Marketing and Strategy

Strategic Thinking The author of this report is asked to answer several questions relating to globalization, strategic thinking and brand identity. The first part of the paper will focus on the first two questions which both relate to brand visibility, brand identity and the sales that can or cannot be garnered by the different levels and types of the same. The second part focuses on a test case in the Middle East.

Based on the fact that stepping on toes in that part of the world culturally or religiously is exceedingly unwise, the best and worst case scenarios as well as the best practices and concepts to be covered will be described. While there is no single way to create and maintain a brand and/or to remain culturally and ethnically tolerant in different areas of the world, there are some general habits and practices that are better than others.

Analysis When it comes to globalization and localization, visibility and presence can both be the genesis of a sales boom but it can also lead to a bust in many other ways. The main reason for this, and something that correlates with the globalization vs. localization dynamic is that some groups and people embrace international brands while others actively shun and reject them.

For example, many people of Iran are extremely thirsty for American pop culture and brands while the leaders of Iran are largely against its entry and presence in their country and they actively try to block and impede its importation and consumption by the populace. As far as whether success would be something realized for a less visible brand, it really depends.

If a brand only has a regional impact but it's strongly ensconced in that region as a trusted and known name, than it will probably do quite well even if people outside of the region don't know it exists. Similarly, a brand that is a "store" brand and is simply offered as a budget alternative to the big names, then brand visibility is not all that important because people are gravitating towards the price but there still has to be a name on the bottle to indicate who makes it.

To achieve stellar success with a lesser known brown, it is all about getting a good niche of people who try the product, like the product for whatever reason and then come back to the product. That is really all that is needed to get solid sales from a product and massive spending on brand image and identity is not always needed (Priestly, 2014). As for the talk about the Middle East business venture, the political, religious and ethnic climate in that part of the world is extremely dicey.

Indeed, several countries are involved in active conflicts and/or have had military/government overthrows in the last few years. Three hotspots of note are Israel, Egypt and Libya. However, not all areas of the Middle East are in such a state and forging successful business ventures in the area is a possibility but it has to be done very delicately. This would include a probably avoiding of culturally or religiously sensitive products such as pork or anything whatsoever involving Islam and/or Christianity.

Not unlike McDonald's needing to be very careful in selling cow-based products in India, any Western-based company operating in areas like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and so forth need to be careful about the advertising and product strains they use (Gollan, 2013). Also important to take into account is the aforementioned localization vs. globalization dynamic that is actually white-hot in areas like the Middle East and Southeast Asia as well as any other areas with religiously strict governments or populaces.

A worst case scenario that can be realized while opening and running a business in the Middle East is offending the government and/or people of power in the Muslim/Islam community. For example, selling bacon on burgers in Saudi Arabia would be a dangerous game to play because pigs are considered unclean animals in the cultural and religious beliefs of the area.

However, another way that things can go terribly wrong, although not as long as a direct offense to Islam or Muslims in general, is the idea that the brand is being forced on people or governments that do not want the people to be exposed to.

The proverbial "x-factor" in that whole dynamic is that many people and government authorities in the area, Israel notably excepted, view the West in a very negative fashion due to the differences in culture, religion and so forth and/or how America is perceived to be an international bully that just exploits Muslims not to mention that many Westerners are Christians or other non-Muslim faiths and that alone sets off some extremists. With.