The Foundation of Cultural Understanding

Marketing is concerned with satisfying the needs of people. International marketing seeks out the whole world as its marketplace. Therefore, for an international marketer to know how to satisfy the needs of the international market, he must be familiar enough with geography to know what the various causal factors of the people’s needs are. Understanding the geography and history of a country can help a marketer have a better appreciation for many of the characteristics of its culture. A culture of a people evolves in response to the environment, which it confronts.
The geography of a country, its topography, climate, and physical position relative to other countries affect a culture’s evolution including its marketing and distribution systems. It’s important for a marketer to understand that geography plays an important role in the economy of a country and its marketing system. Consider the diverse nature of South America, for example. The channels of distribution that a domestic marketer has been accustomed to using might not even exist because of natural barriers. These same natural barriers also cause quite varied levels of economic development within the same country.
The history of a country is also important in understanding many aspects of a culture. Marketers are constantly in the process of adjusting their efforts to the demands of the culture as a result of their efforts; most current activity involves reconciling marketing activity to the immediate culture. The importance of “cultural empathy” to the foreign marketer is that being culturally sensitive allows him/her to objectively see, evaluate and appreciate another culture; he/she can obtain it by studying the culture and living with it. He/she should study the culture in order to avoid making blunders, which would not be made if he/she had cultural knowledge. It’s imperative that an international marketer making a long-term commitment in a country has some knowledge of its history. One cannot fully understand how businesspeople negotiate, how they conduct business, their attitudes toward foreign investment, the legal system and other aspect of the market/business system without a historical perspective. History is what helps define a nation’s “ mission”, how it perceives its neighbors, and how it sees its place in the world. To understand a country’s attitudes, prejudices, and fears it is necessary to look beyond the surface or current events to the inner subtleties of the country’s entire past for clues.
A crucial element in understanding any nation’s business and political culture is the subjective perception of its history.
To a Mexican, the U.S. is seen as a threat to their political, economic and cultural independence. To most U.S. citizens, the causes for such feelings are a mystery.
All the cultural elements are important in international marketing but the political element is by far the most pervasive and must always be examined from both domestic and foreign country perspectives. Regardless of where a company does business, the political element is always a partner and further, often an unpredictable one. Governments both encourage and control business and the goal of a Multinational corporation (MNC) is to take steps to lower the political vulnerability. While confiscation and expropriation have rarely been imposed in the last decade, they are the most severe political risk and can always be imposed. Today, most governments encourage foreign investment by attempting to create a favorable business climate, minimizing investment risks, offering tax exemption, protection against competing import, and unimpeded movement of capital and profits. But this does not mean that there are no political risks.
Government instability affects marketing because of the risks, which are inherent in foreign marketing. Much can be lost if a company invests money in a plant or an operation within a foreign country and is later subjected to restrictions, controls, or expropriation by the present or the new government. The most frequently encountered risks in foreign business are: Expropriation, exchange control, import restrictions, taxes, price control and labor problems.
Companies investing in foreign countries can minimize the political and economic risk by:
• Establishing a management of foreigners and nationals
• Employing nationals and having the national work with you, not for you
• Selling stock in the company to nationals
• Sharing the profits and earnings in a fair manner
• Understanding the traditions of the people in the host country.

INTERNET MARKETING

How to make money online in just 4 steps


A simple 4-step formula that will let you make money online and put you on the right track to internet profits. I would like to share with you a short secret report about making money online. Listen, this is perhaps the only real way to generating money on demand anytime you want, so be sure to keep your eyes glued to this page. What I've done is distilled the wisdom from literally hundreds of e-books, courses and seminars for you - so that you won't have to!



1. STEP ONE: Target Your Market And Differentiate Your Offer

Don't go for the mass, not online anyway, there's too much tough competition. The secret's in isolating your niche markets. Becoming an expert in your targeted niche market and differentiating your offerings. Create your selling proposition and stand out from the crowd: e.g. hip-hop music videos instead of just music videos.

In a web-marketing scenario, you may want to focus on a very specific area. Next, find out what's selling online (demand) and sell to these markets (supply), it is really that simple and straight-forward. Online demand can be easily discovered from 'hot' keywords. These are specifically keywords that are typed into the search engines, keywords that are being searched for every month.

Where would people go to search for information they want, even information they would be willing to pay for? There're numerous free online tools available to find these demanded keywords e.g. goodkeywords, wordtracker & keyword sleuth. Now it's a matter of punching in your keywords and knowing how many times they were searched on in the month. For example, I found out "Make Money Online" was searched 16,159 times on average in less than 3 minutes using Good Keywords.



2. STEP TWO: Start Your Own Website And Generate An Opt-In List From It

This step is absolutely crucial if you desire to make even a cent online. Firstly you've got to have your own website to be ready to make money. Following up with your visitors with an opt-in list is where most successful marketers and gurus make their online fortunes. Web visitors hardly buy on their first visit; failure to capture their emails for further follow-up means you'd be counting lesser money at the end of the month. Learn just one thing today and start your own website and opt-in list now.




3. STEP THREE: Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website

It's all about getting TARGETED traffic and converting them well. But you don't want just any traffic as mentioned. What you need is qualified and targeted paying traffic. The profitability of your website all depends on how good you're at driving targeted traffic to it whenever you want. For example, a very easy and quick way would be to write simple articles and get them everywhere. By the way you'd want to learn about How to get ranked at the top of the search engines."


4. STEP FOUR: Converting Your Visitors Into Customers

As mentioned it will be pretty useless getting traffic if your website doesn't convert well. By this I mean you must get visitors all excited and charged-up into taking specific actions you want them to take, like buy your products and opt-in to your list. Some ways to increase your conversion rate would be to improve upon the web copy, and loading time.

Before I forget, you'll need good products to sell if you're ever going to make money online in the first place. I know this isn’t exactly a 'big revelation' but… "Here's How You Can Get Unlimited Products To Sell For Serious Cash Online!" All right then here're three basic ways to get products to sell for profits:

a. First Way: Get Other People's Products

This is really the easiest and fastest way to 'instant' online money, what you'd call affiliate marketing. It's simply about finding quality affiliate products relevant to your targeted market, recommending them and cashing in your commissions. Affiliate marketing is very profitable. You can even quit your day job with it once you get the system right.

b. Second Way: Get Resale Rights To "Ready-Made Products"

Reselling digital info-products like e-books and software is a no-brainer business you can start instantly and easily. Without much effort or investment, anyone can make money from them.

c. Third Way: Get YOUR OWN Products!

Creating your own products is what I'd call the 'ultimate quest' of every Internet marketer. It's an advancement from being just an affiliate to owning your own products which you can control 100%.

sex sells

Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch: Pioneers or Perverts ?

Using shocking, and sometimes explicit material to draw attention is not a new fad, it has however become a rising trend upon multiple advertising agencies today. With each year, ad campaigns have become continuously more risky. Each campaign is jumping upon the sexual campaigning bandwagon. Many credit Calvin Klein for taking sexual marketing to the level it is today. The newest addition to this exploitative family is clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch, with its outrageous Christmas Quarterly, packaged in plastic because of the nude photos. These two factors may have taken sex in advertising to a completely new level, and even more shocking than before.

Designer Calvin Klein is known for his very noticeable ads, even years ago. “In 1980 he featured a 15 year old Brooke Shields purring ‘Nothing comes between me and my Calvin’s.’” This raised many eyebrows and skyrocketed Klein to the most talked about designer. Throughout the years and with children posing for his debatable ads as young as 15 years old, Klein was the target of a US Justice Department Investigation in 1995, questioning if some of his ads were child pornography. Klein’s response to this particular outcry: “These campaign ads are not pornographic. The ads were intended to convey the idea that glamour is an inner quality that can be found in regular people in an ordinary setting; it is not something that is exclusive to movie stars and models”.

However this comment also came from the man who said, “Jeans are about sex.” Klein is not alone in his use of controversial images in advertising. The theory that sex sells is nothing new. “…American culture is permeated with sex…” Sexual marketing is taking a step further with retailer Abercrombie and Fitch. Known for their tight fitting clothing and suggestive slogans and sayings appearing on shirts and the like, they have shocked many with the production of their Holiday Quarterly (2002). The front cover shows a nude male and nude female on a bed, with numerous nude pictures on the first 117 pages.” Abercrombie & Fitch is selling porn, plain and simple," says Don Wildmon, chairman of American Family Association. "This is a company that markets itself to young people, and their message is one of promoting immoral personal and social behavior. The holiday catalog first breaking the mold in 2002 more closely resembled a pornography magazine than a catalog for clothing. The pictures had nothing to do with the clothing. A spokesperson for Abercrombie and Fitch was quoted by saying: “These photos depict young, healthy, presumably red-blooded young Americans posing and generally living what could be considered the ‘good life.”

Advertising today has a broader acceptance and a looser standard. If sex didn’t sell, no one would advertise it. Both Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch learned this lesson early on. Each has revolutionized their corporations and the fashion industries of today and continues to create shocking and sometimes questionable ads. They may be disturbing and exploitive, but if our population wasn’t so eager to gorge themselves on the advertising and provocative creations, it wouldn’t carry the appeal it has today.

ABSOLUT HOMEWORK

www.absolut.com
www.absolutad.com


The Absolut Vodka advertising campaign has proven to be exceptionally popular and long-lived. Established in 1981, the creative minds behind Absolut have continued to generate fresh ideas to market their product. A large part of the campaign's success is derived from the wide variety of artistic talents who design for the company. Many of these formerly unknown artists were "discovered" after their work with Absolut Vodka.

ABSOLUT MUSIC

Who doesn’t have a favorite song/singer/group?

However, since ABSOLUT has always been a very visual brand and music is quite non-visual by nature, the natural connection initially seemed hard to find. However, with the advancement of Internet technology, ABSOLUT was able to launch its ABSOLUT DJ site in 1998. The site was a tribute to DJ/producers. The focus on the DJ community was no coincidence: the role of the DJ has gradually transformed from that of someone who plays records at a disco to a visionary of music. DJs are the groundbreaking musicians of their time explorers of the world of music who change the map of a traditional art form. These are attributes that fully comply with the way ABSOLUT looks at the world.
ABSOLUT DJ was a success in many ways; the site actually created visual music. The technology was at the forefront of what was available at the time and the musicians that contributed forever changed the way ABSOLUT viewed music.
ABSOLUT JAM, a global jam from four cities that was sent in real time over the Internet, was launched in 1999.
With ABSOLUT THREE TRACKS, a new level of commitment is reached.
The project is based on three DJ/composers. The musicians were briefed in the same way as any artist working with ABSOLUT is: make an interpretation of the bottle and the brand.
The final results reflect the diversity of the artists selected: ABSOLUT BRIKHA with a High-Tech soul track that includes the sound of the bottle shape; ABSOLUT ROLLERCONE, with his sophisticated club track that pays tribute to the artists and designers who have previously worked with ABSOLUT; and ABSOLUT TAXI, a soulful track that explores absolute reality,accompanied solely by sounds created from the bottle itself. The vernissage was held in Stockholm in October 2003.

ABSOLUT FASHION

“It was great to be able to be associated with a company that has
such an understanding of fashion design and has supported
the work of fashion designers and artists over the years” (Tom Ford)

ABSOLUT FASHION first saw the light of day through a weightless, shimmery silver fabric. David Cameron's dress debuted in 1988 and propelled ABSOLUT into the fashion world. Cameron's silver mini dress was worn by model Rachel Williams. When the ad was launched, close to 5,000 phone calls were logged by the toll-free number that appeared in tiny type at the bottom of the ad. The majority of callers were women who wanted to purchase the dress.

ABSOLUT FASHION represents a synergy between the art of fashion and the creative spirit of ABSOLUT. The garments always show quality, cutting edge, prestige, imagination, wit, daring, style, sophistication and visibility. In short, ABSOLUT works with designers who have the same level of quality and style to equal our product. Since the designers have to please neither Seventh Avenue nor Main Street, the fashions are often over-the-top. Tone ranges from Piccone's sleek, white evening dress with white gloves featuring the ABSOLUT logo trailing down one side of the dress – to Jeanette Kastenberg's sequined jumpsuit patched with select images of works by such ABSOLUT artists as Warhol, Haring and Britto. Other leading designers represented in the ABSOLUT FASHION COLLECTION include Gianni Versace, Helmut Lang, Manolo Blahnik and John Galliano. Other examples of ABSOLUT FASHION are ABSOLUT NEWTON, ABSOLUT VERSACE,
ABSOLUT RUIZ DE LA PRADA, ABSOLUT TOM FORD. ABSOLUT GUCCI and ABSOLUT GAULTIER.

The ABSOLUT NEWTON (1995) campaign was shot by photographer Helmut Newton in and around the distillery in Åhus, Sweden, with model Kristen McMenamy. The collection showed high style ABSOLUT FASHION creations by fashion designers such as John Galliano, Helmut Lang, Anna Molinari and Martine Sitbon. ABSOLUT NEWTON was first presented as an eight-page insert in Vogue magazine. ABSOLUT VERSACE (1997) features a stunning fashion collection for ABSOLUT by Gianni Versace. The collection was photographed by leading fashion photographer Herb Ritts at the Ice Hotel in Sweden, 200 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. It features supermodels Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Marcus Schenkenberg and Mark Findlay. The campaign was an eight-page insert in Vogue.

ABSOLUT TOM FORD. ABSOLUT GUCCI (1999) is a fashion collection created by the American designer Tom Ford (Gucci). The outfits were photographed at a discotheque in Paris by photographer Mario Testino. The campaign was an eight-page insert in Vogue.

ABSOLUT GAULTIER (2002) is a campaign inspired by ABSOLUT and Swedish legends and contains haute couture by Jean-Paul Gaultier. The outfits were photographed in the Stockholm archipelago by fashion photographer Jean-Baptise Mondino. The campaign was an eight-page insert in Vogue and other European fashion magazines.

ABSOLUT ART

"I love the packaging, I love the feeling of it… I want to do something…"

This was Andy Warhol's reaction when he was first asked what he thought of the ABSOLUT VODKA bottle. And so ABSOLUT began its involvement in the arts in 1985 with ABSOLUT WARHOL – the legendary artist's dramatic and colorful depiction of the well known bottle. Warhol helped to launch a new form of ABSOLUT expression: ABSOLUT ART.
Andy Warhol recommended his young protégé, Keith Haring. Haring had first been noticed in the early '80s, when his artwork appeared anonymously throughout the New York subway system. ABSOLUT HARING was commissioned in 1986 and works followed by Kenny Scharf, Ed Ruscha, Armand Arman, LeRoy Neiman, Robert Indiana, César, Julia Wachtel, Pierre & Gilles and other leading artists. To date, the collection of contemporary art includes the work of more than 400 artists. Many have been showcased as part of the ABSOLUT advertising campaign and the works of art are also exhibited in museums around the world.

V&S Absolut Spirits’ commitment to the arts has always been based on mutual inspiration. The creative nature of the brand has attracted some of the leading contemporary artists of our time to develop their own personal interpretations of ABSOLUT. Regardless of the artist, country or type of work, every piece reflects both the vision of the artist and the spirit of ABSOLUT. ABSOLUT has not worked only with painters but artists in all fields, including sculptors, crystal glass designers, photographers, furniture designers, architects and jewelry designers.
There are a number of separate collections included in ABSOLUT ART. Among them are:
ABSOLUT GLASNOST (1990) a collection of works by twenty-six Soviet artists, including Alexander Kosolapov, Leonid Lamm and Evegny Mitta. Many of the artists had never had their art exhibited outside what was then the Soviet Union.
ABSOLUT EXPRESSIONS (1997) featuring the works of fourteen African-American artists including Anita Philyaw, Frank Bowling and Malaika Favorite. Influences range from traditional African art, abstract imagery and early American folk art and are represented through such styles and mediums as works on canvas, sculptures and quilts. ABSOLUT ORIGINALS (1998-1999) is a collaboration between ABSOLUT and sixteen cutting-edge European artists. This special series features original works of exciting and respected artists such as Damien Hirst, Maurizio Cattelan and Francesco Clemente.

In 2000 three major ABSOLUT ART exhibitions were arranged; ABSOLUT EGO in Paris, ABSOLUT EXHIBITION in New York and ABSOLUT ART in Stockholm.
ABSOLUT was an official exhibitor with the ABSOLUT GENERATIONS exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2003. For the ABSOLUT GENERATIONS project, 13 of Europe’s leading artists were chosen from the ABSOLUT ART collection, to become “mentors” to sixteen emerging “protégés”. Each of these young artists created their personal interpretation of the ABSOLUT bottle. At the Biennale each pair, mentor and protégé, react to one another and interpret the theme generations.