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.
2 comments
7/22/2005 at 11:04 pm
Megan G.
SO TRUE! I had not put those thoughts together in that exact light before. We, as a world, are constantly “moving forward”…”jumping higher”…”accessing faster”….”new and improved.”
We should truly not say we have “mastered it all” until we, as a world, can all do these things.
8/24/2005 at 10:59 am
ashley
I have thought about this much myself. I think that in countries where there is a lack of wealth and the Internet costs are so high, it is the buyers who have money. These people will be the ones with access to the Internet anyway. I think it is important then, to give the people who want to sell their goods on a global market the option to do so. This would not only allow them to have more buyers, but also give them the start they need to purchase the Internet and become buyers themselves.
Lately I have noticed more commercials for Worldstock.com and have been nothing short of impressed. The premise is that they take products from around the world and sell them online. These are goods that supposedly have never been able to be sold before and are now able too through this website. What I think is interesting about this website is that not only are these venders are able to sell their products world wide for the first time, but we are also now able to buy them. I can only accredit this to the Internet and I wish there were more outlets like these.
However, I do think that the media controls in other countries that enable people to not have the Internet is a problem of a bigger problem. I deffinatly agree that they need the Internet as a source of information, but not necessarily to buy more stuff. They have to know what they need to begin to move forward in what they are purchasing.