Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Behavior Dimensions of
the Consumer Market
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002170 Chapter 6
social class and age group tends to have its own opinion leaders. Some marketing
mixes aim especially at these people since their opinions affect others and research
shows that they are involved in many product-related discussions with “followers.”
Favorable word-of-mouth publicity from opinion leaders can really help a market-
ing mix. But the opposite is also true. If opinion leaders aren’t satisfied, they’re
likely to talk about it and influence others.^16Cultureis the whole set of beliefs, attitudes, and ways of doing things of a rea-
sonably homogeneous set of people. In Chapters 4 and 5, we looked at the broad
impact of culture.
We can think of the American culture, the French culture, or the Latin American
culture. People within these cultural groupings tend to be more similar in outlook and
behavior. But sometimes it is useful to think of subcultures within such groupings. For
example, within the American culture, there are various religious and ethnic subcul-
tures; also different cultural forces tend to prevail in different regions of the country.
Failure to consider cultural differences, even subtle ones, can result in problems.
To promote their product and get people to try it, marketers for Pepto-Bismol often
provide free samples at festivals and street fairs. Their idea is that people tend to
overindulge at such events. However, when they distributed sample packets at a
festival in San Francisco’s Chinatown, they insulted many of the people they
wanted to influence. Booths with Chinese delicacies lined the streets, and many
of the participants interpreted the sample packets (which featured the word
“Nauseous” in large letters) as suggesting that Chinese delicacies were nauseating.
The possibility of this misinterpretation may seem obvious in hindsight, but if it
had been that obvious in advance the whole promotion would have been handled
differently.^17Planning strategies that consider cultural differences in international markets can
be even harder—and such cultures usually vary more. Each foreign market may need
to be treated as a separate market with its own submarkets. Ignoring cultural dif-
ferences—or assuming that they are not important—almost guarantees failure in
international markets.
For example, Japanese consumers tend to snap up the latest gadgets, but only
about 7 percent of Japanese households have a dishwasher (compared to about
50 percent in the U.S.). Appliance manufacturers who have tried to export their
standard models to Japan have met with failure. One reason is that Japanese
kitchens are much too small for units that are standard in the U.S. Another prob-
lem is that fermented soybeans and other common Japanese foods tend to be very
sticky. A standard dishwasher won’t clean the dishes well. To address these cul-
tural differences, manufacturers have developed small countertop machines with
powerful jets to do the cleaning. But another obstacle remains. Many traditional
Japanese feel that it is the woman’s duty to wash the dishes. For many housewives,
the guilt of having dishes done by a machine is worse than the aggravation of
doing the job. Foreign firms seem to have missed that. But it became more obvi-
ous when Matsushita, the Japanese firm whose washers lead the market,
got increases in sales by focusing its promotion on conservation of hot water
and hygiene—rather than convenience—as the important reasons to buy a
dishwasher.^18
From a target marketing point of view, a marketing manager probably wants to
aim at people within one culture or subculture. A firm developing strategies for two
cultures often needs two different marketing plans.^19
The attitudes and beliefs that we usually associate with culture tend to change
slowly. Consider something as unemotional as a cup of tea. For a long time, tea hasCulture surrounds
the other influences
Culture varies in
international markets