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In week five we learn about the importance of globalization and how it can help your company’s profits grow. There are many things to look at when selling globally as different cultures need to be looked at differently when making a marketing strategy. If you understand how to market your products to different cultures in different countries you can take advantage of the profits that can be made through globalization. As a marketer you need to be aware of the social norms of what is and is not accepted in different cultures. It would not be wise to think that the same T. V. ad used in America would be ok to use in India.
When you understand what different cultures value you can use it toward your advantage when marketing. The Whirlpool ad used in India took fourteen months of research to find that the Indian homemakers prize hygiene and purity. Once they realized this they came up with a T. V. ad that shows a girl standing out from the crowd in white “thanks to whirlpool”. When you create an advertising campaign that really makes people not hesitate about whether or not to by your product, you have put yourself in a really good position to succeed. Marketing mix adaptation is necessary when selling in other countries.
People who live in India are mainly Hindu and don’t believe in eating meat. Companies like McDonalds get around this by offering chicken, fish, and vegetable burgers. Sears uses globalization to not only sell its products but to receive them as well. As you know, most of the products that are sold at Sears are made in other countries. There are garage door motors that are made in Mexico and clothing made in Asia. This shows you just how much we rely on globalization. There is not much thought about how a product got to you when you go to your local Sears and make a purchase.
Many of the Sears brands like Craftsman and Kenmore are built in many different countries. Sears does not just sell in the US it has stores in Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas to name a few. Sears has a web site for Canadian buyers, the models that are on the web site look Canadian so it’s not like Canadians are trying to buy things to make them look like Americans. In different countries like El Salvador Sears would have to provide products that can be purchased by most of the population. If hardly anyone can afford a plasma television in El Salvador then it would be a good decision to provide T.
V. models that the majority of people can afford. The cost of selling things in other countries means that the price must go up. A pair of Levi’s sold in here goes for 30 dollars but when sold in Paris it’s 88 dollars. The reason that the price goes up so much is because of the cost of shipping the product, tariffs and other costs that get added along the way. When people see how much a product is sold on the companies web site or how they can buy direct from the company then prices get brought down to being more affordable for people in other countries.
There are many different languages in the world and some words mean different things in other countries. You defiantly need to make sure that the country that you are selling in doesn’t have a problem with the name of the product you are selling. GM came out with the Nova in the sixties only to find out that it meant “no go” in Spanish. There are so many different target markets that are still being developed. More women are now working so there is a market to meet their everyday needs. The baby boomers are beginning to retire so there is a need to find out what they might need.
The world is ever changing through marketing research. You can find new markets and adapt to their changing needs. Technology has changed so much enabling people to do much more work in a given day. Sears uses technology to its advantage in so many ways. Now cash registers do all the calculations and it’s just a matter of scanning the product. The register makes ringing up people faster so they can get on with their day and you can help other people in line quicker. At Sears the registers would keep track of what is being sold and would give a signal to the main computer when something was out of stock and needed to be reordered.
The register lets us look up information like other stores telephone numbers and what they have available in stock. I could easily special order a product for a customer and have it sent to our store to be picked up or delivered to the customers house. The sales signs that are all around the store are made with a copy machine that is run by a computer. It’s really hard to think how it would be without the help of modern technology. Customers can call, click, or come in the store to make a purchase. What really helped out at the store was the use of security cameras that could catch people stealing and prevent loss in the store.
Ethics play a crucial part in marketing. Even though there are things to prevent unethical behavior, there are still ways that people can cheat the system. It is your own responsibility to not only set yourself above the rest with high ethical behavior but reporting and not allowing it to go on around you. The people who were caught doing wrong in the Enron scandal show that unethical behavior does not pay off and you will eventually get caught. When I was working at Sears not only would I see everyday customers getting caught stealing but also employees.
You might think that just stealing one thing does not make a difference in a big company but it does. People who steal cause the price of the product to go up and we all lose because of it. By showing that you have high ethical standards people will notice it and give you more responsibility within the company. It is our duty to make sure that the environment is not being damaged any more because of our own selfish greed. Companies that help with preserving the environment are not just doing what is right they are also making money.
Logging companies that replenish the cut down trees with baby trees ensure that the animals that live there will still have a place to live. People will generally buy wood from companies that they know are trying to preserve the environment. Coal companies in China are not just destroying their source of water when they dump into the lakes but are killing their own people by forcing them to drink the water. Many die from the cancers it causes. We can all help the environment by doing simple things like use less water and electricity. There were lots of rules at Sears on how to dispose of certain waste like used oil.
We would make people who were getting their lawnmower repaired take the gas out of their lawn mowers because of the potential hazard of gas leaking on the floor. A good thing is that there are laws that have been passes to stop people from dumping and destroying the environment. Companies who do this pay large fines and it is bad for their company’s image. With the rapid change and innovation that goes on in the world there are always new target markets that are opening up all the time. I remember when Sears starting offering a certain workout equipment called the Ab Lounge and everyone wanted it.
The Ab Lounge market was huge and since only three different stores were selling them in our area they were going quick. Now there are not a lot of people buying them. It just shows you how things can change in a year. My mother got a treadmill from Sears quite some time ago, at that time there were no treadmills will T. V. ‘s on them. Now there are T. V’s and every other thing you can think of on them. Technology and new innovations are always changing and in order to stay on top you need to be able to adapt to new things. Week five discussed technology and how things have changed in such a short amount of time.
Globalization affects what we purchase and to who we offer our products. Different countries have different needs to be met. A product sold in one place may not have purchasing power in another. There are so many different people in the world and you need to fully understand their culture before you sell a product to them. We serve customers of different diversity. There are different ages, genders, and religious beliefs. Last we learned about the need to have high ethical standards and respect the people around us. This is not only seen by our customers but the whole industry is setting an example to everyone.