Globalization And Marketing

Introduction

Marketing can be defined as a discipline that involves researching and developing a product and then facilitating the sales and distribution of said product to the general public. Marketing has been around for a long time, and has been constantly evolving to meet the needs and purchasing behaviors of consumers. Marketing today is very different from what it used to be a few decades ago, mainly due to a rapidly changing world economy and the development of fast and virtually free knowledge distribution and exchange. Marketing faces many new challenges in the 21st century but none for important than the surge of globalization and information technology, both which impact current businesses more than any other factors. These 2 challenges can make or break a business and it requires the implementation of brand new strategies to cope with the rapidly evolving global market we have today.

Globalization

Globalization, as Wikipedia defines it, is a complex series of economic, social technological, cultural and political changes seen as increasing interdependence, integration and interaction between people and companies in disparate locations. With the onset of technological advancements within the past decade, globalization has never been faster. Airplanes and jets shrink geological distances whilst the surge of the internet, telephone and satellite

television shrinks cultural distances. The flow of information and improvement of logistic has thus allowed companies to expand their market worldwide in a very small amount of time. It is very evident today that the impact of globalization, regardless of size, is visible in our everyday life. For example, the coffee we purchase on our way to work is a hybrid product. The coffee beans were probably cultivated in Latin America, the Espresso machine made in Europe., while paper cup the coffee was served in produced locally. Globalization has infused a certain amount of complexity in current market enviroments, with foreign companies forging partnerships with other local companies in an effort to conquer the local market. Globalization has brought irrelevancy to current traditional businesses' borders and boundaries, with larger and better funded corporations infiltrating foreign marketplaces with hope of expanding their market coverage greatly. An issue that has to be dealt with is cross-cultural marketing.

Globalization being an inevitable process in the 21st century, brings along with it cross culturalization. Because globalization makes marketing a now world-wide discipline, it also means that differences between ethnicities and culture become all the more obvious. Companies face a daunting task of melding its traditional marketing practices into a marketing mix that conforms to its customers value base within the cultural system. On an anthropological level, market behavior is generally bound to its cultural system. Consumer purchasing behavior and business practices are performed to a large extent according to their cultural environment. Therefore in order to break through and cater to the customers preference and purchasing behavior, a thorough understanding of the locales cultural system of the target market is needed. This doesn't mean that identifying cultural differences alone will be sufficient to ensure selling success. It just means that marketers will have to identify cultural similarities as well, and successfully manipulate these differences and similarities into a breakthrough selling point.

Unfortunately cross-cultural marketing isn't that simple. In many locales of the world, such as Australia and the United States of America, multiculturism is a part of everyday life. For example, in the USA alone, lies a multicultural population of roughly 100 million, with a combined buying power of African-American, Hispanic, and Asian markets that amount up to USD 1.3 trillion. Businesses' have to figure out how to idenfity the cultural similarities and uniqueness of these citizen groups in order to established a modified standardized marketing mix that will capture the attention of these diverse consumers, if they are to tap into this highly lucrative melting pot of audiences.

Research is the key when it comes to cross-cultural marketing. Businesses' should willingly use the services of research companies whos job is to provide detailed demographic information of a location that could be crucial in jump-starting a business's venture into new territory. The information provided would help in the understanding the target market even before the first step is taken. It is very important that marketers learn all they can about a certain culture before making any moves. They certainly wouldn't want to be caught unawares by a simple misunderstanding due to ignorance. For example, in some cultures, such as in Japan, it is perfectly exceptable to present a business gift, and moreover when it is expected but not presented, it is viewed as an insult. In some other cultures, the act of presenting a business gift could be construed as inappropriate might very well offend the recipients. In another case, Disneyland Hong Kong overflowed with visitors during Chinese New Year, prompting officials to close the park to any more ticket holders. Earlier in January, Disney had offered discounted one-day passes to the public that were valid for the next six months with an exception of a number of blackout dates, including Chinese New Year.Hong Kong celebrates Chinese New Year over 4 days, whereas the Peoples Republic of China celebrates it over 7 days. Disney had only blacked out 4 dates for Chinese New Year, failing to adapt its ticket policy to the needs of Chinese customers over the border. Many mainlanders showed up with tickets that they thought were valid, leaving Disney with considerable embarrassment having failed to consider their next door neighbours in the promotion.

Another obvious barrier is one of language. English is native to only 7 countries worldwide and readily spoken in 3 others. It is not understood well and spoken in many other countries such as Japan, China and Southern European countries. Consumers in general are most comfortable conducting businesses and making purchases within their own native language. People live their own life in their own language, and marketing should follow suit, for it to succeed. It is possible, however, to overcome these language barriers by utilizing current technology enabling companies to communicate with customers cost effectively, using virtually any language necessary to get their message across.

Information Technology and the Internet

The rise of Information Technology (IT) in the past decade