Global Marketplace

Global Marketplace There are a number of cultural factors that U.S. sports franchises must overcome in order to increase popularity abroad. The biggest is that many U.S. sports are not well-known overseas, and those that are might not be the most popular sports in other countries. Even where a sport is popular, there are often local teams that resonate more with the local fans than American teams the fans might never see. Furthermore, overseas fans tend not to have the same long-held connections with a team.

Someone who was a Lakers fan when they were winning championships might be a Heat fan today, whereas people from LA or Miami are unlikely to change allegiance. In order to overcome these, sports franchises need to foster consistent exposure to a given market. Sometimes this comes naturally, like Rockets exposure in China during the Yao Ming years, but other times the team will actively need to foster this, through television deals, player appearances or via other methods. Building loyalty is the only real way to break through culturally.

It is much more difficult for U.S. franchises to teach new countries their sports, though the NFL has attempted this to some extent. Normally, baseball, basketball and hockey teams only focus marketing efforts on markets that already understand those sports, but of course the NFL has to build markets pretty much everywhere overseas so takes a more active approach in teaching the sport to foreign audiences.

Most leagues have taken to playing preseason or even regular season games overseas as part of the attempt to build exposure for their brands (Koba, 2013). For any franchise, it is often necessary to adapt slightly to meet local contexts. For food franchises, this usually means incorporating local-influenced menu items but sometimes it is also necessary to consider other aspects of culture context (Vignali, 2001).

When going to Asia, for example, Starbucks focused on providing a public "third space" as much as it focused on beverages, and in doing this attracted city dwellers who lived in tiny apartments and sought out such space for meeting friends or just having a change of scenery. However, it is important for franchises to understand when a product is not appropriate for a market. This usually requires local input, and such a process should take place any time a franchise goes overseas.

Many gaffes have been famous, whether it was Wal-Mex selling snowblowers or doing it right like McDonalds in India avoiding both beef and pork on its menu, it is important to understand the local culture intuitively. This almost always requires working with a local partner to help with such issues. This is often an opportunity just as much as it is a way to avoid a gaffe -- in Athens Starbucks sells frappe, which is the local Greek way of having a coffee.

It is sometimes appropriate to add something that will clearly do well in a given market, in addition to avoiding products that will cause offense. Governments often protect industries with tariffs. The point is usually not because the government thinks that such a tactic will create the condition of pure-form economic efficiency. If anything, governments are well aware that they are protecting industries for a reason.

Sometimes it is just that lobbyists have asked for it, but often there is a specific interest that makes the cost of economic inefficiency worthwhile for a government. It is worth remembering that governments do not exist to seek maximum economic efficiency, but to achieve a much broader set of outcomes. So whether it is protecting the food supply or ensuring a healthy diversity of military weapons suppliers, certain.