Imagine you are the marketing manager for a U.S. manufacturer of disposable diapers. Your firm is considering entering the Brazilian market. Your CEO believes the advertising message that has been effective in the United States will suffice in Brazil. Outline the possible objections to this. Your CEO also believes that the pricing decisions in Brazil can be left to local managers. Why might she be wrong? (Chapter 18)
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Task:
Imagine you are the marketing manager for a U.S. manufacturer of disposable diapers. Your firm is considering entering the Brazilian market. Your CEO believes the advertising message that has been effective in the United States will suffice in Brazil. Outline the possible objections to this. Your CEO also believes that the pricing decisions in Brazil can be left to local managers. Why might she be wrong? (Chapter 18)
If I was marketing manager for the company, I would advise to CEO that we should consider a host of factors before commencing an advertising campaign in Brazil that is similar to that of our campaign in the United States. Countries are different and require different strategies and messages due to social structure, language, religion, and education,
The most apparent factor is how we promote our products around the world rather needs to be specialized marketing based on cultural types (high context versus low context societies). In High context society the interpretation of messages depends on the contextual cues such as gender, age, balance of power, and not on physical written text. Things are not said but still understood. Examples of countries with this society are China, Japan, Italy, France, Spain, and Latin American Countries such as Brazil.
Low Context culture emphasize distinctive written text or spoken words, where ideas are communicated explicitly. This culture type expect others to say what they mean and do what they say. Some examples of countries with this culture type are United States, the Scandinavian countries, and Germany.
Advertising messages on food in foreign countries is more sensitive to culture, tradition, and religious factors. Product messages are dependent on “barriers to international communication”. These barriers that must be observed are cultural barriers, source effects, and noise levels.
Cultural barriers focuses on what is acceptable in one nation may not be acceptable in another nation. Source effects are how product made in a nation are viewed in another nation. Are American products such as diapers viewed favorably in Brazil? If not, a new message or advertising content or strategy might be beneficial. The final is noise levels which refers number of similar advertising competing for the same consumers.
One final consideration is product quality, standards are different in different countries and therefore diapers made in the United States may or may not meet the quality standards of the nation be advertised in, so the message must be sensitive to this. Overall, an advertising strategy or message must be cognizant of cultural diversity when developing an advertising campaign.
References:
Hill, C. and Hult, T. International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace 12 Ed.
McGraw-Hill 2018
N.A. (n.d.), ELL of Linguistic Differences
https://ldldproject.net/cultures/brazil/differences/interpersonal.html
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As a marketing manager, I would advise the CEO advertising should be done by prioritizing the target market and its target customers. Using the same advertising message effective in the United States, may not be a good idea in Brazil. Since managers examine pricing problems through the eyes of their customers, close attention should be made to the details (Argarwal, 2016). The Brazilian market is comparably different from the U.S. with different cultures, preferences, likes, and dislikes. Altogether, there is a different mindset compared to the U.S. market. Additionally, there are various competitors in a given country, and they too can create noise to an advertising message. This noise level could differ in various countries like Brazil and the United States.
Leaving pricing decisions to local managers in Brazil may be the wrong decision by the CEO. Pricing should be centralized as the local employee would not be able to determine the profitability of the firm while deciding on the price. In addition, management should confirm the paying capacity of the Brazilian market from local employees, consider it and then determine the price. In all, pricing decisions are important because it represents an assessment of the value customers see in the service or product and their willingness to pay for that service or product.
References
Argarwal, R. (2016). Pricing Decisions: Influencing Factors, Methods and Economic Approach. Retrieved from Your Article Library: https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/accounting/pricing-decisions/pricing-decisions-influencing-factors-methods-and-economic-approach/52788
Hill, C., & Hult, T. (2018). International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace. New York: McGraw-Hill.