Branding Beyond Culture
Mahreen Mamoon1 and M Sohel Iqbal2
Over time, culture has been defined in many different ways. In
essence, however, it is the set of values and the patterns of
learned behaviour that develop as a result of living within a
particular society. The concept is therefore, a broad one since it
embraces every part of a person’s life and has a direct effect
upon patterns of behaviour. Conducting business across national
boundaries inevitably leads to interaction with people and their
organisations who have been brought up in a different cultural
environment and who as a consequence have a different set of
values and expectations. These differences in attitudes, beliefs
and perception, together with the many other cultural
characteristics, are of fundamental importance is the international
marketer and have a direct and pervasive influence upon the
nature of the marketing programme.
Key Words: Culture, Communication, International Marketing, Branding.
1.0 Introduction
In today’s increasingly sophisticated global marketplace, competitiveness of a
global brand depends not only on it’s ability to timely address rapid, sudden and
complex changes in business environments but also on ability to understand and
cope with diversity and intricacy of various cultures and sub-cultures around the
world (Lee, 2005). Global companies should even consider cultural differences
among different ethnic groups when communicating products in a country
(Lindridge, 2002). All the leading global companies in the world achieved
remarkable success for their ability to break through cultural barriers by means of
communicating a range of messages about value, quality, reliability and brand
image understandable to a whole variety of culture-specific target audiences.
Ignorance of the impact of cultural diversity led many multinational companies to rely on ‘one’
communication strategy to establish brand image, which instead resulted their ultimate
withdrawal from many international markets. For example, Wal-Mart failed to impress German
customers with their brand image, which resulted in their ultimate withdrawal of German
operation (Case 2). Benetton’s world-wide communication campaign in the 1980’s became
highly controversial and unsuccessful. Based on the theme ‘united colours of Benetton’, its
print ads and posters featured such unusual and disturbing images as a white child wearing
angels wing’s alongside a black child sporting devil’s horns, a priest kissing a nun, an AIDS
patient and his family in the hospital and 56 close up photos of male and female genitalia.
This campaign labelled by critic as truly ‘shocking’, resulted in Benetton products being
banned in many parts of the world. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its
ads were supposed to say “it won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” Instead the ads
said “it won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.” In Chinese, the KFC slogan “fingerlickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off.” In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan
“Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” came out as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back
1
Senior Lecturer of Marketing, American International University-Bangladesh. MSc International
Marketing and Management.
2
Protocol Officer of Australian High Commission of Bangladesh.
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from the dead.” Frank Perdue’s slogan, “it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” was
translated as “it takes a hard man to get a chicken aroused” in Mexico (Roy 1998).
These examples illustrates that multinational companies often commit such grave errors with
brand communication strategies when they rush into new markets without assessing crosscultural value systems. Such mistakes often cost them a lot in terms of investment and effort,
which become difficult to recover later on. A brand marketer should have the ability to
understand cultural differences, especially cultural factors that affect consumers’ patterns of
behaviour. It means not only satisfying culturally learned needs of target customers, but also
focusing communication effort to accommodate gathered knowledge of social and cultural
factors influencing customers’ purchase behaviour. Any global brand will only be successful if
it rises to the challenge of understanding culture and how it affects planning and
implementation of brand communication across cultural boundaries (Lee, 2005).
The scope of this essay would be to find out whether well planned and effective international
marketing communications can create strong global brand irrespective of cultural boundaries.
What role marketing communication could play in determining a brand’s global image (figure
1)? What are the real life examples of successful or unsuccessful brand communication
strategies? The essay will explain in detail relevant theoretical background explaining cases
of successful as well as unsuccessful brand communication strategies of a few strong global
brands.
1.0
Objectives of the essay
The objectives of the essay include:

Understand why and how cultural differences affect brand marketing communications

Importance of integrating marketing communications to build strong brand image

Standardization versus adaptation arguments of marketing communications strategies

Characteristics of strong global brands

Case studies of a successful and unsuccessful global brands

Last but not the least, draw a conclusion as to whether international marketing
communications create strong global brands across various cultures.
2.0
Theoretical understanding
2.1
Global cultural diversity and marketing communication
According to Hofstede (1984), culture is the collective programming of mind which
distinguishes members of one group from another. Hofstede's research on cultural diversity
has provided an 'edge of understanding' for multinationals in developing communication
strategies to establish their brands across cultures.
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Country
PD
IDV
MAS
UA
LTO
China
80
20
66
40
118
India
77
48
56
40
61
Nigeria
77
20
46
54
16
Singapore
74
20
48
8
48
Brazil
69
38
49
76
65
France
68
71
43
86
Hong Kong
68
25
57
29
96
South Korea
60
18
39
85
75
Taiwan
58
17
45
69
87
Japan
54
46
95
92
80
United States
40
91
62
46
29
Netherlands
38
80
14
53
44
Australia
36
90
61
51
31
Germany
35
67
66
65
31
United Kingdom
35
89
66
35
25
Norway
31
69
8
50
20
Sweden
31
71
5
29
33
New Zealand
22
79
58
49
30
Table 1: World-wide Index of Hofstede’s cultural dimension (source: http://www.clearlycultural.com/)
Any national culture can be described according to the five dimension analysis of Hofstede.
Power Distance (PD) measures inequality in society, indicating difference between less
powerful members of a society with more powerful member. Germany has 35 on PD scale,
which means there is no large gap between wealthy and poor, but believes in equality for all.
Individualism (IDV) explains relationship between individuals in society. With score 89
Germany is considered as highly individualistic. Masculinity (MAS) refers to the distribution of
roles between male and female. For example, Japan is a highly masculine society. Uncertainty
Avoidance (UA) refers to society’s tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity and attitude towards
risks. Japan’s UA score is 92, meaning that Japanese are not too keen on uncertainty; by
planning everything carefully they try to avoid uncertainty. Long-Term Orientation (LTO) was
added to distinguish the difference in thinking between East and West. China has the highest
LTO (118), which is quite true for all Asian cultures. LTO indicates a society's time perspective
and an attitude of persevering, i.e. overcoming obstacles with time, if not with will and
strength (source: www.geert-hofstede.com).
Hofstede’s cultural dimension has emphasised the need to focus on cultural diversity between
countries. For example, many Asian countries i.e. China is rated highly in PD and collectivism,
meaning that purchase decision of products are made by a few but for the greater interests
of all members of that group. Any brand communication should consider such power making
units to be able to have lasting impression on them. Customers in high UA countries are less
risk taker and more sensitive to the consequence of risk taking. Brand marketer should
communicate their products in such a way, so that customers develop positive perception
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about the product and thus take risk by purchasing that product. In a highly masculine
culture, such as in Japan, where individual achievement and status are regarded as
appealing, brand communication objective should be to enhance perceptions of masculinity
and greatness.
According to Hall, language is one of the most important components of a culture as people
understand and communicate using their own language. For example, Japanese and German
are two different languages and so their cultures also differ (Lee, 2005). It means success of
communication depend on the context of a culture, i.e. level of emphasis placed on
situational factors or elements involved in understanding any particular message. The greater
the contextual emphasis, the more difficult it is for a multinational company to communicate
the right brand message to its target audience in that country.
Japan is a high context culture; as such it has a highly complex method of communication.
On the other hand Germany is a low context culture, meaning that customers prefer clarity
and precision from product communications. Multinational companies often fail to understand
the context of a particular culture as they rush in with their offer in that country. They feel
that the strategy which had delivered them success in their home culture, will replicate in
other cultures. P&G made this mistake when they tried to sell “Camay” in Japan. It aired a
popular European advertisement showing a woman bathing. In the ad the husband entered
the bathroom and touched her approvingly. The Japanese however considered such
behaviour to be very inappropriate and of poor taste. Interpretation of this advertisement
was negative to the Japanese customers. Gillette however became extremely successful in
Japan when they considered Japanese contextual differences in developing communication
campaign (case 1).
Case 1: The Gillette SensorExcel: a success story of a Global brand in Japan
The “Gillette SensorExcel” for women razor was introduced in the US in 1996 and later in
Japan. The target customers for this product in both countries were the beauty conscious
young females. Gillette started to advertise in top US newspapers with the title “Introducing
the New SensorExcel For Women” but in Japan the same advertising appeared in a modified
version with the title, “(It’s a) different Prettiness, Good feeling, Gillette Lady SensorExcel”.
The tone of the US ad was to give product related specific information but in Japan the tone
appeared as indirect, leaving most of the information vague and unsaid (for example, “you
will feel the difference”). Even the uses of words were different in the ads. In Japan the word
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“Lady” replaced the word “Female”, which carries a positive connotation. The main purpose
of using the word “Lady” was to communicate the value proposition that Gillette Lady
SensorExcel was the appropriate shaver for ladies, i.e. women who see themselves as wellgroomed and who aspire to holding high social status. The visual presentation i.e. use of
colour, formats of texts and so on also differed in the ads. The Gillette ad became extremely
successful in Japan and sales of SensorExcel exceeded the target. The Gillette example
illustrates how a Global brand could become successful even in a high context culture
accommodating local language differences and cultural sensitiveness.
Case 2: Cross-cultural business failure: why Wal-Mart had to pull out of German
market
Wal-Mart’s exit from the German market in 2006 illustrates a case of how an established
global brand could fail due to lack of understanding of local cultural value system. Many
experts believe that it was Wal-Mart’s cultural “insensitivity”, which has led to its failure in
Germany. The same mistake was being repeated by Wal-Mart in Korea, Japan, China and
Mexico that resulted in subsequent pull out or reduction of operations. In the late 1990s, WalMart entered the German market as part of its international expansion strategy. Germany is
the third largest retail market in the world and accounts for 15% of Europe’s approximately
$2 trillion-a year retail market3. Germany was a critical market to enter, not only because of
its own importance, but also because Germany provides a gateway to Eastern European
markets.
Wal-Mart’s communication theme ‘Every Day Low Prices’ became unsuccessful as other
German ‘hard discounters’, i.e. as Aldi and Netto, already had a strong market position and
customers are accustomed to buying with very low prices from them. Wal-Mart confronted
hard-nosed customer for whom ‘every day low prices’ meant little when they could be
undercut at the neighbourhood-based discounter. This inability to realize the local cultural
complexity in a context very different from that of Anglo-American, made Wal-Mart’s entire
marketing communication effort unsuccessful. The fundamental problem that lies with WalMart’s global expansion plan was to replicate business operations of home country, USA. The
biggest mistake of Wal-Mart was to ignore the local cultural diversity and customer buying
habits. Christopherson (2007) described Wal-Mart’s brand communication as ‘ethnocentric’, as
Wal-Mart failed to come out of its distinctive image and origin of being an “American” retail
3
Source: “Why did Wal-Mart fail in Germany?” by Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt, 2003, for IWIM - Institut für
Weltwirtschaft und Internationales Management Universität Bremen (http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de)
Page 5 of 10
brand.
Wal-Mart’s tendency to repeat its successful US marketing communication strategy in the
German market resulted in terrible failure in what was thought to be a potential heaven of
opportunity. Moreover, it failed to offer the German customers any compelling “value
proposition”. Wrong communication led to unresponsive customers who were unwilling to
change their old-fashioned shopping habits. Many experts also criticized Wal-Mart’s
‘inconsistent’ advertising campaign in German Media, which failed to create any lasting
impression among the German customers.
We understand from Wal-Mart example that cross-cultural brand management is a challenge
even for the biggest companies. Companies have to be sensitive to local cultures and tailor
their marketing communications to the needs of local customers. Global companies need to
measure effectiveness of brand positioning efforts, which helps to make adequate adaptation
in their culture-specific brand communication strategies & tactics.
Many other cultural researchers including Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner: behaviour and
value
patterns;
Schwartz
Value
Inventory;
Gudykunst
and
Ting-Toomay:
verbal
communications typology (Lee, 2005) have shown strong link between cultural value system
and consumer behaviour.
“Successful Global marketers develop communications that speak to their audiences at local
levels, leading to more decentralized approach to the brand, while maintaining high level of
global visibility” (Lee, 2005). Successful multinationals intelligently take account of local
cultural value system to develop effective international marketing communication framework
that help them to create strong global brands.
2.2
International marketing communications: standardization or adaptation?
According to Lee (2005), global marketing communications evolves from a centrally
mandated message handed down to the regions –where it often has little resonance- to a
highly decentralized local message that varies widely around the world. In fact most of the
successful global brands (table 2) depend on localized communication strategies to promote
their brand on a global scale.
There has been a lot of debate as to whether to sell an identical product throughout the
world using common global marketing communication or to establish a global product, using
Page 6 of 10
modified localized marketing communication, accommodating sensitivity to local cultural
values (de Mooij, 1998). Levitt argued that by standardization companies could reap the
benefits of economies of scale and could build a uniform global brand image. Proponents of
Levitt’s theory argued about the possibility of developing a uniform advertising that crosses
international boundaries, cutting across all lines of culture, nationality, race, religion, values
and customs. However, critics argued that Levitt’s standardization is actually not effective (de
Mooij, 2003). According to Ohmae4 “it doesn’t mean that the appeal of operating globally
removes the obligation to localize products. The lure of a universal product is a false allure.”
Ohmae’s argument is supported by worldwide branding strategies of global companies such
as Coca-cola and McDonald’s.
A successful Global company outsmarts competitors by building distinctive brand image that
are specific to the needs of local customers. Such brand image is communicated in such a
way so that every target audience could understand the central appeal of the brand (Keller,
2007).
Cultural value
systems
Sender
Encoding
Message
Decoding
Receiver
Media
Noise
Feedback
Response
Brand
Communication
success
4
Kenichi Ohmae is one of the world's leading business and corporate strategists. He made these comments in his
book, ‘The Borderless World’, (1999), Harper Collins Publisher, NY, USA.
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Brand communication process (source: Keller, 2007)
Expert studies found that to develop a consistent brand image international marketing
communications need to be coordinated in such a way so that it is cost effective but works
across all cultures. Successful global brands such as McDonalds extensively exploit knowledge
gathered from different countries of the world and applied that knowledge to enter a new
market with the same brand image. Integrated marketing communication adopted by
McDonald’s is based on a creative strategy which appeals to all target customers irrespective
of cultural differences. Many other successful global companies applied such creative
strategies (figure 3) to establish their brands globally.
Format
Positioning
Appeal
Creative
strategy
Music
Tone
Figure 5: creative strategy applied by many successful multinationals (source: Lee and Carter, 2005)
Chinese Fast food market was mainly dominated by KFC and other local fast food companies
until McDonald’s decided to go for extensive marketing to establish itself. Based on the
success in other parts of the world, it extensively used “local adaptation” to develop brand
appeal in China. McDonald’s now enjoys the maximum market share in Chinese fast food
market (McChronicles, 2007).
A strong global brand is the one which has the same recognizable identity and ability to
translate its value across cultures (Lee, 2005). A successful global brand is available in most
countries and shares the same strategic principles, positioning and marketing in every market
throughout the world. It has substantial market share in all countries and comparable brand
loyalty and it carries the same brand name/logo (Keller, 2007).
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McDonald’s offers its services through more than 30,000 distribution points in 119 countries,
serving more than 47 million customers each day. McDonald’s logo and colour combination is
recognizable around the world. As explained earlier, McDonald’s success as a strong global
brand depends on its ability to maintain brand image and consistent service standards
through localized advertising and product offering. For a long time Coca-cola’s main slogan
was “Always, everywhere coca-cola”. In the year 2000, coca-cola decided to get closer to
local markets because of declining profitability. Coca-cola’s CEO Douglas Daft once
commented, “for us local sensitivity had become absolutely essential to success. We had no
alternative but to adapt advertising to respect local culture. We had to make our advertising
as relevant as possible to the local market in order to keep our position as the brand leader”.
Since competitive environment of markets varies, brand adaptations are often needed to
position in various cultures. Yet real leadership brands aspire to be the leadership brands in
all markets (de Mooij, 2003). Another important characteristic of a global brand is its product
mix including promotional strategies, which varies depending on local cultural and competitive
requirements. For example, both Coca-cola and Pepsi-Cola increased the wetness of their
drinks in Middle-East where consumers prefer a sweeter drink. Therefore, marketing
communication was focused on “wetness” aspect of customers’ preferences (Keller, 2007).
For a strong global brand, other marketing mix (such as price, promotion, appeal, media,
distribution channels, and tactics) strategies also considers culture. McDonald’s promotional
strategy in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia considers “Halal” aspects of their foods in order to
accommodate Muslim customers’ sensitivity.
Successful Global brands carry one brand name and/or logo in all parts of the world. A global
brand can carry one name or logo and thus be recognized world-wide, but the product may
not be standard at all (Shocker et al, 2007). Knorr soups and sauces use package with same
brand name/logo, found in supermarkets around the world, but the contents always follow
local tastes. Marketing communications of Knorr focuses not only on brand image but also on
the product contents made according to local tastes and preferences.
3.0
Conclusion
World’s top brands have the same recognizable identity and the ability to translate their
values across cultures (Lee, 2005). As such, millions of people in the world now easily
recognize brand names such as Coca-cola, McDonald’s, IMB, Microsoft, Sony, BMW or Nokia.
What do these phenomenally successful brands have in common? All of them positioned their
brands accommodating local cultural differences in planning and executing their marketing
Page 9 of 10
communication process without changing the core benefits, quality, identity or imagery of the
products. Smartly planned and executed international marketing communication strategies
has enabled brand originated from the so-called developing countries to dominate the world
market, which was for many years the playing ground for brands originated from the
developed world. One such example is Haier, a Chinese national pride which is gradually
overtaking names like Sony and Samsung in the world electronics market. The same
“localized” communication strategy was applied by giant brand like McDonald’s when they
first entered into the highly competitive Chinese fast food markets. All these real life
examples make us to conclude that carefully planned and executed international marketing
communications strategy could enable any emerging brand to establish itself as a “strong”
brand irrespective of cultural barriers faced when entering into any new world market.
References
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Review on Marketing. (Harvard Business School Press) p. 87.
2. E.W. Cundiff and M.T Hilger, Marketing in the International Environment (Prentice
hall, 1984), p.327.
3. George P. Murdock, ‘The Common Denominator of Cultures’, in Ralph Linton (ed), The
science of Man in the World Crises (Columbia University Press, 1945), pp.123-42.
4. Kiefer Lee and Steve Carter, ‘Global Marketing Management’ (Oxford University Press)
2005, p.64-85, 278-307.
5. Kimmel, Allan, J. ‘Marketing Communication: New Approaches, Technologies, and
Styles’ New York 2005
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European Journal of Marketing, vol 19, no6 (1985), p.39.
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8.
Theodore Levitt, ‘Globalization of Markets’ Harvard Business Review, 1983.
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