It is so easy sitting here in the US to see the world as if it was just like us. That’s when we try to create global marketing programs, assuming the ubiquitous Internet will channel communications via websites, email, blogs.
The Internet has been one of the great levelers, bringing information to the masses, no longer filtered through just a few broadcast networks. It is changing the world at a rapid pace, but there are still markets in the global economy where even the www is not easily accessible. Freedom makes free enterprise. A culture lacking or inhibiting freedom typically curtails communications using schemes that limit people from learning about their options.
Consider, for example, how hard it would be to market your goods and services in Saudi Arabia, where despite its advanced infrastructure and great wealth, the government manages the media too closely. The Internet is not freely accessible. According to Line 56, a draconian scheme of Web censorship still exists there. Or in Turkey where the government charges a reported $230 a month (more than most people pay for rent) for Internet DSL access. In such cultures where governments limit freedom or control the structure of business, it is still common that people have almost no access to high speed online connections . They have no idea that product and service quality should be better. They have fewer options.
We need to put on a different set of glasses and see the world through the eyes of the prospect — especially when we market into cultures that limit basic freedoms we take for granted. Once cultures lift the barriers to freedom, marketers of products and services (and, yes, of freedom itself) … then it becomes the task of all of us who produce the content to make sure marketing is relevant to the recipient.
