Question

Provide a 200+ word response with direct reference to this post:

"For the inexperienced marketer, the "similar but different feature of culture creates an illusion of similarity which usually does not always exist." Discuss and give examples.

In marketing, it's important to consider cultural differences to effectively reach the intended consumer base. Something that works in the US might not always work in other countries. Someone who is new to marketing may believe that cultures are similar enough to use the same marketing plan, however, this is only an illusion.

An example of this is the Gerber baby food brand and their expansion to Africa. Though a cute baby on the packaging can help a company sell a lot of baby food in the US, this is not the case in Africa. Due to low literacy rates, African people rely on packaging to tell them exactly what's in the package. This gave them very negative thoughts on the Gerber brand as they associated a baby with the product inside the container (Publisher).

Another example of a failed marketing campaign was Coca-Cola's expansion into China. When Coca-Cola translated their brand name into Chinese languages, their phonetic translation said "bite the wax tadpole," (Morrison, T).

In both of these instances, it would have been beneficial for the companies to do some research on the markets that they were expanding into. Had they looked into the people and languages of these countries, they could have avoided costly marketing mistakes.  

Answer 1

For the inexperienced marketer, the similar-but-different aspect of culture creates illusions of similarity that usually do not exist. Several nationalities can speak the same language or have similar race and heritage, but it does not follow that similarities exist in other respects - that a product acceptable to one culture will be readily acceptable to the other, or that a promotional message that succeeds in one country will succeed in the other. A common language does not guarantee a similar interpretation of words or phrases.

Both British and Americans speak English, but their cultures are sufficiently different that a single phrase has different meanings to each and can even be completely misunderstood. The growing economic unification of Europe has fostered a tendency to speak of the "European consumer." Many of the obstacles to doing business in Europe have been or will be eliminated as the European Union takes shape, but marketers, eager to enter the market, must not jump to the conclusion that an economically unified Europe means a common set of consumer wants and needs. Cultural differences among the members of the European Union are the product of centuries of history that will take centuries to ameliorate. A marketer is wise to remember that a culture influences a lot on the success or failure of a product.

McDonald's intially failed in India. It was selling the burgers with cow meat. Such burgers were huge success all over the world but in India it turned out to be a big failure. Cows are considered sacred in India and are worshipped and people can't think of consuming cow's meat in india. Finally McDonald's came out with Aloo tikki burger which resonated with Indian sentiments. In India people love vegetarian food and are large chunk of population comes under middle class population. Aloo Tikki burger became a huge success as pricing was reasonable and it consisted of aloo and tikki ( most relished items in India made from potatoes and spices).

To conclude we can say that local cultural values are indispensable in determining the success or failure of a particular brand.