Selling across cultures

PhD in International Communication student Sabine Hoffmann.

In an increasingly globalised business world dominated by large multinationals, a postgraduate degree in international communication can help professionals understand how to market products and services to different cultures.

After working for several years as marketing manager for a German multinational in Beijing, Sabine Hoffmann is now researching how intercultural awareness can be effectively incorporated into marketing strategies in Australia as part of her PhD in International Communication.

Hoffman is collecting data from Chinese and non-Chinese companies marketing “Chinese” products and services, and from those who consume these, again of Chinese and non-Chinese background.

She wants to explore how culture affects economic behaviour, embracing the challenges and processes of change presented by globalisation. How are choice and rationality branded, through transnational companies?

“Ethnic consumption” is a strong component of modern consumer culture, she says, part of new global lifestyles, fragmented markets, and new patterns of consumption. Culture and ethnicity as criteria for market segmentation commodify “difference” and “otherness”.

“Marketers standardise this using a postmodern marketing strategy: mass customisation,” says Hoffmann.

China as a case study

When Hoffman was based in Beijing, she was able to gain illuminating insights into intercultural practices in the workplace, as well as in global and local marketing and communication strategies.

For her German multinational employer, she helped build and brand a company image of quality and fine workmanship, designed advertising campaigns and marketing strategies, and helped strengthen business-to-business relations.

“You have to know how the society works, its lifestyles, communication processes and issues of importance,” she says. “Methodology is important. You can’t just import a marketing strategy from another country. You have to re-conceptualise it: words, pictures, messages - everything.”

Merely making cosmetic adjustments and changes, such as in ads or commercials, is not enough, Hoffmann says. The “cultural factor” must be incorporated at a much earlier stage. It has to be an essential part of strategic marketing management from the beginning, long before deciding to develop an ad.

The discrepancy between economy of scale demanded by an increased level of standardisation, and the rationale behind more consumer-sensitive cultural adaptation, is the point of departure for her project.

Her current research

Hoffmann is now interviewing those with whom marketing ideas start: CEOs, marketing managers and salespeople. She is looking at how they sell popular “Asian” goods, and how they brand products and services produced and marketed by “ethnic specialists”.

She is also talking to consumers. What motivates them, and what do they really want?

She sees her industry experience as essential background for writing her thesis.

“Not too many people have the experience of working in marketing in a third country,” she says.

For further information, contact Sabine Hoffmann at sabine.hofffmann@mq.edu.au

The Centre for International Communication website is at www.mucic.mq.edu.au