268 14.5 Putting It Together: Marketing Globally
Global marketing is a demanding field because of the many different factors involved in the success or failure of a business venture in foreign markets. It can be fascinating because of the windows it opens into different peoples, cultures, and places around the world. It can also be fraught with difficulty. Even some of the smartest companies on the planet have a tough time making it work.
To close the discussion about global marketing, we offer two examples that illustrate how things can go very wrong in global marketing, as well as how things can go very right.
Google: Stumbling in China
Take technology giant Google, which has made many smart moves in its growth to become a successful multinational company. But for all its technology and business brilliance, it has struggled in mainland China. The Chinese government is heavy-handed when it comes to censoring the types of information its citizens can find and access–even via the Internet–and it continually monitors the online activities of its citizens for any behaviors it deems inappropriate. China’s government requires technology and media companies to comply with demands to censor search results and block sites that discuss sensitive subjects. Despite back-bending efforts to find solutions that would satisfy government demands as well as Google’s internal policies around free speech, privacy, and freedom of information, on several occasions Google found its mainland China sites completely blocked to users by cyberattacks backed, in all likelihood, by the Chinese government.
In 2010, Google finally pulled its search engine and related services from the Chinese market. It faced a seemingly insurmountable problem around how to make its products fit not only consumer needs and preferences in China, but also the rigorous regulatory environment around digital information. Google is not alone in facing this challenge. According to a 2016 article in The Atlantic,
Google’s move to pull the plug in China is an extreme example of the kinds of decisions Internet companies operating abroad are often up against: If they want to do business, they have to abide by local laws, which can include restrictions on speech. And since the United States has some of the most permissive freedom-of-speech laws in the world, American companies must adapt in order to do business even in parts of the world that are culturally very similar to the U.S.[1]
After sitting out of mainland China for several years, in 2015 Google signaled its intentions to possibly reenter the market. The question was how. The following video discusses Google’s dilemma and the directions its product strategy may take to gain a new foothold.
You can view the transcript for “Tech giant Google may return to China” here (opens in new window).
How Google might localize its products for Chinese users and the regulatory environment (again) remains a big question. And Google is not alone. Every day, global