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The role of culture in international markets discussed
Global vs domestic marketing
The role of culture in international markets discussed
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International and Domestic Marketing Comparison Paper: India and the United States
Introduction
Nations, like the people who inhabit them, are all different. Some, like the United States, are at the forefront of technology and development. Others exist as third world nations, where even the most basic necessities are hard to come by. And then there are those which are in the middle, such as India. In the past 20 years, India has grown in the eyes of the global community from a rural, developing nation to a burgeoning global marketing hub. While India had much guidance from the United States and other global powers, the country has still chosen to follow its own path of business and marketing development. This paper is designed to evaluate India's current marketing environment in comparison with the marketing environment here in the US, citing both nation's similarities and differences.
India's Marketing Strategy
India is a nation that is on the move towards becoming one of the leaders in the global economy. While the country still has a long way to go, it is making significant strides towards competition with nations such as the United States and England. Indian leaders have been moving towards "a five-point agenda that includes improving the investment climate; developing a comprehensive WTO strategy; reforming agriculture, food processing, and small-scale industry; eliminating red tape; and instituting better corporate governance" (Cateora & Graham p. 56, 2007). These steps are geared to begin India's transformation from a third world nation into a global economic leader. The current marketing environment in India is in transition, with both similarities and differences in comparison to the marketing environment in the US.
Culture
The first and likely most complex influence on both nations' marketing is culture. A country's culture is a mesh of a people's beliefs, values, societal institutions, religions, laws, and attitudes, among others. In the United States, culture is quite blended, with a multitude of different races, religions, and values all existing together. The US does not have a deep rooted sense of tradition, likely due to the fact that it is a young nation comparatively, and that it is made up of immigrants from many different nations. What the US does hold at the heart of its culture is capitalism and individualism. Americans tend to reward individual efforts rather than the efforts of a group, which has a significant impact on our society (Cateora & Graham, 2007).
Marketing In this day and age is vital for a company to perform at its possible best. Marketing’s main focus is to give great satisfaction to a customer. There are many aspect of marketing, these aspects give marketer’s the tools to help strive for the best possible success they can achieve. They hope that they can create exposure for their brand, product or service.
Marketing is the process of searching for options for accumulating profits by identifying the demands of the people and satisfying their needs with appropriate products. In today’s globalized business world, marketing can play a vital role in establishing trade blocks all over the globe with competitive and cutting edge market, research, policies, strategies and activities.
The Harvard Business School case study Silvio Napoli at Schindler India summarizes the various problems and issues facing Schindler India regarding its entrance into the new foreign market, India. Schindler Holdings Ltd. is a Swiss-based manufacturer of escalators and elevators which is looking for potentially entering into the Indian elevator market. Main executive committee members predicted that the Indian industry showed great promise in terms of future growth potential. The company’s objective was to manufacture standardized elevators at a cost lower than current customized elevator market. Silvio Napoli, who is vice president of Schindler in Asia, was chosen to lead the new entry into India. To successfully enter and penetrate the Indian market, Silvio and company needed to consider a variety of factors like but not limited to: mode of entry and type of strategy to implement, organizational structure, outsourcing and logistics approaches, marketing, and domestic and global hiring procedures.
It is absolutely critical that when a company or organization is looking to launch a promotional campaign in a specific market i.e. foreign market, culturally unique domestic market not just common/well known cultural traits & traditions are recognized; subtle nuances must also be identified and incorporated into the promotion. A good example of when this did not happen was the 1999 Holiday campaign for Gap; while all collateral used “everybody in color”, when the campaign was launched in English Canada, the reaction by consumers was virtually instantaneous “another American company not recognizing that Canada is, in fact, not the 51st state”. This oversight by the company cost the company both in re-doing all...
[6] Kripalani, Majeet & Egnardio, Pete. The Rise Of India. Business Week Online. December 8, 2003. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_49/b3861001_mz001.htm
...d i.e. to use a mix of both the strategies. Some academic experts also presented the same arguments which stated that the company should use standardized tactics and adapting others to difference market is necessary. Such authors believes that both the standardization and adaptation are nothing but a matter of degree to use in international marketing strategy. Also McDonald strategy is the best example of such arguments where the company has globalized it brand but localized its marketing strategies. Considering the success of McDonald I would strongly recommend that a right balance of standardization and adaptation is need to ensure good growth and success in international marketing. Hence it can be concluded that if a company wants to be successful at global level, then it should include elements of both standardized and adaptation approach in its marketing mix.
Introduction India is the world’s second most populated country with over 1.2 billion people. Since its independence from British rule in 1947, the country has been more or less a stable democracy. Until 1991, Indian governments imposed economic austerity and its markets were comparatively closed to the world. Economic reforms in 1991 brought about a change which made India an attractive and huge market for multinational corporations from all over the world (Joshi 8). Retail industry within a globalized world is one of the most thriving and profitable sectors.
India Challenges India presents lucrative business opportunities, but both foreign and domestic enterprises face formidable challenges in conducting their businesses here. India is a complex market due to regional diversity, large rural-urban divide, dominant unorganized markets and multiple legal and administrative systems. Furthermore, a complex bureaucracy and lack of proper infrastructure facilities magnify these challenges. The biggest challenge that most multinational companies face is the Indian governance framework, which is intertwined between the Central and State structures. The companies face several complex bureaucratic procedures and are forced to comply with both state and central rules and regulations. Moreover,
India is a vast country with lots of restrictions. As earlier when britishers came to India to do trade but then they ruled India for centuries. Slowly and gradually Indian government decided to liberalize the law and allow MNC’s to come and do trade with Indian market. By doing this India started developing its market globally.
Along with increasingly liberalised trade policies, economic integration, higher stability of monetary transaction and development in transportation as well as communication, international business has experienced a dramatic rise (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2001). This rise is also accompanied with enormous challenges that generate from differences between multinational companies’ home countries and foreign markets. Therefore, international marketing strategy that aims to achieve business success in competitive overseas markets has become a focus of studies especially in terms of standardization and adaptation. Years of fierce debates generate three basic perspectives. From a standardization perspective, reasons for standardizing strategy can be growing market similarity, economies of scale, homogenized customers, technological advance and consistent corporate brand (Levitt, 1983; Theodosiou and Leonidou, 2003). By
Marketers focus on desires and wants of individuals, groups and societies. They focus on individual demand, market demand and the trend in society. In marketing concept, market is not only a physical place but it is also a non-physical place. Joshi et al. (2005) points out that international marketing is firm-level marketing practices across the border which involves market identification and targeting, entry mode strategies, marketing mix, and making the right decisions to compete in international markets. Multinational marketing is a complex form of global marketing that engages a company in marketing operations in various countries. Globalisation has progressed significantly in the past decade, due to modern communication, transportation and improved legal infrastructure as well as the political choice to consciously open markets to international trade and finance. Various companies have been successful in global marketing such as Bosideng, which is a Chinese company which creates men's clothing and down wear.
To conclude culture is a very broad term, which can be defined in many ways. India and the USA share some of hofstede’s dimensions in common with each other, Such as masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. But also differ greatly when it comes to power distance and individualism dimensions. Coca-Cola does customize its operations to a certain degree, mainly concerning packaging and marketing in different countries. However this customization is next to nothing when looking at how extensively different fast food menus are in different countries. Coca-Cola has faced issues while operating in India, which they have taken measures to correct and improve.
India's ice cream industry offers a potentially lucrative market for US agricultural and food exporters. Trade liberalization in the country is driving the growth and diversification of the sector, with consumers given a wide range of ice cream flavors such as vanilla, strawberry, butterscotch and chocolate. High tariff rates and inefficient distribution systems continue to hamper the import market, but an increasingly affluent younger generation of consumers will likely boost the ice cream sales.
At the end of the 19th century, India's maharajahs discovered a Parisian designer called Louis Vuitton and flooded his small factory with orders for custom-made Rolls-Royce interiors, leather picnic hampers and modish polo-club bags. But after independence, when India's princes lost much of their wealth, the orders dried up. Then in 2002 LVMH, the world's largest luxury-goods group, made a triumphant return to India, opening a boutique in Delhi and another in Mumbai in 2004. Its target was the new breed of maharajah produced by India's liberalised economy: flush, flash, and growing in number.
The Indian consumers have become much more open-minded and experimental in their perspective. There is now an augmented growth of western trend reaching the Indian consumer by the media and Indians working abroad. They are more open for western uses and this can take be an advantage for