A North American pet food producer presented a new cat food to former communist Eastern Europeans in an ad showing a Persian cat with a jeweled collar eating food off of fine china.The reaction was strong and negative:Western pets eat better than Eastern Europeans.Understanding consumer behaviour in international markets is difficult enough due to cultural and social differences, but when cultural and social change is occurring rapidly it becomes nearly impossible.When formerly communist Eastern European markets first opened in the early 1990's marketers merely had to translate their product packaging and get the products on the retail shelf to enjoy record sales.

A market that had lots of demand and few producers to satisfy it was a new experience to western marketers - as new as having products to fill demand was to Eastern European consumers.Now formerly communist Eastern Europeans are faced with a wide variety of products to fill their demand and are faced with something they have not experienced before: choice.

The nature of consumer behaviour and the approach to influencing consumers used in the West is much different from what is required in Eastern Europe.Western consumers have been inundated with product choice and variety and have come to accept these as a natural condition.Promotional efforts in western markets feature puffery and persuasive advertising efforts to convince people to try new products.Formerly communist Eastern European consumers are not used to choice but are used to receiving persuasive messages about making choices, the choices the government wanted themto make!Consequently, the approach to promotion employed by Western marketers needs to be adjusted.

Interestingly, the old approach is what appears to work for these new consumers.Eastern Europeans are responding to a consumer education approach to product marketing, not the usual propaganda approach, which is reminiscent of the former communist government.Post-communist European society bears some similarity to post-World War II North American society:couples marry at young ages, divorce rates are low, women work at home and raise families, and children live with their parents until they marry.And a simple, honest approach to promoting products (reminiscent of North American advertising in the 1950's) seems to work.

As for research on consumer behaviour, it has its own unique problems.Because of past conditioning, consumers tell researchers in Poland what they (the consumers) believe the researchers want to hear, as opposed to what they really feel.Therefore, researchers have to adjust their approach to questioning so they get honest responses and not socially-expected responses.

One thing marketers discovered early on was that Eastern Europeans were very responsive to sales promotions that involved giveaways.However, response rates have been falling as Eastern Europeans, like their North American brethren, have discovered that you generally get what you pay for.

As a marketing manager for a Canadian firm considering marketing a packaged good product in Slovenia, what approach would you take to keep up with the changes in consumer behaviour?

Answer the following questions regarding this case.

Question 76(5 points)

How can the pet food manufacturer capitalize on what they have learned about the buying behaviour of Eastern Europeans? (Please scroll up to see case)