Jan L. Logemann
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226660011
- eISBN:
- 9780226660295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226660295.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
“Americanization” in marketing did not simply entail out-right imports, but rather a careful and selective adaptation of specific elements. Such transnational corporate learning processes negotiating ...
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“Americanization” in marketing did not simply entail out-right imports, but rather a careful and selective adaptation of specific elements. Such transnational corporate learning processes negotiating differences between American and European consumption and marketing cultures, opened new career opportunities for the émigré consumer engineers. This chapter traces their “return” to Europe after the war as well as their impact on the transformation of Western European consumer marketing between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. The focus will be on West Germany, which had a special role in this transatlantic exchange. The returning émigrés did not simply act as cheerleaders of American consumer modernity, however. Through their cultural translations they were able to engage skeptical colleagues and consumers in Europe and, in some instances, to “Europeanize” modern marketing practice.Less
“Americanization” in marketing did not simply entail out-right imports, but rather a careful and selective adaptation of specific elements. Such transnational corporate learning processes negotiating differences between American and European consumption and marketing cultures, opened new career opportunities for the émigré consumer engineers. This chapter traces their “return” to Europe after the war as well as their impact on the transformation of Western European consumer marketing between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. The focus will be on West Germany, which had a special role in this transatlantic exchange. The returning émigrés did not simply act as cheerleaders of American consumer modernity, however. Through their cultural translations they were able to engage skeptical colleagues and consumers in Europe and, in some instances, to “Europeanize” modern marketing practice.
