What effect national cultural has on the marketing strategies of Essay

What effect national cultural has on the marketing strategies of business - Essay Example This essay discusses that as businesses expand into the international markets, it is imperative to better understand why a business, successful in one country, fails in its foreign markets. One major reason is that firms fail to understand and account for national cultural differences. This led to the 1990 mandate by the Marketing Science Institute to examine national cultural effects on market orientation for the firm. From this mandate came numerous theoretical and empirical works. The works studied two main areas, the affects of national culture on business performance and the affects of national culture on marketing efforts. Academic works on national cultural effects on marketing efforts lead to a split in the theory. It is argued for the globalization strategy that predicted consumer tastes would converge and marketing efforts should be directed toward standardization of products and marketing strategies. On the other side, Quelch and Hoff, Douglas and Wind, and de Mooij & Hofs tede contend that standardized global markets are a myth and that each nation requires firms to adapt and customize their products and marketing strategies. Both theories have strong arguments and empirical evidence to support their claims. Proceeding from the premise that retail marketing strategies are a key component to revenue generation for the retailer, this study, especially when it comes to retailing, subscribes to the theory that national culture should have an affect on the marketing strategy of the firm. These strategies can mean the success or failure of the company. To market effectively to the consumer, the marketer must understand what motivates the consumer to purchase at their store and not their competitors. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Numerous authors have studied various market theories and models with respect to national cultural effects. Their works looked at the specifics of marketing tasks to culture (micromarketing view) and the marketing concept to culture (macro marketing view). However, there are no significant works on the view between the micromarketing and the macromarketing in which the realm of marketing strategy falls. One reason for this is that it is typically a more difficult area to study. Each type of business dictates a different marketing strategy. It is easier to study very specific items, such as culture to product development (Hill & Still 1984; Imai & Takeuchi 1985; Nakata 1996), or culture to product choice. (Fawcett 1999; Luna & Gupta 2001) Or study very broad topics, such as national culture to market orientation. (Deshpande, Farley & Webster, 1993) However, the study of marketing strategy is between the micro and macro marketing views making it difficult to develop theories that are testable. Overall marketing strategy is too broad to practically study, yet not homogeneous enough to relate to as a whole. Therefore, to study this area requires the creation of artificial boundaries. Since it is such a difficult area to study authors have not published any significant research that may lead to a better understanding of why businesses have failed in their international efforts. Moreover, there is still debate among the academic community concerning the relevance of national culture in regards to customization versus standardization of products and marketing efforts. (Levitt, 1983; Ohrnae, 1989; Yip 1989; Deadrick, 1997; Olsen 2001) 1.3 Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to determine what effect national cultural has on the marketing strategies of business. Since marketing strategy is different for each type of business the only way to successfully study marketing strategy to national culture is to limit the study to one specific type of business. In this paper, the author looks to relate the marketing str

My First Time in Olympic Stadium Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My First Time in Olympic Stadium - Essay Example It was autumn that time, and Greece was not yet very cold. Greece was doing better than my country in terms of economy, thus they could afford good players and able to maintain great team. Some of them are AEK, PAOK, PANATHINAIKOS, and my favorite OLIMPIAKOS. OLIMPIAKOS was my favorite because at one time they let one of the best Albanian player played on their team. As I have said earlier, I was working at the factory and my workmates in the factory are fanatics of OLIMPIAKOS. They often watch games at the stadium and they were telling me that it was not easy to watch at stadiums as seats are reserved early to the fans that are members of the soccer team club, and the other seats are expensive. Some of them though are members of OLIMPIAKOS soccer fan club that's why they have the privilege in getting tickets easily. The approaching Championship League then had PANATHINAIKOS and OLIMPIAKOS for Greek teams to match Real Madrid of Spain, and Ajax of Netherlands. It was the first time o f OLIMPIAKOS to reach the elimination finals, while Ajax was the previous champion, and they were to match in the finals. My workmates were going to buy tickets for the championship. However, in order to get them, they have to get 10 tickets at that time, and they were only nine because one of them had planned to watch the game in Spain. I could be the one to replace that one. I was afraid to ask them though as they may reject me. I know they did like me because we talked about soccer a lot but I was an Albanian and Greeks do not hang out with us, only at work. Other people are paying even higher cost just to buy tickets from other people who already got some. I gathered my guts to take chance in asking them. The worst that could happen is that they will reject me and reminded me that I am not like them. These thoughts I gathered based on experiences or what I observed from the Greeks; how they discriminate non-Greeks in store, in the school, coffee shops, restaurants, and in the pu blic offices. Lucky for me, at work I never experienced that from my workmates. However, it was yet to be determined upon that situation. So I asked one of them. Thanasi was the person who was in-charge of the tickets and I approached him. I asked if I could buy the ticket and go with them to watch the game. He asked the consensus of others first and returned to me. He said yes I could go with them. I was the happiest person in the world that time. I loved thanes for that moment, I even hugged him. I could not believe that they accepted me. I was acting like a child; calling up everyone I knew particularly my fellow immigrants, and my family. My mother though was not happy for me as it involved spending money, and she's worried I might got killed in random fights of the fanatics or in stampede - I happen to be one of the good provider in the family so I understood her concern. Eventually I was able to convince her. My little sister was happy for me and she encouraged me to go and sa id that nothing bad will happen. I went with my friends at the boutique where the tickets are being sold. The store was in the center of the town where I used to live, Elefsina, which is one hour drive from the Athens, or from the Olympic stadium were the game was going to held. The store sells souvenirs like shirts, uniforms, toys, and other things with the OLIMPIAKOS symbols: red and white stripes, which are the team’