Part 1:

Globalization is just one of the effects of the new technologies (microelectronics,

computers, robotics, telecommunication, new materials, and biotechnology) that are
reshaping the economies of the third millennium. Collectively, these technologies and
their cohesiveness are producing a knowledge-based economy which in turn is
systematically changing how all people conduct their economic and social lives
(Gillespie 59). Often, globalization is seen as the cause of these changes, when it is in
fact only one of the many effects (Thurow 199).

In general, the British are ranked higher on individualism, and lower on uncertainty
avoidance and power aloofness than Malaysians. Based on power aloofness, Malaysian
marketers would be expected to have higher idealism (which is the quality of believing
that ideals should be pursued) than those from UK. Based on uncertainty avoidance,
Malaysian marketers would be expected to have lower idealism than those from UK.

Furthermore, based on individualism and Confucian dynamism, differences in idealism of

marketers from the two countries could be in both directions. Similarly, British managers
would be expected to exhibit higher relativism (that is all criteria of judgment are relative
to the individuals and situations involved) than Malaysian managers, if based on
individualism. However, Malaysian managers would be expected to exhibit higher
relativism than British managers, based on power aloofness, uncertainty avoidance, and
Confucian dynamism.

Vogel (1992) noted that despite globalization, the norms of business (not only of business
but also of academic interest) were substantially higher in the UK than in other advanced
developing countries like Malaysia. He attributed it to the distinctive cultural
environment in the UK that contributes toward a strict enforcement of law (Vogel 142).

In this context, Malaysian marketers are likely to be more relativistic and less idealistic
than British managers. In other words, individualism indicates the extent of non-
dependence on the organization. Marketers in collectivistic countries (such as Malaysia)
would be expected to be more loyal to their organizations because of greater dependence,
and therefore concerned for their organization’s wellbeing when making decisions.
Marketers from high power distance countries are likely to perceive a need to minimize
disagreement with superiors and satisfy superiors, by trying to act in ways that will not
harm others and raise controversies. In other words, power aloofness is positively related
to idealism. Where as it is the opposite in U.K as marketers there are more individualistic
than collectivistic.

The third industrial revolution is spreading from the developed world to some, but not all,
parts of the developing world. To participate in this new global economy, developing
countries such as Malaysia must be seen as attractive offshore production bases for
multinational corporations. To be such bases, developing countries must provide
relatively well-educated workforces, good infrastructure (such as, electricity,
telecommunications, and transportation), political stability, and a willingness to play by
market rules.

If these conditions are in place, multinational corporations will transfer via their offshore
subsidiaries or to their offshore suppliers the specific production technologies and market
linkages such as UK and Malaysia, necessary to participate in the global economy
(Schuster 143). By themselves, developing countries, even if well educated, cannot
produce at the quality levels demanded in high-value-added industries and cannot market
what they produce even in low-value-added industries such as textiles or shoes. Put
bluntly, multinational companies possess a variety of factors that developing countries
must have if they are to participate in the global economy.

Part 2:

Traditionally, culture is older people telling younger people what they should believe and
how they should act. What is frightening about the new electronic culture is that it is a
"for-sale" culture that jumps right across the generations directly to the young (Chen 84).
In contrast to older forms of culture, this culture does not have any specific values that it
wants to inculcate. Those who produce this culture provide whatever sells-- whatever the
young will buy. It is a culture of economics (profits) rather than a culture of values
(morals). In that sense, it is profoundly different--and disturbing to many.

The television network MTV is a good example of the new global culture. From country
to country, the songs and the languages in which the songs are sung are different, but the
style in which the songs are presented is the same. That MTV style first appeared in
America--but not all that long ago. The style is the same everywhere because the style
seems to sell everywhere. It is exactly the same in the UK and Malaysia.

Culture has a profound impact on how individuals perceive who they are, what they are
allowed to do and what their role is as a member of society. These perceptions are often
so thoroughly internalised that they are difficult to express explicitly but they are
revealed through behaviour such as consumption. This is one means through which
individuals express who they perceive themselves to be and who they aspire to be.

Although a Malaysia is culturally more varied than, for example, U.K, the emphasis on
social harmony is an overriding and unifying belief across all societies. Malaysian
societies are fundamentally collectivist, meaning that the rights of the individual are
subordinated to those of the group. This is considered necessary in order not to disturb
social harmony. Such thinking, grounded in Confucianism, Buddhism and Islam,
contrasts sharply with western individualism.

The difference is profound and has major implications for consumer behaviour. While
Malaysians tend to identify themselves in terms of their social frame or relationships,
westerners define themselves in terms of personal attributes or achievements.
Cultural differences also appear in self-appraisal of ones expertise or lack thereof and
self-esteem can be correspondingly high or low. Education in the U.K, in particular, tries
to instil in students a sense of high self-esteem in order to motivate them to achievement
and self-confidence. Children are encouraged to be assertive and self-assured.

Malaysian children, on the other hand, are taught the values of modesty and self-
effacement, which are considered conducive to cultivation of the mind. This is not to say
that Malaysians lack self-respect, rather that they do not assume that they automatically
deserve to regard themselves with esteem in comparison with others.

Stronger pressure is placed upon the individual in Malaysia to conform to group norms
than in individualist societies. The desire to be different, an essential element in western
culture and consumer behaviour, exists in Malaysia too. However, it implies being
different as a member of a group in comparison with other groups, while complying with
the norms of the individuals group. A Malaysian consumer who deviates from the group
norm may be treated as an outsider who does not know how to adjust to the group.

Part 3:

Within the context of typically highly hierarchical Malaysian societies, individuals are
always conscious of their place in a group, institution or society as a whole and of the
proper behaviour, dress and speech corresponding to status. They are also extremely
aware of the need to maintain their own dignity, or face, and that of others.

Careful attention is given to purchasing products whose price, brand and packaging
match ones social standing. In terms of personal appearance, the colour, material and
style of clothing should match an individual’s status, which is defined by age, gender,
occupation and so on. In Malaysia, for example, a married woman kimono is much more
subdued in colour than a single woman.

Product diffusion:

In most Malaysian cultures uncertainty is strongly avoided, resulting in consumer

behaviour exhibiting high brand-name consciousness, brand loyalty, greater insistence on
quality, and the active use of reference groups and opinion leaders. Shopping tends to be
done in groups and new products are more slowly accepted. While consumers worldwide
are concerned about monetary, functional, physical, psychological and social risks,
Malaysians tend to be more sensitive to social risk than westerners.

In traditional western diffusion theory, consumers are categorised in relation to others by

their speed in adopting a new product. The five categories often cited are: innovators,
early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards (Someone who takes more time
than necessary) (Noergaard 255).

Very few Malaysian consumers, however, are prepared to take the social risk of being
innovators by trying a new product first. The discomfort of being left behind, however,
induces them to follow suit if they think that others have tried it. Trials by early buyers
thus soften the perceived risk for followers, who are then inclined to jump aboard hastily.

This suggests that the percentage of both innovators and laggards is much lower among
Malaysian consumers, reflecting hesitancy to try the new product, and the consumers are
ready to switch brand once the standards of their reference group change. The importance
of gaining social recognition turns Malaysians into probably the most image-conscious
consumers in the world. The importance of status makes it imperative to project the right
image, which usually means up-market and prestigious.

The social acceptability of conspicuous consumption in Malaysia corresponds with the

high regard for hierarchy. Differences in hierarchical level and power are expected to be
visible. Conspicuous consumption, therefore, corresponds directly with status propriety.

Status-conscious Malaysians will not hesitate to spend freely on premium brands such as
BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the best Scotch whisky and French cognac. Mercedes-Benzs
highest market share worldwide is in Asian markets. The French luxury group LVMH
sells more than 50 per cent of its wares to Asian consumers.

Marketing that works in one country may offend the population of another. Market
research can prevent such disasters when using a global campaign or a more localised
one. International marketing should carry a health warning for the accident- prone. Some
of the traps that corporations plunge into - such as advertising in Spanish in Brazil, where
the locals speak Portuguese - are hugely embarrassing. Other communications fall on
deaf ears, not because they are offensive or inept, but because they sound the wrong note.

One of the toughest choices in international marketing is deciding whether to run the
same campaign globally, or to tweak or reinvent communications for each audience.
Bend too far towards localisation and you risk losing out on valuable marketing
economies; cling doggedly to a one-size-fits-all global template and your brand may fail
to impact on locals.

It is a perennial dilemma in which projected return on investment should guide strategy.

This is where market research has a role to play by helping brand owners make decisions
that are grounded in local knowledge. However, though this may work in theory, Alex
Maule, associate director of research company Synovate UK, says it does not always
work in practice: "What often happens is companies develop their marketing in one
country and then treat research as a filter for disaster checking, instead of trying to
discover what would work best in each market."

Part 4:
It seems clear to me that the marketing and advertising industries' persistent failure to see
culture as their biggest challenge--or a failure to understand that culture has anything to
do with international marketing or advertising, or even a failure to acknowledge that
cultural differences actually exist--is the main reason why, historically, there have been
so more successes than failures in international marketing programs, and why
international advertising campaigns are so often disappointing.

Exporters have known for years that culture is a factor worthy of consideration--at least
in principle. Way back in 1960, Edward T. Hall published a now-famous article in the
Harvard Business Review entitled "The Silent Language in Overseas Business," which
powerfully described the influence of this apparently invisible dimension on international
business. Really good advertising, on the other hand, is distinguished by its sharpness: It
speaks your culture as well as your language.

At present, talk of a global consumer culture in which people are united by common
devotion to certain brands, movie stars and musical celebrities, is generally understood to
mean the global presence of western culture. Western companies marketing products in
Asia may be tempted to believe that, given time, consumers in Asia will become more
like western consumers. Therefore, if we were to wait long enough, marketing strategies
developed in the west would be perfectly appropriate to the Asian consumer. This may be
a misleading notion or wishful thinking on the part of marketing gurus.

What Asian countries are experiencing is not westernisation or even globalisation but
modernisation. Modernisation may be interpreted as westernisation because it is a social
change initiated by the west. True westernisation, however, would assume that non-
western countries will become like the west.

This cannot be the case because Malaysia prior to modernisation had its own deeply
rooted cultures, which continue strongly to influence peoples upbringing and behaviour.
As Malaysians themselves would argue, a century of modernisation cannot erase
millennia of cultural development.

The high level of consumption of western goods is typically used as an argument for the
loss of Malaysian culture in favour of westernisation. That consumption is so visible,
however, is testimony to the fact that it is not the norm but the exception. Even with the
fame of McDonalds and Dominos pizza in Asia, 98 per cent of all restaurants in Malaysia
serve indigenous food. The advent of teh botol (bottled tea) has been to the detriment of
sales of Coke and Pepsi and consumption of kretek clove cigarettes has not declined in
the least due to the success of the Marlboro man.

If the product is purchased separately by the consumer, then prescriptions are harder to
come by. Culture-bound products are more likely to have an adapted marketing mix than
culture-free products (O'Cass 136). The marketing mix for the DVD has been largely the
same in Malaysia, Japan and Europe. (Culture-bound products are those that are heavily
influenced by a country's culture. Clothing, food, home decorations and so on are
products that have a larger likelihood of being culture-bound.)

Relationship marketing has been widely studied in a national context, however little
research has explored exchange relationships among international channel members.
International relationships involve unique risks due to potential problems arising from
transactions held between buyers and sellers of different cultural backgrounds. These
cultural differences can negatively affect the development of relational outcomes such as
trust and commitment, but the literature is not clear on this proposition.

In these days of increasing global integration, the task many international marketers face
is not so much market entry as managing the marketing mix in different national markets.

A theme that runs across many international product development activities is that
concepts coming out of one national market are frequently used in others. For example,
Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent in the US uses surfactants developed for use in the
Netherlands and enzymes developed for use in Malaysia (Harris 142).

On the other hand, while more than a million cars are expected to be sold with car
navigation systems as standard or optional in Japan in 1998, cars with this feature sell in
very small numbers in the US and Europe and have yet to reach developing countries

The launch decision also includes marketing mix decisions. In 1991, when Citibank
introduced its credit card in the Asia-Pacific region, it launched it sequentially and
tailored the product features for each country while maintaining its premium positioning.
The promotional, pricing and distribution strategies also differed from country to country.
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