How Global And Domestic Marketing Differ
Global and domestic marketing varies considerably because people differ by countries.
The principles of marketing may be very similar, but the marketing research technique that is commonly used to target a market requires national and cultural specific characteristics.
To market globally well, you must learn characteristics of the people in each nation and culture. The best way is through market segmentation.
Global and Domestic Marketing: Targets Different Types of People
Different cultures within the USA, and across the world, are going to have different buying habits. This presents a problem when you are trying to sell a product across nations.
It’s difficult enough to market across cultures within the USA, but the difficulty intensifies when marketing across nations.
Global and Domestic Marketing: Demographic Characteristics Vary By Nation and Culture
Demographic segments vary across the world. For example, some characteristics for Generation Y in the USA may be similar worldwide, but most will be quite different.
The World War II generation in the USA was influenced by the second world war just like most people in the Western world. However, the influence of Pearl Harbor on the USA WWII generation was greater than for those in the rest of the world.
So you can’t take characteristics that best define a USA generation and transfer those characteristics world wide.
Global and Domestic Marketing: People From Different Nations Think Differently
Psychographic characteristics also differ by nations. For one reason, culture, morals, values and attitudes are learned within a society. Different nations develop different social pressures and expectations. They teach different values and attitudes within families and schools.
Every nation’s culture differs so what is valued, expected, desired, and feared vary by nation.
Consider a change within USA attitudes. Not that long ago a man’s wife and children were considered his property, and he had the right to abuse them in anyway that he saw fit. The USA and state governments didn’t interfere. But that is not the case today. A man can be convicted for raping his wife, and children are frequently taken away from parents who abuse or even neglect them. But in some nations, a man still has the right to abuse his wife and children. Even murdering them is socially acceptable and legal in some nations.
Thus, how people think, what they consider to be right and wrong, what they fear and value differ from nation to nation.
Global and Domestic Marketing: Buying Habits Are Nationally Specific
Each nation’s economic well-being influences buying habits of its citizens.
Obviously, the people in some nations have more spending power and more discretionary income than those in other nations. But even among comparatively wealthy nations, people spend differently.
Take grocery shopping as an example. In many prosperous European nations, people still buy fresh groceries from local markets and purchase every day for that day’s meals.
But in the USA, we buy from large chains that freeze, can, dehydrate and process in other ways so that food lasts for a long time. Then we buy at least enough for a week at a time, and some people buy for a month at a time. We think shopping everyday would be a terrible inconvenience and that we are just too busy with our careers and family to spend that much time buying groceries.
People in some nations probably think that USA residents have their priorities messed up to avoid spending their time buying and preparing fresh, healthy foods.
So if we differ so much on something as basic as food, just think how our other buying habits differ.
Global and Domestic Marketing: Conclusion
No business can design one marketing campaign and successfully use it across nations.
Successful marketing campaigns must be redesigned for each nation. This requires that marketers have to learn as much as possible about people in each nation.
In order for businesses in all nations to improve their business and national economies, the world needs to share specific characteristics that cause people to respond to marketing campaigns differently. When that happens global and domestic marketing opportunities will become more equal.
Filed under: Marketing