Ethics and Global Marketing
Lecture three:
Ethics and Delivering Customer
Value across Global Markets
Business perspective three:
• Intents, means and ends
– When formulating marketing campaigns,
marketers are responsible for:
• The intent of the action
• The means or method by which the practice was
implemented
• The end or outcomes of the strategy or tactic
Did Hyundai go too far?
The proportionality framework
• Adapted from Garrett (1966)
– The principle of proportionality:
• Marketers are responsible for whatever they intend
as a means or an end. If both are 'good', they may
act, accepting a certain (i.e. minor) risk of side
effects.
The marketing concept
• Segmentation
• Targeting
• Positioning
High
price
 Harrods
 Delicatessens
 Marks & Spencer
 Convenience stores
Narrow
range
 Tesco
Wide
range
 Market stalls
 Discount stores
Low
price
Marketing mix
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Product
Price
Place
People
Physical evidence
Process
Promotion
Vaseline example
Ethical product challenges
Ethical pricing challenges
Ethical pricing challenges
Ethical place challenges
• Whose responsibility?
• The government and the retailers?
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21388628
• Individuals?
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21392004
• The supply chain?
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21394451
Ethical people challenges
Non-ethical physical evidence
• Fake bomb detectors:
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22279095
Ethical promotional challenges
Word-of-mouth
communications
CUSTOMER
Personal needs
Past experience
Expected service
Gap 5
Perceived service
Service
delivery
PROVIDER
Gap 4
Gap 3
External
communications to
customers
Service quality
specifications
Gap 1
Gap 2
Management perceptions
of customer expectations
Service Quality Framework
ABC model of consumer attitudes
• Affect
• Behaviour
• Cognition
Purchase decision making
framework
Essential components of culture
• Beliefs
– Mental and verbal processes that reflect our
knowledge and assessment of products/services.
• Values
– Indicators consumers use as guides for what is
appropriate behaviour.
– Usually enduring and widely accepted within the
market.
Essential components of culture
• Customs
– Overt modes of behaviour that constitute
culturally approved or acceptable ways of
behaving in specific situations.
– Customs are evident at major events in one’s life,
e.g. birth, marriage, death, and at key events in
the year, e.g. Christmas, Easter, Ramadan.
Layers of culture
• Like an onion (Lee and Carter, 2012)
– National culture
– Business culture
– Organisational culture
– Individual culture
Layers of culture
• Hofstede (2003)
– National level
– Regional / ethnic / religious / linguistic
affiliation level
– Gender level
– Generation level
– Social class level
Contextual continuum of culture
High
Japanese
Arabs
Latin Americans
Italians/Spanish
Context
French
English
North Americans
Scandinavians
Low
Source: Usiner et al (2005))
Germans
Swiss
Explicit
Messages
Implicit
Hofstede’s criteria (2001)
• Individualism
– Affects the way people live together
• Power distance
– Dealing with human inequality
• Uncertainty avoidance
– Managing future uncertainty
• Masculinity
– Male / female stereotyping
• Time orientation/Confucian dynamism
– Long-term or short-term orientation
Danish Culture –
According to Geert
Hofstede
Very low power distance
Quite high individualism
Very low ”masculinity” – more ”feminine”
values
Very low uncertainty avoidance
Business culture traits:
- Quite informal, relaxed
- Punctuality is very important
- A very direct, no-nonsense communication
(may be considered rude)
- High gender equality
- Not too flashy dress-code
Source: www.geert-hofstede.com
In a European context the Danish
culture differs from being more
”feminine” and with a very low power
distance compared to other
European countries. But in a global
context the contrasts are even
bigger.
This can be risky in dealing with e.g.
China.
A viral marketing campaign gone
horribly wrong…
side 26
Self-reference criterion
• The process of gaining empathy within an international
country market requires:
• Cultural empathy
– The ability to place yourself in the position of a buyer from
another country.
• Neutrality
– The ability to identify the differences that exist without making
value judgements about ‘better’ or ‘worse’ cultures.
– The focus should be placed on differences rather than
superiority.
Assumptions to be questioned by
international marketing managers
• The consumer buying process is
consistent across cultures
– consumer involvement
– perceived risk
– cognitive style
Cultural tightness-looseness
• Refers to the extent to which an individual
shows strong adherence to social norms
and whether severe sanctions are
imposed on those who deviate from these
norms.
(Gelfand, Nishii, and Raver, 2006)
Ethics and Global Marketing
Lecture three:
Ethics and Delivering Customer Value
across Global Markets
Tutor: Giovanna Battiston
 g.battiston@shu.ac.uk
Activity
Congratulations! You have just graduated from university and
you have been offered an interview with Starbucks for a
position as Marketing Officer at their head office in the US.
To prepare for the interview you have been asked to deliver a
20-minute presentation in response to the following question:
'Evaluate the reasons why Starbucks has been
unsuccessful in demonstrating its ethical and
environmental credentials and outline the marketing
measures the company could undertake to increase
awareness of its CSR activities.'