Page 314 - Introduction to Business

288 PART 3 Marketing

GeorgeW. Bush’s nominee to head the FederalTrade Commis-
sion. Murris is believed to be more open to mergers than pre-
vious heads and less likely to demand concessions from the
prospective partners. The previous chairperson, Robert Pitof-
sky, gave high-tech deals particularly close scrutiny, requiring,
for example, that AOL and Time Warner agree to restrictions
on their efforts on interactive television and that the pharma-
ceutical firm Novartis divest itself of some promising drug
products. Murris believes that mergers can create huge effi-
ciencies and is not inclined to believe that regulators can accu-
rately predict the competitive outcomes of mergers before
they occur. 15

Culture
Marketers need to understand the culture that exists in their
own countries, but more importantly, they need to recog-
nize the culture that predominates in other countries.
Language, religion, holidays, relationships, education,
work, attitudes toward time, and so on, are determined by
culture. Because cultures overseas differ so much from that
in the United States, companies that are ignorant of them
are bound to make damaging mistakes. Chevrolet intro-
duced the Nova car into Latin America, not realizing that
“no va” in Spanish means “it won’t go.” Campbell Soup
This ad shows an example of the failed in Brazil because it didn’t know that Brazilian house-
influence of foreign culture on wives preferred to add their own ingredients to basic stock. Coca-Cola was aston-
products sold in the United States.
ished to find out that the calligraphy they used in China for Coca-Cola was trans-
lated “Bite the waxed tadpole.” Many marketers doing business in Arab countries,
such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman, offend their Arab hosts by using their left
hand (the “toilet hand”), showing the soles of their shoes, asking about the host’s
wife, and overly praising some possession of the Arab businessman (he thinks he
needs to give it to you).

reality Skim a recent issue of a business publication, such as, Business Week,
CH ECK Fortune, Forbes, or The Wall Street Journal. Record any references to
the cultural dimensions of the marketing environment.

Obtaining Information About Markets and the Environment

Companies use marketing information systems (MIS), marketing research, and
databases to gather information about markets and the environment.

Marketing Information Systems

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5
marketing information systems (MIS) Distinguish between marketing information systems and marketing research.
Systems that continually monitor, with
heavy use of computers, a company’s
Marketing information systems (MIS) have been installed in many companies to
market, competition, customers,
fill the need for continuous monitoring of the market, competition, customers,
products, and marketing operations in
order to determine if problems exist products, and marketing operations. The information obtained may be internal to

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