A Comparative Case Study of Global Marketing and Ethnocentrism ...

It is not surprising, they relate, that many people of the industrial cultures think that the
developing cultures are inferior to them (1). This hidden assumption is embedded in
countries like the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany Italy and Japan, which are rated
higher than most in terms of science and technology achievement. Such an assumption
prompts one to ask, why should industrial, scientific or technological achievements be
accorded such a high value in rating a culture? How can one discount the moral,
aesthetic, ecological and other aspects of a culture, which are often found to be
neglected in the economically developed societies (Gupta and Chattopadhyaya 2)? In
an anxious search for cultural universals, common structural features of all cultures,
one tends to lose site of the distinct identity of each (Gupta and Chattopadhyaya 11).
Kalyan Sen Gupta defines culture as a specific society with all of its tools,
possessions and characteristic ways and conceptions of life (115). In this sense culture
has a distinctive flavor of its own that is not shared by other cultures. Ethnocentrism is
described here in terms of failing to appreciate the normative traits and excellence of
other cultures besides one’s own. The more one can leave behind the pejorative sense
often attributed to such words as “savage” or “tribe”, the easier it becomes to
understand people who do not belong to one’s own culture (Gupta and Chattopadhyaya
1).
Richard Shusterman argues that understanding the other is a necessary means
of understanding oneself and vice versa (107). He is saying that to be culturally aware
is not only a good thing in terms of getting to appreciate another culture, but it is also
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