chain first moved to India. As Cows are considered a holy animal for Hindus, McDonalds decided to introduce a mutton patty in all their burgers and other fast food products.

HALLMARKS WITHDRAWAL IN FRANCE

Hallmarks greeting cards are popular in both the United Kingdom and the United States. The signature (and their competitive edge) in those two countries is that their cards have a special message i.e. the buyer does not have to write his/her own message it is already written on cards and is usually followed by a sentimental poem. However, this process of messages written in cards did not prove to be popular with the French customers. The French contingent preferred writing these messages themselves. Furthermore, the sentiment inherent within the poems did not appeal to their taste. Hallmark admitted defeat after a few months and withdrew from the country.

PEPSICO
PROMOTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
PepsiCo International chose a new approach to communicate with their consumers by entering the world of movie entertainment; they produced a full length musical feature film entitled Bahr Al Nujoom (Sea of Stars) which hit theatres in spring 2008. The movie combines the astounding voices of talented celebrities specifically chosen to represent the Pepsi brand in this original movie.

MARKETING IN TAIWAN
In order to keep a singular identity throughout the world, many companies stick with the same marketing campaign and brand message in every country. However, this occasionally creates difficulties. For example, in Taiwan, Pepsis advertising slogan Come alive with the Pepsi generation was translated as Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.

NIKES IRISH DILEMMA

Athletic and cultural giant Nike had a significant misstep when they named a limited edition shoe after the drink known in the US as a Black & Tan, a layered combination of a stout and lager beer. The company was doing so to honor Ireland in the run-up to St. Patricks Day, however, the gesture was received as an insensitive and somewhat confusing insult. Nike did not fully understand the significance of the Black & Tan phrase in Ireland. The Black & Tan is indeed a layered drink of stout and lager, but the drink itself is more common in the US than in Ireland where the phrase is associated with the paramilitary Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force used to suppress revolution in Ireland particularly from 1920-192 during the last two years of the Irish War of Independence. The group was nicknamed the Black & Tans for the colors of their improvised uniforms and had a reputation for attacks on Irish civilians, thus, Irish sentiment towards the phrase, even the word Tan remains very negative. It represents a painful time in the nations history and old tensions with Britain, making the mention of Black & Tan in marketing efforts simply puzzling. Such a case had clear PR and Marketing implications.

CONCLUSION
Globalization has merged cultures like never before and thus companies has to at first look to create an unique message to convey to all its customers but at the same time keep in mind that not everywhere is the culture the same. Religion, language, ethics, etc. differ from region to region, from country to country and even within countries. An unintentional mistake in not realizing the differences may lead to the company not succeeding in that particular area but also facing a degradation of image.

REFERENCES
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International differences in work related values. Beverly Hill, CA, Sage. Holt, Douglas B. (2004), How Brands Become Icons. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.