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236 Part 1 Introduction

many Europeans is virtually synonymous with that of strategies are based on a real understanding of regional
‘Americanisation’. For some this has negative conno- and local markets.
tations of materialism, loss of native culture and the Globalisation is not making the world a smaller,
encroachment of the English language. At its extreme, it homogeneous place. While this presents many oppor-
drives many of the anti-globalisation activists. Thus tunities for businesses, it also implies a need for a clear
there is real risk that companies will damage their brand understanding of what shapes consumer needs and
and reputation if they don’t recognise the importance of desires in the different nations. Not surprising perhaps
localisation when considering market entry. that many businesses found the notion of a ‘globalised’
Secondly, consumers are as different as they are world compelling given the significant implications for
similar – local and regional cultures have a profound effect researching a multitude of different markets in terms of
in shaping consumer demand. These differences are time and money budgets. Similarly, it is easy to under-
potentially more interesting than the similarities, in that stand the temptation of taking well-established national
they can allow product and service differentiation as well stereotypes and assuming that they are representative
as new approaches to segmentation and marketing of the truth.
communications. To take advantage of such opportunities, Recent attitudinal studies in Europe and the US
businesses have to have a clear insight into how and why undertaken by The Henley Centre show the complexity
consumers in one market may differ from ones in another. of attempting to categorise consumers on a broad
Feelings of anti-Americanisation are a strong under- scale. Let’s take an example. At one level, results show
current in Europe. Businesses have to plan how to that all consumers take pride in their family, so a global
counter such a groundswell of feeling if planning on advertising campaign using the ‘family’ as a theme may
entering new markets – given that some 50% of feel like safe territory. To some extent it is. Dig down a
Europeans believe that ‘our society is too Americanised’ bit deeper, however, and you find that different people
and such an attitude has increased over the past 10 define ‘family’ in very different ways, so what people
years. While the degree of agreement varies within take pride in will be subtly different. At a country level,
Europe (e.g. 67% of Spaniards agreeing with the state- many more differences expose themselves.
ment, as compared with 44% of Brits) it is a significant Businesses wanting to broaden their geographic
influence of customer behaviour. To compound matters, reach have to consider at a strategic level what level of
multinational companies are the least trusted of 27 en- understanding of consumer needs they require.
tities when European consumers have been asked to Generalisations are important and are a good place to
state which they trust to be honest and fair. start, but it is critical to then delve further – national
As a result, not only have we seen an increase in stereotypes are too simplistic. Differences, rather than
consumer activism (such as anti-WTO protests, growth of similarities, have to be considered, and interrogated in
the slow food movement in Europe etc.), but also we terms of how these will impact customer needs.
have seen global brands coming under threat from emer-
Source: The Henley Centre (www.henleycentre.com)
gent local brands which are gaining in currency. We
would expect this to continue. This is not to say that there

is no room for global brands! Many global brands have Question
successfully tapped into local culture and tastes and Based on this article and your experiences, debate
recognised the need to either modify the product/service the question: ‘Site localization is essential for each
completely or change different elements of the offer and country for an e-commerce offering to be success-
how it is ultimately marketed. Thus companies expanding ful in that country.’
into new geographic markets have to ensure that their

The implications of e-commerce for international B2B trading

Hamill and Gregory (1997) highlight the strategic implications of e-commerce for international
business-to-business trading. They note that there will be increasing standardization of prices
across borders as businesses become more aware of price differentials. Secondly, they predict
that the importance of traditional intermediaries such as agents and distributors will be reduced
by Internet-enabled direct marketing and sales.