Marketing Across Cultures

The purpose of the course is to give students knowledge and comprehension of:

• 
  
  the relevance of culture to marketing and
  
• strategic opportunities and challenges arising from culturally diverse and dynamic contexts.

The course provides students with competencies to identify the role of culture in marketing and how cultural differences pose particular strategic and communication challenges for organizations.

Finally it shall provide the students with an understanding of the complexity of the culture concept and the skills for a culturally reflective approach to marketing. 

Marketing processes are increasingly global in their constitution and societies are increasingly pluri-cultural. As a consequence, a cross-cultural approach to marketing is increasingly salient.

The central areas of the course:

• 
  Introduction to essentialist and constructivist notions of culture and their use in marketing
• 
  Methods for analyzing and understanding cultural variance and dynamics
• 
  Processes of homogenization and heterogenization of markets
• 
  The role in and response of marketing to cultural interpenetration
• 
  Politics and ethics of marketing across cultures
  
• Cultural marketing: strategy, research, communication, innovation
• 
  Marketing and economic development
• 
  Marketing to subaltern consumers (in "developing" parts of the world)
  

Students are expected to be able to identify the main challenges at stake in doing marketing across cultures, especially in reference to cultural variance and change (e.g., cultural differences and processes of globalization).

Furthermore the students should be able to explain the difference between essentialist and constructivist notions of culture, and able to critically discuss and apply both perspectives (especially the latter) to the context of marketing.

Students should be able analyze cultural contexts and identify problems and opportunities for marketing using the theories introduced in the course. They should be able to critically reflect on the interplay between cultural change and marketing practices.

• Selected chapters from Lisa Peñaloza, Nil Toulouse & Luca Visconti, eds., (2012), Marketing Management: A Cultural Perspective, London: Routledge.
• 
  Holt, D. and D. Cameron (2010), Cultural strategy, Oxford University Press. McCracken, Grant (1986), “Culture and consumption: A theoretical account of the structure and movement of the cultural meaning of consumer goods,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13, 71-84.
• Askegaard, Søren & Dannie Kjeldgaard (2007), “Here, There, and Everywhere: Place Branding and Gastronomical Glocalization in a Macromarketing Perspective” Journal of Macromarketing, vol. 27 (2), 138-147.
• Holt, D. B., Quelch, A. and Taylor, E. L. (2004), How global brands compete. Harvard business Review, 82(9): 68-75. 

Students are instructed to read and reflect on assigned texts, so that they can follow and actively engage in the discussion and application of theory during in-class sessions. The sessions clarify and build upon assigned readings, allowing for a comprehensive and critical understanding of the issues involved and stimulating mindful application to diverse contexts (aided by illustrative cases and videos).
The case studies covered in the midterm assignment and final exam enable students to further refine and test their skills in cross-cultural marketing. Students will have an opportunity to work on a midterm assignment. The assignment is conducted in groups of 4-5 students.

Deviations may be decided by the teacher.

The date for midterm submission will appear from the course plan. After completing their midterm assignment, the student will upload their report (max 6 pages) in SDU-assignment via the course page in Blackboard.

Scheduled classes:

3 hours pr. week in 12 weeks.

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Student activities:
In-class learning (lecture and discussion): 36 hours.
Compulsory reading, observation and reflection: 178 hours.
Preparation for assignment: 12.
Assignment support and feedback (e-mail correspondence included): 4.
Preparation for exam: 32 hours.
Exam: 8 hours.
Total: 270 hours.