Dentista

Rick Politician
87345
5/20/2007
I BUS 300
Chapter 17 Homework
a.
The disposable diaper company cannot use the their U.S. advertising campaign in Brazil and continue to be successful.   Cultural barriers, source effects and noise levels restrict the success of the unilateral strategy.  Culturally, messages and humor are often not translated well between countries.  A number of potential pitfalls could hurt the company.  For instance, a direct translation of words or speech may have very different meaning in another country.  Also, the contexts and understanding of Brazil may not match those of the U.S. and the advertisements message or intent may not come across to Brazilian viewers.  It would be much better for the diaper company to develop cross-cultural literacy through the use of a local marketing firm.

Brazilians who hold negative views towards U.S. foreign policy may transfer that dislike to all U.S. manufacturers.  Showing a U.S. advertisement may intensify this dislike.  Noise level refers to the amount of companies vying for the attention of the consumers.  If the commercials are American and not targeted towards the Brazilian audience, these consumers may not pay any attention to ads.

Brazilian regulations may also block the use of U.S. advertising in Brazil.  The diaper company would have to research these regulations.

Local managers may not be the right people to decide the pricing policy.  If the Brazilian managers price the diapers at too high or too low a price, the company will risk not being able to keep the national markets separate.  For example, an entrepreneur could buy diapers for cheap in Brazil and undercut prices in Paraguay and make a profit.  Also, the local managers may not have the resources or knowledge to correctly match the price to the market and maximize profits.  Furthermore, the diaper company may want to establish an international pricing policy as strategic advantage and having the local manager decide this.  Lastly, the government may oppose low prices as a threat to domestic competition.

b.
Unilever created an innovative strategy in India to sell the extremely poor, rural population.  One technique they employ involves placing physical advertisements around gathering areas like wells and markets.  They also have their salesman attend the markets, usually reserved for farm products, to educate the Indians about the products, give out samples and sell a little too.  The largest means of selling is through a vast distribution chain to over 3 million retail stores, many are extremely small and hard to reach.  Some distributors deliver products by bicycles or carts because of a lack of roads.

In the U.S., the distribution strategy is very different.  Unilever aims to take up shelf space in supermarkets and small stores alike.  They probably deliver their products in large shipments off of semi-trucks.  Regional hubs probably hold their inventory of Unilever products until local stores put in their orders.  The distribution process is much less personal and much more commercial.