International marketing management Essay Example for Free

International marketing management Essay ‘Self- Reference Criterion’ 1. Define problem or goals in terms of home-country cultural traits, habits and norms 2. Define problem or goals in terms of foreign cultural traits, habits and norms 3. Isolate the SRC influence in the problem and examine it carefully to see how complicates the problem 4. Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and solve for the foreign market Self-reference criterion (SRC) as an unconscious reference to ones own cultural values, experiences and knowledge as a basis for decisions. The SRC impedes the ability to assess a foreign market in its true light. For example, Americans may perceive more traditional societies to be backward and unmotivated because they fail to adopt new technologies or social customs, seeking instead to preserve traditional values. In the 1960s, a supposedly well read American psychology professor referred to India’s culture of sick because, despite severe food shortages, the Hindu religion did not allow the eating of cows. The psychologist expressed disgust that the cows were allowed to roam free in villages, although it turns out that they provided valuable functions by offering milk and fertilizing fields. Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one’s culture to be superior to others. The important thing here is to consider how these biases may come in the way in dealing with members of other cultures. Self-reference criterion importance to a marketing firm planning to enter international markets for the first time. Importance of Self-reference criterion as a topic of research Self-reference is a topic whose theoretical foundations have so far primarily been studied in the context of logic, the philosophy of language, systems theory, and post-modern culture. In computer science it has been a topic in the context of the recursively of Turing machines. In semiotics, there have been only few studies which have dealt explicitly with this topic, although marginal reflections on self reference can occasionally be found in the context of the theory of reference. Levels and degrees of self-reference criterion: Examples from advertising Just as signs may self-referentially refer to the world of signs, the media may refer to the world of the media in a self-referential manner. Citations, intertextuality, intermediality, met textual references, repetitions, recursions, and references to the communicative situation are some of the symptoms of self-reference in the media. Various degrees of self-reference must be distinguished, from the sign that refers to nothing but itself to the sign that refers only partially to itself and partially still to something else. Furthermore, self reference occurs at different levels of the message in which it occurs. Beginning with the smallest elements of the message, the first three levels of self-reference are derived from Peirce’s trichotomy of the interpret ant: 34 rheumatic (equivalent to the unit of a word), dicentic (equivalent to a proposition), and argumentative self-reference. In extension of this Peircean triad, textual, intertextual, intermedial and communicative self-reference will be distinguished. Communicative self-reference criterion Communicative self-reference pertains to pragmatics, the situation of text production and reception. The roles of the readers or the spectators and the enunciative roles of the authors, the producers, the actors or the players become the topic of the message. Instead of presenting or representing ideas or events in the world beyond the message, the text deals with its own communicative context, its communicative function, and its presuppositions. The text has thus its own pragmatic dimension as its topic. For example, the audience of a film is reminded of the fact that it is participating in the film while sitting in the film theatre. 38 Peter Greeanway’s actors that step out of their role as actors and mingle with the audience, or Alfred Hitchcock, who steps out of the role of a film producer to become an actor are further examples of communicative self-reference. B) International marketer must have knowledge of sub cultural groups Introduction Culture is concerned with social behaviour and attitudes, and this paper aims to highlight its significance for entry into foreign markets. Culture has been defined as â€Å"the integrated sum total of learned behaviour traits that are manifest and shared by members of a society†. Cultural factors have been itemized in the existing literature, but clearly among the most important are: customer beliefs and attitudes; morality, ethics and religion; social and consumption values; language and literature; social systems and social behaviour (especially the family); historical background; arts and aesthetics. Two authoritative studies have identified concepts of culture both as barriers to entry and as dynamic movers (Herkovits, 1970, Clutterbuck 1980). Furthermore, insufficient research attention has focused on defining more conceptual approaches to the internationalization of retailing and there is an even greater paucity of research into strategies for retailer entry modes; this is the main justification for this paper. In researching their approach to overseas markets, retailers must consider that culture can have an impact on their merchandising and promotion. The culture in which a person lives affects his/her consumption patterns and also the meaning that is attached to specific products. When promoting merchandise in a new culture, it is easier initially to appeal to existing culture requirements or expectations than to try to change them. Merchandising and promotion must be sensitive to the basic values of the country and the differences in patterns of consumption. Case Example (1) Entry into the Swiss Market In Switzerland, foreign dishwasher manufacturers and retailers expected the same rapid sales they had first obtained in other West European markets; but sales in Switzerland were so slow that research had to be done to find out why (this research should, of course, should have been done before, not after, market entry). The research showed that the Swiss housewife had a different set of values to, for example, her French and English counterparts; she was very conscious of her role as strict and hardworking, and her responsibility for the health of her family. To the Swiss housewife dishwashers simply made life easy, and this conflicted with her Calvinistic work ethic. As a result of this research, dishwasher manufacturers had to change their advertising – promoting, instead of ease-and convenience, hygiene-and-health. They did this by emphasizing that because dishwashers used temperatures higher than hand hot the process was more hygienic than washing up by hand. Thereafter retailers had no problem selling automatic dishwashers in Switzerland. Source: Author Cultures across countries High context culture – the meaning of individual behaviour and speech changes depending on the situation – nonverbal messages are full of important meaning (Read between the lines) – e. g. Saudi Arabia and Japan, written contracts are not always enforceable as new people move into executive positions (Chile, Mexico) Low context culture – intentions are expressed verbally – the situation does not change the meaning of words – e. g. India, China, Australia, New Zealand Cultural Assessment International retailers need to communicate meaning through the transmission of messages to people of different cultures if they are to succeed in the promotion of their products to enter foreign markets. Misunderstandings caused by cultural differences can seriously damage the image of a firm or product; therefore, in order to ensure the message transmitted is received in its correct form, the retailer needs to be completely aware of the implications of all the elements of the message in the foreign culture. Failure on behalf of the retailer to adapt to the intricacies of national customs and develop a rapport will lead to inadequate market entry strategies. Accurate communications are so vital that any risk of cultural misunderstanding needs to be eliminated. Firms must identify key management positions and insist that they are held, whenever possible, by someone of the same culture. Many firms make the mistake of putting nationals from the parent companies in charge of key positions within their foreign subsidiaries, often on the basis that fluency in the language is sufficient. In attempting to understand the most significant elements of the foreign culture, companies have to be vigilant and ensure a balance is maintained. There is no one method to adopt in the evaluation of other cultures for retailing purposes as the nature of the goods being offered should govern the method of assessment. The retailer must be sufficiently perceptive and guard against the over-exaggeration of the differences or the similarities between the foreign culture and its own. For example, in analyzing the United States market, a UK retailer may overemphasize a perceived common culture stemming from the common language and close political and economic relations. A common language cannot indefinitely set the seal on a common culture when the geographical, political and economic determinants of the culture are no longer the same throughout its area. The withdrawal of Marks and Spencer from the Canadian market in 1999 is a case in point; their precept was that the aforementioned â€Å"perceived† cultural affinity would facilitate acceptance of the St Michael brand name; in short the common language or heritage does not guarantee a common culture. A further complication in determining the important facets of a country’s culture is the existence of more than one culture or sub-culture within many nations world-wide. Table 1 lists a few states with cultural differences based along linguistic groupings and the problems these present to the international retailer. A cultural assessment will reveal a modal pattern, but a truly useful evaluation will also expose considerable variations within a group or a subset group. In fact, for some cultural characteristics, there may be a wider range within a given society than between societies. For example, young professional 25-30 year olds in Spain, France and Italy may have more in common, in terms of values, tastes and aspirations, than with their non-professional compatriots of the same age group. A cultural evaluation can be either static or dynamic. A static assessment serves only to identify the differences in variables between cultures, whereas a dynamic appraisal seeks to indicate which variables will change in the future, in what order and with what speed. For the international retailer, the identification of which changes would be readily accepted or rejected can mean the difference between success or failure. The analysis of a culture to ascertain the peculiarities of the population can be extremely expensive, time-consuming and unwieldy. Therefore, having conducted a rapid survey of key cultural elements of a nation, the international retailer with limited resources may choose to carry out a Partial Cultural Assessment which focuses on key elements fundamental to the success of its operations in any country. Table 2 shows several cultural factors, which could frustrate the progress of the operations in the event of a retailer failing to obtain accurate data from the assessment of the foreign markets; if a single element is incorrectly assessed, the effectiveness of the strategies will be diminished.

Defective Senses in Eliots The Cocktail Party Essay -- Eliot The Cock

Defective Senses in Eliot's The Cocktail Party T.S. Eliot's play The Cocktail Party, among all its banal or peculiar occurrences, is laced with images of defective senses and perception, particularly of sight. The muddle of reality and illusion confounds the main characters, and their attempts to escape drive the plot. Within five lines of the play's beginning we are confronted with defective senses: "You haven't been listening," (p. 9) complains Alex to the confused Julia when she asks about the tigers in his story. Julia exhibits another confused faculty, that of taste: at first she claims "What's that? Potato crisps? No, I simply can't endure them," (p. 15), but later says "The potato crisps were really excellent" (p. 21). Soon she adds sight to the list: "I must have left my glasses here, / And I simply can't see a thing without them.... / I'm afraid I don't remember the colour, / But I'd know them, because one lens is missing" (p. 33). Even with her glasses, Julia's sight will be impaired. And the glasses turn out to have been in her handbag all along. Yet Julia's glasses, though often lost, through their very existence allow her to see better. The spectacles may indeed be a symbol for the play's theme of blindness, but for Julia they provide an excuse to "see" more -- to spy on her companions , as she admits when she says "Left anything? Oh, you mean my spectacles. / No, they're here. Besides, they're no use to me. / I'm not coming back again this evening" (p. 86). The other characters of Eliot's play all exhibit their own failings of perception. Alex finds no mangoes or curry powder in Edward's kitchen, only eggs -- no exotic or intense tastes, only the bland and prosaic. Alex says of his egg concoction that ... ...cent obliviousness "may remember the vision they have had" (p. 139) -- but is "vision" here an apparition or a way of seeing? Do those who retreat from Celia's discovery abandon a dream, or an entire sense? Reilly claims the retreat to normal life "I could describe in familiar terms / Because you have seen it, as we all have seen it" (p. 141), but, if Celia presses on, "the destination cannot be described.... You will journey blind" (p. 141) -- our normal senses fail us, for we need some higher perception. An illusion or mirage is a failure of vision, so what of vision and mortal existence, whose illusion Celia has pierced? Such higher senses, perhaps, belong to the Guardians of Eliot's half-hidden mythos. True sight may be granted only through travel "on the way of illumination" (p. 147). Works Cited: Eliot, T.S.,The Cocktail Party, Faber and Faber, 1950.

Betrayal in Shakespeare Essay

Breaking the bond of trust in a relationship, and deceiving another person is considered betrayal. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, betrayal can be seen as the base of the whole story, and throughout the play between other characters. Due to the anger of Cassius, the whole of the play deals with the betrayal of Caesar by Cassius, and there are examples of this before and after his death. The first betrayal of Caesar can be looked at in the very beginning of the play, when Flavius and Marcillus sends the commoners away, and then proceed to take scarves off of the statues celebrating Caesar. They make the comment, â€Å"These growing feathers pluck’d from Caesar’s wing will make him fly an ordinary pitch,† (Act 1, Scene 1). In other words, the two conspirators feel that by sending away Caesar’s followers will give Caesar a reality check of sorts, and to bring his ego down a peg. The next example of betrayal can be seen by Cassius working to get Brutus to his side, away from believing in Caesar. He does this by first sending him a fake letter, and then proceeds to tell him about why he is so upset, and that he feels betrayed by Caesar. He tells Brutus about a time before when they were swimming across the Tiber river and Caesar was almost drowning, calling out, â€Å"Help me, Cassius, or I will sink! † (Act 1, Scene 2). He describes how he saved Caesar’s life, then tells Brutus, â€Å"and this man is now become a god, and Cassius is a wretched creature and must bend his body,† (Act 1, Scene 2). This would be describing Cassius bowing down to Caesar as a king, even though he had saved his life. Most of the betrayal in this story is fairly upfront, until Act 3, after Caesar is killed. His friend Mark Anthony acts as though he is betraying Caesar, in order to take his later revenge. When he first arrives at the murder scene, he shakes hands with all of the conspirators that have killed Caesar, even though their hands are covered with blood. He then comments, â€Å"Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death to see thy Anthony making his piece, shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes, most noble! In the presence of thy corpse? † (Act 3, Scene 1). He is actually speaking to the spirit of Caesar. Anthony plays this part of fake betrayal to Caesar, continuing by agreeing to Brutus that he will not say anything bad about him after Brutus gets done speaking at the funeral of Caesar. Yet, the true betrayal happens when Anthony begins to discount everything Brutus has just said to the citizens, and he turns the citizens against Brutus and the other conspirators. The citizens become enraged as they feel that their leader, Caesar has been betrayed by the killers. The last example of betrayal can be seen as family betrays family. In Act 5, there is a conversation between Lepidus, Octavius, and Mark Anthony. The first family betrayal is when Lepidus consents to have his brother killed along with the other conspirators. Octavius asks Lepidus, â€Å"your brother too must die; consent you Lepidus? † to which Lepidus answers, â€Å"I do consent,† (Act 5, Scene 1). The next family betrayal is when Mark Anthony then agrees that his sister’s son, Publius will be killed too. Anthony replies without hesitation, â€Å"He shall not live; look with a spot I damn him,† (Act 5, Scene 1). There are other examples of betrayal in Julius Caesar, but betrayal is a concept that the whole story is based on, interweaving between almost all the characters of the story. From the major storyline of the betrayal of Caesar, to the minor betrayals between characters which cause Caesar’s death, or betrayal that is because of it, this is ultimately the theme of the story itself.

An Analytical Comparison of the Gangs - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 691 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/04/12 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Gang Violence Essay Did you like this example? However, the formations of Chinese gangs in both countries are different. In the U.S., the identity crisis is the main factor that leads to gang formation.(Long, 1996). Asian immigrants often found themselves in a cultural conflict: while one stressed strict obedience, the other stressed independence and self-sacrifice, and the inability to reconcile the demands from two inconsistent identities became the cause of the formation of the gangs in the U.S(Long, 1996). In other words, those people came together to realize self-recognition, and make profits together. Therefore, the scale of the gangs is relatively large and unbounded. Whereas in China, gangs are relatively small and exceptionally localized they tend to limit the number of the members to between 50 and 200 people(Long, 1996), because Chinas central government is very protective of its position as centralizing force in the country. That is, Chinas central government has no tolerance of nationwide underground groups that have abilities to challenge the central government. Since gangs by their natures are forces that challenge the baseline of the central government, they tend to draw attention from the central government, but only when they grow large enough to pose a considerable threat(T. Wing Lo, 2010); they can stay out of governments radar, as long as they remain in fairly small size. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "An Analytical Comparison of the Gangs" essay for you Create order Moreover, Chinese gangs in the U.S. and in China have completely different models. There are two models of the gangs: structure-control model and social network model(T. Wing Lo, 2010). Gangs in mainland China is social-network-model-based. In this model, guanxi, which means personal relationship and reciprocal obligation developed through a particular social network(T. Wing Lo, 2010), is essential, which plays a vital role in illegal business. Guanxi provides a huge number of opportunities for the gangs to obtain benefits illegally and commit crimes without punishment. For example, the godmother of the Chongqing underworld, Xie Caiping was the only female gang boss in southern China. As the head of moneylending company and more than 10 illegal gambling dens, without polices crackdown, her gang had made 293,000 dollars since September 2004(NBCNews, 2009). The reason why she could commit crimes without police intervention is that as the sister-in-law of Wen Qiang who was Chongqing deputy police chief, she created a guanxi with the local police. Under the guanxi with Wen, Xie even developed corrupt networks within police at different levels Peng Changjian, deputy police director required low-ranking police officers not to interrupt Xies gambling businesses(Li, 2009), which enabled her to establish a gambling house in a hotel next to the prosecutors office(Branigan, 2010). Therefore, Xies illegal businesses were shielded and became immensely cost-effective. On the other hand, almost all Chinese gangs in the U.S. are structure-control-model- based, which emphasizes that organized crime is facilitated by a cohesive triad structure and tight internal control(T. Wing Lo, 2010). Specifically, structure-control model not only stresses loyalty to the gangs and sworn brotherhood but also emphasizes the oaths, rules and central control within the gangs. This type of controlling mechanism restrains gang members in what they should and should not do, and how they implement the tasks without drawing attention from the police, and reinforces the cohesiveness within the gangs. Contrast to the gangs in China, as immigrants in the U.S, when they dont have a strong connection with the local authorities, they have to maintain a comparatively peaceful environment for illegal money-making, because any violence would attract police attention. For instance, the Flying Dragon, which was the enforcement arm of Hip Sing Tong, was one of the most powerful gangs in Chinatown in New York City. The Tongs were legitimate merchants associations, which functioned like the self-help organization of immigrant groups, providing protection against the larger society(Research Directorate, 2006), but they also possessed affiliated groups, which were gangs, to implement illegal activities. Under the regulation of the Hip Sing Tong, the Flying dragon remained unnoticeable by the police before the police caught its head Johnny Eng; only after the capture of Johnny Eng, the local police realized that the Flying Dragons were an extremely violent gang, which not only involved in drug trafficking, but also involved in kidnapping, arson, murder and illegal gambling.