International Marketing
Image Issues
(What are the international marketing issues in the following examples?)
1877: First trademark for a
breakfast cereal in US.
Founders chose Quaker name as
symbol of quality and honest
value.
Note: Quakers are a Protestant
religious sect.
Quaker Products
OPTIONAL
For every bottle of Ethos
water you buy, Starbucks will
donate 5 cents to support
humanitarian programs in
coffee-growing communities
providing clean, safe water to
those in need.
Starbucks’ Ethos Water
Starbucks’ Ethos Water Backlash: When using international philanthropy as a
marketing tactic, evident hypocrisy will have an international reaction, often coming
back to the home country via the internet.
Kentucky Fried Chicken vs. KFC
(People around the world may wonder what is a Kentucky? In addition, companies like McDonalds
have suffered due to their strong American brand identity.)
Kentucky Fried Chicken vs. KFC
(KFC did more than eliminate the name reference to an American state; they changed the white
Southern gentleman into a generic working-class restaurant proprietor who might just as easily be
Asian as European.
Mecca-Cola was launched in France, in November 2002, as a means of aiding Palestinians.
Its appeal is as much as being the anti-Coke as much as being anti-US imperialism. Now
sold in some parts of the Arab World and Europe. Currently based in Dubai. Part of its
corporate philosophy is, according to the Muslim charity precept, to support charities, and
in particular to help the Palestinian people.
10% of its profits donated to humanitarian projects in the Palestinian territories, and
another 10% to charities in countries where the drink is sold.
Mecca Cola
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLUlpWDDMvE
German Bathroom Freshener
(Caused outrage in Ukraine due to its resemblance to the Ukraine flag.)
Public Nazi slogans are banned in
Germany, which neo-Nazis try to
circumvent by using codes. "88" is used
to represent the phrase "Heil Hitler,"
because "H" is the eighth letter of the
alphabet. "18" stands for "A.H." or
Adolf Hitler.
Procter & Gamble stopped shipping the
detergent which was being promoted as
"Ariel 18."
Adidas $250 limited “Yellow Series”, 2006.
(Ray Fong character by Barry McGee, San Francisco. McGee is half Chinese. Is a
design not racist if created by someone of the affected race?)
Is an image racist just because
Americans say it is?
Dunkin' Donuts
criticized for 'racist' ad campaign
Posted to My FOXdc.com: Aug 30, 2013, Associated Press
Human Rights Watch said it was shocked to see an American
brand name running an advertising campaign that would draw
"howls of outrage" if released in the United States.
"It's both bizarre and racist that Dunkin' Donuts thinks that it
must color a woman's skin black and accentuate her lips with
bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut," said Phil
Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
"Dunkin' Donuts should immediately withdraw this ad, publicly
apologize to those it's offended and ensure this never happens
again."
Dunkin' Donuts Thai franchise CEO, Nadim Salhani (a Lebanese
expatriate ), dismissed "paranoid American thinking. "It's
absolutely ridiculous. Not everybody in the world is paranoid
about racism. This is a marketing campaign, and it's working
very well for us."
His teenage daughter was the model. Doughnut sales increased
50% in the first two weeks of the ad campaign.
Dunkin' Donuts US headquarters stated, "On behalf of our
Thailand franchise …, we apologize for any offense ... We are
working with our franchisee to immediately … change the
campaign."
Style reminiscent of Josephine Baker - 1920s
Style reminiscent of Josephine Baker - 1920s
CEO Nadim & daughter Mira Salhani
Darlie Toothpaste, now owned by Colgate-Palmolive Co.
(formerly Darkie Toothpaste; known as “Black People Toothpaste” in China)
75% of Taiwan market, 50% in Singapore, 30% in Malaysia and Hong Kong and 20% in Thailand.
Is an image racist outside of a racist context? The image after all is of a ‘Rich’ black man.
Culture Taboos May not always have been a taboo.
Al Jolson: Called “World’s Greatest Entertainer” 1930s;
America’s most famous and highest paid performer; 80+
hit records; star of first talking picture “The Jazz Singer”
(1927); credited with first to introduce African-American
music to white audiences (jazz & blues); from 1911 on,
was noted for civil rights advocacy against black
discrimination on Broadway and was very much
embraced by the African-American community, especially
in New York.
By the 1980s his blackface image had become the very
definition of anti-black bigotry in the US.
The Darlie Toothpaste logo (1933) is derived from Al Jolson’s image.
Joni Mitchell: blackface at party (1977) & album cover (1978).
Mitchell deeply identified with black musicians and songwriters. "I don't have the soul of a white woman," she told
LA Weekly. "I write like a black poet. I frequently write from a black perspective." She had a jazz-period, in which
she expressed her affinity with what she called "black classical music". "The black press gets it. I'm not a folk
musician," Mitchell told CBC in 2000. "I'm much more related to Miles Davis."
Culture Taboos May have come about only very recently.
Today’s political correctness may be the opposite of yesterday’s.
Netherlands “Sinterklass” children’s festival: St. Nicholas arrives by
steamboat in November with his helpers, known as “Zwarte Pieten” or Black
Petes (mythological origins in Woden’s two black ravens; and present
medieval ‘Moorish’ form in 1845 children’s book about St. Nicholas and his
helpers). Current efforts to overturn this cultural icon originate from the US
and the UK.
Culture Taboos Are not universal.
A Hitler-themed restaurant in Korea is
attacked as reprehensible - although
defended as merely historical and by
the fact Korea was not involved in the
European war.
Why are Napoleon themes noncontroversial even though both men
can be thought of as monsters by
various nations?
The Confederate flag is still commonly
seen in the US despite its association
with slavery.
Buddha-Bar originated in Paris 1996
(Budda is often seen as an art object in the non-Buddist West.)
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHA-BAR
BUDDHATTITUDE
BUSHIDO
KARMA KAFE
LITTLE BUDDHA
LITTLE BUDDHA
LITTLE BUDDHA
LITTLE BUDDHA
LITTLE BUDDHA
SIDDHARTA CAFE
SIDDHARTA LOUNGE
BAKU
KIEV
MONTE-CARLO
PARIS
BEIRUT
BUDAPEST
CAIRO
DUBAI
LONDON
MANILA
MEXICO
MOSCOW
PRAGUE
ST PETERSBURG
TBILISI
CARACAS
DAKAR
MANAMA
DUBAI
GENEVA
AMSTERDAM
DAKAR
HURGHADA
SHARM EL SHEIKH
PRAGUE
DUBAI
and now Buddha-Bar Myanmar
Dec. 2014: New Zealand bar manager Philip
Blackwood and two Burmese were arrested on charges
they insulted religion by posting an advertisement
with an image of a pink Buddha wearing headphones.
The penalty is up to two years in prison.
Hogan’s Heroes (US TV show from 1960s, still
in reruns – shows the funny aspects of a Nazi
POW camp).
Would this offend a culture lacking the ‘unique’
American sense of humor?
There are a number of comedy movies and TV
skits involving the sinking of the Titanic. What
would be the public reception of a Hollywood
comedy involving the 9/11 attack?
Valley of the Wolves Iraq (a
strongly anti-US Turkish
movie). Plot: Following an
event that humiliated Turkey
(based on a true event), a
Turkish agent and his comrades
go after a corrupt CIA
operative. When the Americans
massacre a wedding party, the
Turks hunt down the American
soldiers in a 45 minute bloodfest. The movie was a
blockbuster with long lines to
buy tickets.
Zero Dark Thirty (American movie
about tracking down and killing
Osama bin-Laden). Critics say it is
strongly anti-Pakistani and antiMoslem. The torture sequence is said
to be pro-torture propaganda.
Toyota US Soldier Commercial
Toyota has tried to sell
Japanese cars by appealing
to American emotions using
imagery of American
military, feminism, and
fatherhood all together.
Could the soldier be
imagined as shipping out to
Iraq? Is there any chance
the more pacifistic Japanese
market might have a
negative reaction?
Would General Motors have
any US domestic market
backlash if it used similar
tactics to sell American cars
in Russia? Might a
hypothetical Russian soldier
be imagined as shipping out
to Ukraine?
Toyota Commercial SNL Satire
Coca-Cola Christmas Commercial 2015
(the white savior ad)
White Savior Ad