PDF
Question: Describe a professor or project that has taught you about history, politics or business from an international perspective.
Written by: Allison Shimp
While studying at Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, I am taking International Marketing with a professor named Giancarlo Polenghi. I thought it would be really cool to take this course abroad because I would be getting a first-hand experience with international marketing while studying it at the same time.
In class we have a lot of discussion about cultural differences between the U.S. and the countries we have been visiting on weekend trips. Giancarlo asks us to focus on the international, and particularly Italian, perspective while we wander around and see different types of selling and marketing.
Instead of focusing on the logistics of international marketing, most of what we discuss in class focuses on people and how they think and feel in a different cultural or geographic setting. He also has us doing a big class project, which is kind of like the 301 project, but only with the marketing section.
My group is working for a large international company called Targetti Poulson that designs and manufactures architectural lighting for contractors and architects in several countries.
They are looking to expand into the Brazilian market, and have asked us to come up with a plan to help them enter this new market. We have to consider how marketing is conducted in that country, along with the opportunity and barriers to entry there.
So far it has been really cool to look into marketing in a foreign country, since it makes you look at a lot of things from an entirely different perspective than you would if the project was centered strictly in the U.S.
Comments on this entry are closed.