Goldcrust's first three months in Marovia: Goldcrust plc's factory in Seren is running, and the first 12 of its 30 bakeries in Marovia are open (1.6.2).
| Each bakery | Loaves a day |
|---|---|
| Forecast by the Marovia team | 500 |
| Sold, after three months | 300: 40% short |
Not the bread, the marketing: The bread is well made, the prices are low and the shops are clean. The trouble is that Goldcrust has marketed in Marovia exactly as it markets at home, and Marovia is not home.
Crossing a border changes four things a head office cannot see from its desk: the customers' culture, their language, the country's law and the customers' taste. To a business that markets abroad as it does at home, each one is a threat: something outside the business that can cut its sales or harm its name. This section takes the first two.
Culture is the way of life that people in a country share: their habits, customs, beliefs and values, and what they take for granted as normal. People learn it growing up, so they rarely notice it, and a business from outside rarely notices it either, until something goes wrong.
What Goldcrust's team found out about Marovian culture
How people buy bread
Marovians buy a loaf every morning from a baker they know by name, often the one their parents used. A new chain, however cheap, starts as a stranger.
Who the bread is for
Bread is bought for the family table, not for one person. Goldcrust's single-portion snack packs, a hit at stations back home, barely sell.
What a café is for
At home a Goldcrust café is a ninety-second stop. In Marovia a café is where people sit for an hour and are served at the table (1.6.3).
Festivals and customs
At the spring festival every Marovian family buys a braided sweet loaf. Goldcrust's windows had none, so its bakeries looked as though they did not belong.
Language is the second difference. Every word a customer reads, hears or says to a member of staff has to work in Marovia's language. Being translated into it is not the same thing.
| What went wrong | What it cost Goldcrust | |
|---|---|---|
| The slogan | 'Baked to last', put word for word into Marovia's language, reads as 'bread that never goes off', which sounds full of preservatives | Adverts that push customers away |
| The tone | Home adverts talk to customers like friends, with jokes and a casual 'hey, you'. Marovians address strangers formally, so the adverts sound rude | A brand that seems not to respect its customers |
| The signs and menus | Head office translated them with software; some product names came out as nonsense | Customers laughing at the brand, not buying from it |
Language is more than translation: A translation can be right word for word and still wrong: wrong in tone, in a joke that does not travel, or in a double meaning any local would spot at once.
The safe route is to have people who grew up speaking the language write, or at least check, every slogan, label and sign.
Free preview
This is the free notes preview
You're reading the free notes. Aimnova Pro unlocks the full study experience — and you can try it with your first topic free to keep:
- FlashcardsLock in vocabulary and key terms with spaced repetition.
- Practice questionsAnswer exam-style questions and get instant AI marking.
- Mock exams & past-paper vaultSit full mocks and see exactly how examiners award marks.
- Personalised study planA daily plan built around your exam date and weak areas.
The other two differences are law and taste. One is written down and enforced by the state; the other is learned at the family table. Either can stop a product that sells well at home from selling at all.
Three Marovian rules Goldcrust met: Every packet must list its ingredients in Marovia's language (1.6.3).
Food adverts may not be aimed at children under 12, so Goldcrust's cartoon mascot cannot appear on Marovian television.
Only bread baked on the day of sale may be called 'fresh', so the packaged loaf from the Seren factory cannot carry the word that sells it at home.
Law is different from the other three. A business can choose whether to adapt to a custom or a taste; it must obey the law. Ignoring it means fines, adverts taken off air, products taken off the shelves and headlines that damage the brand.
And the law reaches the whole marketing mix: what goes into a product and onto its label, how and to whom it may be advertised, when shops may open.
Taste is learned at the family table: Taste is what customers like to eat, wear or use. Marovians have bought small, dark rye loaves from local bakers for generations (1.6.2).
Goldcrust's best seller at home
- A large white sliced loaf that lasts a week
- $1.00
Mira Horvat's bakery down the street
- The rye loaf
- $1.60
The white loaf is cheaper. Some shoppers switch for the price, as Mira found; most walk past. Taste is learned young and changes slowly, and a lower price does not win a customer who does not like the loaf.
| The difference | What it is | The threat to Goldcrust | A choice? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Culture | Shared habits, customs, beliefs and values | Products and shops that do not fit how people live: no festival loaf, snack packs nobody wants | Yes |
| Language | The words, and the way they are used | Slogans that mean the wrong thing, a tone that sounds rude | Partly: labels must be translated by law |
| Law | Rules the state enforces | Fines, banned adverts, products taken off the shelves | No |
| Taste | What customers like | A loaf that sells at home stays on the shelf | Yes |
Name the difference precisely: 'Cultural differences' is often used for all four. In an answer, say which one you mean: the festival loaf is culture, the slogan is language, the ban on adverts for children is law, the rye loaf is taste.
The more precise the difference, the more precise the change it calls for.
Know your predicted grade
Take timed mock exams and get detailed feedback on every answer. See exactly where you're losing marks.
One change for each difference: The Marovia team does not throw away the Goldcrust way. It goes through the marketing mix, the seven Ps from 4.5, and changes each P that one of the four differences touches, and only those.
Standardisation
- Sell the same everywhere
Adaptation
- Change for each country
In 1.6.3 you met these two ends. Most businesses, Goldcrust included, end up in between.
| P | At home | In Marovia | Because of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Large white sliced loaf; single-portion snack packs | Adds a small dark rye loaf and the braided festival loaf; family-size packs | Taste, culture |
| Price | $2.20 for the white loaf near Market Square | $1.00 for the white loaf; the rye loaf near the local bakers' $1.60 | Local incomes and rivals: not every change is cultural |
| Place | Supermarkets and station kiosks | Neighbourhood bakeries, open at six, close to home | Culture: a loaf bought every morning near home |
| Promotion | Jokey adverts, casual tone, cartoon mascot, 'Baked to last', 'fresh' on every pack | Written by Marovian copywriters, formal tone, family scenes, no mascot, no 'fresh' on factory loaves | Language, law, culture |
| People | Counter service in ninety seconds | Table service by staff hired in Marovia | Culture (1.6.3) |
| Processes | Pay first, at the counter | Pay at the table at the end; the bill never brought early | Culture |
| Physical evidence | The same shopfront and signs everywhere | The same logo; signs and menus written by local staff; the festival loaf in the window | Language, culture |
What adapting costs
- A new recipe and a separate production run
- New packs
- Adverts made locally
- Legal advice
- Staff training
- Some of the savings of doing one thing everywhere (economies of scale, 1.5.3)
- A brand that no longer looks and sounds the same in every country
What not adapting costs
- 200 unsold loaves a day in every bakery
- Adverts that offend
- Fines
Adapting has a price, and so does not adapting: Every change costs money. Not adapting costs too.
Three questions before changing a P
- Does the law require it? Then change it, whatever it costs: the labels, the adverts for children, the word 'fresh'.
- Will customers notice and care? A slogan with the wrong meaning, a loaf nobody likes and a café that rushes the bill all lose sales. The colour of the delivery vans does not.
- Will the extra sales cover the cost? A second production run for the rye loaf pays if thousands are sold a day; a separate recipe for every town would not.
Six months after the changes, each Marovian bakery sells 460 loaves a day, 92% of the forecast. The name, the logo, the hygiene standards and the Seren factory are the same as at home; almost everything the customer sees and hears has changed.
Goldcrust learned about Marovia the hard way, by getting it wrong. A business can compare two countries' cultures before it goes.
A tool built for the purpose
- Hofstede's cultural dimensions are named after the Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede.
- It scores each country from about 0 to 100 on six measures of how people there tend to think and behave.
- Here it is used briefly, as a planning tool for marketing abroad.
| The dimension, in plain words | A high score means | What it can mean for marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Power distance: how far people accept that power is shared unequally | Respect for rank, age and authority | Experts, elders or status in adverts; a premium brand as a sign of rank |
| Individualism (versus collectivism): 'I' or 'we' | People look after themselves first; a low score puts the family or group first | 'Treat yourself' works where it is high; family, belonging and loyalty where it is low |
| Masculinity (versus femininity): winning or caring | Competing, success and status matter most | Be the best, show success; a low score favours caring and quality of life |
| Uncertainty avoidance: how uneasy the unknown makes people | People prefer the familiar and want rules and guarantees | Slow to try a new brand; free samples, guarantees, detail and familiar names help |
| Long-term orientation: planning ahead or keeping to tradition | Saving, patience and planning for the future | Value and durability; a low score favours tradition and quick results |
| Indulgence (versus restraint): enjoying life or keeping desires in check | Fun, treats and leisure are fine | Adverts about pleasure and treats; a low score favours practical, sensible messages |
Scored for Goldcrust's home country and for Marovia, three of the six stand out. (The scores are for this example.)
| Dimension | Home | Marovia | What it would have told Goldcrust |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individualism | 70 | 30 | Sell to the family table, not the lone snacker: family packs, family scenes |
| Uncertainty avoidance | 45 | 80 | Marovians stay with the baker they know: offer free tastings and bake the familiar rye loaf |
| Indulgence | 65 | 35 | Sell good bread for every day, not a guilty pleasure |
Use it briefly, and say what it suggests: Hofstede turns 'Marovia feels different' into numbers two countries can be compared on.
In an answer: name the dimension, give the difference, and say what it suggests for one P of the marketing mix. Collectivist Marovia: sell to the family, not to the lone snacker.
Had the Marovia team read these three scores before opening, it could have planned the family packs, the tastings and the rye loaf from day one, and saved three months of unsold bread.
What Hofstede cannot tell you
- The scores are averages for a whole country. A student in Seren and a farmer in the hills may score very differently, and a business sells to people, not to averages.
- The scores were first built from surveys of IBM employees around 1970, and cultures change.
A starting point only: Used carelessly, a score becomes a stereotype. It is a starting point for market research (4.4), not a replacement for it.
Get feedback like a real examiner
Submit your answers and get instant feedback — what you did well, what's missing, and exactly what to write to score full marks.
How this comes up: When a business in the case sells, or plans to sell, in another country, expect short questions.
| Question | Marks |
|---|---|
| Explain one cultural difference, or one threat, it faces there | 2 |
| Explain one advantage and one disadvantage of adapting its marketing mix, or one part of it | 4 |
Also watch for
- A stimulus may quote Hofstede, for example that a country is very collectivist. The question then says 'with reference to Hofstede's cultural dimensions'.
- In the long discussions of selling abroad, language, customers' habits and local rules are the threats to weigh against the opportunities.
The four-mark pattern
- Name the advantage. Promotion written for local customers, in their language and tone, is understood and liked, and it stays within local law.
- Show it in the case. Goldcrust's jokey adverts sound rude to Marovians and its mascot breaks the ban on adverts for children; family scenes in a formal tone could lift sales from 300 loaves a day.
- Name the disadvantage. A separate campaign costs more, and the savings and single image of one campaign everywhere are lost.
- Show it in the case. Marovia's adverts serve only its 30 bakeries, where the home campaign is shared by 400.
Two traps: 'Different culture' is not a point. Name the difference (a formal tone, bread for the family table, a ban on adverts for children) and the P it touches.
No case, no second mark. 'Adapting costs more' is one mark. 'A campaign made for 30 Marovian bakeries costs more per bakery than one shared by 400' is two.
Explain one advantage and one disadvantage for Goldcrust of adapting its promotion for Marovia.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.