Posts Tagged ‘Marketing Globe
Marketing Globe: Difference in Behaviors
Another challenge for a marketer to attempt a one-size-fits-all model in this global environment is that behaviors differs greatly in each location. Heck, we can’t even agree on the spelling of the word behaviours. Why is it important to understand the difference in behaviors? It’s because that’s the only thing we can intercept and try to influence. If someone never acts upon what they think, you would never know what they are thinking. Many books have depicted an oppressive society where people acts according to the social standards and they are each model citizens. However, their thoughts can be quite different. And there is nothing you can do about their thoughts as long as they don’t speak of it or act on it. And there is no way you can even know that they have uncondoned thoughts. This is an example of how we can only intercept someone’s thinking when we can intercept their behavior.
In fact, that’s the power behind the word “Insight.â€
IN:Â What they think
SIGHT:Â What we see they do
INSIGHT:Â What we see they do based on what they think
IN: I’m feeling the pressure of an uncertain economy. I may lose my job tomorrow. I’d better be careful with my spending.
SIGHT:Â I started clipping coupons and stocking up on deals.
Marketers leveraging the insight: Put coupons in newspaper. Thus, offering consumers incentives to buy my brand over my competitors.
So, a difference in behavior can greatly change how we market to different consumers in different locations. As this is a blog, let’s take the hot topic of social media and internet use as an example. According to a recent survey conduct by TNS, a leading market research firm, the predominate profile of an internet user in the United States is a Networker. However, simply cross over the our neighbors up north however, the predominate user profile in Canada is a Functionals.
Networker: The internet is important for me to establish and maintain relationships. I have a busy life whether it’s my profession or managing the home. I use things like social networking to keep in touch with people I wouldn’t have time to otherwise. I’m a big home internet home user and I’m very open to talking to brands and looking for promotions. That said I’m not really the kind of person to voice my opinions online.
Functionals: The internet is a functional tool, I don’t want to express myself online. I like emailing, checking the news, sport & weather but also online shopping. I’m really not interested in anything new (like social networking )and I am worried about data privacy and security. I am older and have been using the internet for a long time.
Okay, would you talk to these two people the same way? Would you even find them the same way? The answer is of course no. Of course, this is a simplified example. You may not be trying to reach the typical American or the typical Canadian. Also, I’m highlighting the predominate profile, but there are plenty of Functionals in the US and plenty of Networkers in Canada. However, it still illustrates the point that it’s probably unwise to have a one-size-fits-all marketing campaign. This is why companies have different websites for different countries. We need to recognize even on the world wide web, we are targeting one country at a time. In fact, depending on the business, it may be one city, one neighborhood, at a time.
More from the Marketing Globe Series.
Photo Credit:Â Thinking by Gal.
Related articles
- Marketing Globe: Difference in Culture (curiousmarketeer.com)
- Mobile Usage Across The Globe (viralblog.com)
Marketing Globe: Difference in Culture
The world has gotten flat. You launch a product in the US. Put up a website. And a Arab customer may be emailing you about it. So, as marketers, would we want to build global marketing campaigns? After all, we want to be consistent around the world. We want our consumers to know our brand, our quality, our standards no matter where they are. We want them to trust us around the world. So, we want one global marketing strategy.
Hold on a second.
The world may have gotten flat, but I’d argue that the world of marketing and branding is still very much a globe. And a one-size-fits-all approach may be ill-advised.
Let’s first look at how we market products. There are two camps of marketing. One being functional, and the other one being emotional. Most successful marketing campaigns need to blend the two and lean toward emotional. After all, as anyone who have ever fell in love can attests, the brain may suggest to the heart how to feel, but the heart can definitively overrule the brain on what to do.
Clotaire Rapaille is a renounced anthologist and marketing expert. His book The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way To Understand Why People Around The World Live and Buy As They Do decoded some of our basic concepts of lives into what it really means for us on a fundamental emotional level.
It’s January, so let’s use healthy and wellness as our example. In fact, let’s use being fat specifically as our example.
Outside of having a medical condition, being fat in America is a choice. We made this choice as a result of something. It’s not simply a result of not exercising and eating poorly. We make the choice of not exercising and eating poorly. Then, the question becomes why did we make that choice? Rapaille decoded Fat as “Checking Outâ€. Through his research, he discovered that people “let themselves go†after they check out of their own lives. Divorce or lack of professional success can do this. Losing ones’ identity can do this. The latter is a fundamental challenges for moms. Moms lose themselves in the daily grind of raising children, and for some, they give up on their own success, their own lives, and they check out. As they stop caring about themselves, they start to get fat.
In the Arab nations though, they view fat completely differently. They view fat as a symbol of success. A skinny wife suggests that her husband is not making enough to bring home the bacon. Therefore, fat wives are a symbol of the men’s wealth, and they welcome obesity. (Of course, it’d also be foolish for us to think that this trend would never change. Every culture evolves. Even in America, how thin are the models on magazine covers changes from year to year as our opinion on being thin and being healthy changes.)
So, would you market health and wellness the same in these two cultures? And we don’t have to talk about a weight loss campaign. But simply, let’s talk about fruit cup. In America, you may want to market it as a health food, and as something you do for yourself. In Arab, you may want to market it as a sign of wealth if you can afford a commercially prepared fruit cup.
Our cultures define us. As Marketers, it’d be foolish to approach the global world in a one-size-fits-all manner. You must take your great idea, and adapt it to the local flavor. There is no such thing as a global marketing campaign.
Editor’s Note:  This is the first post on Marketing Globe Series
Photo credit: Nuno Santos
Jeannie Chan is a Brand Manager for a Fortune 500 consumer goods company. She considers herself a marketer, a traveler, and a foodie. Jeannie lives in NYC. 
