Selling into Global Markets and Adjusting to Cultural Differences

[mandy]

Technology leaps borders but culture doesn't, as U.S. e-retailers find new markets require a new approach

With the Internet reducing the virtual distance between countries and rise of technology that greases the wheels on operations like fulfillment and currency conversion, it might seem an easy matter for U.S. online retailers to flip the right switch to sell abroad. But cultural differences in marketing across borders complicate the picture, as shoemaker Nike learned the hard way.

When Nike launched a shoe in the Middle East bearing a decorative element meant to suggest the shape of a flame, Muslim consumers instead saw in the outline of the design a shape that, to them, suggested Arabic script for Allah. Placing the deity's symbol so close to the sole of the foot considered unclean in the culture led to a marketing controversy and even a brief boycott of Nike before the company made amends for its blunder...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=18102