Udo Reuter
IMW-KÖLN
Singapore 1997
QUALIS INTERNATIONAL
QUALIS INTERNATIONAL
QUALIS INTERNATIONAL
QUALIS INTERNATIONAL  
New Cross-cultural Marketing Research

Marketing and marketing research usually are discussed in the microcosm of established models, which interpret the ''world of consumption'' as an independent world with no relation to society and culture.

This paper invites to change the perspective. We should see marketing, products, and brands in the context of social and cultural change. Marketing is cultural invention. Cross-cultural marketing can only be successful if this ''cultural factor'' is considered.

Empirical evidence and models of advanced consumption theory prove that linear predictability of the effects of marketing action is a very questionable paradigm. The cross-cultural challenge can only be coped with if this paradigm is abandoned.

Non-linear marketing as a consequence of this conclusion appears most uncomfortable at first sight. The inspection of the current tool box of theories, models, and empirical procedures, however, reveals that we are able to give guidance even in the fast changing world of extremely heterogeneous cultures. This paper points out the consequences for ''new cross-cultural marketing research''.