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the group than in individual achievement. How different than America. Does your country have the expression that ‘the tall poppy gets it’s head cut off’?
• Masculine versus feminine. This discusses the traditional female/male roles and how they differ between cultures. It was found that women’s values differ less among societies than men’s values and men have a broader range of values from very assertive to very caring. Ask yourself: is it all right to show uncertainty with a decision?
• High versus low power distance. Low power distance cultures tend to be more egalitarian. The Nordic countries are low power distance cultures where there is not a great deal of difference between the top and the bottom ranks of society. Do you call your boss Sir or Madam?
• Weak versus strong uncertainty avoidance. This is about how risk tolerant or adverse people are. Does your stomach tighten when you have some risk or do you have lots of entrepreneurs in your society?
Virtually all products have to undergo some changes in produce features, packaging, channels, pricing or communications – the marketing mix – as they strive to be successful in different world markets.
pRoDucT
When the Walt Disney company launched EuroDisney outside Paris in 1992 it thought it had a real winner right out of the starting gate. After all, Tokyo Disneyland was an almost exact clone of Disneyland in California and it was a huge success. However, they quickly recognized that it was not going to work the same in Europe. After years of tweaking the park they finally ended up with Europe’s biggest tourist attraction, after much Europeanizing and rebranding under the name Disneyland Paris. What the Japanese wanted was a day in America when they visited Disney Tokyo what Europeans wanted was more complex and considerable changes to the product were made before success finally arrived.