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Ever wonder why an internationally successful company like McDonald’s doesn’t directly translate its slogans for each market? Advertising in different cultures goes beyond surface meanings. It’s fine, say, to translate your slogan into a rough equivalent…but does that rough equivalent really resonate with this particular set of potential clients, or would it be better to do something completely different? In other words, if what you say is right, what about how you say it? Le

So you have a great marketing plan in place. It is catchy, thoughtful, and helping customers flock to your business. It is so good, in fact, that you are thinking about entering the international playground. You want to take your business marketing global. Well, there is a lot of marketing work that needs to be addressed before venturing out – especially with a fantastic local marketing plan. International marketing takes a few extra steps. Here are 6 of the most common issue

Recently, animal lovers got some good news: shark fin soup is becoming less and less popular in China, with sales dropping 50-70%.  According to experts and survey results, while there are other contributing factors, much of the decline is due to awareness campaigns, including one on social media site Sina Weibo, where Chinese celebrities posted photos of themselves covering their mouths. In addition to concern about a rapidly decreasing shark population, there’s also the cru

The other day, I had to go to the US Embassy here in Paris.  In the waiting area, something caught my eye: a flat screen TV mounted on the wall was playing montages of each state.  As I watched, I found myself actually wanting to go to Maine (nothing against The Pine Tree State – I just had never particularly thought about going there) and thinking how much I missed heading to Florida for vacation. The role of an embassy is, among other things, to represent its country, so ma

“The whole visible universe is but a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform.”  ~  Charles Baudelaire How quickly can a different culture effect you?  Does it takes weeks of immersion in another culture before your mind begins to think similarly?  Symbols strongly associated with other cultures surely don’t effect us immediately. Or do they? How much m

Hispanic consumers are predicted to represent 1.5 trillion dollars in buying power by the year 2015.  Marketing to the diverse Hispanic market is no longer an initiative in diversity but strategically imperative. Larger than most world economies, 1.5 trillion dollars is some serious market potential. According to Jeff Humphreys, Director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia, despite the recession, Hispanic’s buying power is expected to grow by

In advertising and marketing, we greatly rely on the suggestive power of words and images often associated with concepts outside of what is said or depicted. Some symbols seem universal, not unlike Jungian archetypes – the good, the bad, and the ugly – but more contemporary and/or pop culture references are just as common. When writing copy for an international audience, how can we be sure that these kinds of subtleties will be understood as intended? Are there ways to go ter

Creating a Global Brand involves uniquely communicating a powerful message to a variety of audiences across languages, geography, religion and traditions.  With no single language linking us all since the Tower of Babel, the trick, and the duty, is to get the message right. Global Branding is a conscious and ever changing process to reach target audiences.  Language is a key part of any global communication but not all communication is verbal.    As humans, we receive more se

The Second Edition of this popular text brings up-to-date Marieke de Mooij’s important analysis of the impact of culture on consumer behavior worldwide. The author shows how it is increasingly vital for marketing students—tomorrow’s marketing professionals—to understand the limits of consistent brand identities and universal advertising campaigns. Consumer behavior is not converging across countries, and therefore it is of even greater importance to understand, and be able to

As hurricane Sandy meets a turning gulf stream and a nor’easter winter storm to unleash havoc on the Mid-Atlantic region, so too is the pharmaceutical industry entering an era of the perfect storm.  Recent trends and events have set the industry up for major shifts and changes. The current blustery economic recession created, not a drop in pressure, but a drop in industry growth.  In prior years, a billion dollar industry expanding its growth at about 10% per year did not nee