In Marketing and Commerce one rule that is emphasised, is being able to appreciate the differences between cultures. The problem most Westerns experience is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is judging another culture with your own values. The problem is society is a social construct, and these values, mores, norms and rules we grow up with are not necessarily the same in another country, especially countries that have religion and the legal system intertwined.
One important rule I learnt at University, was to account for culture. For example, respect their legislation, find out customs that they have and be tolerant of differences, and try and empathise as much as possible. At the end of the day, it’s important to study and adapt to the cultural norms, in particularly if your aim is to form a business relationship. For instance is Muslim countries being late to a meeting is accepted because time is "in Allah's way", thus we do not control it. Whereas punctuality is important in most countries.
Branding is very important. Your brand name will follow you, and there will be significant costs if you require to re-brand in the future. Thus it is important to research your brand name as widely as possible. However, there's a different between re-branding and accepting cultural branding. Currently McDonald's is changing it's conventional name to Maccas in Australia. If you have ever been to Australia, you know that we tend to nick-name anything that is part of our culture, Australia and McDonald's have had a relationship for 40 years.
In Australia, McDonalds is aware that locals have nick-named them Macca’s, thus are re-branding themselves to the Australian market as Macca’s. Most evidently, they have embraced this nick-name and are proud of it. I must commend McDonald’s, or shall I say Macca’s for embracing their cultural roots, even though they are a franchise. By being culturally sensitive, even a franchise company is able to differentiate itself in each country by working with the locals. For example, in Japan they sell whale meat rather than beef. In order to expand your business, or maintain it in the long-term, it is paramount to research the cultural, and how this would affect your business. Just like technology, we need to adapt our business to a country's norms and values in order to be successful.
Kudos to McDonald's for showing us how it's done!
In Australia, McDonalds is aware that locals have nick-named them Macca’s, thus are re-branding themselves to the Australian market as Macca’s. Most evidently, they have embraced this nick-name and are proud of it. I must commend McDonald’s, or shall I say Macca’s for embracing their cultural roots, even though they are a franchise. By being culturally sensitive, even a franchise company is able to differentiate itself in each country by working with the locals. For example, in Japan they sell whale meat rather than beef. In order to expand your business, or maintain it in the long-term, it is paramount to research the cultural, and how this would affect your business. Just like technology, we need to adapt our business to a country's norms and values in order to be successful.
Kudos to McDonald's for showing us how it's done!
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