Ethnocentricity Essay

The cultures of people in different countries can affect the marketing strategies that a company will use as it enters new international markets. The company has to consider vary many factors of the new international, market place, some of these are political factors, social factors, economic and technological factors. Looking at the social cultural factors ethnocentricity is a major factor especially if the new marketplace is in a country with diverse cultures. This is a major challenge because most of these people hold so much to these cultures that it is very difficult to make them adopt your product and your marketing strategies. To enter a market like the Japanese market one must understand that they do not consume other products like pork as an example because that’s some of their cultural beliefs This means that in order to enter such markets one has to understand the practices of the people in these regions, their cultures and other influences like customs ethnic differences attitudes towards the products or services e. . c. The cultural activities of these people desires and their likes and preferences, these equip the individuals of the communities with certain value systems and on the other hand compel individuals and the community to comply with certain demands and participate in certain activities. In U. K for example a large population like football and most of them are at least attached to teams in their locality i. e. Manchester Everton etc. This should be used as a good ground for marketing products and distribution. Britons also have other tastes and preferences that differ with other people i. e they are not all that attached to rap music unlike the Japanese and Chinese who have their indigenous types of music the British like rhythms and blues. Some of these diverse likes and preferences will affect the planning and the channels of distributions that will be used. The Japanese people for example produce most of their goods especially electronics locally using cheap labor and locally available materials making it hard for a foreign product to penetrate that particular market. This should be a challenge to the marketer to introduce products that are rare I this particular market and price them lower than the competing brands and use vigorous distribution systems by the use of many levels of distribution probably the three level distribution channel i. e(manufacturer –wholeseller-retaillet-consumer) so that the product can reach all people in the target market. The French on the other hand are the direct opposite of the Britons in culture and hence in order to penetrate the French market a company should adopt products that have some attributes attached to them i. e social classes. This is because the French culture is that they believe that they are way above the rest and that their civilization is the best hence the type of product that fits them is a prestigious product hence to penetrate this market there is need to position the product ahead of the rest as a market leader. In order lure many people to adopt the product. Ethnocentricity has also a great impact on the type of media to use in communication of the product preferences to people of diverse cultures i. e the way the company will advertise its products and services in Britain will be different from the way the product will be advertised in Britain and the advertising media to use. The advertising medias range from print visual, audio- visual, billboards and small adverts done in between movies i. in between football matches. In France and Britain the best media to use are the print media and audio visual like T. Vs. However, billboards can also be used especially if they are to be set up in roundabouts in towns to remind the people on the product. China and Japan on the other hand need entirely advertisements over the Radio because this is the best media to reach a large number of people.