Global Marketing Management the Question

Global Marketing Management

The question of bribery has been distilled in business literature as a question of ethics. In this situation at the airport with the customs officer, it is important to distinguish between business ethics and personal ethics. In a business ethics situation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act would prohibit offering any bribe to the customs office -- for example to free a shipment of goods that was lost in red tape (Pitman & Sanford, 2006). Most companies also have policies against bribery as well. In this situation, however, the main issue at hand is that of personal ethics. When in a situation where your company is unknown and there is no business being conducted, normal business ethics and laws (including the FCPA) do not apply, only personal ethical standards.

In the West Africa, bribery is socially accepted. In a situation such as this, it is also expedient. If we consider fundamental negotiating theory, the customs officer has nearly all of the bargaining power because the power associated with being morally "right" does not exist, according to the prevailing norms of that country. Combined with the time constraint under which you operating, you have no real bargaining power in this negotiation. In the absence of applicable laws, the moral imperative is defined only by one's own personal ethical standards. If one deems it worthwhile to miss the airplane on principle, then that is an option. However, this has consequences in that you miss the plane but you also do nothing to prevent future incidents of bribery. The bribery stems from ineffective, likely bankrupt government, which means passport control officers are paid next to nothing, becoming essentially private contractors rather than the comfortably-paid public servants we associate with the role in the West.

Given that you have ceded all hint of bargaining power by telling the officer about your immediate departure, and that a moral stand on your part will do nothing to ease corruption in the country, the best course of action is the one that will minimize the damage. Fifty dollars is far too much to pay for such a bribe. The going rate for a bribe of a border guard in the Third World is typically measured in one or two dollars, maybe five, and this guard is simply taking a home run swing since you are clearly naive. There is no need to increase the going rate. Produce a few dollars and get your passport back. Being morally right by Western standards may make you feel as though you have made a difference, but your stand has not made a difference and you will have missed your plane and put yourself through considerable expense and discomfort for nothing. The time to reflect on the morals of a situation is either before the trip (in which case you would have arrived much earlier and been prepared to wait a few hours for your stamp) or relaxing at home with your friends and family, not during the middle of a tense negotiating situation with the clock ticking.

5. Consumer choice is the output of consumers' individual value equations (Neal & Bathe, 1996). Consumers make decisions about the relative value of a good or service -- its benefits relative to its cost -- and these decisions guide consumer actions. For the international marketer, it is critical to assess the value equation for your product or service when entering a new country. The value equation assumes that the total value for the brand is made up of its price, the product deliverables and brand equity. What global marketers need to understand is that the value equation shifts depending on the market. For example, KFC in the United States has a low price, moderate perceived benefits and high brand equity. In Malaysia, where fried chicken is available in every night market for much less than at KFC, the price part of the value equation has shifted. This has necessitated the company to alter the perceived benefits part of the value equation, emphasizing KFC as a place for a relatively upscale family outing for the middle class. By boosting the benefits part of the value equation to match the increase in the price part of the value equation, KFC can been able to thrive in Malaysia, but with a very different value equation from what it offers to American consumers.

For global marketers, it is therefore important to remember that the value equation not only remains important as the product or brand is taken around the world, but that the value equation changes in each country around the world. Another example is Starbucks, which succeeds in Japan's congested cities not because the Japanese like its coffee (they are tea drinkers) but because Japanese city dwellers have tiny apartments unfit for socializing, so they enjoy the comfort of a Starbucks as a place to meet people. The value equation of Starbucks is very different to Japanese than it is to Americans and the company has succeeded by marketing to the different value equation. The company has largely failed in France for the same reason -- it has found a way to the French version of the coffee shop value equation. It is important, therefore, when entering new markets to examine consumer behavior anew, and not assume that the value equation of your product or service can translate directly across cultural borders.

6. Marketing research helps the company to understand the marketplace by gathering and analyzing information about consumer preferences and habits. This research can be gathering through third-party sources but there are limits to the value of such research. Therefore, most firms prefer to conduct their own marketing research using studies that they have designed or guided. The result of this research is that the company receives information that is more directly valuable to its needs.

The marketing research process has the following basic steps: define the problem, determine the research design, identify data types and sources, design data collection forms and questionnaires, determine sample plan and size, collect the data, analyze and interpret the data, and prepare the research report (QuickMBA.com, 2007). Marketing research is the process by which a company learns about its market. The research is designed with a specific objective in mind. This can be a problem that the company wishes to solve or it can be a subject on which the company would like to gather more information.