PROMOTION
Companies can run the same advertising and promotion campaigns used in the home
market or change them for each local market, a process called communication adapta-
tion. If it adapts both the product and the communication, the company engages in
dual adaptation.
Consider the message. The company can change its message at four different levels.
The company can use one message everywhere, varying only the language, name, and
colors. Exxon used “Put a tiger in your tank” with minor variations and gained in-
ternational recognition. Colors might be changed to avoid taboos in some countries.
Purple is associated with death in Burma and some Latin American nations; white is
a mourning color in India; and green is associated with disease in Malaysia. Even
names and headlines may have to be modified. When Clairol introduced the “Mist
Stick,” a curling iron, into Germany, it found that mistis slang for manure. Few Ger-
mans wanted to purchase a “manure stick.” The Dairy Association brought its “got
Milk?” advertising campaign to Mexico only to find that the Spanish translation read,
“Are you lactating?” When Coors put its slogan “turn it loose,” into Spanish, it was
read by some as “suffer from diarrhea.” In Spain, Chevrolet’sNovatranslated as “it
doesn’t go.” A laundry soap ad claiming to wash “really dirty parts” was translated in
French-speaking Quebec to read “a soap for washing private parts.”^29
The second possibility is to use the same theme globally but adapt the copy to
each local market. For example, a Camay soap commercial showed a beautiful woman
bathing. In Venezuela, a man was seen in the bathroom; in Italy and France, only a
man’s hand was seen; and in Japan, the man waited outside. Danish beer company,
Carlsberg, goes so far as to adapt copy not to countries but to individual cities and
even neighborhoods within those cities. The 151-year-old Danish beer is available in
more than 140 countries around the world, but because of the competitiveness and
maturity of the U.S. market, it has to take a local tack in its approach to win new cus-
tomers who aren’t familiar with the brand. All advertisements feature the same sin-
gle image of the Carlsberg bottle, along with a humorous message about the specific
city. For example, in Manhattan, one headline on an ad reads: “Went all night with-
out hearing car alarm. Celebrate special occasions with Carlsberg.”^30
The third approach consists of developing a global pool of ads, from which each
country selects the most appropriate one. Coca-Cola and Goodyear use this approach.
Finally, some companies allow their country managers to create country-specific ads—
within guidelines, of course. Kraft uses different ads for Cheez Whiz in different coun-
tries, given that household penetration is 95 percent in Puerto Rico, where the cheese
is put on everything; 65 percent in Canada, where it is spread on morning breakfast
toast; and 35 percent in the United States, where it is considered a junk food.
The use of media also requires international adaptation because media availabil-
ity varies from country to country. Norway, Belgium, and France do not allow ciga-
rettes and alcohol to be advertised on TV. Austria and Italy regulate TV advertising to
children. Saudi Arabia does not want advertisers to use women in ads. India taxes ad-
vertising. Magazines vary in availability and effectiveness; they play a major role in
Italy and a minor one in Austria. Newspapers have a national reach in the United
Kingdom, but the advertiser can buy only local newspaper coverage in Spain.
Marketers must also adapt sales-promotion techniques to different markets. Greece
prohibits coupons, and France prohibits games of chance and limits premiums and
gifts to 5 percent of product value. People in Europe and Japan tend to make inquiries
via mail rather than phone—which may have ramifications for direct-mail and other
sales-promotion campaigns. The result of these varying preferences and restrictions is
that international companies generally assign sales promotion as a responsibility of
local management.
PRICE
Multinationals face several pricing problems when selling abroad. They must deal with
price escalation, transfer prices, dumping charges, and gray markets.
chapter 12
Designing
Global Market
Offerings^383