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Essay: Globalisation and global consumers

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Kotler (1980) formulated a theory, which postulated upon two factors that may draw a company into international market development. They are:

Push ‘ Because of the lack of home market penetration/opportunities; and

Pull ‘ By increasing opportunities for its product abroad.

Global Trends & Culture

Starbucks efficiently produce and distribute globally, but they do not communicate effectively on a global basis. This is a paradox inherent in global marketing communications. The values and systems of one culture are used to develop advertising for other cultures. A criticism of this is that a model for one culture cannot be successfully projected to other cultures. Global standardized advertising has failed because it does not influence the multifarious target markets it addresses.

‘International human resource management is the process of employing and developing people in international organisations which operate in Europe or globally. It means working across national boundaries to formulate and implement resourcing, development, career management and remuneration strategies, policies and practices, which can be applied to an international workforce. This may include parent country nationals working for long periods as expatriates or on short term assignments, local country nationals, or third country nationals who work for the corporation in a local country but are not parent country nationals (e.g. a German working in West Africa for a British owned company)’.

Source: Armstrong 1999, pg.79

Globalisation vs. Glocalisation

The facilitation of global food sourcing has been aided by the commitment to free trade. A greater interest in overseas travel, a rise in the consumption of ‘overseas’ food which incorporates the growing number of ethnic groups who reside on the UK are some of the factors that have influenced greater interest and knowledge base of the consumption and culture of food. This leads us to the assumption of residual cultural traits and influences being present in British society/culture.

Globalisation

Increasing internationalisation of the culture of food, knowledge and eating habits within the UK has led to increased levels of interest on the consumption of local foods and cuisine (think of Lancashire hotpot, Pork pie from Melton Mowbray and a Cornish pasty form Cornwall).

This growing interest alongside a number of economic and cultural forces including recent food scares, i.e. Foot & Mouth has literally forced the Government into creating and adjusting their agendas regarding sustainability, culture and rituals which incorporate the wider debate of globalisation.

Diverse Workforce

Many ‘global’ wholly owned subsidiary companies might employ both host and parent company nationals along with third country nationals. The inherent problem with this is that it may cause problems with employment practices as well as pay. Joint ventures such as Starbucks and The Bon-Appetit Group, Switzerland, 2001 has a complex workforce made up of nationals, parent country and third country nationals. Kanter (1989) stated that divided loyalties exist between the parent company and joint venture consortium and that difficulties will be faced by the managers when trying to be sensitive to local cultures and conditions whilst being aware of the demands placed upon them from the joint venture company and the parent company.

“Consumers don’t care if the brand is global, and they increasingly prefer local brands, or what they perceive as local brands’
Marieke de Mooij, 2001.


Globalisation & Culture

Despite the reach of globalisation, people will remain resolutely connected to their indigenous cultures. Attitudes and values differ between countries. Because their values are different, so too are their responses to advertising messages. Therefore the decision to standardise has more to do with corporate cultures than with the culture of markets. One must ponder whether this a sweeping statement or fact. Marieke de Mooij stated that this may be defined by looking at the large advertising adapted to suit local conditions.

“Local markets are people; global markets are products’
Marieke de Moij, 2001

Global Distribution

Starbucks, as do many companies efficiently produce and distribute globally, but they do not communicate effectively on a global basis. This is a paradox inherent in global marketing communications. The values and systems of one culture are used to develop advertising for other cultures. A criticism of this is that a model for one culture cannot be successfully projected to other cultures. Global standardized advertising which has failed does not work because it influences the multifarious target markets it addresses.

This leads us to ponder the role of the global consumers. If ‘global’ popular culture such as music and fashion is accepted by a society, it tends to be adapted to the specific cultural values. Therefore, motives of business people, also frequently considered a “global consumer group’, vary just as much by culture as consumers’ motives do.

Despite the reach of globalisation, people will remain resolutely connected to their indigenous cultures. Attitudes and values differ between countries. Because their values are different, so too are their responses to HR policies. Therefore the decision to standardise has more to do with the corporate culture than with the culture of markets.

Food, Taste and Culture

We all know that food is an important source of our daily requirements for nourishment. It has over thousands of years acted as a source of trading and as a cultural link between nations e.g. the spice trade

Food is multi-faceted and has a diverse range of uses in addition that mentioned above. It also acts as an instrument for socialising with family and friends so that we may create a perception of space, place and identity.

Impact of Globalisation

Think back to last week when we discussed globalisation. Globalised consumption may be defined by definition as having a threefold pattern following Usunier (2000). The pattern is based upon approaches in

Modernism

Low-cost, fair-quality, weakly differentiated, utilitarian products, embedded in low-context consumption experiences.

Postmodernist & Conspicuous Consumption

Fragmented, continually reassembled and re-interpreted. Applicable to large name brands. Conspicuous consumption seen a key driver for culture.

What is Marketing?

Marketing means something different to everyone. The two most widely used and accepted definitions of marketing.

‘Marketing is the management process, which identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably’.
(Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK).

‘Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organisational objectives’. (American Marketing Association, 1995).

Target Markets

A segmentation approach may bring benefits in the search for our business to grow. A business can only grow if there is a product to sell. Ansoff in 1957 postulated that there are four main points/courses of action in terms of segmentation. They are:

  • Market Penetration
  • Product Development
  • Market Extension
  • Diversification

There was a discourse of dissatisfaction with the existing anthropological approaches to food in the 70s and 80s. It became apparent to anthropologists that food held deep rooted significance within any given society. They realised that a move towards conceptualising food more than just a daily commodification. They postulated that food is embedded within cultures and had differing ideologies and meanings.

These symbolic anthropologists highlighted a particular foodstuff and/or ritual and analyse it in its own terms as well as within the context of culture. This was as a direct result of the shift of thinking in the 1950’s as was highlighted by the Japanese example in section 1.

The study and understanding of food anthropology is continually shifting. The 1980’s and latterly the 1990’s saw research concentrate on economics and politics within culinary conceptualisations. For example, it was not adequate for a political-economist to suggest that a wedding cake was culturally significant in wedding traditions. It was deemed necessary to implement a series of studies and analyses of the politics and economic which induce such symbolism.

Starbucks

Our annual Global Responsibility report is a moment to reflect on the impact we’ve made over the past year. But more than reporting on past progress, it’s an opportunity to be more intentional and focused about what we can do in the future. While there are challenges to operating such a complex, expanding global business as ours, we will continue to balance local relevance with our global reach. You have our commitment that we will continue to push ourselves in new ways.

Food and Culture : A Reader

The manner of food consumption occurring due to globalization and concordant development of the packaged food industry in India; and the anxiety over identity loss experienced by South Asians both in urban India and abroad.

Globalization has been seen by theorists as the dominance of the culture of EuroAmerica (Appadurai, 1996; Barber, 1996; Berger, 1997; Friedman, 2006) i.e. the center upon the periphery. This paper seeks to expand on an understanding of a network form of cultural globalization’where goods and ideologies move through the network in many directions, leading perforce to plural forms of cultural globalization

Journal

Theory, Culture & Society

http://tcs.sagepub.com.ezproxy.derby.ac.uk/

http://tcs.sagepub.com.ezproxy.derby.ac.uk

FOOD IS a wonderful entrance into practices, central as it is to both physical survival and social relations.

Problematizing Global Knowledge ‘ Genealogies of the Global/Globalizations
393
Abstract
What is generally called globalization is a vast social field in which hegemonic or dominant social groups, states, interests and ideologies collide with counter-hegemonic or subordinate social groups, states, interests and ideologies on a world scale. Even the hegemonic camp is fraught with conflicts, but over and above them, there is a basic consensus among its most influential members (in political terms, the G-7). It is this consensus that confers on globalization its dominant characteristics. The counter-hegemonic or subordinate production of globalization is what is called insurgent cosmopolitanism. It consists of the transnationally organized resistance against the unequal
exchanges produced or intensified by globalized localisms and localized globalisms.

Keywords

counter-he

Whether new or old, the processes of globalization are a multifaceted phenomenon with economic, social, political, cultural, religious and legal dimensions, all interlinked in a complex fashion. Strangely enough, globalization seems to combine universality and the elimination of
national borders, on the one hand, with rising particularity, local diversity, ethnic identity and a return to communitarian values, on the other. In other words, globalization appears to be the other side of localization, and vice versa. Moreover, it seems to be related to a vast array of transformations across the globe, such as the dramatic rise in inequality between rich and poor countries and between the rich and the poor in each country, environmental disasters, ethnic conflicts, international mass migration, the emergence of new states and the collapse or decline of others, the proliferation of civil wars, ethnic cleansing, globally organized crime, formal democracy as a political condition for international aid, terrorism, and militarism, etc. The debates on globalization have centered around the following questions: (1) is globalization a new or an old phenomenon?; (2) is globalization monolithic or does it have different political meanings and both positive and negative aspects?; (3) is it as important in the social, political and cultural domains as it is in the economic domain?; and (4) assuming that globalization is intensifying, where is it leading, what is the future of national societies, economies, polities and cultures? These debates have been showing that what is generally called globalization is a vast social field in which hegemonic or dominant social groups, states, interests and ideologies collide with counter-hegemonic or subordinate social groups, states, interests and ideologies on a world scale (Fisher and Ponniah, 2003; Sen et al., 2004).

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