Exam 4: Social and Cultural Environments

The cultural environment of global marketing has a big impact on FIFA (Federation internationale de Football Association).

Domino's Pizza had to pull out of Italy because Italians perceived its products to be "too American."

In China, authorities have the power to dictate which songs can be marketed and performed.

If a potential Latin American customer insists on giving you a tour of the architectural highlights of his city prior to discussing business, it s a clue that you are doing business in a high-context culture.

If a marketing manager plans to enter the newly industrializing countries (NICs)or other Asia markets with a product that has proved to be successful in the home market, the product's diffusion processes are likely to be:

Giving business cards with the left hand in Malaysia, showing soles of shoes to a host in Saudi Arabia, and winking one eye in India are all considered impolite interpersonal communication due to the fact that:

Both the spoken and unspoken aspects of language are included in the broader linguistic field of semiotics, which is the study of signs and their meanings.

Despite the fact that Sony is headquartered in Japan, the company makes it clear to job applicants in any part of the world that it does not consider English to be a "foreign language."

To speed adoption of a new product, the marketing team should:

Giving examples, show how technology is providing interesting new opportunities for exploiting linguistics in the name of marketing.

Former Disney chairman Michael Eisner and other company executives were blinded by ethnocentrism.Avoiding the Self-Reference Criterion (SRC)requires a person to suspend assumptions based on prior experience and success and be prepared to acquire new knowledge about human behavior and motivation.

Hindus do not eat beef, which means that McDonald's does not serve hamburgers in India.

Subway chains in India had to educate consumers about the benefits of the company's sandwiches since Indians normally did not consume buns.

What are some of the salient characteristics and differences between high- and low-context cultures?

Cultural influences are also quite apparent in food preparation and consumption patterns and habits.Domino's Pizza, the world's largest pizza-delivery company, pulled out of Italy because:

European consumers have faced a number of food-related issues, including an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease and continuing concerns over mad cow disease.As a result, many are skeptical about GMOs (genetically-modified organisms)and the benefits of eating food products that incorporate genetically-engineered ingredients.As one French citizen noted recently, "We have a very risk-averse society that has been completely traumatized by food scares." Thinking about this situation in terms of Hofstede's cultural values framework, one might reasonably interpret this remark to indicate that France ranks relatively high in:

The president of an American company was interested in dealing with a company in Saudi Arabia.The Saudi CEO made it clear at the outset that the credentials in the documents have less credibility than personal trust and confidence.This shows that the Saudi Arabian culture is a high-context culture.

Aesthetic elements that are attractive, appealing, and in good taste are perceived as decent and accepted universally.

American Nancy McKinstry recently became the new CEO at Dutch publisher Wolters Kluwer.As Ms.McKinstry noted, she had to drop the word "aggressive" in describing her strategic plan to company managers.She said, "I learned that the word has a negative connotation to a lot of Europeans.I was coming across too hard, too much of a results-driven American to the people.I needed to get on board so I started describing our strategy as 'decisive' and that made all the difference." Which of the following grammar topics is the critical element in this passage?

One of the basic elements of Roger's diffusion theory is the concept of adoption process which deals with the mental stages through which an individual passes from the time of his or her first knowledge of an innovation to the time of product adoption or purchase.Briefly describe these stages given examples of Apples iPhone.