Week 2 Homework
Gloria Yuen
DeVry University
July 18, 2014
One of the cultural factors that U.S. sports franchises need to overcome in order to increase popularity abroad is knowledge. Many of the nations around the world do not know how U.S. sports especially something like American Football is played. Let’s take American Football for example, this particular sport may not very popular outside the U.S. and foreigners are not familiar with the way the game is played. Although satellite television exists in most nations and they are able to view American Football, they may not watch it because they do not understand the game. They may not know why the players are running and crashing into each other. “Foreigners won’t pay to watch a sport they don’t understand…” (Betcha, J. 2012, p2). Foreigners need to understand what the game is about, the rules in order to accept and enjoy the sport. Another cultural factor to increase popularity abroad is marketing. Advertising using players from countries is a way to get increase popularity, for example we can have a U.S baseball player who is from Italy produce advertisements in Italy and wearing their baseball team uniform at the same time. We can also have a team advertise with a local popular beverage or another item from a different country to gain popularity. Franchises can ensure their products are appropriate for international markets by researching the cultural differences between their own market and the targeted nation as well as the regulations. A franchise can give the same service but will need to customize the products to suit the cultural barriers and regulations. “Understanding a country’s regulations, culture and local competition plays into decisions.” (Bovee & Thill, 2013, p. 63). Not all products that sells in one country will do as well in another country. An example of cultural difference can be used with McDonald’s, a worldwide franchise restaurant and has similar menu items like a cheeseburger. But in the U.S. a breakfast item, Sausage Egg McMuffin is made with pork sausage, but in Malaysia, the Sausage Egg McMuffin is made with chicken sausage because Muslims do not eat pork. By adapting and tweaking the products a little to suit the international market, a franchise can still be successful and profitable. The government should protect their industries by placing tariffs on imported products to protect our local businesses and
