TCOBaG – Drinking and Riding Your Bicycle

Drinking and riding your bicycle is a fairly serious offense in Japan.

It seems odd to me, that in Japan, there are some fairly stiff penalties for riding your bike after drinking.

At the same time, bicycle theft, while illegal, borders on socially acceptable. Umbrellas tend to fall into the same category. That is, fair game when left unguarded and there’s a downpour on.

Maybe you don’t find that interesting.

What does this have to do with marketing? With anything? . . .

Just made me stop and think that there are many things that we often take for granted. We (yeah, I’m talking to you, and me) forget that in different places, the rules, the way of doing things, well, they’re just different.

The key here for me was the idea that you don’t really have to go to another country to find yourself facing these sorts of issues.

You need only walk out of your own abode.

The rules are different.

Are you using the same language, same tactics, layouts and colors even, to promote your sites or products to different markets?

You just stepped outside your abode, my friend.

You gotta know your market, the way they walk, the way they talk, what they think is the right, or wrong way for doing things.

The rules and even the game can be very different.

Ever watch an international basketball game? Different, isn’t it? What’s with those lanes anyway?

Football? Be careful there. Has a different meaning, especially here. In Japan, football is soccer.

It also means that terms, phrases and expressions that you might think are common knowledge and in regular use may have some differences. Those differences may range from slight to might.

Know the rules, and the way the game is played before you put up your hand and start jumping up and down yelling, “pick me! pick me!”

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