Can I have a McKroket?

'Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes' is a very interesting book, written by Marieke K. de Mooij.  She explains almost everything we already have discussed the previous weeks in our blogs.  I picked out one particular part of the book: chapter 2; the Global brand. To discuss this, we need a definition of what constitutes a global brand:

A global brand is one that is available in most countries in the world and shares the same strategic principles, positioning, and marketing in every market throughout the world, although the marketing mix can vary. It has a substantial market share in all countries (dominates markets) and comparable brand loyalty (brand franchise). It carries the same brand name or logo.

McDonald's is a brand that really fits this definition, as you maybe already knew after reading one of the previous blogs about the famous brand.

First of all, McDonalds is available in more than 100 countries, with more than 30 000 distribution points. It serves 52 million customers every day! The only brand that is bigger, is Coca-Cola, as I mentioned in my previous blog.

Secondly, the brand has a very strong image and the same standards all over the world. However, it makes its advertisements and product offers very local, as Caroline already said.

Some examples for the different ads: McDo uses 'Astérix and Obélix' in France, a very famous historical cartoon. In China, the Chinese restaurants all have big tables and it's very difficult to go on a date. So, what does McDonalds? They make tables for two, so the couple has some privacy. This is contrary to India, where McDo is the typical 'family restaurant', with its large tables. Or in Taiwan, they made VIP rooms, because the people like privacy.

The local touch of the brand is also very remarkable: McDonalds sells the Kiwi Burger in New Zealand, the Prosperity Burger in Malaysia, the McKroket in the Netherlands, the Croque McDo in France, etc.

I agree with Caroline that the Americanization of our eating habits is not a good thing. However, I find in very interesting and astonishing when I see all the efforts that McDonalds does to integrate in the different cultures.

 

Lara Moons

Global marketing and advertising - Marieke K. de Mooij

Cross-cultural branding

As the four of us have been talking about for the past several weeks, it’s obvious that people’s consumption patterns are determined by the cultural fiber they tend to follow, especially the original culture seems to be a strong influence.
We’ve mentioned some interesting results of brands expanding their business abroad. Unlike those who probably refused to adapt local habits and for whom global expansion turned out to be a major fiasco. A broach bunch of extending companies gained themselves some global success, e.g. Nokia’s anti-dust phone in India; Some were even able to establish themselves as a part of the prevailing culture, indeed Coca Cola is a universal concept.
Anyway how successful and influential those local brands may be overseas, we can conclude that they’ll always lose a part of their original identity. Although global brands think global, they act very local.

Sien De Neve

Brand communications at its best: Abercrombie and Fitch

“Who needs brains when you have these?”
Pretty sure this slogan sounds familiar to you if you’re in your late teens or early twenties. Indeed it’s one of Abercrombie & Fitch’s. The American casual fashion retailer, famous for their pastel-colored polo shirts, preppy shorts and logoed t-shirts.
But Abercrombie & Fitch has marketed itself more than just a successful clothing brand, it assures their customers a lifestyle. The A&F emporium exists of giant flagship stores with a basic yet contemporary architecture. Two bare-chested male models standing at the front door are hired to greet the delighted customers. Inside you’re hit by loud dance music and the smell of the company’s signature perfume. In fact only its three-metre high walls with wooden shelves, holding t-shirts lit by spotlight, reminds you at the fact that you’re in a store rather than a fancy nightclub. Yes, the ‘Abercrombie kid’ is attractive, athletic, popular and outgoing. The American dream all over. A strategy which has proved to be very successful, but perhaps also an obstacle: for A&F brand protecting is a very big part of their continuing US success, but with the opening of their first European branch in London it’s only left wondering whether this way of branding is expansion resistant.

Sien De Nevehttp://www.elemental.co.uk/newsletters/news_01_07/PDFS/brand.pdf

IKEA, a retailing phenomenon

Four yellow letters on a blue background were enough to become a successful global brand with 180 stores in 23 countries.  However, IKEA, popular all over the world, doesn’t make the same big hit everywhere, beginning with its home country. « In Sweden, going to IKEA is like going to the supermarket to buy paper towels in bulk. But in America, IKEA is a wonder of super design, » said Barbro Osher, the Swedish consul general in San Fransisco.

In Sweden, a home only decorated with products of IKEA is considered as impersonal. And I understand.  I once went in a home which was completely furnished with IKEA products and my first impression was an admiration for such a beautiful house.  But when I walked around, I saw nothing personal, it was like I was walking around in a magazine of the megastore.

In the United States it’s completely different.  There, even the Swedish meatballs served in the in-store restaurants are famous.  They appreciate IKEA for its inexpensive but fashionable goods. “IKEA has much more of a Swedish image here than in Sweden,” said Stig Hagstrom, a Swede who lives in America.

IKEA admits this difference in opinion and understands the fact that a brand moves through the world, from culture to culture.  That’s why it adapted its merchandise to the several countries.  And this change was successful for the company.  IKEA is nowadays considered as a winning, global brand.

Caroline Latour

IKEA's brand reputation

How Coca-cola conquers the world.

Everyone knows Coca-cola. From the biggest town to the smallest village, the white-red written advertisements are everywhere. How does the Coca-cola Company manages to conquer the whole world?

CEO and Chairman of the company in 2001, Doug Daft explains. Before, Coca-cola’s strategy was “Think Global. Act Local”, which clearly shows the aspect of globalization. But, according to Mr. Doug Daft, making decisions at the top of the company and execute them local is not the best option. He prefers “Think Local. Act Local”. This means decentralizing the company and having more faith in the local individuals. He wants to achieve this by meeting the consumers in their own communities, their own houses and then talk with them. Instead of mark out the communities, we have to watch to the original ones.

I found another interesting example on how The Coca-cola Company adapts his product to different cultures.

It takes place in Brazil, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Every year, they organise the famous Folkloric Parintins Festival. This festival is a singing and dancing competition between two teams, a red one and a blue one. Coca-cola is the main sponsor of this event.

After a few years, they discovered that their consumers were mainly supporters from the red team. The blue team didn’t want to drink Coca-cola, because of its red colour. They drunk Pepsi, which has a blue color. Therefore, Coca-cola made a local change: they also made a blue bottle. Problem solved.

By this example we can see that thinking and acting local, even with a very simple change, is very important to stay competitive and making progress.

Lara Moons.

The MonroeSt.Journal
Accidental Thinking

The successful strategy of USAA

How can you better understand the needs of a person than immersing yourself completely in his  environment ? That’s what USAA did with its employees. And when you know that USAA is a finacial services company for people and families that serve, or served, in the United States Military, you can imagine the worst...

 When you apply for a job at USAA, you have to know that the training is not that ordinary.  Next to the habitual training for your future function, the new employees also have to review real deployment letters, eat meals ready to eat, walk around in 65-pound backpacks and read letters which soldiers received from their family.  It seems very crazy, but it works!  The employees know better than everyone the needs of soldiers.

An example: USAA was the first financial-services company to allow customers to deposit checks by iPhone. Imagine, you are on the field and you have to transfer money to your family, I don’t think there is a bank every street corner there... One consultant once said, “There is nobody on this earth who understands their customer better than USAA.”

I believe that, if this company has succeeded to plunge its employees in the real life and need of its customers, other companies should also be able to do it. The design, the service, the advertising of a business are very useful, but if you don’t know your customer very well, you can’t succeed.

Caroline Latour

brand is culture, culture is brand

 

Link Cultural en brand success.

It seems so far that often a company makes or breaks it’s entry in new markets by making the right adaption in their product or policy, depending on the different needs in a new environment.

Having read the articles about McDonalds on how they adapt their menu’s in order to suit with local behavior,  I’d like point out that it’s not only about the food. It’s also about the ‘fast’, and how this affects social behavior and social rituals.

The introduction of McDonalds in one way changes the whole idea of eating.

Instead of looking at diner as being a social, family or even religious moment, McDo turns it into big volume consumption. Just eating and getting out in a minimum of time. Perfect for a busy economy , but painfully conflicting with several cultural values.

 Another downside of globalization is that exported products can easily lose their authenticity.

As Benjamin Barber formulates it: “… we all know the difference between getting crêpes in Dijon and getting them in a New York place called Les Halles”.

For the same reason as before, there has been made a change in the product causing it to be mild duplicate of the original delicacy, and therefore losing its original history and cultural value.  In a way that’s OK, it has always happened, and maybe something even better will result out of it, but the fact that this product is still claimed to be typical French, and soled for the same reason, makes it lose its original identity.  

        And increasing globalization makes these processes occur more than often. 

Thomas De Vuyst

link: http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v25n3/globalization.pdf