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GLOBAL MARKETING
Although the concept of the mission and Canon’s corporate philosophy of kyosei. Apart
vision are Western inventions, the practice from the collectivistic values such statements
has been universally embraced by compa- express, they also indicate a high degree of
nies worldwide. Providing a statement that power distance, as in the case of Toyota,
expresses a company’s strategic intent, its whose mission is headed: “Message from Top
philosophy, values, ethics or operational ef- Management.”
fectiveness has become standard global man- Also, contrast Microsoft’s mission, “To
agement practice. Yet closer analysis of such help people and business throughout the
statements reveals telling differences in con- world to realize their full potential,” with
tent and form across the world. Philips’ to “Improve the quality of people’s
The mission statements of U.S. compa- lives through timely introduction of meaning-
nies, for example, tend to be strong state- ful innovations.” The former reflects the Ang-
ments of identity and reflect the need for lo-Saxon value of self-actualization, while the
con- sistency, performance, leadership, latter reflects the quality-of-life preferences
greatness and growth – values that are shared more in keeping with the Dutch character.
among cultures that score high on In all these cases, it is vital that a company
individualism and cultural masculinity, and review its mission statement in light of its own
low on long- term orientation, like the cultural biases. A company’s view of itself ul-
United States does. So, General Electric timately reflects the values of its leaders, and
states: “Being a reliable growth company if these values are not shared across cultures,
requires consistent execu- tion on strategic then stakeholders elsewhere may have diffi-
principles that drive perfor- mance every culties identifying with the company. A truly
quarter and every year.” global company would include values that are
Meanwhile, in collectivistic cultures, shared by more cultures than just its own.
such as those found in Asia, social harmony Based on its mission and vision, a company
is prized and companies function more like then distills its corporate identity, which also
families. What the company stands for is reveals its core values. Usually the task of
more often expressed as “Harmony with Peo- creating a corporate identity begins with the
ple, Society and the Environment,” as in the selection of an appropriate corporate name.
case of Toyota. Or “All people, regardless of Other factors that contribute to corporate
race, religion or culture, harmoniously living identity include the logo of the organization
and working together into the future,” as in and marketing communications. All this, in-
cluding language, lettering and associations,
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
is logically a reflection of the home country of
the organization.
Many widely accepted lenges managers to let go of The British communications consultant
management theories re- their preconceived ideas and Nicholas Ind has defined corporate identity
lated to mission statements, insistence on consistency and as “an organization’s identity in its sense of
branding and advertising are standardization, which they self, much like our own individual sense of
Western inventions that do may think is being cost-effec- identity. Consequently, it is unique.” If we
not translate when companies tive, but in reality will never consider this definition carefully, we see that
go global. What plays well at succeed in scratching consum- it is, in fact, a culturally bound concept. First,
home may not go down so ers where they itch. To be truly the quality of uniqueness resonates primarily
well in foreign environments. effective, global marketing with individualistic cultures. Furthermore,
The author recommends that a strategies must articulate not the insistence by many organizations that
company conduct a full review the culture-bound values of there be worldwide consistency of all the el-
of its entire global marketing one particular company, but ements of corporate ID, so that the company
strategy – from its mission the values of the stakeholders is perceived universally, again derives from
and vision, to its portfolio, in all of the countries where Western notions.
positioning and product usage, the company operates. If not, In reality, corporate identity translates
to its communications and ad- stakeholders elsewhere may differently in different parts of the world.
vertising campaigns. Through- have difficulties identifying Sticking to uniqueness and consistency in
out the discussion, she chal- with the company. corporate identity can be counterproductive,
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GLOBA Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the
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3. In MASCULINE cultures, the dominant values are
Hofstede categorized national cultures according
achievement and success, whereas the dominant values
to five key dimensions, which have become widely
in FEMININE cultures are caring for others and quality of
accepted.
life. In MASCULINE cultures, performance, achievement
and status are important to show success. FEMININE
1. POWER DISTANCE is the extent to which less
cultures are more people-oriented, “small is beautiful”
powerful members of a society accept that power is
and status is not so important. Examples of MASCULINE
distributed unequally. In large power-distance cultures
cultures are Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and the
(e.g., China, Malaysia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia)
United States. Examples of FEMININE cultures are the
everybody knows their rightful place in society and their
Netherlands, Portugal, Scandinavia and Spain.
status corresponds with the importance of their
position, versus cultures of smaller power distance
4. UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE is the extent to which
(e.g., Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and
people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity
Scandinavia) where equality is favored.
and try to avoid these situations. In cultures with
strong uncertainty avoidance, there is a need for rules
2. In INDIVIDUALISTIC cultures, people look after
and formality to structure life. In weak uncertainty
themselves and their immediate family only; in
avoidance cultures, people tend to be more innovative
COLLECTIVISTIC cultures people belong to in-groups
and entrepreneurial. The countries of southern and
who look after them in exchange for loyalty. In
eastern Europe score high on uncertainty avoidance,
INDIVIDUALISTIC cultures, people want to differentiate
while Britain, Scandinavia and Singapore score low.
themselves from others; they develop unique
personalities. In COLLECTIVISTIC cultures, the need for
5. The fifth dimension distinguishes between LONG-
harmony makes people want to conform to others.
TERM ORIENTATION, which includes elements such as
Americans and northern Europeans tend to be
pragmatism, perseverance and thrift, versus SHORT-
individualists, while southern Europeans are moderately
TERM THINKING, which is associated with respect for
collectivistic. Asia, Latin America and Africa are
tradition, social obligations and saving face.
generally more collectivistic.
Hofstede, G., G.J. Hofstede and M. Minkov. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Look around and you will see companies ics and diapers go together. In Asia, the name
have many different ways of using their corpo- and reputation of Shiseido alone is enough jus-
rate name as a brand. Some companies, such tification for giving the product a try.
as Sony, Mitsubishi and Daewoo, use their cor- In determining brand-extension fit, global
porate name on almost all of their products. marketers must consider the variety of ways
Some Western companies such as Heineken in which different cultures categorize other
(Amstel, Tiger) and Nestlé (Perrier, Nestea, people and objects. In certain experiments,
Kit Kat) keep using the brand names of the Chinese children will group items together
companies that they acquired. For some time, that share a relationship, whereas Canadian
P&G in China has added its corporate signa- children will group items together that share
ture to Head & Shoulders, and Nippon Lever a category. Ask an African to sort a few objects
has done likewise for its products in Japan. – say, some utensils, food items and clothes –
Danone, which masquerades under the brand and he will put a knife in a potato, as a knife is
name Lu in Europe, announces its corporate needed to slice a potato. Japanese and Chinese
name on the same type of product in Asia. languages don’t even have words for the con-
None of this is chance but is determined cept of personality in the sense of the person
by the different sales process in individualis- as a unique entity separate from the social en-
tic versus collectivistic cultures. Whereas in vironment. There, harmony and trust are the
individualistic cultures the sales process is di- basis of business.
rect and based on argumentation and persua- Such cultural differences have profound
sion, in collectivistic cultures the sales pro- im- plications for brand strategy, as studies by
cess starts with building trust between seller Mon- ga and others have shown. In the United
and buyer. Also, consumer decision making in States, “fit” is judged on the basis of product
collectivistic cultures is based on trust in the class simi- larity, so U.S. consumers would
company, not on uniqueness of the brand, so view a brand ex- tension into a different
knowing the company behind the brand is of product category as not fitting with the
utmost importance to consumers. parent brand. In other countries, trust in the
This is why in Asia, especially, companies overall reputation of the company is enough,
tend to stick to using one corporate brand so they are able to accept bigger leaps across
name, or the company cosigns its name along- product categories. This is why Japanese
side product brand names at the very least. consumers can hold cosmetics, diapers and
Because brands are most successful if they are even food categories together under one Shi-
linked to companies that are trusted by con- seido label, while European companies such as
sumers, all sorts of products or brand exten- Nivea are more careful to limit line extensions
sions that would never fit in the West, can sit to related personal care products only.
together comfortably in Asia. For example, a
line of diapers produced by the Japanese cos- Brand Positioning Across Cultures
metics company Shiseido would be judged in When marketing a brand, companies typically
the West primarily in terms of whether cosmet- start with a positioning statement, which links
the internal and external aspects of the
brand. Internal aspects include the identity,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
values and personality that the company wants
to convey about the brand by which consumers
are sup- posed to recognize it. External aspects
include
Marieke de Mooij is a visiting Willem de Kooning academy Erasmus University and Gron- ingen
professor at various univer- in Rotterdam, and seminars at University. She is the
sities, including the Euro- author of several publications on the influence
pean University Viadrina in of culture on marketing and advertising,
Germany and the University which are used by practitio- ners and
of Navarra in Spain. In the universities world- wide. She is also a
Netherlands, she teaches business consultant in cross-cultural
Cultural Perspectives at the communications.
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the image – how the
consumer perceives the brand
– and usage – how the brand’s
products are used in daily
life. A brand is considered
well positioned when there is a
proper match- up between
these aspects. Of this mix of
ele- ments, the product itself
and the communica- tion are
the most culturally sensitive
elements. INTERNAL ASPECTS.
Many international companies
aspire to go beyond just
presenting product at- tributes
or consumer benefits, and
they attempt
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to inject personality characteristics and values to consumers, they convert them into per-
associated with the product in the mind of sonalities that fit their own culture. So, the
the consumer. Moreover, they want these same product may be viewed as trustworthy in
values to be communicated consistently across high uncertainty-avoidance cultures, where
target groups and across countries. Anglo- people want to reduce anxiety; as prestigious
American companies, in particular, have in high power-distance cultures, where
adopted this ap- proach. Thus, happiness is people need status symbols; and as innovative
used to sell fast food, success to sell cars, in low uncertainty-avoidance cultures, where
unlimited human potential to sell running shoes. people like change. Also, many of the most
Yet such values are not of equal importance successful global brands are older products,
to all cultures. One Levi’s commercial showed which have become so ingrained in the daily
two people running fast, to communicate a lives of con- sumers around the world that
positive brand value – freedom of movement. In they have em- braced them as their own, and
Spain, however, viewers saw not freedom but thus, they have become embedded in local
competition, which they don’t much like. cultures.
Opting for consistency in global branding This is what I mean by being out of control.
strategies stems from an obsession for con- Global marketing managers deceive them-
trol. Companies know what plays well with selves if they make consistency their goal. It
the home crowd, and the idea that consumers would be a fundamental error to attempt to
elsewhere might perceive their products as project your own value of consistency into
having different values from those the com- strategies targeted at consumers of different
pany intended causes brand managers to be cultural values.
out of control. An alternative option, and one that may
Ideally, the values the marketer injects serve to restore a certain degree of control, is
into the brand should be reflected in what the to define culturally specific brand characteris-
consumer takes away. But there is no getting tics for each of the countries in which you op-
around the fact that the gap between identity erate. Try to discern what is meaningful with
and image only grows wider the more you respect to the brand and its role in people’s
move across cultures. What consumers take lives in different cultures, and load the brand
out is often very different from what the with various core values, so that even though
company puts in. In a six-nation study of the the product may be the same worldwide, con-
impact of culture on brand perceptions, sumers in each market believe they are being
Foscht et al. made this point, citing Red Bull spoken to by someone who understands them
as an example of a brand that has been and who talks and feels just as they do.
marketed with a con- sistent brand identity, EXTERNAL ASPECTS. The second part of the posi-
yet consumer take-out varies across cultures. tioning equation is how consumers deal with
Brands that have been successful globally the brand and the products being presented to
may be more a function of their high quality them. Knowing how a brand is perceived and
and intensive distribution channels than any how the brand’s products are being used is
consistent brand identity put across by a essential for defining the brand identity. In-
mar- keting manager, because consumers depth consumer research is needed to prevent
ultimate- ly attribute their own identities to the development of products that don’t serve
brands that fit their own values, rather than the culturally specific needs. For years, Western
other way around. As certain brands become companies have been selling irons to Japanese
important
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and Korean consumers, only to discover, at a very late
stage, that they do
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GLOBA Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the
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FIGURE 1
The Future of Global Strategy
THE NEW PARADIGM IS CULTURAL SEGMENTATION: DEFINE MARKETS BASED ON CULTURAL SPECIFICS, AND THE
DEVELOP CULTURE-FIT STRATEGIES.
Review in light
Define culturally specific brand Conduct in-depth Communicate values that
of your own company’s
characteristics for each of the consumer research to match those of the receiver
cultural biases
countries in which you operate make sure you are rather than the producer
Include values shared serving culturally
Discern what is meaningful Information gathering may
by more cultures than specific needs
and its role in people’s lives not be the top aim of your
your own
in different cultures Use past or current advertising
Instead of insisting on a behavior to predict the
Load the brand with different Use other planning models
consistent sense of self, future
core values in different that put feelings rather than
include conceptions that
cultures, so that consumers in Map your target thinking first
can change according to
each market believe they are countries for varying
varying social positions Define according to each
being spoken to by someone approaches
and situations and every market
who speaks their language
Recognize limitations of
Vary identities by culture and measuring brand equity
recognize that, in most parts of across countries
the world, consumers
associate not with abstract
identity terms but real people,
like celebrities
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manifestation of old, existing behavior.
Because people’s behavior is more or less stable, past or
current behavior can be used to predict the future – something
to bear in mind when developing and marketing new products.
Western companies may have thought they were witnessing a
fundamental shift when the Japanese increasingly donned
Western-style clothing following World War II, but the start of
the 21st century sees a new generation of Japanese
reclaiming the kimono and other traditional garb. Cultures may
choose to try out new things because it delivers social status for
a time, but eventu- ally people revert to their old culturally con-
ditioned habits and preferences.
The fact that cultural behavior is rela- tively fixed also
means there is very little
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GLOBA Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the
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■
De Mooij, M. Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding TO KNOW MORE
Cultural Paradoxes, third edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications, 2010.
■
De Mooij, M. Consumer Behavior and Culture: Consequences for Global
Marketing and Advertising. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2003.
■
Monga, A.B., and D. Roedder John. “Cultural Differences in Brand
Extension Evaluation: The Influence of Analytic Versus Holistic
Thinking.” Journal of Consumer Research 33 (2007): 529-536.
■
Foscht, T., C. Maloles III, B. Swoboda, D. Morschett and I. Sinha. “The
Impact of Culture on Brand Perceptions: A Six-Nation Study.” Journal of
Product and Brand Management 17, no. 3 (2008): 131–142.
■
Koçak, A., T. Abimbola and A. Özer. “Consumer Brand Equity in a
Cross-Cultural Replication: An Evaluation of a Scale.” Journal of
Marketing Mana- gement 23, no. 1-2 (2007): 157-173.
■
Hsieh, M.H. “Measuring Global Brand Equity Using Cross-National
Survey Data.” Journal of International Marketing 12, no. 2 (2004):
28-57.
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