The crux of the
previous four part web-log highlighted the contextual importance of
today's multi-cultural mosaic, and sought to demonstrate how
corporate initiatives must be increasingly fine-tuned to befit the
“glocal” (consumer needs, wants and desires) within the ever more
digitally enhanced, reality augmented and so hyper-real 'global village'.
It also illustrated the
post-modern tendency for self-reference, an essential element of an
ever deepening realm of semiotics within physical, virtual
screen-based and today merged 'augmented reality' worlds.
Seemingly operating as
part of the required cost containment strategy, this especially
pertinent during this period of economic growth constraint, a
rational which spans various enterprises: from the duplication of
specific shopping mall layouts and structures to the re-deployment of
digitally produced characters across successive animated films.
EM Influences -
Direct replication of
products through imports and localised manufacture (thereafter adding
associated consumer services) has been the modus operandi of the
major automotive players over the decades; as new growth markets have
willingly absorbed 'predestined vehicles' with modest modification.
Today however, a trend
has begun by which EM customers seek-out the psychological
reassurance of the 'quality guarantee' given by internationally
renowned brands, but likewise increasingly desire more culturally
attuned ingredients and formulae.
Indeed, auto-makers'
own recognition that certain EM countries and regions are now as
fundamentally important to corporate revenue and profits as AM
countries have been, means that EM market sensitivity has increased
many-fold.
This illustrated by the
very fact that various German vehicle marques have already been seen
to utilise styling traits with more Asiatic appeal and
experimentation into their once far more conventional brand-formula
restricted products.
Whilst the credit
expansion excesses of the previous hyper-growth Chinese consumer
society for a while underpinned its indigenous new vehicle brands.
However, the fact that most such homeland vehicles were based upon
old engineering platforms and low profit margins to try and capture
market share, meant that when the economy slowed the vehicle market
consisted of those credit-worthy, mainstream (private, company and
fleet) vehicle buyers who continued to seek-out better quality
vehicles with sound financial rationale (eg residual values, contract
types etc). Vehicles offered by the major Sino-Western joint venture
companies.
Yet, as the more
deliberately exuberant (often Euro+) styling of smaller Chinese
domestics flailed under intense competition, so the large corporates
injected subtle indigenous cultural cues into their products to
provide a flair of local flavour.
The seemingly globally
generic vehicle, once engineered for unaltered reproduction, has
itself becoming slowly 'glocalised'.
Route A: “Conventional
Glocalisation” -
The multi-national
desire for increased 'glocalisation' to date has naturally stems from
the dual advantages gained from globalised economies of scale (in
primary systems components) and a local affinity underlying local
product appeal in aesthetics and over-all user experience (eg vehicle
performance and associated technological content).
This then replays the
developing markets scenario as seen in previous eras, but obviously
now with greater in-market sensitivity. Importantly, the move from EM
markets' previous acceptance of effectively 'de-contented' vehicles
(to reach yesteryear affordable price points) toward today's elevated
buyer expectations nigh on par with western product content standards
(less regulatory in-car requirements)
As seen, the ability to
to do so created by localised lower-cost manufacturing hubs within EM
countries, consisting of major VMs, their western counterpart Tier 1
suppliers, and the raising of standards amongst local Tier 2
suppliers to meet quality demands.
This may be termed
'Route A' and called “Conventional Glocalisation” since it relies
upon the respective business model pillars of: aligned local supply
chain, scale economies of global production and local marketing
capability.
But as seen, this now
very engrained approach has had critical portions of its business
template heavily eroded.
The previous yesteryear
rational becomes gradually altered by the substantial success of
prime EM nations, via both investment and production based 'supply
push' and private earnings and credit fuelled 'demand pull'. Today at
the point where the once innate difference in AM vs prime EM cost
structures have shrunk substantially.
So whilst creating a
more economically balanced world and also providing for western
're-shoring' opportunities, to replay 'conventional glocalisation'
requires the availability of what have now been termed “lower order
EMs” and “pioneer economies”; themselves expected to reach a
tipping point from historical economic stagnation toward growth
thanks to capital market friendly policy reforms and so inward
foreign investment.
However, whilst the
BRIC and CIVETS nations do indeed have further 're-play'
opportunities from their own untapped regions, it appears likely that
the remaining smaller EM nations across S. America, Africa, the CIS
and fringe Asia arguably offer less productive capacity than than the
astonishing levels seen by the prime EMs during the early 1990s to
2008.
This then means that
new perspectives regards the business models behind global and glocal
production and consumption will be required.
One possibility is what
investment-auto-motives terms “Progressive Glocalisation”.
Route B: “Progressive
'Glocalisation” -
(New Thinking, Toward New Horizons)
This (admittedly purely
conjectural and somewhat far fetched idea) posits the notion that a
type of visually based 'Lingua Franca' might be created by
multi-national corporations - individually or in harmony - acting in
a progressive “social totem” guise, to attract an increasingly
digitally immersed, visually cognitive global consumer.
This possibly achieved
through applying an ever widening palette of signs and symbols drawn
from the world's own spectrum of multi-culturalism.
Such visual short-hand
equivalent perhaps to basic Esperanto in its ambitions, but
ostensibly without the communicative depth gained from the ongoing
world-wide adoption of English. Instead with more significant and
indeed signifying immediacy. Though if successful it could ultimately
lead to a new era of complex hieroglyphs – a suite of visual
elements underpinning a cognitive association behind an icon based
global language.
This progress part of a
new era of 'glocalisation' with expanded multi-cultural and
cross-cultural interaction propelled by the strengthening worldwide
commercial application of 'cultural streaming'; which in a 'global
village' would gain an increasingly important role across corporate
value creation and so successful global capitalism.
Increasing Cultural
Complexity -
Though we seemingly
live upon a cyber-unified planet the fact is that a myriad of
expanding cultural identities exist. Beyond the given basics of
ethnic background, religion and nationality, lay trends toward
geographic localism (eg West Ukraine and Crimea), the influence of
any associated revived languages, and perhaps more crucially the
web's own promotion of distinct on-line communities becoming seen as
virtual tribes., The seemingly smaller 'global village' then has
become arguably yet more complex.
And whilst major
nations have absorbed ever more divergent immigrant peoples to
sustain their own economic basis, the progeny of such people with
dual (or more) cultural perspectives and identities, plus those
attributes of the seemingly self-created personal identity - though
often drawn from a manufactured popular culture itself - adds to the
fragmentation of, and so blurs, society's 'cultural mosaic'.
Invariably with such
numerous influences the very idea of any singular cultural
affiliation and so singular identity has become problematic, if not
actually defunct, with beyond immediate birth nationality, and family
ancestry, the addition of many tertiary cultural layers.
A cross-pollination of
peoples, cultures, behaviour and perspectives has of course been with
humanity since its earliest days, with as seen time after time, the
adoption and adaption of specific cultural norms and phenomenon may
occur to enable any one group's own culture-melding agenda.
At a personal and close
group level there may prevail via local first name adoption with
surname adaption by those groups seeking new societal acceptance, yet
held 'within' and very separate from usual social interaction, may be
secretive 'nourishment' of a core identity within their own community
to maintain their over-riding core-community loyalty, far beyond any
other association. Specific supposedly marginalised religious groups
with constant tribal ratification obviously the most fervent and so
invariably socially separatist.
At the societal level
common cultures are changed by altering norms.
Most obviously is the
effect of immigration as what seem stable, traditional cultures
absorb new economic participants which bring their own ways and
crucially differences This typically exacerbated by the fact that
immigrants tend to be younger people with often their own youthful
tendencies coupled with the drive of personal ambition for economic
success. Thus invariably creating tensions with the previously
comfortable and often over-complacent indigenous population.
In the West – and to
the dismay of many EM nations – has been the rise of gay rights.
Here in the UK after years of activism and calls for gay absorption
into the norm, the very recent watershed event of homosexual and
lesbian civil marriage was made law in the UK. This event undoubtedly
resulting the now long sustained, highly influential efforts of the
mass-media, whereby 'new norms' are televised as conventional and
thus slowly absorbed by much of the public long before they are
seemingly ratified by the establishment.
Culture Forming -
But such new
'culture-forming' itself poses issues.
Again here in Britain
here are no doubt many within the religious and non-religious realms
of the 'silent majority' who believe that the once well intended
thrust of 1960s political correctness has extended far beyond its
original intent of fairness to all colours, creeds and inclinations.
With today the effective eradicated - through media 'demonisation' -
those opposing promoted viewpoints, whether that be upon immigration,
homosexuality etc. So the advent of what may be termed 'illiberal
libertarianism', or paradoxically 'facist liberalism', where a
climate of true, necessarily mature, free-speech is diminished or
possibly labelled 'hate speech'.
These are but a few
social dynamics with major cultural bearing that have evolved within
micro and macro spheres.
And yet further, as
noted by some insightful social commentators in the West, just as
society fragments into ever more specialist interest groups, and so
sub-identities, so such consequentially small, marginalised entities,
promote their own interests by seeing and portraying themselves as
what may be termed 'societal victims', with such resonating language
deployed. Thus apparent sufferers instead become 'survivors' which in
turn more closely knits together the emotions of the specific group.
Exactly how such an
identity-fragmented and seemingly lobbyist, self-interested society
can be understood en mass by the individual, the public at large,
governmental policy-makers and corporate enterprise is the pertinent
question of today.
The ongoing tribal
shattering of once distinct mega-tribes such as countries such the
USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark etc, invariably
indicates that more complex, newer tribal identities and links are
being grown by the enabling function of cyber-space
So it seems that these
more newly evolved multi-layered 'complex identities' are being
formed and promoted, the nigh on singular identities of old which is
today's convention – most prominently that of nationality – is
being subtly eroded.
This is the concern
that various EM countries apparently hold, the core worry regards the
possible diminishing of their national and religious identities
perpetuated by America's corporate hold over the internet and its
future.
Common Commercial Links
-
Thus for all societies
and so the world at large, the workings of internal and external
forces continue to reshape the very essence of 'culture'.
None more so than the
direct and indirect influences of commercially orientated
mass-consumerism; which over the preceding 150 years or so of so has
become the for want of a better phrase been seen as “the new
church” or “new religion” by social commentators.
Whilst lambasted, it
acts as perhaps the only unifying “global religion”, where what
are otherwise often distinctly different social groups, and possibly
very different mindsets, meet.
At the most basic
level, there may be the unrecognised meeting of minds between 'poor'
and 'rich' individuals who share similar responsibilities. Such as
the African township mother who is able to feed her child, though
only once a week, on the same branded high-nutrition baby-powder
which her counterpart American suburban mother feeds her child three
times a day. (Yes this is an overtly stereotypical picture, but still
an unfortunate truth within our re-balancing world).
And in a very different
realm, the ironic but mutually well recognised meeting of minds
between two culturally very different persons who happen to share the
same lifestyle. The up-scale shopping areas of most major city
centres are typically inhabited by seemingly very culturally
different but nonetheless similarly attuned wealthy people who share
similar fashion and lifestyle interests. Herein, London's Sloane
Street juxtaposes the ironic schism of inbound British weekend
tourists with resident foreign Arabs and Chinese; and whereby the
scantily dressed young Cheshire 'WAG' may covet the designer handbag
of an older Saudi Arabian lady wrapped in full-cover dress. (Or
indeed vice versa). For a time the social difference is diminished by
the commercially generated shared interest.
The Car as
Multi-Cultural Icon -
Similarly, a previous
web-log looked at the broadly socially positive, but unfortunately
neighbourhood negative, affects of what has informally become the
spring/summer (arguably very cross-cultural) event that is the 'Arab
Supercar Invasion'.
This effectively
promoted by the younger sons of wealthy Middle-Eastern families who
travel primarily to London and Paris for their more liberated summer
vacations.
[NB Such individuals
and families form a significant element of the British-Arabic
diplomatic entente-cordial, which itself underpins the 'recycling' of
the “Petro/Gas-Pound” into the services based sub-economy of SW3
and broader central London]
Though the arrival of
the noisy cars invariably creates local tensions amongst residents
(who do have good reason to complain) it is also undoubted that the
free to view supercar show has undoubtedly become a significant part
of the tourism draw. Even if not on the official sightseeing tour for
visiting foreigners, it undoubtedly adds spectacle, and for many
British tourist families added great excitement during their London
visit. The visual and aural thrills of Bugattis, Lamborghinis,
Ferrari's, Maseratis, Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, Aston Martins, Mercedes-AMGs, Porsches, McLarens
and more - for good or ill – is as memorable (if not more so) than
much of what is seen within the walls of near-by museums and
galleries.
The cars viewed by the
thronging crowds as modern mechanical marvels, as magnificent
motorised masterpieces; and although there will invariably be
unpleasant jibes about “the rich Arabs” by some gawpers, for a
time the mutually shared interest in such vehicles eradicates the
apparent gulf of supposed cultural differences between Anglos and
Arabs
The high arts within
the 'new religion' that is consumerism actually draws separate
peoples closer together.
Back to the EM Populist
Dream -
Although such marques
and models represent the pinnacle of automotive engineering in a very
specific social context of great wealth, and does promote the
positivity of melded cultures, the global reality is very, very
different.
Fact is, for millions
of people living in 'the real world' within BRIC, CIVETS and lower
league 'pioneer' countries, their dreams and aspiration centre around
not around the perceived ridiculousness of hyper-cars or super-cars,
but eventual ownership of four wheels which provides for family and
commercial needs, functional safety and comfort, all within what to
AM countries is considered a mundane vehicle, but life altering
nonetheless.
Obviously as such
economies continue to grow, weathering the slowed phases such as
today, this offers an immense opportunity for those auto-makers that
can create the right vehicles. As was the yesteryear remit of the
Model T, Beetle etc, followed by the GOL. Today a primary strategic
initiative for most auto-manufacturers: from TATA's seemingly the
visionary Nano, to the many other domestic and foreign VMs which
seek to (unlike Nano) typically incorporate their EM entry level
vehicles into either their respective indigenous or global business
models.
But identifying exactly
the right fundamental DNA for the archetype 'glocal' vehicle' is a
complex and hard task, made all the harder by the ever increasing
PESTEL complexities inside EM and AM societies, as well as those that
both conjoin and separate them.
To Follow -
Thus far this weblog
has simplistically commentated upon: the increasingly powerful
influence of EM countries upon multi-national companies, the basic
corporate mentality toward creating a successful 'glocal' business
model, the manner by which global economic re-balancing has and will
further impact upon such conventional business wisdom (Route A), the
need to re-think the very philosophy that is 'glocalisation' to
create new multi-faceted merged opportunities (Route B), this set
within the challenge/opportunity of increased cultural complexity as
'layered' personal identities emerge, the mention of just a few of
the many social trends which re-make societies, the manner in which
consumerism actually acts as far more of a social glue than has
perhaps been recognised, highlighted by one specific and organically
emerged social phenomenon, and how even that 'pinnacle' is but a drop
in the ocean of consumer aspiration across the EM world.
In order to better
understand how auto-makers might best approach the subject that is
'glocalism', the following Part 2 seeks to simplistically review the
way in which auto-sector business and product strategy must evolve if
it is to meet the 'glocalisation' challenge; as understood today and
into tomorrow.
Providing insight into:
- Early era efforts of
auto-globalisation
- Case studies of
ill-contrived 'glocal' business plans
- The rigour of Japan's
“deep knowledge” approach
- Examples of
well-contrived new product development
