International Business Cultural Diversity - Free Essay Example

International business Cultural diversity Executive Summary The current obsession of fairness or skin bleaching product is over-whelming in India bring in more than USD 400 million revenue, which is greater than Coca à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Cola and tea in India. The great demand is the cause of heavy advertising and cultural norm where it is believed that the fair skinned succeed in life. Unilever India has exploited this cultural norm to market their fairness product fair lovely which is an immense success. The à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Dark is beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  campaign headed by the famous actor-director Nandita Das is fighting against this obsession for fair skin in India. The video launched by the campaign à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"1.2 billion shades of beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ promotes the ideology that each individual is beautiful in their unique way. In order to analyze the marketing procedure to verify if it is ethical and socially responsible, three principles have to be applied. Table of Contents Statement of Originality of Subm itted Work Acknowledgement Executive Summary Introduction Colorism Indiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s obsession with fair skin Conclusion References Introduction India, officially known as the Republic of India is the seventh largest country by area and the second largest by population, which is currently 1.2 billion. Home to the Indus valley civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian sub-continent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. India is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world, with some of the most deeply religious societies and cultures. Religion still plays a central and definitive role in the life of many of its people. India is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, collectively known as Indian religions. Indian religions, also known as Dharmic religions are a major form of world religions along with Abrahamic one. Today, Hinduism and Buddhism are the worlds third and fourth-largest religions respectively, with over 2 billion followersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ altogether. The traditional Indian culture is de fined by a relatively strict social hierarchy. From an early age, children are reminded of their roles and places in society. This is reinforced by the way many believe gods and spirits have an integral and functional role in determining their life. Several differences such as religion and occupation divide the culture. With India being the second largest populated country, it is an extremely large market for local and global marketers. Since India adapted the open economic policy, the market has been elongated with various foreign products. Since this had a great impact on local industry, the government introduced the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Be Indian, Buy Indianà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  concept which has helped local industry to survive up to date. Modern India is as High tech as many other countries, but the manufacture is mostly Indian. Although India has a highly developed society, the average Indian faces discrimination every day. The main form of discrimination are colorism and gender ba sed discrimination. Women are greatly threatened by gender discrimination for many centuries in India. Since birth a female child is discriminated. At present in urban and city areas, the gender discrimination has reduced and in some areas it has disappeared altogether. But still colorism is a major discriminatory factor for both males and females alike. Colorism Colorism, a term devised by Alice walker in 1982, is not a synonym of racism. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Raceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  depends in multiple factors: therefore, racial categorization does not solely rely on skin color. Skin color is only one mechanism used to assign individuals to a racial category, but race is set of beliefs and assumptions assigned to that category. Racism is the dependence of social status on the social meaning attached to race; colorism is the dependence of social status on only skin color. In order for a form of discrimination to be considered colorism, differential treatment must not result from racial categorization, but from social values associated with skin color. (Jones, 2000, pp. 14871557) In the Mahabharata, the god Krishna, whose Sanskrit word in its origin language KÃÆ' ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ºÃƒÆ' ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¹Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ £ÃƒÆ' ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡a is primarily an adjective for Black or Dark, is sometimes also translated as all attractive. Wherea s the character Arjuna is often depicted as being lighter, and his name means silvery white. The Rigveda referred to two classes of people, the white-skinned Aryans and the black-skinned Dasas. The Aryans were religious and followed the Vedas, performing all the rituals while the Dasas (at a later stage merged into the Shudraclass) were to serve them. (Chavan and Kidwai, 2006) Individuals in South Asia have tended to see whiter skin as more beautiful. This was most visible in British India, where skin color served as a signal of high status for British. Thus, those individuals with fairer skin color enjoyed more privileges and opportunities than those with dark skin. Anglo-Indians with more European features were often more upwardly mobile and were considered to have a more affluent status. These individuals gained preferences in education and in employment. Darker skinned individuals were socially and economically disadvantaged due to their appearance. (Beyond the South Asian su bcontinent, persons who were dark-skinned, black or colored faced a disadvantage in most European-held colonies.) Most Indian actors and actresses have light skin. (Reddy, 2008) There are many advertisements in reference to a skin bleaching product, Fair and Lovely, which is targeted directly towards mostly women have darker skin. These advertisements appear on billboards throughout South Asian cities, on television advertisements, and Internet advertisements as well. The subject of the majority of the advertisements depicts a darker skinned woman needing a solution to her problem of not being chosen for marriage or a job. The solution suggests that by using Fair and Lovely, her skin tone can be lightened and she can enjoy the privileges associated with it. (Rajesh, 2013) Indiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s obsession with fair skin Indias obsession with fair skin is well documented: in 1978, Unilever launched Fair Lovely cream, which has subsequently spawned numerous whitening face cleansers, shower gels and even vaginal washes that claim to lighten the surrounding skin. In 2010, Indias whitening-cream market was worth $432m, according to a report by market researchers ACNielsen, and was growing at 18% per year. Last year, Indians reportedly consumed 233 tons of skin-whitening products, spending more money on them than on Coca-Cola. (Rajesh, 2013) It is widely known that the obsession to have fair skin has a very long history behind it, owing to caste and culture. It is evident that the marketers at Unilever exploited this cultural norm. As India is a very large market, the marketers at Unilever saw this as a great opportunity to sell their skin lightening product. Although it is not scientifically proven that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Fair Lovelyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ actually whiten skin as it claims to do so, the pr oduct was a success. Indians became obsessed to get fair skin in order to succeed in life, as portrayed in Unilever advertisements and Bollywood movies. Media played a major role in this obsession. Educated, successful people were portrayed as light-skinned persons in almost every movie which was produced. This was the main reason for Indians to lust after fair skin. In response to the obsession with fair skin, a group of Indian women founded à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Dark is beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ in 2009, which has picked up pace in 2013 since award winning actress director Nandita Das has become the face of the campaign. Das, who has spoken out against the bias against dark skin in recent years, has been actively promoting the cause in interviews on social media and with mainstream media. (Globalvoicesonline.org, 2013) The desire in India for lighter skin is fueled by a widespread belief that dark-skin is ugly and inferior. Not only is fair skin perceived to be a key definer of beauty, but also seen to be an essential element of self-confidence, success, and happiness. (Globalvoicesonline.org, 2013) The fact that fair skin is superior to darker skin has been embedded in all Indians that the majority of the population believe that to be true. However, if you look at this matter in a global point of view, this proves to be wrong, For example, the richest man in the world is a Mexican, who is colored. The most powerful man in the world, the president of USA is colored. Even the face of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Dark is beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ campaign Nandita Das is brown à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" skinned. The most successful basketball player Michael Jordan is colored and so is the world heavy weight champion Mohammed Ali. These people are proof that you do not have to be fair skinned to be successful in life. There are plenty of examples where people who do not have fair skin are extremely successful and have left an everlasting impression on the population all over the world. In a perspective of an organization, which exists to earn profit it could be said it is fair to grab a chance to expedite the launch of fair lovely to a fairness obsessed market such as India. The organization managed to rake in turnover of 400 million US dollars a year, which is more than Coca-Cola and tea in India. But ethically the conduct of these organization is wrong. Although it brings large amounts of profits, it hood-winks the masses and misleads people to believe in ideologies which are not true and do not exist outside of India. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Darkness is beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ recently launched a video named à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“1.2 billion shades of beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  to promote the anti-fairness obsession in the country. The organization are creating a demand for the fairness products by advertising and portraying how a dark skinned woman does not have a job at an Airline, but after using a fairness product the woman gets a job oppor tunity to work in the Airline industry. Advertising campaigns such as this create the demand for fairness products in the Indian community. Exploiting the cultural norms is unethical when looking at the issue in an individual perspective, because it takes advantage of the beliefs of the people in that particular culture heavily. It is evident that the companies have exploited these narrow minded Indian beliefs to earn profits, which I believe is unethical. The determination whether exploitation of cultural norms and values to promote a product is ethical or not is guided by the three ethical principles which provide a framework to help a business or market distinguish between right and wrong, determine what ought to be done and properly justify such actions (Cateora et al., 2011, p. 151). These principles are: 1. Utilitarian ethics this helps to answer the question; does the action optimize the common good or benefits of all constituencies? And who are the pertinent constituencies? 2. Rights of the parties this probe into the question; does the action respect the rights of the individuals involved? 3. Justice or fairness- this answers the question; does the action respect the canons of justice or fairness to all parties involved? (Cateora et al., 2011, p.151). Using these three basic ethical principles to assess how ethical it is to exploit cultural norms and values to promote a product, it is safe to say that if cultural norms and values are exploited to promote a product in a socially responsible and positive manner is ethical but in the case of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Fair Lovelyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  advertisement campaign, it is not ethical. So its huge series of campaign that centered on the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“fair girl gets the menà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attentionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“fair girl gets the best jobà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  theme is unethical. Conclusion The current obsession of fairness or skin bleaching product is over-whelming in India bring in more than USD 400 million revenue, which is greater than Coca à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Cola and tea in India. The great demand is the cause of heavy advertising and cultural norm where it is believed that the fair skinned succeed in life. Unilever India has exploited this cultural norm to market their fairness product fair lovely which is an immense success. The à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Dark is beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  campaign headed by the famous actor-director Nandita Das is fighting against this obsession for fair skin in India. The video launched by the campaign à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"1.2 billion shades of beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ promotes the ideology that each individual is beautiful in their unique way. After analyzing the marketing procedure with the three ethical principles, it was determined that the fair lovely product advertising campaign is unethical because it does not promote the p roduct in a socially responsible manner. References Books/Journals Jones, T. 2000. Shades of brown: The law of skin color. Duke Law Journal, pp. 14871557. Chavan, N. and Kidwai, Q. J. 2006. Personal law reforms and gender empowerment. Gurgaon: Hope India. Cateora P.R., Gilly M.C. Graham J.L. (2011), International Marketing (15th ed.), p. 94 216, New York, McGraw-Hill Irwin. Online Rajesh, M. 2013. Indias unfair obsession with lighter skin. [online] 14th August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/aug/14/indias-dark-obsession-fair-skin [Accessed: 9 Jan 2014]. Reddy, S. 2008. Commentary: Fashion Mavens Still Like Light Skin. [online] 02nd July. Available at: https://www.newsweek.com/commentary-fashion-mavens-still-light-skin-93003 [Accessed: 9 Jan 2014]. Globalvoicesonline.org. 2013. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Dark Is Beautifulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Campaign Questions Indiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Skin Colour Prejudices Global Voices. [online] Available at: https://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/08/21/dark-is -beautiful-campaign-questions-indias-skin-colour-prejudices/ [Accessed: 9 Jan 2014].