Zikmund and d'Amico - January '98 Update [Global Matters]

Marketing
Zikmund/d'Amico

January '98

These items pertain primarily to Part III, Market Strategy for Global Competition, Chapters 7 and 8 of Effective Marketing. Marketing includes international marketing material in every chapter, and deals specifically with multinational marketing in portions of Chapters 3 and 4.

Europe		Latin America
Asia		Africa
Around the World

Europe

For a look at life in post-Soviet Russia read "Thin Walls, Bad Neighbors" by Jeffrey Taylor (November 1997 Atlantic, pp. 54-61. It describes the, to us, wacky procedures that must be followed in daily life, most of them left over from the now-departed Soviet system.

Not all McDonald's taste treats succeed here either, but in Norway McD's has taken its McLak off the market. It is, or was, a salmon burger. (The Norwegians eat a lot of fish, but not this one, it appears.)

Pretend you are about to export something to Moldova. [www.sharat.co.il/kishinev/links.html] Where the heck is Moldova, anyhow? Its on the east side of Rumania, is also bounded by Ukraine, and is a former Soviet republic. O.K. So, what do you call the people there? Moldavians? Nope. Moldovans. And how many people are there in Moldova? Just about 4.5 million. And what is the capital? Kishinev. This all comes up because Moldova made the news for selling the U.S. (at a high price) Soviet-made weapons at that, otherwise, it would have sold to Iran.

Which city in Germany, a country famous for beer, has the most breweries? It is not Berlin, but Cologne [www.city.net/countries/germany/cologne/], a city of one million that has twenty breweries.

According to the British Daily Telegraph, the European Union's 24-page user's manual for boots, included with new shoes, advises the buyer on how to choose footwear, care for them, and wear them safely. It also suggests that "Each boot should be tried for fitting before use."

Latin America

Chicago is in the same time zone as what South American countries? None. All South American Countries are in time zones to the east of Chicago's. Most of Mexico and all of Central America except Panama, is in the same time zone as Chicago.

What Central American country is immediately north of Panama? Is it Honduras, Nicaragua, or Costa Rica? It is Costa Rica.

Brazil has gone from spending the least per capita on candy and gum to spending the most of any South American country. Brazil's candy sales of $4 billion plus includes almost $815 million in chocolate, the fastest growing category. This growth is attributed to the large youth populations of Brazil and most South American countries. (Source: Datamonitor)

What is the capital of Venezuela? Caracas is correct. Now, name one other city in that country. Can you do it?

Asia

China's industrial expansion has caused terrific pollution problems. In the 1980s, for example, the city of Benxi has so much air pollution that it (the city) vanished from satellite photos. A frightening article about China's development is Mark Hertsgaard's "Our Real China Problem" in November 1997 Atlantic, pp. 96-114.

Want to sell your elephant? In Sonepur, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, people have been getting together in November of every year for 300+ years to buy and sell elephants, many of which are decked out with jewels on their tusks and their bodies painted in vivid colors. Other animals are also sold, and hundreds of thousands of folks attend. Why Sonepur? Hindi mythology tells a tale of a divine elephant who triumphs over a vicious crocodile. Some claim the great battle took place in the village.

During World War II an American typewriter expert named Martin Tytell modified a typewriter to write in Burmese. This was, apparently, the first Burmese typewriter. Years later Tytell found that he had put a letter on upside down. He offered to fix the machine he had made but was told not to bother since, in the intervening years, as a result of the manufacture of typewriters copied from Tytell's original, the upside down rendering of the Burmese letter had been accepted as proper typewriter style

To reach certain Japanese consumers (young ones) it helps to know some "ko-gyaru-go", hip-speak spoken by teenagers and consisting, mostly, of Japanese pronunciations of English words. Here are a few examples: "Gyaru" = gal, "roozu sokusu" = loose socks, "danjarasu" = dangerous, "checkaraccho" = check it out, Joe ("Hi!"), "wonchu" = I want you, "rai-a" = liar, "beri ba" = very bad ("beri-gu" is, of course, very good), "ai-kon" = icon, "daburu-kurikku" = double click, "mausu = mouse, "foro-uppu" follow-up. This is kinda fun. Maybe it will catch on in the United States.

China is making some moves to limit the advertising of cigarettes because of health problems caused by tobacco. Not surprisingly the attempts to lower sales are aimed at foreign brands. Vendors have been told to remove promotional materials for Camel, Salem, the big Japanese brand Mild Seven, and others.

Africa

Remember Manute Bol [http://carver.holycross.edu/~acamarra/bol.jpg], the NBA seven-foot-plus string bean? He is typical of the way men of the Dinka tribe of the Sudan are built ... unless they are trying to market themselves to prospective brides. Then some men gorge themselves on food and do no exercise so as to become fat. This is thought to be attractive to women because it means that the man is rich enough to be able to eat a lot. According to the Associated Press, some of the men become so fat so quickly that they topple over.

Name the capital of the African country of Senegal. Did you come up with Dakar? Very good! Now, name one other city in Senegal. Well, the second largest, after Dakar, is Thies.

While studying the map of Tanzania we noted that about midway down the coast of that country there is a fairly sizable island named "Mafia." In this there must lie a tale.

Around the World

Want to walk and or bike in great locations worldwide? Check out Butterfield. [www.butterfield.com]

But before you go check the Center for Disease Control's site for travel information from the disease perspective. [www.cdc.gov/travel/travel.html]

Put these countries in order, high to low, in terms of professional staffing (paid by government) working on promoting exports: Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the U.S. Now arrange the same countries in order, high to low, of dollars spent to assist (non-agricultural) exporters. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, the first listing is correct as it stands. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Trade Promotion Coordination Committee, the answer to second challenge is: Great Britain, France, Italy, the U.S., and Germany.

The Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit to Viet Nam cannot be imported into that country because it refers to Viet Nam's 1978 invasion of Cambodia as an "invasion." Earlier, the Rough Guide to Israel and the Occupied Territories was the target of an angry Anti-Defamation League. Recently the Rough Guide to Morocco was confiscated in that country because it showed a border with Western Sahara, a territory Morocco considers to be part of Morocco. India, some travel publishers report, can abide textual mentions of border disputes with Nepal but is very picky about maps. And, can it happen here? The mayor of Lincoln City OR once denounced the Oregon Handbook for deriding his sea-side city as "tourism in its worst conceivable form."