Marketing relativism is the term used to describe the issues that arise in marketing in a global economy. Selling a product with one set of images or slogans might work well in one country, or with one gender or one age group, but send a completely different message to people in a different group. The European Journal of Marketing has published an exhaustive study of marketing to various countries and groups conducted by researchers at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and Kuwait University in Kuwait.
In the United States, it's common to see products advertised with sex. Many magazine advertisements, billboards and TV ads feature scantily clad women promoting products. In the U.S., many people do not have a strong moral objection to these kinds of ads. In the Middle East, however, where many countries require women to hide the shapes of their bodies in loose clothing and hide their hair and faces, such marketing tactics would be disastrous.
Younger people often have vastly different tastes in media or the presentation of products than their parents or grandparents have. Marketers must be conscious of their target audience and aim their selection of words, music, images and messages to the age group they consider their prime market. Everything from the medium the marketing message is delivered in to the response the marketer is seeking can vary according to age groups.
In some cultures, individualism is highly praised. So marketing using a cowboy, an entrepreneur, a celebrity or a maverick thinker sends positive messages to those cultures. Conversely, other countries are high on what researchers called Confucian dynamism: an emphasis on "thrift, persistence, ordered relationships and having a sense of shame." Clearly, countries whose cultures value Confucian dynamism would not respond well to advertisements with celebrities and cowboys.
Legal and Political Environment
The European Journal of Marketing study pointed out that in some countries, such as the U.S., Canada and many European nations, marketing a company as socially and environmentally responsible works well. But in developing nations where there is political unrest or severe economic or legal unrest, these lofty ideals don't hold as high a value. The value is rather on stability. There is less focus on avoiding harm to the community. And the moral evaluation of a company's behavior is much more impacted by the circumstances, and less based on ideals, than in developed countries.
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