Consumer Behaviour And Globalization Essay

Globalization and the diversity of international consumption patterns

Taking a quick walk through the aisles of a supermarket, it is possible to find a variety of products that was never seen in markets a few decades ago including a wide range of imported items from different countries available on the shelves for purchase right there, where the customer is. Anyone can delight in Belgian truffles without having to go on holiday. If it were not enough to have this possibility easily somewhere nearby, the internet makes it even easier to get almost anything from almost anywhere in the world. A huge store with articles from all around the earth is just a mouse-click away from anyone on the planet.

"A few weeks ago I couldn’t drive my car, so instead of going to Walmart for an imported Tiger Balm, I went on Amazon and ordered a double-sized jar of it. I didn’t notice at the time, but it turned out that I was ordering from a place in Thailand. So within a couple weeks I had bought a product that in 1975 I probably would have had to fly to Bangkok to buy." Says Patrick E. Moran, from Pennsylvania.

Moreover, the sales channel is getting more and more diversified when it comes to making a purchase. But we must consider that each country has different demands according to several factors that affect the needs and desires of its population, Christopher Meyer and Andre Schwager says that “it is dangerous to assume that a given offering, communication, or other contact will affect faraway consumers the same way it does those at home” (Harvard Business Review, 2007). When trying to identify consumption patterns across countries, their enormous diversity represents both a great opportunity and