Consumer, buyer, customer, client, clientele, purchaser.

1. A person who buys something (a formal word).

2.The people, especially rich people, who regularly use a shop or restaurant or the services of a professional person.

3. Someone who buys goods from a particular shop, restaurant, or company.

4.Someone who is buying something expensive such as a house, company,, or painting, usually from another person.

5.Someone who pays for services or advice from a professional person or organization.

6. A person who buys and uses goods and services.

 

Ex.4. To show that you know the words from ex.3 fill them into spaces.

1. Madam Vickor caters for a very select ….

2. Ford has launched a big new sales campaign in an effort to bring in new ….

3.We couldn’t find a … for our house, so we weren’t able to move after all.

4.The firm is one of our oldest … – we don’t want to lose them.

5. We may have to pass increase in the price of raw materials on the ….

 

Ex.5. Open the brackets.

Key marketing decisions (to be) made within limits (to set) by the organization. The strategic management process (to involve) the steps (to take) at an organization's corporate and divisional levels (to develop) long-run master approaches for sur­vival and growth. In contrast, the strategic marketing process (to involve) the steps (to take) at the product and market levels (to allocate) marketing resources to viable marketing positions and programs.

Focusing the Business with the three Cs business theorists (to point out) that three Cs — customers, competitors, and the company itself— (to interrelate) (to estab­lish) the basic character of an organization's business. An organization's busi­ness (mission) (to be) a statement about the type of customer it (to wish) (to serve), the specific needs of these customers, and the means or technology by which it (to serve) these needs. This definition (to affect) the company's growth prospects by establishing guidelines for selecting opportunities in light of customer needs, competitors' actions, the organization's resources, and changes in environmen­tal factors.

Read the text once again and explain, in your own words, what stands behind the three Cs.

Ex.6. Translate into Russian in written form.

Production Life Cycle

Products, like people, have been viewed as having a life cycle. The products life cycle concept describes the stages a new product goes through in the marketplace: introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

The introduction stage of the product life cycle occurs when the product first enters the market, sales grow slowly, and profit is little.

The second stage of the product life cycle, growth, is characterized by rapid increases in sales, and it is in the stage that competitor appear.

The third stage, maturity, characterized by a leveling off of total industry sales revenue. Also, marginal competitors begin to leave the market. Most consumers who would by the product are either repeat purchases of the item or have tried and abandoned it.

The decline stage is the beginning of the end and occurs when sales and profits are steadily dropping. Frequently a product enters this stage not because of any wrong strategy of the company but because of environmental changes.

 

Can you give any example illustrating four stages of product life?

 

Ex. 7. Study the following words and word-combinations. Make your own sentences using each of them. Translate the sentences into Russian.

pay, payment, pay off, pay one’s respect, pay through the nose, payable, pay-claim, payee, prepayment, payment by the results, payment in advance, payment in due course, payment in kind, payment on account, payment terms, payola, payroll tax, pay-as-you-earn (PAYE)

 

 

Reading & Speaking

T E X T 1

EVOLUTION OF MARKETIG

 

The evolution of marketing is the evolution of the exchange process. Un­less two or more individuals or organizations have something to exchange, there is no need for marketing. The desire to exchange occurs only when someone produces more than he/she can consume (a surplus). This surplus is exchanged for surplus someone else produced. Possibly the first market­ing transaction took place when one cave-dweller, who enjoyed making arrows but did not like to hunt, persuaded a fellow cave-dweller, who liked to hunt but did not enjoy making arrows, to accept some arrows in exchange for some animal skins and meat. Since that primitive time, mar­keting has become very sophisticated indeed.

The Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans all had well-devel­oped trade systems. The Old Testament contains many references to such marketing topics as money, wealth, credit, products, international trade, government regulation, middlemen, taxation, poverty, welfare, pricing, trade fairs, and business ethics.

During the Middle Ages trade declined. However, it picked up again during the Age of Discovery (roughly 1400-1760 A.D.) as merchants sought to extend their reach over much of the world. As you no doubt recall, Columbus made his first voyage to America in an effort to find a more direct trade route to Asia and the Far East.

In the late 1700s the Industrial Revolution began, and as it continued, marketing grew in importance. This latter-day development can be divided into three periods— the production era, the sales era, and the marketing era.

 

1.Why is marketing considered to be the evolution of the exchange process?

2.What do you know about the marketing topics mentioned in paragraph 2 of the text?

3. Explain in what the production era differs from the sales era and the marketing era.

 

T E X T 2

Read the text. What is it about? Give the title to the text. Defend your variant.

Marketing is closely related to economics, the social science concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of useful goods and services. In traditional economic thought economic activity creates utilities of form, place, time, and possession. To marketers the form created is the product; place and time refer to having the product available where and when it is needed; and possession relates to ownership or transfer of title. Marketing is a part of the broad field of economics and helps to create these four all-important utilities.

Marketing is also related to other social sciences. It draws freely from sociology, the scientific analysis of social institutions as a functioning whole and as they relate to the rest of society. Marketing studies people in a social context, as members of different groups. Advertisers, for example, aim their appeals at particular market segments, such as the youth market, the urban market, the black market, or the farm market. Sociology helps us understand the differences not only between our society and those of other nations but also between various subcultures within our own country.

Psychology is the study of the mental, attitudinal, motivational, or behav­ioral characteristics of an individual or a group of individuals. Marketing practitioners find knowledge of psychology helpful in formulating adver­tising and sales campaigns. How do people think? What motivates them to buy? How can we change their buying habits? What price will have the strongest appeal? Psychological research has become a major tool of mar­keting analysts.

1. How does the study of marketing relate to economics? Sociology? Psychology?

 

T E X T 3

 

FINDING THE RIGHT MARKET

It only makes sense that, before you go after new customers or bring a product or service to market, you should make sure the product or service has a market. Likewise, you should know who has a desire and need for your product or service. This means digging up all the information you can – about present and potential customers, about the competition, and about the image people have of your company, product, or service. This brings us to three highly important words in marketing – demographics, psychographics, and geographics.

Demographics provides the most frequently used information. It includes data about age, sex, occupation, income, race, religion, family size, level of education, and nationality.

Psychographics gets personal. It gives psychological characteristics. It zeroes in on the behaviour that reveals people’s personal values, self-concepts, interests, opinions, and lifestyles. It tells, for instance, why people buy certain products over those of the competition, how often they make such purchases, and whether they are impulse buyers or planned purchasers.

Geographics is particularly useful for direct-mail programs. With geographics, a target market is defined by its location – a neighbourhood, city, or state, or sometimes according to population density (urban,suburban, or rural market, for example).

 

1. In your own words, explain the importance of psychographics, demographics, and geographics for a marketer. Give some examples.

 

T E X T 4

 

THE NATURE OF LYFESTYLE

Lifestyle is defined as how one lives. One’s lifestyle is a function of inherent individual characteristics that have been shaped and formed through social interaction as one moves through the life cycle. Thus, lifestyle is influenced by such factors as culture, values, demographics, subculture, social class, reference groups, family, and individual characteristics such as motives, emotions, and personality. Individuals and households both have lifestyles. While household lifestyles are in part determined by the individual lifestyles of the household members, the reverse is also true.

Our desired lifestyle influences our needs and attitudes and thus our purchase and use behaviour. It determines many of our consumption decisions which, in turn, reinforce or alter our lifestyle. Thus, marketers view lifestyle as central to the consumption process. Lifestyle analysis can be used by marketers with respect to specific areas of consumers’ lives, such as outdoor recreation. This is a common, very applied approach. A second approach is to capture the general lifestyle patterns of a population.

Attempts to develop quantitative measures of lifestyle are initially referred to as psychographics. In fact, psychographics and lifestyle are frequently used interchangeably. Now psychographics or lifestyle studies typically include the following:

Attitudes: evaluative statements about other people, places, ideas, products, etc.

Values: widely held beliefs about what is acceptable and/or desirable.

Activities and interests: nonoccupational behaviours to which consumers devote their effort, such as hobbies, sports, public service, and church.

Media patterns: which specific media the consumer utilize.

Usage rates: measurements of consumption within a specified product category. Often consumers are categorized as heavy, medium, light, or nonusers.

Consumers can be categorized also according to their self-orientation and resources.

Marketers differentiate three primary self-orientations:

Principle-oriented – these individuals are guided in their choices by their beliefs and principles rather than by feelings, events, or desire for approval.

Status-oriented – these individuals are heavily influenced by the actions, approval, and opinions of others.

Action-oriented – these individuals desire social or physical activity, variety, and risk-taking.

The second dimension, termed resources, reflects the ability of individuals to pursue their dominant self-orientation. It refers to the full range of psychological, physical, demographic, and material means on which consumer can draw. Resources generally increase from adolescence through middle age and then remain relatively stable until they begin to decline with older age.

 

1. What is lifestyle?

2. Why is the knowledge of consumers’ lifestyle so important for marketers?

3. What factors determine and influence lifestyle?

4. What is psychographics?

5. In what way can the consumers be categorized?

 

 

T E X T 5

 

Read the text. Define the key sentence(s) of each paragraph.

 

CONSUMERS ARE SO DIFFERENT

Consumer’s self-orientation determine the types of goals and behaviours that individuals will pursue. Marketers differentiate the following groups of consumers.

Actualizers are successful, sophisticated, active, “take-charge” people with high self-esteem and abundant resources. They are interested in growth and seek to develop, explore, and express themselves in a variety of ways – sometimes guided by principle, and sometimes by a desire to have an effect, to make a change. Image is important to Actualizers, not as evidence of status or power, but as an expression of their taste, independence, and character.

Fulfilleds are mature, satisfied, comfortable, reflective people who value order, knowledge, and responsibility. Most are well educated, and in (or recently retired from) professional occupations. They are well-informed about world and national events and are alert to opportunities to broaden their knowledge. Content with their careers, families, and station in life, their leisure activities tend to center around the home. Fulfilleds have a moderate respect for the status quo institutions of authority and social decorum, but are open-minded about new ideas and social change. Fulfilleds tend to base their decisions on strongly held principles and consequently appear calm and self-assured. Fulfilleds are conservative, practical consumers; they look for functionality, value, and durability in the products they buy.

Believers are conservative, conventional people with concrete beliefs based on traditional, established codes: family, church, community, and nation. Many Believers express moral codes that are deeply rooted and literally interpreted. They follow established routines, organized in large part around their homes, families, and social or religious organizations to which they belong. As consumers, they are conservative and predictable, favoring native products and established brands.

Achievers are successful career- and work-oriented people who like to, and generally do, feel in control of their lives. They value consensus, predictability, and stability over risk, intimacy, and self-discovery. They are deeply committed to work and family. Work provides them with a sense of duty, material rewards, and prestige. Their social lives reflect this focus and are structured around family, church, and career. Achievers live conventional lives, are politically conservative, and respect authority and the status quo. Image is important to them; they favor established, prestige products and services that demonstrate success to their peers.

Strivers seek motivation, self-definition, and approval from the world around them. They are striving to find a secure place in life. Unsure of themselves and low on economic, social, and psychological resources, Strivers are concerned about the opinion and approval of others. Money defines success for Strivers, who don’t have enough of it and often feel that life has given them a raw deal. Strivers are easily bored and impulsive. Many of them seek to be stylish. They emulate those who own more impressive possessions, but what they wish to obtain is generally beyond their reach.

Experiencers are young, vital, enthusiastic, impulsive, and rebellious. They seek variety and excitement, savoring the new, the offbeat, and the risky. Still in the process of formulating life values and patterns of behavior, they quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but are equally quick to cool. At this stage of their lives, they are politically uncommitted, uninformed, and highly ambivalent about what they believe. Experiencers combine an abstract disdain for conformity with an outsider’s awe of others’ wealth, prestige, and power. Their energy finds an outlet in exercise, sports, outdoor recreation, and social activities. Experiencers are avid consumers and spend much of their income on clothing, fast food, music, movies, and video.

Makers are practical people who have constructive skills and value self-sufficiency. They live within a traditional context of family, practical work, and physical recreation and have little interest in what lies outside that context. Makers experience the world by working on it – building a house, raising children, fixing a car, or canning vegetables – and have sufficient skill, income, and energy to carry out their projects successfully. Makers are politically conservative, suspicious of new ideas, respectful of government intrusion on individual rights. They are unimpressed by material possessions other than those with a practical or functional purpose (e.g., tools, pick-up trucks, or fishing equipment).

Strugglers’ lives are constricted. Chronically poor, ill-educated, low-skilled, without strong social bonds, elderly and concerned about their health, they are often resigned and passive. Because they are limited by the need to meet the urgent needs of the present moment, they do not show a strong self-orientation. Their chief concerns are for security and safety. Strugglers are cautious consumers. They represent a very modest market for most products and services, but are loyal to favorite brands.

1. If to take the population of the country, how many people belong to each group?

2. To what group do you (your parents, friends, relatives) belong?

 

 

T E X T 6

 

SATISFYING CONSUMER NEEDS

 

Marketing doesn't stop with the ideas obtained from discovering consumer needs. Since the organization obviously can't satisfy all consumer needs, it must concentrate its efforts on certain needs of a specific group of potential consumers. This is the target market, one or more specific groups of potential consumers toward which an organization directs its marketing program.

There are many possible ways to satisfy the needs of target customers. A product can have many different features and quality levels. Service levels can be adjusted. The package can be of various sizes, colours, or materials. The brand name and warranty can be changed. Various advertising media – newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards – may be used. A company’s own sales force or other sales specialists can be used. Different prices can be charged. Price discounts may be given, and so on. With so many possible variables, is there any way to organize all these decisions and simplify the selection of marketing mixes? The answer is yes.

Having selected the target market, the firm must take steps to satisfy the consumer’s needs. Someone in the organization's marketing department, often the marketing manager, must take action and develop a complete marketing program to reach consumers by pulling a combination of four levels, often called the four Ps.

• Product: a good, service, or idea to satisfy the consumer's needs.

• Price: what is exchanged for the product.

• Promotion: a means of communication between the seller and buyer.

• Place: a means of getting the product into the consumer's hands.

The four Ps are the elements of the marketing mix. These are the marketing manager's controllable factors, the marketing actions of product, price, promotion, and place that he or she can take to solve a marketing problem. The marketing mix elements are called controllable factors because they are under the control of the marketing department in an organization.

Two more questions are to be answered in this text. The first one is: What is marketed? Goods, services, and ideas are marketed. Goods are physical objects, such as toothpaste, cameras, or computers that satisfy consumer needs. Services are intangible items such as airline trips, financial advice, or telephone calls. The second is: Who buys and uses what is marketed? Both individuals and organizations buy and use goods and services that are marketed. Ultimate consumers are the people -- whether 80 years or 8 months old -- who use the goods and services purchased for a household. A household may consist of one person or ten. Organizational buyers are units such as manufacturers, retailers, or government agencies that buy goods and services for their own use or for resale.

 

1. Write a short summary of the text in Russian (10-12 sentences). Exchange the summaries with your partner and translate them into English.

T E X T 7

THE UNIQUENESS OF SERVICE

 

Services are intangible items such as airline trips, financial advice, or telephone calls that an organization provides to consumers. To obtain these services, consumers exchange for money or something else of value, such as their own time.

There are four unique elements to services: intangibility, inconsistency, insepa­rability, and inventory. These four elements are referred to as the four I's of services.

Intangibility. Services are intangible; that is, they can't be held, touched, or seen before the purchase decision. In contrast, before purchasing a traditional product, a consumer can touch a box of laundry detergent, kick the tire of an automobile, or sample a new breakfast cereal. A major marketing need for cervices is to make them tangible or show the benefits of using the service.

Inconsistency. Marketing services are challenging because the quality of a service is often inconsistent. Since services depend on the people who provide them, their quality varies with each person's capabilities and day-to-day job performance. Inconsistency is much more of a problem in services than it is with tangible goods. Tangible products can be good or bad in terms of quality, but with modern production lines the quality will at least be consistent.

Inseparability. A third difference between services and goods, related to problems of consistency, is inseparability. In most cases the consumer cannot (and does not) separate the service from the deliverer of the service or the setting in which the service occurs. For example, to receive an education, a person may attend a university. The quality of the education may be high, but if the student finds counseling services poor, or sees little opportunity for extracurricular activity, he or she may not be satisfied with the educational experience.

Inventory. This element requires the provision of service along with any needed equipment. If a physician is paid to see patients but no one schedules an appointment, the fixed cost of the idle physician's salary is a high inventory carrying cost. In some service businesses, however, the provider of the service is on commission or is a part-time employee. Inventory carrying costs can be significantly lower or nonexistent because the idle production capacity can be cut back by reducing hours or having no salary to pay because of the commission compensation system.

 

1.Speak on each of the unique elements of services. Try to find some examples from your consumer experience.

 

 

T E X T 8

 

BRANDING

 

A brand is a name given by a business to one or more of its products. Branding gives products an identity that distinguishes them from similar products produced by rival firms. It helps to generate brand loyalty, encouraging customers to regularly purchase particular products. The demand for a product with strong brand loyalty tends to become less price sensitive, meaning that price can be increased without losing much demand. Selecting a brand name is therefore a very important part of a firm’s marketing strategy.

Organizations can use a number of different approaches to branding:

· Individual or multiple branding, where business use a range of brand names for a variety of products. For example? Procter & Gamble relies on this branding policy for its range of fragrances, including Hugo Boss? Old Spice and Giorgio Beverley Hills. Such branding allows the firm to develop brands for particular market segments.

· Corporate or overall family branding, where all the firm’s products are branded with the same name. Virgin, Kraft, Heinz, Microsoft and Ford employ this approach. This type of branding means that the promotion of one item will promote other products within the family. It can increase consumer confidence in the entire range? So increasing sales and profits.

· A mixture of corporate and individual branding, where products are given individual brand names but the corporate brand name is also prominent, e.g. Nestle and Walls.

A brand name should be snappy, easy to remember, unique and convey appropriate images or values. In addition, popular brands are often supported by advertising catch phrases, such as “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play”.

Most organizations employ specialist identity and naming consultants to handle this creative process. The name is the first and greatest expression of the brand. It is vital you get it right and we carry out extensive consumer research. For a food launch we might ask for a description of the product, and get people to be wishful and tell us what they would like it to do for them. Once we have a shortlist we then go through the linguistic, cultural and legal trademark checking stages.

The process of coming up with names for new products is complex, but it is complicated further by the need for Internet-workable names. Companies using the Internet, either to sell their products or simply to provide information on themselves, must decide whether their site is aimed at existing customers, they will know the brand and will search the Web primarily to attract consumers who may be unaware that their service exists, then a generic name is better – for example, applesandpears.com rather than bloggs-grocers.com.

A major problem for organizations that trade globally is finding names that translate appropriately. One way to avoid language and translation difficulties is to invent a completely new word, such as Toyota’s Avensis. But there are problems even here. For example, firms must be careful which letters they use. The sounds for R and L, for instance, can be confusing and difficult for Asian customers to pronounce, which might deter them from asking a particular product. Studies by Interbrand Group, which has offices in 22 countries, also warns against using the number 8 when launching a food product in China, because it has connotations with death.

The fact that many cultures read from right to left can also cause difficulties with names and packaging. Interbrand’s director of naming recalls the story of washing powder that used three cartoon images on its packaging – the first illustrating a dirty shirt, the second the shirt going to the washing machine, and the third a clean shirt. When the packaging was launched in China it was read the other way around.

1. What is brand?

2. What are the approaches to branding?

3. How is brand created?

4. What requirements should a brand name meet?

 

 

T E X T 9

 

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Stated simply, international marketing is marketing across national boundaries. Since the end of World War II, improved travel, communications, and technology have fostered a tenfold increase in trade among nations.

A company choosing to enter international markets can achieve many benefits, but can also encounter many difficulties.

The main reason for companies to do international marketing is to exploit a better business opportunity in terms of increased sales and profits. Either firms are limited in their home country or their opportunities are great in the foreign countries.

Many companies find themselves with little room for growth in their domestic market. Competition may increase and leave a smaller portion of the pie tо enjoy, or demand may shift to a newer, better product. The economic environment in the home country may be undesirable because of higher taxes or a recession. It would seem logical to turn to other markets in any of these cases. So foreign markets may offer an opportunity for growth. A product that is mature and facing dwindling sales at home may be new and exciting in other countries.

Among the conditions that influence the success of international marketing are economic, political, legal and cultural ones.

Economic conditions. There are several important rules to international marketing in light of а соuntry's economic conditions: the product must fit the needs of the country's consumers and the product must be sold where there is the income to buy it and effective means of distributing, using, and servicing it. Five aspects of these considerations are (1) the country's stage of economic development, (2) multination trade groups, (3) the country's economic infrastructure, (4) consumer income, and (5) currency exchange rates.

There are over 200 countries in the world today, each of which is at a slightly different point in terms of its stage of economic development. However, they can be classified into two major groupings that will help the international marketer better understand their needs:

• Developed countries have somewhat mixed economies. Private enterprise dominates, although they have substantial public sectors as well.

• Developing countries are in the process of moving from an agricultural to an industrial economy. There are two subgroups within the developing category: (1) those that have already made the move and (2) those that remain locked in the preindustrial economy.

Political and legal conditions. The difficulties in assessing the political and legal condition of a country lie not only in identifying the current condition but also in estimating exactly how long that condition will last. Some transnational companies use analyses ranging from computer projections to intuition and forecasts to assess a country's condition. The dimensions being evaluated include the government attitude toward foreign marketers, the stability and financial poli­cies of the country, and government bureaucracy.

Some countries invite foreign investment through of­fering investment incentives, helping in site location, and providing other ser­vices. Hungary is currently offering a five-year "tax holiday"—a period during which no corporate taxes will be assessed—to encourage foreign firms to de­velop manufacturing capabilities there. In addition, a country or group of coun­tries can establish equitable standards to enable foreign products to compete fairly in their domestic markets. The European Union has a huge staff in Brussels, Belgium, developing directives to establish such standards for prod­ucts marketed in the EU after 1992.

Millions of dollars have been lost in the Middle East as a result of war and changes in governments. When instability is suspected, companies do everything they can to protect themselves against losses. Companies will limit their trade to exporting products into the country, minimizing investments in new plants in the foreign economy. Currency will be converted as soon as possible.

Even friendly countries can change their policies toward international marketing. Quotas can be revised or set, currency can be blocked, duties can be imposed, and in extreme cases companies can be expropriated.

 

1. What are the benefits of international marketing?

2. What difficulties can a company encounter when entering international marketing?

3. What are some of important rules to international marketing?

4. What is the main difficulty in assessing the political and legal condition of a country?

5. What dimensions are taken into account when evaluating political and legal condition?

T E X T 10

 

CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Culture is the total of a society's beliefs, art forms, morals, laws, and customs. It dictates the manner in which we consume, the priority of our wants and needs, and how those wants and needs should be satisfied. Because cultures can vary greatly from nation to nation, international marketers must adjust their marketing controllable variables to each particular culture. Specifically, they must consider differences in language, color connotations, and mores. Let’s consider each of them.

Language. There are thousands of languages and dialects in the world. Marketers, especially in promotional messages, must understand and properly use the language of the host country. To do otherwise invites true marketing blunders. For example, in Spanish the Chevrolet brand name "Nova" means "It does not go." In Cantonese the name "Philip Morris" sounds like the phrase meaning "No luck." In Japan, General Motors' phrase "Body by Fisher" translates to "Corpse by Fisher."

Language becomes a particular concern in countries that speak numerous languages. In India, for example, there are 203 dialects. Even in countries that use the same language as the international marketer, communication problems can exist. Even though Great Britain and the United States both speak the same language, cultural differences exist. English homemakers hope furniture wax "will not trade off" and shoppers buy "tins" (rather than "cans") of grocery products. Such minor differences can make promotional messages sound foolish rather than persuasive.

Colors. Color is a large, though often subliminal part of a marketing effort. Colors in advertisements, on packages, and the product itself may communicate different impressions to different cultures. For example, blue is considered a warm color in Holland and a cold color in Sweden. White is for funerals and red is popular in China and Korea. Red, however, is not popular in Africa. Purple is associated with death in Brazil and in many Spanish-speaking countries. Yellow flowers are a sign of infidelity in France, but one of death in Mexico.

Mores. Mores are the customs and values of a culture. A nation’s values reflect the religious or moral beliefs of its people. Understanding and working with these aspects of a society are also factors in successful international marketing. For example:

- A door-to-door salesman would find selling in Italy impossible, because it is improper for a man to call on a woman if she home alone.

- McDonald’s and other hamburger restaurants would not have a chance in India, where the cow is considered sacred.

- The British don’t believe marketing is quite respectable, a factor contributing to their loss of markets in which they had the technological lead.

German exporters such as BMW probably are the most sophisticated in understanding the values of the customers of the nation’s to which they sell products. Germany (not Japan) has passed the United States as the world’s largest exporter through a strategy that stresses high-quality products sold to specific market segments by a strong network of dealers.

Every nation has some unique behavior patterns. These may largely influence marketing strategies. The English and Japanese drive on the left side of the road. Thus, cars marketed in England and Japan must have the steering wheel on the right side. Other examples of cultural mores include the fact that the average Frenchman uses almost twice as many beauty aids as his female counterpart. Pepsodent toothpaste was unsuccessful in Southeast Asia because it promised white teeth in a culture in which black or yellow teeth are symbols of prestige. Maxwell House advertised itself as the "Great American Coffee" in West Germany, where the general populace has little respect for American coffee.

1.What other examples of cultural differences can you provide?

2.What are the mores in your country?

 

 

T E X T 11