Cultural Influences
on International Marketing
Dana-Nicoleta Lascu
Chapter 5
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Chapter Objectives
• Identify the elements of culture and examine how they affect
marketing practices around the world
• Describe national and regional character based on dimensions
such as time orientation, business practices, gift giving,
socializing, gender roles, and materialism
• Discuss cultural variability in terms of the Hofstede dimensions
with appropriate examples and address cultural change in a
marketing context
• Address the self-reference criterion and ethnocentrism and
describe how they impeded mutual understanding and
cooperation, with direct negative effects on marketing practices
• Describe the global consumer culture as it manifests itself
around the world
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
The Importance of Understanding
• Many companies find that their new foreign firm is
about to collapse because they have failed to learn
that country’s customs, cultures, and laws
• Two out of every three U.S. executives sent to Saudi
Arabia are promptly repatriated due to difficulties in
adapting to the local culture
• The costs associated with premature returns
(repatriation) negatively affects the bottom-line of
international companies
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Culture Defined
• A continuously changing
totality of learned and shared
meanings, rituals, norms, and
traditions among the members
of an organization or society.
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Ecology
Social Structure
Ideology
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Elements of Culture
• Spoken/Written Language
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Differences in meaning in
different countries which share
the same language
Dealing with multiple dialects
High costs of translation
High costs of translation
blunders
Elements of Culture
• Nonverbal communication
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Proxemics
Postures
Orientations
Oculesics
Chronemics
Haptics
Kinesics
Paralinguistics
Appearances
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Olfactions
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Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
High vs. Low Context Cultures
• Low-Context cultures:
What is said is precisely what
is meant
• High-Context cultures:
The context of the message—
the message source, his or
her standing in society or in
the negotiating group, level
of expertise, tone of voice,
and body language—are
all meaningful
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Religion and Its Impact on Marketing
Practice
• Protestant Religion – stresses hard work and
frugality
• Judaism – stresses education and development
• Islam – focus on rules for social interaction
• Hinduism – encourages family orientation and
dictates strict dietary constraints
• Buddhism – stresses sufferance and avoidance
of worldly desires
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Religion
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Business days
Gender roles
Gift giving
Marketing practices
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Cultural Values
• Enduring beliefs about a specific mode of conduct
or desirable end-state
• Guide the selection or evaluation of behavior
• Are ordered by importance in relation to one
another to form a system of value priorities
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Cultural Values
• Enculturation
Process by which individuals learn the beliefs and
behaviors endorsed by one’s own culture
• Acculturation
Learning a new culture
• Assimilation
Maintenance of the new culture, and resistance to
new cultures and to one’s old culture
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Cultural Norms
• Norms are derived from values and defined as
rules that dictate what is right or wrong, acceptable
or unacceptable
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Imperative
- What an outsider must or must not do
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Exclusive
- What locals may do but an outsider cannot
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Adiaphora
- What an outsider may or may not do
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
National/Regional Character
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Time Orientation
Business Hours
Gift Giving
Socializing
Gender Roles
Status Concern and Materialism
Other – for example, access
(transportation by bicycle,
personal automobile, public
transportation
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Cultural Variability
• Power Distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Masculinity Versus
Femininity
• Individualism Versus
Collectivism
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Cultural Change & Marketing
Marketers need to identify
the symbolic elements that
are important to a market
segment and use them
effectively in creating the
marketing mix.
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
In an advertisement, if the above
are perceived as faces, censors
might erase them; if they are
perceived as a vase, they would
not be altered.
Obstacles to Cultural Understanding
• Ethnocentrism
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A related belief that a particular culture is superior to
another and that strategies that are used in the home
country will work just as well abroad.
• The Self-Reference Criterion:
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The unconscious reference to one’s own value system
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Dealing with the Self-Reference
Criterion
1) Define the marketing goal in terms of one’s home
country’s cultural traits, norms, and values
2) Define the marketing goal in terms of the host
country’s cultural traits, norms, and values
3) Isolate the self-reference criterion influence and
evaluate it to understand how it affects the
marketing issue
4) Solve the marketing problem based solely on the
unique conditions of the host country.
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Global Consumer Culture
• Shared consumptionrelated symbols and
activities that are
meaningful to segments
• Often attributed to the
diffusion of entertainment
from the US to the rest
of the world
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Global Consumer Culture Trends
• Proliferation of transnational firms and the related
globalized capitalism
• Global brands
• Globalized consumerism and the desire for material
possessions
• Homogenization of global consumption
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002
Chapter Summary
• Identified elements of culture and examined how
they affect marketing practices
• Described national and regional character and
cultural variability worldwide
• Discussed impediments to mutual understanding
and cooperation
• Analyzed the global consumer culture
• Examined the depth and effect of different cultural
influences on consumer behavior
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2002