Patrick J. Kidd - Global Marketing

Global Marketing
Keegan*Green
Chapter 04
Social and Cultural Environments

Conceptual Frameworks for understanding culture (see below)

Culture = the collective programming of the mind = a learned behaviour passed on from generation to generation = "ways of living, built up by a group of human beings, that are transmitted from one generation to another" = "the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people (nation, ethnic group, gender group, organization, family, other unit) from those of another" = culture includes both conscious and unconscious values, ideas, attitudes, and symbols that shape human behaviour and that are transmitted from one generation to the next.
1. Material culture = physical components = physical culture
  - clothing
    - Subverted in Star Trek: Ferengi women aren't supposed to wear clothing, and when a Ferengi character is talking to his liberated mother in an episode of DS9, he asks her to please take her clothes off because she's making him uncomfortable.
  - tools
2. Non-material culture = subjective culture = abstract culture
  - attitudes
    - attitude = learned tendency to respond in a consistent way to a given object or entity
  - beliefs = an organized pattern of knowledge that an individual holds to be true about the world
  - values = an enduring belief or feeling that a specific mode of conduct is personally or socially preferable (value judgement) to another mode of conduct = values represent the deepest level of a culture and are present in the majority of the members of a particular culture
    - perceptions & associations
    - conscious & unconscious values, ideas, attitudes, symbols
    - ethics?
  - religion - is one important source of society's beliefs, attitudes, values
  - aesthetics - beauty, taste/tasteless, obscenity, styles, art, music
    visual aesthetics - colours, shapes, complexity, labels/packages
    - In Japan they used to bind parts girls' chests and feet so they wouldn't get big.
    - In Africa some women have used rings to make their necks seem longer.
  - dietary customs
    - changing trends - fast food (limited time, limited money), experimentation with foreign foods, global travel
      - Not many years ago, eating raw fish was unheard of in North America.
    - challenges to country's cultural identity and way of life
      - le fooding (FR) = the notion that France's passion for food goes beyond mere gastronomy
  - language and communication
    - verbal = spoken communication
      - syntax - rules of sentence formation - fixed/free word order
      - semantics - system of meaning
      - phonology - system of sound patterns (not all languages have all sounds: j, l, r, u, etc.)
        
        phonology = phonemics = phonemics + phonetics
      - morphology - word formation (inflections)
    - nonverbal = unspoken communication = silent language
      - gestures, touching, body language
      - sequencing of issues/topics = directly from point A to point B or apparently going off on tangents
      - phasing = discuss now or after establishing a rapport
    - dialects of subcultures
    - English is no longer a foreign language (Sony, Nokia) - diffusion of English
      - Learning foreign languages helps acquire cross-cultural insights
Social institutions
- family institutions, educational institutions, religious institutions, governmental institutions, business institutions
- reinforce cultural norms
Subcultures
- within any large, dominant cultural group
- smaller groups with their own shared subset of attitudes, beliefs, and values
- subcultures often represent attractive niche marketing opportunities
Ethnocentricity
- Prejudices are a natural result of the human tendency toward ethnocentricity
- Local point of view - difficult for outsiders to understand
- Diversity
- Cultural empathy can be learned - sensitivity, willingness to accommodate
- Training and a heightened sense of the host country cultural context are necessary to counteract the tendency to bring one's cultural ethnocentrism to the negotiation table.
Global consumer culture - 21st century
- Consumption
- Cosmopolitan = common to all the world; not local or limited; free from local attachments or prejudices
  - Due to modern communications
  - convergence of tastes and preferences
- GCCP = Global Consumer Culture Positioning - see chapter 7
Marketers
- Respond to the culture
- Change the culture
- must "think global, act local" - (Note that this phrase is in American, not in English)

Conceptual Frameworks for understanding culture
1. Cultural Universals - (4e page 119, 5e page 122) - George.P.Murdock
2. High/Low Context cultures - (4e page 132, 5e page 125) - Edward.T.Hall
3. Cultural Typography - (4e page 133, 5e page 126) - Geert.Hofstede
4. Self-Reference Criterion - (4e page 138, 5e page 132) - James.Lee
5. Diffusion Theory - (4e page 140, 5e page 134) - Everett.Rogers
  - Adoption Process
  - Innovators
  - Adapter Categories
6. Hierarchy of Needs - (4e page 144, 5e page 138 and page 337) - A.H.Maslow
1. Cultural Universals - George P. Murdock
2. High/Low Context cultures - Edward T. Hall
  1. Low Context culture
    - messages are explicit and specific; more reliance on words and numbers
    - emphasis on legal sanctions - make the specifications so precise that a builder is forced by the threat of legal sanction to do a good job
    - USA, Northern Europe (Switzerland, Germany)
  2. High Context culture
    - less information is contained in the verbal part of a message
    - context = background, associations, basic values of the communicators
    - emphasis on a person's values and position or place in society, his character
    - the culture emphasizes obligations and trust as important values; obligations and honour
    - trust, a sense of fair play, a widespread acceptance of the rules of the game
    - a person's word is his bond - less need to anticipate contingencies and provide for external legal sanctions
    - less legal paperwork
    - hire the person who will do the best work and whom you can trust and control
    - Japan, Middle East (Saudi Arabia)
  3. Exceptions
    - subcultures
3. Cultural Typography - Geert Hofstede
4. Self-Reference Criterion = SRC - James Lee
  - cultural myopia
  - a person's perception of market needs is framed by his own cultural experience
  - unconscious tendency for perceptual blockage and distortion
  - widespread tendency toward ethnocentrism and use of the SRC
  - a vital, critical skill of the global marketer is unbiased perception, the ability to see what is so in a culture.
  - forgetting to check for SRC can lead to misunderstanding and failure
  - Avoiding the SRC requires a person to suspend assumptions based on prior experience and success and be prepared to acquire new knowledge about human behaviour and motivation.
5. Diffusion Theory - 'Diffusion of Innovations' - Everett Rogers
  1. Adoption process= the mental stages for an individual's purchase
    1. Awareness
    2. Interest
    3. Evaluation
    4. Trial
    5. Adoption
      - initial purchase (of an expensive product)
      - brand loyalty (to a less expensive product)
  2. Characteristics of innovations = an innovation is something new - new product, new market
    Five major factors affecting the rate at which innovations are adopted:
    1. Relative advantage
    2. Compatibility
      - Consistent with existing values and past experiences of adopters (needs, wants)
    3. Complexity
    4. Divisibility
      - Trial and use on a limited basis without great expense
      - purchase quantities, serving sizes, product portions
    5. Communicability
      - The degree to which benefits of an innovation or the value of a product may be communicated to a potential market.
  3. Adopter categories = Normal distribution curve - see Figure 4-1, (4e page 141, 5e page 136)
    Product Life Cycle = Introduction - Growth - Maturity - Decline
    Interaction effect = those who have adopted an innovation influence others
    At least in the West, adoption is a social phenomenon that is characterized by a normal curve.
    1. Innovators (2.5%)
      - venturesome, more cosmopolitan, wealthier
      - the basis for eventual penetration of a product into a new market because, over time, the majority copy their behaviour
    2. Early Adopters (13.5%)
      - the most influential people in their communities
      - younger, higher social status, favourable financial position
      - the basis for eventual penetration of a product into a new market because, over time, the majority copy their behaviour
    3. Early Majority (34%)
    4. Late Majority (34%)
    5. Laggards (16%)
6. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - see (4e pages 339-341, 5e pages 337-340)
"You market locally, manufacture regionally, and resource globally - with common technology, knowledge, and supplies." (Campbell Canada's CEO)

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