International Marketing Question Answers

What are some of the elements that make up culture? How do these find expression in your native culture?

Culture has many things that make it up. For example the ways people dress in these cultures, their language and their food habits. The different believes that the people have also provide an identity to a culture. In my culture, people wear traditional clothes to identify themselves to their culture and most of them are Muslims by their believe.

What is the difference between a low-context culture and a high-context culture? Name a country that is an example of each type, and provide evidence for your answer.

In high context cultures, people mostly rely on what they decide amongst them without documenting it. For example the culture at different tribes in Yemen is based on the shared values among the different people and not on legal documentation.

On the other hand, cultures like the developed world including USA is a low context culture where people rely on legal documentation and explicit messages.

Describe some of the sources of political risk. Specifically, what forms can political risk take?

Political risks may be caused by different types of domestic issues. These issues may be caused by ethnic unrest in a country where different people from different ethnicities are at conflict over resources or ideologies. These risks can take violent forms and fights among different communities. It could cause political unrest in a country or region.

Global marketers can avoid legal conflicts by understanding the reasons conflicts arise in the first place. Identify and describe several legal issues that relate to global commerce.

Legal issues could arise if companies fail to understand the religious and cultural norms of a country and run marketing campaigns that hurts the sentiments of the local people. Other conflicts could arise if the corporate laws of a country are not understood and business is not run in accordance with these laws.

What steps should organizations take to get the most out of their virtual teams?

Organizations can take the following steps to get the most out of their virtual teams.

1. There must be a proper communication management among the virtual team members.
2. The technologies used to managing these teams should be efficient and up to date.
3. The managers should also schedule video meetings with the team members to interact like real humans not just some robots sitting in a virtual environment.
4. Team members should be given time to understand the virtual environment and technologies.
5. Trainings must be provided to the virtual team members to effectively use the virtual system and the technologies involved in it.

In a recent interview, a brand manager at Procter & Gamble noted, “Historically, we used to be focused on discovering the common hopes and dreams within a country, but now we’re seeing that the real commonalities are in generations across geographic borders.” What is the significance of this comment in terms of segmenting and targeting?

This statements is a reflection of the segmentation process that is no more restricted to geographical boundaries. Instead they are now focusing on age groups which may be from any country.