In Your Face: How American Marketing Excess Fuels Anti-Americanism

In Your Face: How American Marketing Excess Fuels Anti-Americanism

by Johny K. Johansson
Released April 2004
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780131438187

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Book description

Globalization, commercialization and Americanization are changing the lives of almost everybody on the planet. The uniqueness of this book is that it tackles these trends together, and head-on. The balance of knowledge and feeling makes it an important book in a field plagued by one-sided pro- and anti- pieces.–David Arnold, author of The Mirage of Global Markets

Millions of people around the world have come to despise the United States. One of the biggest reasons is American "in-your-face" marketing, which treats people everywhere as 24 × 7 consumers, drives U.S. free market materialism at the expense of local values, and seeks to "McDonaldize" the entire globe.

In this book, one of the world's leading experts on global marketing steps back to see its true impact. Johny K. Johansson looks at American marketing from the perspective of the non-U.S. consumer: as the first wave of a cultural assault by an arrogant, wasteful society of overfed, gas-guzzling, SUV-driving bullies.

Johansson considers the Bush administration's "repositioning" of America and the post-9/11 collapse of American popularity from the perspective of a professional global marketer. He then offers practical guidance for marketers who wish to succeed in global markets without becoming "ugly Americans."

  • Meet the new "ugly American"–American marketers abroad: loud, short-sighted, and ineffective

  • Live by the brand, die by the brand–Why American brands are the #1 targets of the anti-globalization movement

  • One size does not fit all–No matter how much global marketers say it does

  • After 9/11: The disastrous "repositioning" of America–Bush unilateralism versus traditional American values

  • Toward a more humane global marketing–Local awareness and respect and the long-term route to sustainable profit

    • The new global rebellion against American marketing

  • "In-your-face" American marketing–the not-so-hidden cause of global anti-Americanism.

  • The "repositioning" of America and why American popularity overseas has collapsed

  • How to profitably market internationally, without promoting anti-Americanism

  • A desperately needed wake-up call for American companies in global markets

    • In Your Face reveals the new worldwide rebellion that's brewing against American marketing. Renowned international marketing expert Johny K. Johansson explains why global customers will no longer put up with the traditional tactics of western companies. Most important, he offers a new path to sustainable profits–a path based on respect, not domination.

    Along the way, Johansson shows why American brands are especially susceptible to attack, how global politics is reshaping the playing field for U.S. companies, and how to overcome the hidden "one-size-fits-all" ethnocentrism that's fatal to marketers abroad.

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
      1. Dedication
    2. Praise for In Your Face
    3. Prentice Hall Financial Times
    4. Financial Times Prentice Hall Books
    5. Acknowledgments
    6. Preface
    7. 1. Three Strikes
      1. Strike One: Anti-Marketing
        1. The marketing threat
        2. Marketing saturation
        3. Irresponsible marketing?
      2. Strike Two: Anti-Globalization
        1. The global marketer
        2. Anti-globalization and branding
        3. No generation gap?
      3. Strike Three: Anti-Americanism
        1. In-your-face politics
        2. Anti-American fallout
      4. The “In-Your-Face” Spin
    8. 2. The Anti-Marketing Case
      1. The Anti-Marketing Movement
        1. The new anti-marketing
        2. So what?
        3. Not the same old…
      2. The Marketing Battlefield
        1. Same new, same new
        2. Being “in the market”
        3. Marketing spam
      3. From Consumer to Citizen
      4. The New Brief
    9. 3. Why do Marketers do what they do?
      1. In-Your-Face Logic
        1. Promotional tactics
      2. The Marketer’s View of People
        1. The empowered consumer?
        2. State of the art
        3. Marketing know-how
      3. Competitive Pressure
        1. Marketing as warfare
      4. Damned If You Do…
    10. 4. Global Marketing as Bad Marketing
      1. A Sales Orientation
        1. Global standardization
        2. Global coordination
        3. Globalization is top-down
      2. Foreign Country of Origin
        1. Legitimacy abroad
        2. Foreign dominance
        3. Who needs foreign brands?
      3. The U.S. Size (Dis-)Advantage
        1. Ethnocentric marketing
      4. The Global Threat
    11. 5. Anti-Globalization and Marketing
      1. The Anti-Globalization Case
        1. Globalization successes?
        2. A coalition of the diverse
        3. “McDonaldization”
        4. “McWorld”
        5. No logo
        6. Market power
        7. Same everywhere?
      2. Local Resurgence
        1. The new local advantage
        2. The new cola war
        3. Global localization
      3. A Wake-up Call
    12. 6. Why Only American Brands?
      1. The American Problem
        1. Few products targeted
        2. Cheap and convenient
      2. The Japanese Case
        1. Japanese uniqueness
        2. Japanese quality
      3. The European Case
        1. Youth at risk?
      4. Anti-Globalization Limits
      5. The Affluence Effect
      6. The Commercialized Society
    13. 7. Anti-Americanism and Marketing
      1. Marketing and 9/11
        1. The 9/11 Effect
        2. Tables are turned
      2. Bush the Marketer
        1. Repositioning “Brand America”
        2. Stretching too far?
        3. Brand spillover
      3. The Fallout
    14. 8. Who Wants to be American?
      1. Destination America
        1. A shining city?
        2. Universal values: pro and con
        3. Freedom debased
        4. Freedom VS. Virtue
        5. For future generations?
        6. Winner take all?
      2. Marketing’s Role
      3. America Is Not the World
    15. 9. Are Foreign Countries Any Better?
      1. Most Commercialized?
        1. The Japanese way
        2. The European picture
      2. The Vacation Paradox
        1. The busy Americans
        2. A spending vacation
      3. A Day in the Life
        1. Patriotism
        2. The marketing of religion
      4. Your Choice
    16. 10. Accentuate the Positive
      1. The Pro-Marketing Case
      2. The Pro-Globalization Case
      3. The Pro-American Case
      4. Good Global Marketing
      5. Transcending Consumerism
      6. No Globalized Uniformity, Please

    Product information

    • Title: In Your Face: How American Marketing Excess Fuels Anti-Americanism
    • Author(s): Johny K. Johansson
    • Release date: April 2004
    • Publisher(s): Pearson
    • ISBN: 9780131438187