Globalisation Patterns of Consumption

Globalisation and Diversified International Patterns of Consumption

Title: With the evolution of human communication and transportation modes over decades and centuries, this world is squeezing smaller and smaller day by day in terms of interaction among people of different regions, ethnicity, races, and obviously different mind-sets. This changing characteristic of the world is perceived as the globalisation and the world is seemed to be a global village. The globalisation of this world has changed certain patterns of its villagers in terms of their thoughts, lifestyle, communication, buying and selling trends, and also their patterns of consuming the goods and commodities. The contemporary and recent researches on the cultural issues targeted the process of cultural change among migrants and minority people within the mainstream strata of a given culture; however, limited research is conducted on the behavioural transformation as a product of globalisation (Sobol, Cleveland, and Laroche, 2014).

This research essay is purposefully written to explore the underlying scenario related to this topic by including and referring to different literature and viewpoints of the scholars and experts. The theme of this essay will be to discuss and assess the aftermaths of globalisation on transforming the behavioural patterns of the people towards consumption of goods.

Globalisation Definition

The term ‘globalisation’ not only encompasses the economic and trading practices, but also the human agents or the practitioners whose behavioural attributes can impact the globalisation phenomenon itself. In this way, the globalisation curtails the influence of cultural or societal differences related to paradigm development and also widens its scope while including the economic and financial activities regarding consumption of services and products. Another understanding of the world globalisation can be established by considering it as the international transfer or exchange of public, money, commodities, knowledge and the cultural norms, which resulted in the boosting the awareness level of people in the two last decades of the last century (Jadoon, Butt, and Hayat, 2016).

In the context of social sciences including culture, sociology, political science, and also economics, the term globalisation is treated as comprising the international classification, electronic media, and the international treaty World Trade Organisation (Cornwell and Drennan, 2004).

It is explored through researches that the globalisation directly influences the patterns of consumptions and the society. The consuming trend and style a society adapts mostly rely on the development of thoughts and their needs. The significance of technological revolution in guiding the consuming patterns is pertinent for consideration. Moreover, the online shopping system has impacted the traditional trends and patterns enormously (Jadoon, Butt, and Hayat, 2016).

As per Ruediger John (2005), globalization process does not ensure the one’s freedom and security. It also lacks the definition of nations-wise social values along with the enforcement of global law pertaining to address human psychology and behaviours. Moreover, instead of politically addressing the cultural developments, the emphasis of globalisation is more on the spread and sharing of technology and economical boom (John, 2005).

Divid Howes (1996) in his book used the term homogenization which refers to the unity in the global village. The terminology depicts the paradigm of cultural and social influences in the international markets are due to the intrusion of commodities and products in the form of imports based on the knowledge gained through globalisation. This paradigm also emphasises the need to understand and accept the rise in the cultural and social differences occurred due to the export of domestic goods and the import of goods mostly produced in the western world. One contemporary contextualisation of the consumption patterns of people in the global village is the motivation of consumers or the people to choose the goods as per their own liking and disliking instead of being a blind victim of globalisation. This is because the people of the underdeveloped countries are often influenced to purchase those products which are not only new and alienated but most of the time also serves as damaging the local culture rather replacing it with the imported culture (Howes, 1996).

There is a need to go deeply to understand that the consumers’ attitude is influenced by both internal and external factors in the form of domestic culture and the consequences of globalisation respectively. Several types of research have been continuously conducted to examine the consumers with the help of examining their lifestyle. A consumer’s lifestyle is the agent of the tendency of adapting the change in behaviour for consuming items and products of a single or multiple manufacturers. It is again the globalisation which enforced manufacturers all around the world to be indulged in an extensive competition in order to win the consumer’s satisfaction. This ultimately helped the consumers in terms of having competitive quality in products (Dunn, 2015).

An argument in the work of Elena Kell (2012) supports that the globalisation forms and leads to a consumption based society in which consumption has become indispensible and along with its ethical practices. Consumers are generally unaware of the supply chain and operations management involved in the availability of products imported from foreign countries. Hence the ethical aspect of consumption addresses the consumer’s responsibility to be updated of the steps involved in the processes (Kell, 2012).

McCoid (2010) differentiate the consumption in its three shapes. According to that categorisation, the consumption of goods will not remain sustainable if the resources are used more than what exactly required, and this is called overconsumption. This mechanism often leads to the lower quality of life and damages the environment. On the contrary, the under-consumption is the utilisation of resources much less than the required, hence causing poor quality to health the lifestyle. It is observed that the main cause of under-consumption in the age of globalisation is the inequality in the social distribution of resources. Both forms of consumption do not contribute to sustainability. The sustainable consuming patterns, however, do not cause the environmental damage and the human health. In order to develop the consumption pattern in a sustainable way, there is a need to accept the relationship of over and under consumption with the globalisation, because in a global village, the under-consumption of most groups causes the over consumption of few groups (McCoid, 2010).

On a critical side, the contemporary consumption patterns have negatively impacted the development of human wellbeing on the individual as well as on societal levels. This change happens in a way that it spread the social inequalities among groups and even countries through globalisation. The inequalities are spread due to the differences in the quality of products and services for all different social classes within a certain society or the region. The global consumption pattern is also promoting and supporting the flow of resources to a limited class of people and groups who have much more wealth to spend on even luxurious items instead of just the basic needs, hence the poor class of people in the world continues to suffer the lacking of even basic needs due to the lack of resources. Similarly, the globalisation has intruded the consumption of food based items which are most of the times either not synchronised with the eating habits of the people of a particular country or are much expensive than their local alternatives. The adaption of foreign goods and items also often creates environmental problems in the form of waste disposal and discharge (Khor, 1998).

The increase in the free trade between countries has also enhanced the availability and quantity of goods and services for the end users. This scenario was for sure cannot be imagined the effectiveness of various global trade pacts, agreements, and the role of unions worldwide. With the increase in the quality as well as a variety of products through globalisation, the consumption pattern among people has drastically changed. People pay due importance in conducting a preliminary survey, physical or online, regarding the particular product they are going to buy. Moreover, unlike before, the brand has been given comparatively less importance by the consumers (Scriven, 2014).

The technological advancement, globalisation and the integration of countries around the world have significantly changed the consumption pattern of people all over. The internet facility got the users of around fifty million in only five years; hence it is pertinent to accept that through internet lives of thousands and millions of people in all countries evolved positively. The comparative survey has become much easier through the internet for everyone regarding any product before its purchase. Everyone in the global village can be informed of the patterns of the lifestyle of any other person or group in other parts of the world (Kónya and Ohashi, 2004).

Globalisation Conclusion

This research essay has explored different theoretical perspectives of various authors to explore the aftermaths of globalisation on transforming the behavioural patterns of the people towards consumption of goods. It can now be concluded after a comparative analysis of various viewpoints on the topic, that the globalisation has certainly opened the door of opportunities for not only sharing of knowledge, technology, and goods, but also played and has been playing a significant role in designing and changing the behavioural patterns of consumption among consumers and end users all around the world in this global village. Some paradigms consider it as positive while the other as the negative role of globalisation because, in some perspectives, it has also led towards social and financial inequalities among societies and classes of people.

References

Cornwell, T.B. and Drennan, J., 2004. Cross-cultural consumer/consumption research: dealing with issues emerging from globalization and fragmentation. Journal of Macro marketing, 24(2), pp.108-121.

Dunn, K., 2015. Globalization and consumer: What marketer needs to know. The Neumann Business Review, pp.16-30.

Howes, D., 1996. Cross-cultural consumption: global markets, local realities. Taylor & Francis US.

Jadoon, A.K., Butt, A.R. and Hayat, M.A., 2016. Development of Measurement Models for Globalization, Consumption Patterns and Culture: A Case Study of Three Big Cities of Punjab, Pakistan. Pakistan Economic and Social Review, 54(2), p.327.

John, R., 2005. Globalized Culture, Consumption and Identity. Translated by Gunilla Zedigh. Baden,

Kell, E., 2012. Ethical consumer in a globalized world: challenges for the individual’s identity. A study on ethical consumers in Lund and Malmö.

Khor, M., 1998. Globalisation, Income Distribution, Consumption Patterns and Effects on Human and Sustainable Development (no. Hdocpa-1998-06). Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Kónya, I. and Ohashi, H., 2004. Globalization and consumption patterns among the OECD countries.

McCoid, C.H., 2010. Globalization and the Consumer Society. Global Security and International Political Economy–Volume II, p.49.

Scriven, J., 2014. The Impact of Globalization on the Consumer. The Nouman Business Review, pp.13-23.

Sobol, K., Cleveland, M. and Laroche, M., 2014. Globalization, Culture and Consumption Behavior: An Empirical Study of Dutch Consumers.

Relevant Blog Posts

Globalisation Business Dissertations

MBA Project Globalization

Did you find any useful knowledge relating to globalisation and diversified international patterns of consumption in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.

Nursing Practice – Ethical and Legal Issues

Title: Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing Practice. Professional ethics involves the use of reasonable and regular communication, information, medical skills, emotions and doctrines in nursing practice. The mission of nurses is to provide health care of high quality and improving and maintaining public health. Ethics being a vital element of professionals in the healthcare department plays a major role in the moral behaviors of nurses to patients. This, in turn, influences patients’ health improvement.

Furthermore, the principles of nurses are to respect human rights, dignity and values. Nursing comprises three basic principles of caring, namely ethics, clinical judgement, and care. Nurses must adhere to ethical rules and carry out their duties according to governmental and governing statutes. Moreover, nurses encounter various dilemmas, ethical or legal in nature in the middle of performing their duties. However, other nurses may be unprepared to tackle dilemmas and be unable to answer questions pertaining to their conduct.

Ethics is a principle that describes what is expected in terms of right and wrong while a law is a set of rules that involves punishment in the event of an offence. A nurse often encounters the law through possible litigation in which the nurse may have unlikely involved in. Furthermore, a nurse can also encounter the law in case of the unlawful act is done like malpractice and negligence. Nurses undergo various situations and may be classified as ethically correct but not legally accepted, or legally unaccepted but ethically correct. Circumstances such as death, euthanasia, and abortion may put a nurse into a quagmire.

In the event of a nurse giving a patient incorrect medication, the nurse automatically hides the fact to protect himself or herself from being caught by the law. This scenario raises relevant questions focusing on the legal and ethical issues of nurses. Another circumstance that is ethical but not legal is whereby a patient is allowed to smoke bhang as a remedy for an illness. In addition to that, there is a situation that relates to ethical and legal issues focusing on a patient being forced to a drug or a test contrary to his or her will or without proper information.

Conflicts existing between the Law and Ethics in the Nursing Practice

When nurses are faced with dilemmas and need to make professional decisions, the nurses are held amid two contradictory sets of demands. The first set is from a professional mission and the second one is from lawful provisions. Healthcare professionals and nurses become entangled in civil or unlawful justice organizations. This occurs when nurses commit an unlawful act by not renewing the license for nursing in time.

Other unlawful actions may involve abuse of the substance, as in the case where nurses obtain medications by not following procedures within medical settings. Nurses ought, therefore, to differentiate morality and law as an action may be immoral but legal. For example, a directive to carry out resuscitation for a patient who is dying might be legal but immoral. However, an act might be illegal but moral like in a case where there is an emergency of a patient falling ill at home, a driver may pass the speed limits when taking the patient to the hospital and this may be considered as illegal but it is moral.

Conflict may emerge between the law and ethics in the case where a nurse decides that there is no reason for certain medical services such as therapy services. In such a case, the professional code of ethics states that no fees should be charged by the practitioner for such services. Meanwhile, nurses are legally obligated to render services to the patients indiscriminately. In relation to that, conflict in the nursing practice might arise from customer expectations and opinions such as a patient’s rejection of blood transfusion. In some instances, agreement with a legal obligation might look as unjust, harmful, or invalid.

Besides that, nurses stay away from an absolute agreement, particularly when the law seems as contradicting ethics. Sometimes, nurses are not ready to sacrifice own values or patient well-being to a system that is not perfect outlining regulations and rules. For example, the failure of nurses to adhere to professional responsibility in revealing private information. Additionally, conflicts may emerge between ethics and law in the process of making a decision for the dying and incompetent, as well as matters regarding people with disability and the right to life matters.

Ways by which Nurses can Negotiate Conflicts Existing between the Law and Ethics

Instances which conflict between the law and ethics might manifest might rotate around values such as fairness, patient choice, truthfulness, privacy, patient well-being, respect for life, confidentiality and privacy, and preserving commitments to oneself, patients, colleagues in nursing, a profession in nursing, and practice settings. The values remain importantly shared by the public. However, in the case where two of the set values can be applied to a condition, though supporting diverging courses of action, conflict emerges.

The ethics code defines the mission of nursing practice of meeting patient needs and answering to surrounding forces that may stem conflicts between law and ethics. What may put a nurse to a risk in the profession of nursing is when there is a conflict between a nurse’s ethical duty to a patient and the nurse legal duty to the employer.

There are no sufficient procedures in resolving the quagmires prominent in the practice of nursing. Nurses that acts as a patient advocate may not be legally protected by the ethical codes and might be abstract to put on with regularity. On the contrary, the government in some instances does not permit nurses to attend to certain individuals or carrying out their practice in certain manners. This is in contrary to the practice in the nursing, specifically on the grounds of responsibility to care for patients.

The nurses, therefore, are expected by the practice code to respect the conclusions taken by the patient, so long as it is well-versed consent. Sometimes patients or patients’ families may not follow recommendations provided or treatments by the provider which in turn brings conflict and a moral quagmire for the nurse. Moral dilemma comes from situations’ where two concise or more moral values apply, but they backup mutually varying foundations of action.

How Nursing Conflicts between the Law and Ethics were handled historically by the Nurses: Reacting to prejudicial rules

Conflicts arise in the event that a nurse encounters a burden that is reasonable, conscientious objection, a personal danger, and matters pertaining personal competence. A burden that is not reasonable manifests in the event that the nurse’s competence to provide safe care and satisfy Standards of Practice is challenged by expectations that are not practical, insufficient resources, and threats on personal welfare. Nurses are neither allowed to neglect their patients nor are they authorized to position themselves in circumstances where the care delivery would bring dangers that are not logical to their individual safety. This involves diseases that are communicable, violence, sexual, and physical abuse. In the case of personal competence, the expectation from nurses is that they should practice constantly and competently acquire new knowledge and skills within the surrounding environment of practice.

Nurses are only allowed to provide care that is not beyond their level of competency. In the rural areas, the nurse may encounter cases whereby he or she is requested to provide care beyond his or her capability hence the nurse often provides care that he or she is capable to offer. It is therefore appropriate for a nurse to seek advice from his or her employer in case of conscientious oppositions where a certain method of care conflicts with the nurse’s religious beliefs and moral. The nurse should, therefore, refrain at all cost to provide care. An individual judgement which conflicts with the patient’s lifestyle ought not to provide a basis for conscientious objection.

Historically, nurses have made use of the expert code of practice in resolving conflicts which emerge between law and ethics by polite communication, and the direction provided by the code of conduct in the nursing practice. This code comes from the common belief that the main roles of nurses involve preventing ailments, easing client’s suffering, and the safeguarding, promoting and restoring patient’s health among the caring of people, families, groups, and societies. Institutions that deals with healthcare are expected to offer multidisciplinary ethics committees that provide education, support and counselling on ethical matters.

Through this, a platform on which variable views are expressed, provide support for caregivers and reduce legal risks for the institution. Professional standards help the nurses to understand the conduct of professional nursing by making sure that the nurses are in the track of providing unique care for the sick, the nurses showing signs of commitment to the communities, outlining the essential ethical morals for professional conduct, offering guidance to the nursing professionals in their mission for self-regulation.

Conclusion

Nurses should therefore, apply the codes to practice in coming up with decisions of ethics by recognizing the patient’s right to competent, ethical and safe care. However, in some cases, the nurse’s personal rights and principles can be in contrary to the patient’s right to be given care. In such a situation, nurses are required to define the facts and point out the dilemma. Upon highlighting the dilemma, the nurses are required to simplify the dilemma, after which the nurses should implement options that are available and come up with a plan and ultimately implementing the suggested plan. Nurses should not contravene the set of ethical and legal standards in the nursing practice on the basis of satisfying client well-being. In the event of a group of nurses violating the set legal and ethical standards due to the conflict between held principles and the ethical obligations, it is important to guarantee that the nurses’ behaviors are rooted in sound legal judgment, instead of self-interest, rationalization, or prejudice.

References

Danjuma, A., Adeleke, I., & Ominiyi, S. (2015). Knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among nurses at Federal Medical Centre, Bida. American Journal of Health Research, 3(1-1), 32-37.

Dehghani, A., Mosalanejad, L., & Dehghan-Nayeri, N. (2015). Factors affecting professional ethics in nursing practice in Iran: a qualitative study. BMC medical ethics, 16(1), 61.

Zahedi, F., Sanjari, M., Aala, M., Peymani, M., Aramesh, K., Parsapour, A., & Dastgerdi, M. V. (2013). The code of ethics for nurses. Iranian journal of public health, 42 (Supple), 1.

Relevant Blog Posts

Nursing Dissertations

Diversity Adaptation Inclusion Nursing Education

Did you find any useful knowledge relating to nursing practice in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.

Marketing Concepts Research Dissertations

Marketing Concepts

Title: Marketing Concepts for Marketing Students. Marketing is a mode of communication that exists between an individual or a company and their clients with the intention of selling them their products and services. Being able to communicate the value of a company or an individual’s product or service is a significant aspect or element of marketing. As such, various marketing concepts that including advertisement, promotion, marketing mix, marketing research, pricing, packaging, personal selling, brands, business markets, buying behaviors of customers, retailing, sales management, distribution channels, global markets, innovations, and trends in marketing, among others exist. In particular, this research paper presents an evaluation of marketing mix, market research, and pricing with an intention of creating a further understanding of the concepts. The general understanding is that marketing defines everything under the management process via which merchants and services provided move from being mere concepts to the point where they reach the end users or customers.

Marketing Mix

This concept defines a planned or scheduled mix of the controllable fundamentals of the marketing plan of a product commonly referred to as 4Ps: promotion, product, place, and price. These elements are continuously attuned until the correct recipe that meets the desires of the customers purchasing the product is established, while yielding optimum profit.

In some cases the ‘P’ of product is replaced with presentation. With a combination of the 4Ps, business managers have to avail the right products in the right location or place, at the right timing and price. Essentially, a business is compelled to develop a product that a specific segment or group of personalities want, avail it for sale at a location that those personalities regularly visit, and tag a cost on it or price it such that its value matches the actual value that they feel they obtain from it; and actually implement all this within a duration or time when they are in demand. This whole concept defines marketing mix.

Luan and Sudhir (2010) argue that the 4Ps act as the parameters that an organization’s marketing manager regulate or control, based on the external and internal constraints of the business or marketing surrounding (environment). The objective is to come up with decisions that focus the 4Ps on the clients in the market that is targeted with an intention of creating a perceived product value and give a positive feedback.

In their discussions, Luan and Sudhir (2010) define a product as tangible objects, including services, which are offered by a company or an individual. Decisions that marketing managers can make on products include, but are not limited to choosing a brand name, packaging, warranty, functionality, accessories, services, styling, repairs, quality, support, safety and styling of the product.

Place defines where buyers obtain a good or service from. Under the element of ‘place,’ a variety of questions can be asked to meet the quest or need of customers (Luan & Sudhir, 2010). For instance, a marketing manager may want to know how to access the right and best distribution channel, determine whether to use sales force, or may be become part of a trade fair, make online product submissions, or better yet still mail product samples to catalogue organizations or companies. Imperative to note under this concept is equally determining what one’s competitors are doing, how they do it, the lessons that can be learnt from their actions, and finally determine a differentiation formula.

Pricing or the cost charged for a service obtained or a product purchased is equally a significant element of the 4Ps. According to O’Cass and Heirati (2015), one requires to work extra hard to determine what customers really want, in addition to identifying where a majority of them do their routinely shopping. Important to note is that getting just one of this elements wrong could be a recipe for disaster. For instance, a product might be priced too high or too low with an intention of attracting clients, but if the target group have no capacity to afford the costly product or its too much cheap or below their standard, then the product might not be bought or assumed to be of low quality respectively (O’Cass & Heirati, 2015). Essentially, getting right the marketing mix acts as a leading edge where any marketing manager should begin when thinking through their plans to offer a particular service or product, and it majorly helps them evade simple mistakes.

Within the context of marketing mix, the element of ‘promotion’ takes into consideration the numerous dimensions of marketing communication, and specifically the communication of the details of the product or service with the intention of achieving a positive response from the customers (Powers & Loyka, 2010). Decisions that can be made under marketing promotion or communication include whether to use a push, pull, or other forms of promotional scheme, identifying the modes of doing adverts, sales improvements and promotions, publicity works and public relations, the budget for marketing communication, in addition to making use of individual selling strategies or a sales team (Powers & Loyka, 2010).

Generally, the elements of marketing mix are used to help marketing managers to successfully position their goods and services, or what could be referred to as market offers. The aforementioned elements or the 4Ps of marketing are used by marketing managers to define their marketing options based on their product, place, price, and promotion (4Ps). This kind of model can be used when an individual is making plans for a completely new business venture, in the evaluation of an already existing business offer or product, and finally in the optimization of the effect or impact of a venture in regard to a targeted market.

Product; the product refers to the physical commodity that is sold to the market by the seller. The product forms an important element in the marketing mix because it gives different products the require matrix. The product might occur both in physical and invisible form. Products which are visible might be categorized further on the basis of service, warranty, packaging and stature. Product differentiation is based on increased level of appearance and product formation.

Price; price is the amount of money which is paid as an exchange of the products. Prices vary due to the quality and quantity of commodities and services. The major reason why price forms an extensive aspect of marketing is because of the relationship between the price levels and the movement of goods from one location to the next. Price includes discounts, leases, promotion, and profits. Marketing mix has been related to the number of companies which operate within the designated places. This is the most significant element among the 4Ps of marketing mix because it is the only one that generates an income for the company. The other three elements actually have impacting costs when implemented. For instance, it will cost the business money to design and develop or produce a new product, distribute it, and finally promote it in the market.

Promotion; Promotion refers to the marketing of products to the designated buyers and sellers. Since prices could be extremely large, marketing is an important concept because it helps to eliminate any disadvantages related to the product. The major role of promotion is to reduce competition between different products. Promotion also helps in determination of the worth of other customers in relation to the to the promotion and advertising decisions.

Marketing Concepts Research

Marketing managers are in need of data or information so that they successfully introduce a service or product that would create a lasting value in the mind of clienteles (McDaniel & Gates, 2005). However, the opinion of value is personal, and whatever clients attach so much value to this year may be completely different from what they would attach value in the coming years or years. In this manner, the attributes that create a perception of value cannot merely be deduced from ordinary information.

Rather, a marketing manager must collect and analyze data. The objective of the concept of marketing research is to provide managers with the facts in addition to informing their direction or decisions, more specifically those that involve marketing choices. In order to fully benefit from the concept of marketing research, the individuals that make use of the collected data have to understand the process of carrying out the research in addition to considering its limitations (Malhotra, 2010).

Burns and Bush (2000) describe the process of marketing research to include the collection, analyzing and interpreting data or information as regards a market, and in regard to the services or products to be offered for sale in that market, plus about the history, current and possible clients for the service or product ; research delving into the desires of the targeted market of business, characteristics, location, and needs of the targeted business market, the overall industry, in addition to the specific competitors that the business has (Burns & Bush, 2000).

The foundation of all the successful business ventures is accurate and detailed information since it issues a wealth of data or information as regards prospective and existing clients, the competitors, and the general industry. It gives business owners the freedom to determine the viability of a business before committing considerable amounts of money or resources to the business venture.

Marketing research provides a marketing manager or the overall company with the relevant information that would help them solve their likely future challenges, more so in the marketing segment, which makes it a critical aspect in the process or managing and planning a business venture (Burns & Bush, 2000). In actual sense, business strategies that include market segmentation (spotting particular groups within a target market) in addition to product differentiation, which simply means identifying the distinguishing factors of a business’ products or services as compared to those offered by competitors, are completely impossible to establish or develop minus doing a marketing research (Zarrella & Zarrella, 2010).

Marketing research entails two major forms of data, namely primary and secondary information. Primary data refers to the results of a research that a business owner decides to compile in person, or perhaps indirectly hire a different individual to perform the action of collecting information. Contrarily, secondary data makes reference to the information that is already compiled and organized in a specific format minus the researcher’s involvement. Sample secondary sources include reports from trade unions or associations, government agency studies, in addition to other business ventures within the same industry. Secondary data is commonly used in this process.

For marketing managers, the significance of research is not only limited to learning but also a vital element when making good managerial decisions. Essentially, marketing research provides individuals with a general picture of what is taking place or likely to happen. If implemented well, marketing research avails offers as regards the alternative choices or decisions that can possibly be made within a company. For example, a properly done research can offer managers alternative methods on how to enter new markets and as well help them introduce new products. Marketing decisions are known to be less risky, more so when the marketing manager has a variety of options to choose from.

Marketing research is considered as the foundation of business marketing. Marketing decisions require to be substantiated through research so that the customers view the business as favorable. In addition, marketing research can help a business stand up to other external pressures in addition to competition. The general understanding is that all the areas covered under marketing, in addition to making marketing decisions, ought to be supported with some degree of research.

Even though marketing research is significant in making marketing decisions, it does not require any further elaboration to attain its purpose. Many a time, taking time to do a quick search via the internet will avail the required data or information. However, there comes a time when more complex processes of research are requisite, in addition to understanding the correct method of conducting a research, whether they are doing the work at a personal level or have hired someone to do it can make the projects much more successful.

Trends in Marketing

The current decade has seen an increased number of innovations. The innovations in marketing have seen increased incorporation of technology and marketing. Several trends have developed for the past five years and their impact on marketing has been massive. The trends include;

Virtual reality; virtual reality emerged in the late 2000. Virtual reality incorporates online marketing of products with virtual content. Virtual reality encourages each firm to provide its customers with a 360 immersive story. The engagement between the commercials provides a call to action procedure in each firm. Increased online marketing has resulted in increased use of apps like Facebook to make sales. Facebook has been at the forefront in provision of marketing for various products.

Social media marketing; Google has revolutionized marketing strategies for the past three years. Increased level of functionality and presence of Facebook and twitter in the search engines has increased the marketing probabilities of different companies. The major revolution accompanied by these marketing strategies is the increased level of procedural sales that have increased the sales in different companies. Digital migrations and increased connectivity of social media sites has been the major reason why social media marketing has gained much more ground.

In a recent study, Facebook has been voted as the most appreciated social site among the other sites. Incorporation of advertising portals in Facebook has helped many business advertisements to receive much more attention. The conversion portal on Facebook includes the dominant pictures that could be included when making promotion on Facebook. The attribution model on twitter and Facebook is shown by the existence of both the website and an email which is used to log in. The attribution panel provides an extensive channel that is important for the formation of correct provisions. Twitter and Facebook have been the foremost media sites to embrace development of an expensive direct channel. The direct provision of advertisement is an essential strategy developed by Facebook in order to achieve this.

Green marketing; Global warming is a major topic in 21^st century. Increased demand for proper products has seen increased embrace of for green products. Green products mean that the world is resolving to use products that don’t emit much carbon or excessive methane. The target audience for green products revolves around increased appreciation for products that use less energy and don’t emit any poisonous gases to the environment. The concept of green energy has been used in marketing especially for products that use power. Increased appreciation for clean energy has led to reduced number of products that use black energy. Green energy has been used by majority of firms to increase the level of marketing (Blick, 2008).

Marketing automation; marketing automation is mostly based on the production of content based advertisement methods in the markets. The current market systems have been based on the increased level of competition that has been witnessed in production procedures. Marketing automation is a new concept because it has based its advertisement modes on content reproduction and analysis. Increased level of production has increased the number of sales per production unit. Improved marketing choices have increased the level of sales funnel within certain regions. Sales automation has led to increased sales in different firms because of the increased level of segmented customer levels (In, 2015).

Better relationship marketing; relationship marketing refers to the relationship between the buyers and the sellers in the appropriate way. Over the past years, increased level of relationship marketing has led to increased number of sales. In the past five years, better relationship marketing has been revolutionized through better marketing. Marketing dynamics for a long time have been based on the relationship between consumer surpluses and producer surpluses. Producer surplus means that there is a sale of an extra unit of production. Better relationship management limits the number of sales per unit to a specified number only.

The dynamics of marketing have been improved through better relationship management. Better relationship management has been enhanced by the adoption of smartphone technology. Smart phones possess apps which have been utilized by different companies in order to make increased sales per unit. A consumer who possesses a strong internet connection is likely to access more services. Dynamic trends in the marketing field have led to increased sales. The marketing of concepts through automation could be altered through the use of increased investment in content management and analysis. The concepts on marketing have been enhanced through the development of extensive development.

Marketing Concepts References

Burns, A. C., Bush, R. F., & Sinha, N. (2000). Marketing research (pp. 599-602). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Zarrella, D. (2010). The social media marketing book. Beijing: O’Reilly.

Blick, D. (2011). The ultimate small business marketing concepts book. Surrey: Filament Publishing.

O’Cass A, Heirati N. (2015) Mastering the complementarily between marketing mix and Customer-Focused capabilities to enhance new product performance. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing.

In Tsiakis, T. (2015). Trends and innovations in marketing concepts and information systems.

Luan, Y. J., and Sudhir, K. 2010. “Forecasting Marketing-Mix Responsiveness for New Products,” Journal of Marketing Research (47:3), pp. 444-457.

Powers, T. L., & Loyka, J. J. (2010). Adaptation of marketing mix elements in international markets. Journal of global marketing, 23(1), 65-79.

Zarrella, D., & Zarrella, A. (2010). The Facebook marketing book. ” O’Reilly Media, Inc.”.

Malhotra, N. K. (2010). Marketing research: An applied orientation (Vol. 834).

McDaniel, C., & Gates, R. (2005). Marketing Research.

Relevant Blog Posts

Marketing Dissertation Topics

Dissertation Topic Examples Marketing

Did you find any useful knowledge relating to marketing concepts in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.

Outsourcing Low Cost Countries

Benefits and Risks of Outsourcing to Low Cost Countries

Apparel and luxury value chains have come up with strategies so as to be cost competitive, increase the income, and expand the market for their goods. Outsourcing the end-to-end supply chain means that activities of an organization are carried out by an external company that specializes in these activities (Pickles et al., 2015). More so, a company can pay attention to its key competencies satisfy consumers, and be more flexible in maintenance and operation of its supply chain.

Apparel and luxury industry is very volatile today, frequent changes in expenses, risks, and demands for materials and goods as well as the changes in factors like international business environment are some of the challenges affecting the end-to-end supply chain. Anything that halts or reduces the movement of material, as well as the apparel and luxury goods, are considered a problem to the supply chain (K3SoftwareSolutions, 2017).

Outsourcing Benefits

Apparel and luxury companies have been able to expand their supply chain to many different countries and migrating to outsource manufacturing which has seen reduction in the cost of production. This strategy has promoted division of labor throughout the end-to-end supply chain by allowing company to concentrate on principal business undertakings. The organization is allowed to concentrate on its core competencies while specialist suppliers are given non-core undertakings (Handfield, 2017).

Suppliers who can carry out the processes more efficiently are tasked with this role and therefore outsourcing in low cost countries helps make the supply chain more effective. International brands have been allowed to create a completely responsive supply chains as well as bringing apparel and luxury products of low price to the shelves of stores (Handfield, 2017). Low priced goods are as a result of using external company’s expertise, knowledge and links to make cost-effective plans. Besides, time is economized since the time taken in designing, and delivering new clothes and luxury products to the market has been reduced from over a year to only a few weeks (Handfield, 2017).

Through outsourcing in low-cost countries, companies have been able to achieve effective processes, low-priced goods, and consumer satisfaction leading to outstanding performance and strategic advantage. Supply chain also becomes more flexible as the company has freedom to choose who they can do business with. Also, outsourcing enables the end-to-end supply chain of the organization to be more traceable (Robinson, and Hsieh, 2016).

Outsourcing Risks

Despite the benefits, an organization exposes their brands to great risks through outsourcing because it becomes a supply chain against supply chain. When going after cheap labor, apparel and luxury companies have been putting immense pressure on the suppliers who in turn are ready to reduce their invested capital to have low costs (Handfield, 2017). So as to compete with other businesses in the low-cost countries, suppliers forwent investments and labor practices that reduces the safety standards in a company and this is likely to damage the brand image of the apparel.

Poor working conditions in the apparel and luxury industry so as to maintain common local codes in low-cost countries is a disadvantage to the supply chain (Handfield, 2017). Another challenge to the supply chain is the abroad manufacturing delays. Apparel and luxury stores that are in western countries are progressively relying on the clothes and accessories from countries like China. Most newcomers to the industry may be found off guard by the delayed manufacturer (K3SoftwareSolutions, 2017). Moreover, damaged shipments and some that get lost is another menace to the apparel and luxury industry. Possible unseen costs such as inflated shipping price can result.

Besides, there are possible setbacks to the supply chain for instance late receiving of inventory leading to consumer dissatisfaction, loss of income and problems in the end-to-end supply chain. Problems may also arise during integration of the two Apparel and luxury companies affecting supply chain. If the hired company economize, use cheap materials or even fail to assess risk fully, the supply chain will be affected due to decreased sales and brand equity (Meeken, 2013).

Conclusion

Outsourcing in low-cost countries helps Apparel and luxury companies be more efficient in their operations because they concentrate of core competencies and they can produce cheaper clothes and accessories as well as satisfying consumers, therefore, affecting supply chain positively. However, there are risks involved such as pressuring suppliers to reduce investment capital to keep low costs. More so, companies adopt common local standards which can ruin the brand image and problems in the hired company can also affect the organization negatively.

References

Handfield, R. (2017, August 23). Needed: A New Way to Manage Risk in Low Cost Countries. Supply Chain Resource Cooperative.

K3 Software Solutions, (2017, December 8). Supply Chain Challenges in Apparel Industry and How You Can Fix Them. Fashion ERP.

Meeken, Z. (2013, June 13). The Risks and Benefits of Outsourcing Supply Chain Management. Business.org.

Pickles J, Plank L, Staritz C, Glasmeier A (2015) Trade policy and regionalisms in global clothing production networks. Camb J Reg, Econ Soc 8(3):381–402

Robinson, P. K., & Hsieh, L. (2016). Reshoring: a strategic renewal of luxury clothing supply chains. Operations Management Research, 9(3-4), 89-101.

Relevant Links

Foreign Outsourcing

Business Strategy Dissertations

Did you find any useful knowledge relating to outsourcing in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.

Audi Global Marketing Communication

Title: Audi Global Marketing and Communication Strategy. Audi is an automobile manufacturer based in Germany that distributes, markets, produces, engineers, and designs luxurious vehicles. The manufacturer was founded in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany and is part of the Volkswagen Group. Throughout the globe, vehicles that are Audi-branded are manufactured in nine production facilities. The organisation’s origin dates back to the early 20^th-century when engineer August Horch teamed with two other manufacturers in 1932 to form Auto Union. The mid-20^th century (the 1960s) saw the commencement of the modern day Audi when Volkswagen acquired Auto Union from Daimler-Benz (Audi, 2019). The Audi brand was relaunched in 1965 by introducing the Audi F103 series to the market. After the relaunch, Volkswagen decided to merge NSU Motorenwerke with Auto Union in 1969 to form the modern day structure of the organisation.

The organisation’s name is a German translation of founder’s surname – Horch. The Audi logo has four rings that signify each of the four automobile manufacturers who merged to establish the organisation’s predecessor, Auto Union. The company’s slogan “Advancement through Technology” implies that the organisation uses the latest technology to manufacture its car (Audi, 2019). In the United States, the organisation’s slogan was “Truth in Engineering” up to the year 2016 from the year 2007. Together with the Mercedes-Benz and the BMW, Audi is among the world’s most sold luxurious automobile brand. The key intent of this report is to look into the global, local and glocal strategies of Audi with regard to price and distribution; additionally, the report will select and discuss the primary target market of the organisation.

Audi marketing mix

Due to the element of globalisation, the concept of marketing has evolved immensely over time, and if companies are not able to keep up with the dynamism, they risk being overtaken by their competitors. One of the major dynamics in the marketing concept evolution is the Marketing Mix strategy that an organisation chooses to adopt (Svend, 2017). Audi being a major player in the automobile industry has managed to keep up with the dynamics in marketing by adopting different strategies in the local, international, and glocal market. It is vital to note that as Audi customers look for relevant and consistent experiences in the organisation’s products whenever and wherever they interact with them, the company is under pressure to find creative and innovative methods of marketing. Additionally, these marketing strategies are supposed to remain relevant locally while they maintain a sense of consistency in owning a global brand.

Glocal pricing and distribution at Audi

Audi recognises the fact that the digital marketing landscape is being taken over by glocalisation. As a result, the organisation has undertaken the initiative of strengthening the global brand of its products with a customised approach and flavour for the global market. However, the organisation faces a major challenge of ensuring that the global marketing campaigns of the organisation are in sync with the tastes and preferences of the local audience (Awan, 2014). In setting the prices for its products and choosing the distribution strategies as relates to glocalisation, the organisation acknowledges the fact that the major customer priorities with regards to these aspects differ from one market to another. Therefore, it is critical that these priorities are taken into consideration to establish an effective pricing and distribution strategy in the glocal market. To effectively penetrate the glocal market, Audi has incorporated hyperlocal and social geo-targeting in its overall marketing strategy.

In employing social geo-targeting in its pricing and distribution strategy, Audi can develop a deeper engagement with its customers, and it can get speedy feedback on its services, releases, and ideas. Through hyperlocal geo-targeting, the organisation can use the most recent mapping and communication technology to deliver the relevant content to their clients across the world. Therefore, this form of geo-targeting has opened up a new world for the organisation’s product pricing and distribution strategies. To ensure that the company’s brand identity is relevant while making certain of the effectiveness and relevance of the local campaigns, the organisation assesses its brand from the customer’s viewpoint, (Feurer, Schuhmacher & Kuester, 2018). This helps in ascertaining whether the company cars and other automobiles are in sync with the local demands. When the brand identity does not resonate with the local demands, the organisation takes the initiative to incorporate these demands in the local brand identity.

In ensuring that the glocal pricing distribution strategy of the organisation is successful, their staffs, working in both the local and the international sphere, has created a close association with the customers and the vision of the brand (Hinterhuber, 2017). The senior leadership of Audi is elevated within the automobile industry, and they are recognised as the face of the brand. Additionally, the staff of the organisation ensures that the local communities get the global concept of the demand, hence, making sure that they recognise with it. This way, Audi creates essential relationships with major local markets in the industry. The Audi brand has done a tremendous job in synching its global brand with local demands by using local ambassadors, sponsorships, and local partners.

Global pricing and distribution

In the global market, Audi cars are considered luxurious by all of its clients. Hence, in cashing its brand in the international market, the organisation uses the premium price strategy. Note that the automobile industry is quite competitive with Audi getting major competition from brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz (Sonderegger, 2011). Therefore, the pricing in the company’s marketing mix strategy is majorly founded on the competitive pricing of other manufacturers of premium cars. The company has high brand equity, and all its showrooms are filled with a variety of high-quality automobiles.

To enable customers to buy their products with ease, the organisation has a global and innovative financing option referred to as Audi Finance. Here, the clients pay for the cars using debt financing but at a cheaper rate. Additionally, the organisation has optional pricing strategies whereby its existing clients in the international market can purchase car accessories such as navigation and sound systems, and Audi Bang separately. Note that, the global prices of the organisation are also depended on the economic conditions of a particular country and geographic locations of certain markets.

In understanding the distribution and placement strategy of the organisation, it is vital to note that Audi is one of the largest automobile brands that provide luxurious cars in the world. Although the headquarters of the organisation are in Germany, its production facilities are situated in nine places across the globe. In distributing its products, the organisation explores other markets that have not been discovered by other major players to increase its customer base. As a result, the organisation has made major investments in countries such as India and its market presence in Asia has grown exponentially over time.

The brand’s presence has been established and maintained by putting up an exclusive dealership network and centres that provide after sale services (Steenkamp, 2017). The distribution channel used by Audi in the international market involves producers who supply to distributors who sell to wholesalers than to dealers and finally to the customer. Since the organisation is driven by the urge to satisfy the requirements of the customers, its production proves uses the latest forms of technology. The global vision of the organisation is to become the most successful premium brand.

Local pricing and distribution

In the UK a new Audi A1 costs roughly 14,000 GBP whereas the same car costs 19lac rupees in India; this indicates that the local pricing strategy employed by Audi is the skimming price strategy. Although the price is high, it is justified by the quality of the cars manufactured and the organisation’s brand image. This pricing strategy in local markets is particularly important for effective brand positioning of Audi (Svend, 2017). The reputation of the organisation is good in the international market, and it is reflected on by the number of cars that are produced annually. However, in recent years, the company has experienced poor performance in some local markets, and this is majorly attributed to the increase in rates of foreign exchange.

The local distribution strategy of the organisation is to establish dealerships in various locations. Taking the case of India, Audi has twenty-eight dealerships in eleven states, and this has increased its sales exponentially over the years (Talke, Müller, & Wieringa, 2017). For instance, there was an increase in sales by 81% in 2014 in comparison to 2013. By establishing connections with local dealers, the organisation can push its brand to local customers, and this has enabled it to achieve some of the set long-term objectives.

Audi Target Market

Of the four common bases of market segmentation, Audi utilises three of them, and they include psychographic, demographic, and geographic segmentation. In geographic segmentation, the organisation’s decisions are based on which cars to sell and in which location (Xia, Xiao & Zhang, 2012). For instance, the organisation’s market research shows that Canadians drive larger cars as compared to Europeans. Thus, the cars sold in Europe are smaller in size as compared to those sold in Canada. With regards to countries like India, the organisation geographically segments the market into urban and rural areas. People in rural areas are more likely to purchase the Audi A3 model more than the new Audi A8.

With regards to demographics, the organisation segments its market into age, gender and income. With regards to age, the younger generation is more likely to buy the Audi A8 because it is flashy while the older generation gives little concern to the make or level of technology used in manufacturing the car.

By gender, some Audi models are more preferred by either gender because of their make or design. Income is a major determinant of whether one can afford an Audi car or not due to its prices that are considered to be high; therefore, the organisation has taken the initiative to produce cars for various individuals of different income classes (Xia, Xiao & Zhang, 2012). Finally, psychographic segmentation groups buyers according to personality traits, lifestyle and social status. As an organisation, Audi acknowledges the impact of these aspects on the purchasing decisions that are made by individuals. Since the organisation is famed for making luxurious cars, the major target market based on psychographic segmentation is the upper middle class to high-class individuals.

Conclusion

This report aimed to look into the global, local and glocal strategies of Audi with regard to price and distribution. Also, the report intended to select and discuss the primary target market of the organisation. From the essay, it has been established that Audi was founded in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany and is part of the Volkswagen Group and its slogan is “Advancement through Technology.” Being a major player in the automobile industry, Audi has managed to keep up with the dynamics in marketing by adopting different strategies in the local, international, and glocal market. To effectively penetrate the glocal market, Audi has incorporated hyperlocal and social geo-targeting in its overall marketing strategy.

In the global market, the organisation uses the premium price strategy to keep up to speed with the competitive pricing set by its key competitors. The distribution strategy of the organisation in the global market involves producers who supply to distributors who sell to wholesalers than to dealers and finally to the customer. In the local markets, the organisation uses the price skimming strategy. This strategy helps the organisation in growing and establishing its brand in the market. Locally, the organisation distributes its cars by establishing dealerships in various locations. Finally, with regards to target marketing, the organisation segments its market into psychographic, demographic, and geographic groups.

References

Audi. (2019). About Us.

Awan, M. (2014). International Market Segmentation: Exploring automobile Market of Young Adults. International Journal Of Trade, Economics And Finance, 5(2), 151-154.

Feurer, S., Schuhmacher, M., & Kuester, S. (2018). How Pricing Teams Develop Effective Pricing Strategies for New Products. Journal Of Product Innovation Management. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12444

Hinterhuber, A. (2017). Implementing pricing strategies. Journal Of Revenue And Pricing Management, 17(1), 1-2.

Sonderegger, S. (2011). Market Segmentation with Nonlinear Pricing*. The Journal Of Industrial Economics, 59(1), 38-62.

Steenkamp, J. B. (2017). Global Brand Equity. In Global Brand Strategy (pp. 243-273). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Svend, H. (2017). Global Marketing. England: Pearson Education M.U.A..

Talke, K., Müller, S., & Wieringa, J. E. (2017). A matter of perspective: Design newness and its performance effects. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(2), 399-413.

Xia, Y., Xiao, T., & Zhang, G. (2012). Distribution Channel Strategies for a Manufacturer with Complementary Products. Decision Sciences, 44(1), 39-56.

Relevant Blog Posts

Marketing Essays | Marketing Projects

Global Branding and Integrated Marketing Communication