Last week, while I was looking up that ridiculous story about Heinz making pasta in the shape of swastikas during WWII, I ran across something really interesting that I wanted to share. It is a lecture on International Marketing given by Prof. Paul Herbig. I am not sure of the college, but the initials KWU are on it. Could it be Kentucky Western Univ.? Anyway, here are some excerpts from his lecture which caught my eye. " Gillette often has to sell the idea of shaving before it can sell its blades. In some countries, facial hair is removed with a machete or a sharp edge of glass. To persuade these men that shaving can be easier and more comfortable without losing its macho qualities, Gillette sends a van from village to village carrying its salesmen and equipped with all the essentials. Free razors are given (however in classic Gillette fashion, blades must be purchased). To counter the discovery that few Mexican men who shave used shaving cream, Gillette introduct plastic tubes of shaving cream that sold for half the price of its aerosol. The effect of culture upon a product can be directly tited to the total product concerpt. Different cultures provide different values to different psychological features. For example, Lever Bros attempted to introduct their packaged frozen food line into developing countries, where refrigerators rarely existed in the home. Recognizing the futility of this, the company developed and marketed a line of dehydrated vegetables. Pop Tarts proved to be a failure in England; they were considered too sweeet for the English palate. Even more detrimental, though, was the fact that most potential buyers did not have toasters. Automobile styling shows distinctly cultural patterns. German taste is rooted in nature and its slow changes and enduring quality. Thus Mercedes designs change slowly and must be carefully balanced to last as long as they do. Nothing stands out on a Mercedes; all elements are carefully balanced. Conversely, the Japanese tend to put thier cars in front of a wall whereas Westerners are apt to use nature as a backdrop. In Japan's tight streets, cars are most often viewed in close-up, thus the Japanese like ornament and creased to entertain the eye when viewing the car in segments;Americans design their cars to look their best from 20-30 feet away --it is the whole picture rather than details which is desired. When Westerns conjure up an image of a car, it is from the side view. With the Japanese, it is frontal. The Japanese read personality and expression into the "face" of the car. Their concerns are whether the 'eyes' are too sleepy or awake and whether the 'mouth' is appropriate. Westerners are drawn to a muscular smoothness in cars while the Japanese reject animalist traits in their car and cannot accept the Western world's attraction to leather. When market pressures induced the Japanese to use leather upholstery, they are first removed the smell---the very thing Westerners tend to find most appealing about leather interiors. While Westerners are attuned to remodeling, reworking, changing a bit at a time, the Japanese are used to starting with a clean slate." There is more about design and names, etc. I didn't want to bore anybody, but I just found it fascinating in that it brought forth ideas that I didn't know existed about selling products in an international market. Pat