Demographic Differentiation
This author is a balding, short, hefty middle-aged white-guy. It would be nigh to impossible for this writer to appreciate pregnancy, being another race or being born into privilege. We also know that where marketing came from was a day when most of Madison Avenue looked similar and did presume to serve other demographics directly. We also know we evolved.
Going overseas simply compounds everything exponentially. Italians in the north use white and cheese sauces, in the south, red marinara; but taking that further, in Rome they use butter heavily whereby in Naples they use olive oil. It is not just a people, but what are the boundaries - regional, municipal? It could well be a bit of this and a bit of that. One has to look. Here is where the secondary research is still developing. If the measuring becomes mission critically important, there may be no substitute for primary research.
Demographic Satisfaction Metrics
Coca Cola is sweeter elsewhere in the world. It needs to be. Coke is established in the US in a way that it can allow Pepsi being sweeter here, but it was not in a position to rest on its laurels in quite the same way as the two swept across the globe looking to establish market share. That is not to say that sweetening was all they had to do, there was positioning from country to country. This iconic example demonstrates that it may be the essence of what you have or serve, or the idea or look of it that folks elsewhere will admire and/or embrace. Yet on a regular basis taking on something as is may be the flip of a coin, just as often needing to adjust the offering to suit local tastes.
Examples of not adjusting to local tastes have become a voluntary internet archive. Marketing faux pas stories are abundant, where such subtleties overlooked cost mightily. The Gerber example in Africa comes to mind, the contents of the jar traditionally illustrated on the label, thereby putting off its potential consumers with the image of the child (seen as pureed child!). In an altogether different direction, how Likert scales need re-contextualizing in Japan because that is a culture uncomfortable with extremes (and will therefore shun either end).
When one seeks to measure, define terms and the ruler by which to measure.
RISC (research, involvement and investigation, strategy, and control)
It seems that as acronyms go, “RISC” has a better sound and feel than “RIS”, though in fact the control referred to will likely subsume within the strategy. Admittedly, one wants to “control” the rest as well (clean research, professional involvement, etc.).
There is some substantial, bright and innovative new literature on strategy. That end of the acronym is for a different paper, and is the focus of what to do with the information once gathered.
The important aspect here is the research, and the innumerable configurations of what constitutes it. Therefore, we are confronted with a yet uncreated uber-metric (presumably a future software application), on paper, a cumbersome template of sorts. Alternatively, we venture forth on a case-by-case basis. Then where to begin would have to start with questions of what are we looking to offer and where are our options.
Already the options aspect of the former question offers up inherent variations. Let us break this in two: if the enterprise needs a particular location (e.g. an already strategic rationale for entering China) that is very different from having an open menu (wherein one can readily choose among countries and cultures similar to ones own in language, political structure, proximity, etc.).
Once a target is in focus, we again need to see our product or service through the eyes of those who will be considering it. An accounting software company contracting overseas ostensibly need only embrace the corporate culture it is integrating. That is a very narrow focus. Unfortunately, things are rarely that easy. Herein lay the need for the uncreated uber-metric; adding to the aforementioned Kumar list, sensitivities may or may not need to include all other experiential (color, temperature, taste, size, texture, shape, finish...), as well as actual characteristics (geography, given trade agreements, literacy, uncertainty avoidance...).
Of course, this all needs filtering through the realities of time and budget. If you are part of a multinational effort with the luxury of the year or more and deep pockets, not only is secondary research a given and representatives can be sent to differing areas (of the larger target area) for lengths of time for primary research (studying all potential competitors, substitutes and indigenous attitudes, uses, purchase frequencies, et al.). On the other hand, if this is the constrained time and budget of a half a dozen or less entrepreneurial management team, then secondary research has to be exhaustive and weighing the parameters of at least one trip come into play.
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