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

subject behavior and ensure question completion. This observation protocol allows the
researcher to watch the subject’s reactions and capture non-verbal behavior.
The study subjects were required to be thoroughly familiar with Brazilian
culture, as the researcher is not in Brazil and not qualified to analyze Brazilian
websites. It was necessary that the subjects have lived in the Brazilian culture for a
significant portion of their lives. They must understand the cultural norms and values
of Brazil in order to appropriately assess whether or not the websites are marketing to
this culture ethno or non-ethnocentrically. Finally, all subjects were required to be
fluent in the Portuguese language, the national language of Brazil.
The sample size of subjects for this study is relatively small consisting of eight
subjects. A larger sample size would have been preferred, but additional subjects were
not available. Hopefully, the study is a model for a larger, more statistically valid
research effort. Subject demographics are provided in the following chapter.
Marketing Factors Examined in Interview Questions
The marketing factors used to assess website ethnocentrism are the foundation
of the open-ended questions in the survey. Each is defined on the survey to prevent
any subject confusion or misunderstanding.
Marketing Factor 1: Language. This factor includes issues of translation inaccuracy
that so often occurs when American companies attempt to translate messages into
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