Marketing to the Global Consumer

February 15 - 16, 2018, Mumbai

Globalization, defined as the process of global market and cultural assimilation, has transformed the way businesses operate (Steenkamp & de Jong, 2010)1 . This has led to the growth of global consumer segments that are associated with certain places, people, and things. Granular understanding of consumer behavior and responses therefore becomes that much more imperative. Corresponding to the growth of global segments is the emergence of global consumer cultures, collective placements of consumption-related symbols in terms of product categories, brands, consumption behavior etc which are significant to segment affiliates. Due to this, globalization continues to have a profound impact on the consumer landscape.

Globally, the cultural landscapes is currently observing two divergent, yet concurrently occurring and strengthening aspects: the homogenization and heterogenization of cultures. International consumer research fundamentally focuses in one of two areas: (1) understanding consumer differences from the perspective of cultural, social, economic, and other marketing environment elements; and (2) the search for common groups of consumers across countries, for international market segmentation purposes. The latter focus suggests the possibility of the existence, or imminent emergence, of global consumers.

The growth of global culture may also largely be attributed to the digital revolution. This has led to the proliferation of global consumers in terms of global travels, transnational work force and adoption of local and global culture by patrons worldwide. The young consumers have played the role of the „change agents‟ owing to an accelerated and assisted creation of a network for a global and local culture.

Prior research describes consumers as being ethnocentric, cosmopolitan, xenocentric, global citizens, and/or having a global identity. These various consumer groups offer theoretically well-suited segments which are noticeable on their consumption behavior. This has led to the consumers having a strong affinity towards global, foreign, and local brands.

In particular, there is a dearth of research that seeks to better understand the differences among theoretical aspects of consumer dispositions and their ensuing brand preferences, their antecedents, the interaction and role of how several identities in molding consumer behavior, the interface between global and local consumer cultures, and to conclude, the probable expansion of numerous global consumer cultures across emerging markets.

This 13th edition of the SIMSR Global Marketing Conference with the theme “Marketing to Global Consumers” is aimed at unraveling the construct in all its manifestations. It will aim at identifying and comprehending both local and global consumer cultures and their consequences on consumer behavior. We welcome submissions that seek to offer novel insights into the evolving nature of global and local consumer cultures, their effects on consumers‟ underlying decision making processes, as well as on how these developments are rapidly bringing about a paradigm change in global and local consumption behavior.