At&T Regulatory Forces

AT&T

Kerin, Hartley, and Rudelius (2011), state that cultural, economic, and political-regulatory forces are the three uncontrollable environmental variables that specifically concern global companies. The three specific aspects within these forces I’m focusing on are cultural symbols, economic infrastructure, and political stability.

As most of you already know, AT&T is the largest communications company worldwide according to revenue numbers. Additionally, AT&T offers its customer’s access to the largest 4G Network and Wi-Fi network with hotspots at places like hotels, coffee shops, and bookstores. These are all nice incentives to the already enticing and beautifully designed apple iPhone that AT&T provides services for.

Cultural forces are defined as “the set of values, ideas, and attitudes that is learned and shared among the members of a group” (Kerin et al, 2011, p. 64). These forces have already been established and are continuing to be established all across the world. Cultural forces to me, as a bi-rational American, is the most important aspect of any company trying to market a product. I connect with both sides of my culture and subsequently view every company and product from both sides.

• Specifically, cultural symbols being, “things that represent ideas and concepts in a specific culture,” are something that this company needs to pay attention to (Kerin et al, 2011, p. 145). Each county comes with its own set of norms that differentiate it from others. As a result, certain norms that America regularly uses like a “thumbs-up” sign is not positive in other countries. AT&T didn’t pay special attention to this cultural symbol and used a “thumbs-up” symbol in ads for Russia and Poland. This sign is seen as a negative cultural symbol in these countries and AT&T made the mistake of using it for advertisement (Kerin et al, 2011, p. 146).

Economic forces are defined as, “the income and resources that affect the cost of running a business or...