Abstract
International marketing decisions are the result of complex trade-offs between global standardization and local adaptation. Similarities are too substantial and differences go too deep to be ignored. This chapter tries to articulate similarities and differences in local consumer experience across multiple contexts. It shows how language can be used as a discovery tool, along with depth interviews and checks of researchers’ interpretations by informants, to generate cognitive maps of consumption and taste experiences. Local words, used as emic signals, are combined into full profiles of the local experiences as narratives linking people to products and taste. Local profiles can then be merged to derive differences dealing with creolization patterns, local consumption experience, local preferences, perceptions and associations as well as commonalities emergent from within the contexts studied. The comparative thick description framework is applied to the beer consumption experience in ten countries (China, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, El Salvador, Mexico) and 9 languages.
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Notes
- 1.
The creolization process takes place when foreign items are assigned new meanings and uses by local cultural and linguistic contexts, even when being transferred without apparent change. In the creolization paradigm, the researcher’s attention focuses on the reception and domestication process of global goods in local contexts (i.e. differences within similarities), as opposed to the Coca-colonization paradigm, where emphasis is on uniformity (Howes, 1996). A good example of such localization of consumption is Disneyland Tokyo, a perfect replica of the American model which is, however, completely Japanized, that is, fully reinvested by local cultural codes (Brannen, 1992).
- 2.
Thai Pulse. Thai Beer and other Alcohol. 2009. http://www.thaipulse.com/essentials/thai-beer-alcohol/, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 3.
http://www.scoopergen.co.uk/scoopingabroadtunisia.htm, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 4.
Fethiye Days.Turkish Raki. http://www.fethiyedays.com/eng/turkish-raki/, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 5.
Beers Brewed in Thailand. EZ in Articles. March 2011. http://ezinearticles.com/?Beers-Brewed-in-Thailand&id=6271404, accessed February 4, 2017..
- 6.
iFood TV. Chang Beer. http://www.ifood.tv/network/chang_beer, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 7.
Microbreweries in Japan. Central Japan. http://www.centraljapan.jp/eating_details.php?id=9, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 8.
Japanese beer. Lars Blog. http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/107.html, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 9.
China's Fresh Beer Code. Semionaut. September 2010. http://www.semionaut.net/chinas-fresh-beer-code/, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 10.
Drinking in Turkey. Instanbul eats. http://istanbuleats.com/tag/turkish-beer/, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 11.
China Is Now The Beer Kingdom, But Are Chinese Consumers Happy With Their Brew? http://www.chinapolling.com/insights/china-is-now-the-beer-kingdom-but-are-chinese-consumers-happy-with-their-brew.html, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 12.
Japanese beer. Lars Blog. http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/107.html, accessed February 4, 2017.
- 13.
Premium beers reach dizzying heights'. China Daily USA. April 2012. http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-04/04/content_14976454.htm, accessed February 4,2017.
- 14.
If You Have a Beer in China, Thank a Pole. eChinaCities. July 2011. http://www.echinacities.com/expat-corner/if-you-have-a-beer-in-china-thank-a-pole.html, accessed Fevruary 4, 2017.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks Stéphane Sbizzera and Nina Kritnic for their help in collecting data and drafting the cognitive maps. The author is grateful to the International Marketing Review for reprinting permission of some excerpts of Usunier and Sbizzera (2013) as well as to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments.
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Usunier, JC. (2018). Comparative Thick Description: Articulating Similarities and Differences in Local Beer Consumption Experience. In: Leonidou, L., Katsikeas, C., Samiee, S., Aykol, B. (eds) Advances in Global Marketing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61385-7_9
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