Consumer Perceptions of Global Branding and Iconization

Abstract

Global usage of the World Wide Web continues to increase exponentially, yet many corporate Web sites are misperceived by non-English-speaking audiences. Diverse communities of global consumers purchase products on the World Wide Web based on a positive image of the product as reflected in the Web site content, which includes text, images, and icons. However, corporate leaders may not have an awareness of the common elements present in successful global Web sites as comprehended by different cultures. This qualitative, phenomenological data analysis used a Web-based survey to explore the perceptions and feelings of a purposive sample of participants regarding the content of global World Wide Web sites. Each participant in the study spoke English or a combination of English and Spanish and explored their perceptions and feelings regarding global Web sites. The following five themes emerged from the research results regarding consumer perceptions of global Web sites: (a) product, (b) information, (c) people, (d) simplicity, (e) and brands. Information gleaned by this study regarding consumer behavior can be incorporated into a comprehensive global marketing campaign that can be used by leaders to expand business internationally.

About the Author

Dr. Gail Ferreira is an educational and research technical expert who actively teaches for both industry and academia. She teaches and develops educational materials for a breadth of research, writing, and technical courses at an advanced level, having taught thousands of students in the last five years in both an online as well as a live learning environment. Her current teaching and course development engagements are in academia, as well as in industry. In academia, she works with the University of Phoenix and Northcentral University, where she is the Applied Computing Science Lead, developing a breadth of course material for the School of Business and Computer Science for the Ph.D. program in Computer Science. She has also worked for enterprise software corporations such as Oracle, Ernst and Young, Kronos, Inc., and Vignette, Inc. as a technical subject matter expert.