T4. Culture & Mkt Process

Q. OK, so where’s this? 

A. Obviously it is somewhere specific, but it could be just about anywhere!

So, is it the same with culture in the organisation???

• Clearly it has its own place (wherever this might be) BUT…
• Should it also be involved in other places within the organisation and its systems, processes, divisions and function?
  
• And what if it isn’t…..?

———————————————————–

Your task

PART A. Imagine a company in the process of development of a product / service that it intends to launch across a number of international markets…..

1. What exactly is the process / are the processes it will typically go through and where, how and why should reflections regarding culture be incorporated and by whom? [Take this from the initial product idea right through to (hopefully!) successful operation in international markets].
2. Can intercultural marketing be confined to the Marketing function?
3. How might the company ensure that across divisions, functions, brands and product lines, the inter-cultural dimension is ‘properly managed’ (i.e. to reduce the likelihood of embarrassing mistakes and increase the chances of a positive cultural reception)?  Might this be a case for a new integrating function/position/role?  Where should this be located within the enterprise (and why)? To whom should it report?  Here it would help to understand something about business structural choices:

• divisionalisation
  • by product
  • by geography
• functionalisation.

The work of Henry Mintzberg [1981] and his ‘Contingency Model’ will help you in this respect both here and in your ‘rapport de stage‘ when you are seeking to represent how the company works and where you fit.  Remember it is not just about the shape of the structure, but also about how it operates through its formal and informal systems and communications.]

At the end of this, I would like you to be able to perceive your potential value and role to the organisation and the critical importance to the organisation of this role.

PART B.  Identify and consider the intercultural misunderstandings / issues that may arise in terms of the following AND source and bring to class next time case-study examples and materials showing how badly – disastrously even – it will be more fun, I suspect!) companies may have handled/failed to handle these matters:

1. the use of a particular predominant colour on products, promotional materials and websites
2. the use of figures/numbers, days and dates
3. brand names and ‘straplines‘
4. product names
5. stereotypes of countries & cultures of origin of product/brand and of destination countries & cultures
6. perceptions of logos, signs & symbols and images.
7. Increasing distance between zones of cultural affinities (Usunier and Sissmann 1986).

[If you come across something that doesn’t fit in my categories, but is a good example – then invent yourself a category, add it to my list and bring the evidence to class!]

If you have some difficulty in getting started – get creative with your search terms! Here are a couple of  notable collections, but I would like you to find and explore others rather than copy the ones I am offering:

1. Deborah Swallow’s pages: LINK   and /or
2. Kwintessential: LINK

Whichever you choose from my list of 7,  I want you to think:

• where, why and how might this have happened? Is there anything consistent in the nature of the failures?
  
• why did no-one ‘catch’ this before the mistake happened?
• what would it have taken to recognise the problem at the earliest opportunity and overcome/correct it?
• Would it have cost a lot to make the effort to avoid such problems?  More or less than the cost of the mistake?!
  

Your thoughts concerning PART A (3) above should help here – you can put your ‘model’ to the test: would it have caught all these errors?  Do we need to ‘fine-tune’ your model?

So, you should have a clear idea of the potential for inter-cultural mistakes in business and in marketing particularly and an understanding of how such errors might be effectively avoided.

Not a bad return on your learning investment, I trust you will agree!