Management challenges
A cursory examination of the course material by any thoughtful student should readily yield the simple dynamic that merging marketing with a global dynamic is not arithmetic, but more a geometric multiplicity. What works in the domestic market may or may not work elsewhere, and if you are the manager in charge, knowing that alone is not enough. It then behooves the manager to know why, or why not, where did that come from, what is the underlying and the like.
So many of these courses rightfully focus on the works of Trompenaars, Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck (1961), Condon & Yousef (1975), Wilson & Dalton (1996), Hofstede and the like, it remains just as important to be a good student of history, geography, sociology, anthropology and, for lack of a better way to speak it, world religions, at a minimum. Certainly one culture versus another may have a particular nuance in their writing style, a nonverbal gesture or a tradition in child rearing (just to name a quick three few) that would have an impact on how one would posture a marketing communication. Equally so, however, had a particular community being colonized for millennia or not, had a natural disaster affected its agribusiness, has there been a recent war, is this climate colder than one is used to marketing to … these considerations also have an impact.
In many ways, global marketing is the quintessential test of human communication (although international negotiation may exceptionally outpace it). Truly, overlook no nuance, and everything needs weaving in a perfect synchronicity in order to work at its optimum.
Variables: Cultural/Sub cultural/Generations/Classes
This second heading is actually a collapse of two headings. To quote the course objectives:
• Identify and evaluate cultural variables as they relate to marketing.
• Analyze different cultures/subculture/generations/classes and assess how they influence consumer behavior.
Further handicapping occurred in the previous section, insofar as I have already alluded to these various twists and turns.
However, here are a few brief focused words on these specific sub considerations. Perhaps the best way to illustrate all of this is through example, grounded in the common experience of the American reader.
One may say there is in American culture. Given our strong sense of individuality this is generally understood and variously seen from Alaska to Maine and from Florida to Hawaii. Equally so, our regional subcultures have a capability like so many menu items: Cajun, southern, southwestern, northeastern, mid-Atlantic, Pacific Northwest and so on. Indeed menu items, for the most iconic expression for American culture and sub cultures generally are our cuisine. Portions are outsized, and from Oregon salmon to Maine lobster to Louisiana crawfish, chefs around the world may take their swipes, but they had better come hungry because their plates will be overflowing.
When it comes to generations, however, things shift. Given that the United States is in either a waning or transitional state of power, coupled with our fading role of developmental leadership, Americans are as affected by shifting realities vis-à-vis generational considerations as anyone else can be. 50 years ago, there were enclaves of communities analogous to the villages, where everyone spoke Polish, Italian, "Irish", etc. Those neighborhoods have broken up and moved away, dispersing its inhabitants. Even the ethnicities that have replaced those old neighborhoods do not as often express the same contained cohesiveness (although, there are a few). Still, consider generational beyond any considerations of the dynamic proper. While this aspect alone could unravel into the book all by itself, let me conclude with just one tangential example. This author's parents were present for the advent of piano rolls. Music began to be collected slowly with thick 75’s. Music collection began in earnest with the thinner LPs and 45s. The first attempt to "keep up" came with eight track tapes (the breakthrough being the endless playing of the larger recording). We see where this is going; then cassettes, then CDs and now it is digital without any packaging and all. That generation has been the pioneers for such commercial abuse, for how many times have they been expected to purchase the soundtrack of their lives (and how many times have they watched the devices by which to play them disappear). “Our generation” will underwrite a much broader and deeper abuse, as we watch the development and synthesis of the portable, the book, the computer, the telephone, the music player, the camera, the watch, the GPS, etc. We will all voluntarily chip ourselves. Education itself is in danger of someday being a mere “app”. In the 1970’s Japanese business gave the world the disposable. Alas, there is no “app” for things that last.
At this writing, the conversation of class in the United States is separating, like so much dish detergent meeting so much grease. From a global consumption perspective, this further feeds the drive for the absence of manufacturing in the United States in favor of low-cost labor overseas. An example of this is easy, but the implications run deeper than may appear at first blush. Let us look for a moment at Wal-Mart, which rose to its current prominence by being the master of supply chain. Now that the cost of goods is down as low as possible, there is no longer an advantage to keeping stocked at the warehouses, as previous years had expressed. Just in time has taken precedence. This writer's personal experience in seeking Christmas lights two full weeks before Christmas was met with a Holy Grail experience of driving to a half dozen stores before finding the item. The reason is that stores (not just Wal-Mart, but Target, Walgreens, Publix, CVS, etc.) will only stock what they know they can sell, and selling out of it in time. All leftovers will seek a clearance posture. This avoids restocking and the associated payroll. Next year is not the echo of tradition; it will be a brand-new cycle, engaging whoever can cough up the best price. While this new perspective has implications for the luxury markets as well, relative payroll is different, and therefore so too is restocking … and therefore so too is tradition and availability.
Conclusion
As someone whose lifelong hobby has been studying other countries and cultures, this author has enjoyed classes such as this (and certainly this one in particular). Throughout this class most of my work has concentrated on Southeast Asia. It makes sense, however, that this writer's reflection would find an American expression, as the author is, after all, American. Such a paper invites the personal, the introspective. There is something very grounding about returning to one's default position. For all the investigation and research in the how and the why of marketing elsewhere, the domestic expression constitutes one's personal benchmark.
Finally, this author offers his thank you. Not the thank you the performer offers his audience, though I do appreciate the reader, whoever you may be. This thank you is to the instructor and the colleagues, the institution and the designers of the curriculum, for creating a context for this writer to forward himself.
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