Is it possible to be too culturally sensitive? After all, business students are taught all the time about the importance of being sensitive to local culture when designing and marketing products, and history is replete with examples of businesses that stumbled when they failed to take into account local tastes. In Singapore, McDonald's is finding out that taking a step that may appear to be culturally sensitive may in fact backfire on its largest market.
Singapore, which is largely made up of ethnic Chinese, prides itself as a place of ethnic and religious diversity where Chinese, Muslims, and Indians live in relative peace. As part of a McDonald's toy promotion, the company commissioned twelve Doremon toys after the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac. Fearful of backlash from the small Muslim minority in Singapore, the company swapped out the "pig" toy with a "Cupid" (Muslims, like Jews, cannot eat pork). The resulting firestorm in media, online chat rooms and blogs has taken McDonald's by surprise and refuses to die down. The most interesting part of the story is that by all accounts, Muslims in Singapore were not consulted about the decision, had no problem with a pig toy, and are more than a little annoyed at the unwelcome attention and stereotyping that Muslims are a hyper-sensitive bunch of zealots.
The lesson for companies appears to be to never assume that a decision made my management is the right decision until it's been tested and vetted by actual consumers. And don't take your eye off the ball -- alienating your largest customer base is never a wise thing to do.
McDonald's in Singapore: The pig toy fiasco | CNNGo.com
