Doing business across cultures_8

BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES minutes, which is a record for a Friday night at Schiphol. The pilot said we got permission from air traffic control to go a bit early and that one particular passenger would be highly delighted. I realized it was me! We arrived half an hour before the scheduled arrival time, and I was able to catch the last flight to Kerry; in fact the pilot informed me that an Aer Lingus person would wait at the gate to get me on to my connection. I was driven by car to the plane waiting to go to Kerry that night; the chauffeur asked me the name of my hotel and the private jet company so they could cancel the arrangements. I made it to the conference that very evening. And I promised to tell any-body in doubt to fly Aer Lingus; I also used the case the next morning. The resulting applause was for an organization that understands moments of truth. What is the generalization we can draw from these cases? In market-ing a brand, product or service organizations will gain significant strength when they can identify when to go deep. Obviously, if air-lines always adapt to the needs of individual passengers in the way Aer Lingus did, they would go bust. If Nordstrom employees always ran after their clients from Chicago to New York they would also go bankrupt. Let’s consider the reconciliation graphic, as shown in Figure 6.2. Due to the strong technical orientation of German management, it is often inadvisable to send only marketing or sales people into busi-ness negotiations if some technical issues may be involved. Germans do not like to discuss the broad outlines of a business proposal and leave the details to the technicians. Indeed the German side may often strongly involve its own technical personnel in making a deci- 194 MARKETING ACROSS CULTURES The specific–diffuse dilemma 10 Stick to the knitting even at the cost of exceptional clients Moments of truth: knowing where to go deep Going the extra mile regardless of mileage 0 Figure 6.2 Giving diffuse service all the time 10 Towards “moments of truth” sion. They are therefore more interested in the exact technical details than in seamless presentation skills. It is also important to keep in mind that generally speaking, marketing people do not enjoy par-ticularly high status in German organizations. In contrast, French marketing is often highly context-dependent and holistic. Turn the television on, and you may not know what is being advertised even if you understand the words and the captions. As in most high-context cultures, advertising in France often involves a context that is meant to trigger associations among French viewers. Many French advertising campaigns are elaborate and attempt to create whole environments. For example, a complete Provençal vil-lage square was created in Harrods to sell French products. L’Oréal had portraits commissioned of “Les Dames de Beauté,” beautiful ladies, mostly queens and royal mistresses, who inhabited châteaux on the River Loire. The complexion of each beauty was matched to an appropriate line of cosmetics. 195 BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES The dilemma between neutral and affective orientation. What part do the display and role of emotion play, and/or is the dis-play of emotion controlled? What shapes the purchasing decisions? Peter Darke and his research team argue that it doesn’t matter whether you’re buying a new car or a new shade of lipstick; in all cases you are likely to consider both tangible factors (product fea-tures, price, etc.) as well as intangible qualities (such as how the product makes you feel). Their research demonstrates how affective (emotional) experience can be influential even when consumers are highly motivated and fully capable of making rational decisions on the basis of tangible features. Indeed, marketing research has shown the importance of affective cues (preferences based on feelings) and informational cues (preferences based on features) in the consumer decision making processes. It appears that affective cues have an impact on judgment primarily when consumers are less motivated to adopt a rational, analytic approach, especially when they perceive they have a diminished ability to judge products. Furthermore, choices made with a high affective component are often perceived as impulse purchases which consumers ultimately regret. This is the familiar “buyer’s remorse” syndrome. Affectivity also explains why many women enjoy “retail therapy” even to the point of just win-dow shopping with their friends, rather than making actual purchases. Typically reason and emotion are linked or combined. When cus-tomers express satisfaction (or dissatisfaction!), they are trying to find confirmation in their thoughts and feelings – and trying to show they have the same response as others (“I have the same view of this product/service as you”) and this is embodied in the Theory of Conspicuous Consumption (Bagwell and Bernheim, 1996). Cus-tomers, whose response is neutral, are seeking an indirect response. 196 MARKETING ACROSS CULTURES The dilemma for Johnson and Johnson What challenges arose when Johnson and Johnson wanted to launch a line of its baby products through a series of ads across different cultures? The first series was launched in the USA where a Caucasian mother is holding her newborn first baby. The ad is filled with an atmosphere of tenderness and love. The music is a soft, typi-cal American voice singing “the language of love.” The ad was subsequently “translated” for many countries in South Amer-ica, Asia and Europe. The song had local lyrics and the mother was obviously from the country where the ad was shown. Everything was different except the brand concept. However, after some response feedback it became clear that further adaptations needed to be made. In Australia as well as in Britain, the emotional aspects were given less prominence for obvious reasons. In France and Italy, emotions played the central role. This is a powerful example of how one can universalize the concept of maternal love and particularize the expression of emotions in the different cultures. In all markets the perceived meaning matched with the intended meaning. As Tom Peters said in a presentation to the Shell Human Resource Management Conference in Atlanta in 1999, “It’s cool to be emotional nowadays.” That is reconciliation. The dilemma between achievement and ascription Do customers want a functional product that achieves a utilitarian 197 BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES purpose or are they buying status? You can tell the time from a US$1 LED digital watch as well as you can with a US$10,000 Rolex Oyster. But a Rolex Oyster is a symbolic representation of status, not simply a watch. All societies give certain members higher status than others, signal-ing that unusual attention should be focused on those persons and the products they own and display and the services they consume. In achievement-oriented cultures the emphasis is on performance, reliability and functionality. In ascribed-status cultures, such as Asia, status is ascribed to products that naturally evoke admiration from others, such as high technology and jewelry. Status is less con-cerned with the functional capabilities of the product. Motives for acquiring ascribed status by making purchases vary across cultures. Of course, the same product such as a Mercedes car is sold in differ-ent countries. But in Germany you will be selling reliable, quality German engineering that will get you to work down the autobahn quickly and safely. In a third world country you’ll be selling status. The dilemma between internal and external control Are we stimulated by an inner drive, or do we adapt to external events that are beyond our control? The main issue here is to connect the internally-controlled culture of technology push (sell what we can make) with the externally-controlled world of market pull (make what we can sell). Nobody will deny the great knowledge and inventiveness of Philips in both its technologies and the quality of its marketing. The prob-lem was that these two major areas didn’t seem to connect. The push of the technology needs to help you decide what markets you want 198 ... - tailieumienphi.vn