Senior Researcher David Bourdin gave three guest lectures on international brand positioning and intercultural consumer behavior at the Université Catholique de Lille.
At the International Week (March 13-17, 2023) of the Institut des Stratégies et Techniques de Communication (ISTC), which is part of the Université Catholique de Lille, senior researcher David Bourdin represented the Communication Management and Marketing & Sales Management study programs as a guest lecturer. He was invited to give lectures to second, fourth and sixth semester Bachelor’s students on international brand positioning and intercultural consumer behavior. Founded in 1875, the private university has a total of around 37,000 students and is a long-standing partner institution of FHWien der WKW. This year’s International Week was attended by guest lecturers from various countries such as the Netherlands and Great Britain. His stay was funded by the EU mobility program Erasmus+.
International brand positioning and intercultural consumer behavior
In his lectures, David Bourdin gave an overview of different brand positioning and communication strategies (globally standardized, locally adapted, “glocalized”). Then he presented methods by which brands implicitly or explicitly evoke associations with a particular country (which does not necessarily have to be the brand’s actual country of origin) among consumers. This was based on many exemplary commercials and product packaging. He also shed light on how individual consumer characteristics and attitudes (e. g. cultural identity, ethnocentrism, cosmopolitanism, xenocentrism, country stereotypes, country affinity and animosity) influence their consumer behavior toward international brands with different positioning. Thereby, he referred to findings from his own study, which he published in the Journal of Business Research together with Georgios Halkias from Copenhagen Business School and Katerina Makri from the University of Vienna (>> read article here).
By David Bourdin’s participation in International Week, new contacts were made with international universities and a lively exchange with French students took place. His stay also paid into the strengthening of the partnership between FHWien der WKW and the Université Catholique de Lille!