Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the academic field of International Marketing.
As the world was emerging from tariff wars, Collins reported on the existence of
different markets in ‘World Marketing”. 30 years later Kramer’s book on
“International Marketing” looked at the border crossing process, and on the
activities necessary once the border had been crossed.
Since then, with reasonable regularity, major shifts have occurred in increments of
30 some years. The discipline shifted from strictly domestic marketing (staying
inside), to world marketing (peeking out from the inside), to international
marketing (becoming active in leading markets), to globalization (linking all
markets together). Today, another major shift is in the making, indicated by the
discontent with globalization and a global crisis of trust.
International marketers need to focus on past errors and mistakes inflicted by their
discipline and sweep these out from under the carpet in the spirit of
“Wiedergutmachung” or restitution.
The Pine Ridge Indian tribe is suing five beer companies for their role in the
alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome that plague the tribe’s reservation.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe claims that the beer companies sold beer on the
perimeter of the teetotalling South Dakota reservation with the knowledge
that it would be smuggled. Whiteclay, a nearby town in Nebraska with four
beer shops and only about a dozen residents, gets most of its customers from
the reservation.
Tom White, the lawyer representing the tribe, told the Associated Press:
"You cannot sell 4.9 million 12 oz. cans of beer and wash your hands like
Pontius Pilate, and say we've got nothing to do with it being smuggled."
The reservation, which is about the size of Connecticut, has dealt with
poverty and alcoholism for decades. One in four children born suffer from
fetal alcohol syndrome, and the life expectancy, between 45 and 52 years, is
the lowest in the U.S.
ensure consumption addiction. Kotler calls this phenomenon the consumer chain,
like a heavy iron ball to be carried around.
At the business level growth is not just important, but the key issue for survival.
Executives planning to maintain market share, or to minimize growth, would last a
very short time in their job. More is expected. “Citius, altius, fortius” (faster,
higher, stronger) may be a great motto for the Olympics, but leads to unexpected
repercussions for marketers and their customers.
A second key concern is: how marketing can set things right again.
Truthfulness:
Simplicity:
Marketing must find new ways to simplify life. Simplicity adds value. Research
finds that up to 23 percent of consumers are willing to spend extra for an
uncomplicated experience. Simplification is also linked to truthfulness and making
sure that people understand the implications of their decisions. It is hard for a front
line marketer to be truthful about something, if one does not understand how the
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system works. The understanding of how a product or even a system works and is
interconnected is a valuable product attribute in itself.
Expanded participation:
Inclusiveness also helps with future change. History indicates that power waxes
and wanes. Just think of the Incas, the Greeks, the Icelanders, the Persians.
Marketing preparation, can convert crashes into soft landings.
Though many say that we understand each other so well, the reality is quite
different. The actual overlap between societies is typically miniscule. Some
Chinese leaders may have developed a good understanding of the world, but they
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represent a very small fraction of the Chinese populace. The average Chinese
person may understand as much about Columbus, Ohio as the average American
knows about Tianjin.
The goal for international marketers is not only to apply existing frameworks to
new situations but also to develop new frameworks from the insights that they
garner from working in different and diverse environments.
1. The Washington Post, Tribe Sues Beer Companies For Alcoholism on Reservation,
February 10, 2012
2. Global Brand Simplicity, 2011