Marketing to 'Time-Poor' Consumers

Frustrated at having to take time off work when the gas man is due but you don't know when? Why not hire someone to wait for him and let him in? This is one of the services being offered by Concierge Ireland, a company that offers someone to wait for the tradesman, water the plants while you are away, do your grocery shopping or even appear as a witness at your wedding. The typical cost of this service is 23 Euros per hour.

As ironing is one of the most despised of domestic chores, so more and more people are simply outsourcing it. Bubbles Ironing Service in Dublin began offering a professional ironing service alongside its traditional launderette service five years ago in response to growing demand. Working couples are its most regular customers, although the company also does ironing for families.

The Brew Crew is a kegged beer service company, which was set up in 1999. It supplies the beer kegs and all the cooling and dispensing equipment necessary to allow consumers to have beer on tap at parties in their own home. In addition, its top-of-the-range service, which it calls 'The Treatment', involves the supply of kegs, wine, a barman and bar, plus a complete cocktail menu.

Cultural forces

Culture is the combination of values, beliefs and attitudes that is possessed by a national group or subgroup. Cultural differences have implications for the way in which business is conducted. Humour in business life is acceptable in the UK, Italy, Greece, The Netherlands and Spain, but less commonplace in France and Germany (see Exhibit 2.1). These facts of business life need to be recognized when interacting with European customers. Leadership patterns and organ­izational structure also vary significantly throughout Europe. In southern European countries like Spain, business is typified by the family firm where the leadership style is autocratic and the organizational system informal. Communications tend to be vertical, therefore important purchasing decisions are likely to be passed to top management for final approval, and good personal relations with middle management are vital to preventing the blocking of approaches at this level. In contrast, in The Netherlands, leadership is more democratic, and the organizational style is more formal and systematic. Buying, therefore, is characterized by large decision-making units and long decision-making processes as mem­bers attempt to reach agreement without conflict.

International marketers need to pay particular attention to the possible impact of culture. For example, the slower-than-expected take-off of the Euro-Disney complex near Paris was partly attributed to the French consumer's reluctance to accede to the US concept of spending a lot of money on a one-day trip to a single site. Once there, the French person-being an individualist-'hates being taken by the hand and led around'. Similarly, Coca-Cola has been operating in India for the past seven years, but continues to struggle there. It believed it could target the wealthier segments of the Indian economy first and then it would spread out to the less well-off groups. However, the Hindu caste system's organization of society into nearly 5000 subcastes means that social mobility and cross-caste contact is minimal, suggesting that such a 'trickle-down' strategy was never likely to work. The challenges faced by Boots in attempting to break into the Japanese market are outlined in Marketing in Action 2.3.