Name: Zeeshan Chohan

Roll No: 15
Course: TYBAMMC 2021-22
Subject: Globalization and International Advertising
Topic: With the help of appropriate examples illustrate how cultural
awareness plays a vital role in global marketing.
Introduction
Culture is the patterns of learned and shared behavior and beliefs of a particular
social, ethnic or age group. It can also be described as the complex whole of
collective human beliefs with a structured stage of civilization that can be specific
to a nation or time period. Humans in turn use culture to adapt and transform the
world they live in and the choices they make.

Culture refers to the influence of religious, family, educational, and social systems
on people. Culture is complex, and fully appreciating its influence takes significant
time, effort, and expertise. Various features of a culture can create an illusion of
similarity. Even a common language does not guarantee similarity of
interpretation.

The importance of language differences cannot be overemphasized, and there are

nearly three thousand languages in the world. Language differences can be a
challenge for marketers designing IMC campaigns, product labels, brand and
product names, tag lines, and so on. Finding a single brand name that works
universally in terms of pronunciation, meaning, and “ownability” is a monumental
challenge. Of course, correct and grammatical use of language in marketing
communication is essential for a product, brand, or company to be viewed as
credible, trustworthy, and of high-quality.

Marketing always exists in an environment shaped by culture. Organizations

that intend to market products in different countries must be sensitive to the
cultural factors at work in their target markets, but marketers need to dig deeper to
make sure they truly understand the people and environments in which they work.

Cultural awareness means being conscious of your own culture as well as other
cultures. Being aware of your own cultural influences is essential to understanding
others. This is of course very important from a marketing perspective and allows
you to understand your target market. When working with people from different
cultures, you learn to look at their behavior without making assumptions that are
based on cultural identity. This is extremely important when it comes to cultural
awareness in global marketing and business as a whole.

In order to be successful in marketing we need to know our target group, which is

why cultural awareness in global marketing is so important. In order to know our
target market we need to be aware of their cultural background, preferences and
differences. Just because a marketing campaign is successful in one culture doesn’t
mean it will be successful everywhere in the world.

For e.g. Rolls-Royce the prestigious car company wanted to market their new
model as Rolls-Royce Silver Mist. Unfortunately, “Mist” is the German word for
manure (land fertilizer) so they quickly changed the plan and marketed the car as
Silver Shadow.

Role of Cultural Awareness in Global Marketing

Global marketing is defined as the process of adjusting the marketing strategies of
your company to adapt to the conditions of other countries. Of course, global
marketing is more than selling your product or service globally. It is the full
process of planning, creating, positioning, and promoting your products in a global
market.

In today’s modern era the world has more consumers in the global market because
of internet and the reach of one’s culture has become phenomenal. When a brand
becomes a global brand it needs to consider the culture of a target market. Culture
is very sensitive, while marketing a product a brand should do a proper research
and analysis. So, that their campaign, ads and products doesn’t backfire and gets
complete acceptance by the market.

Examples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvb49-Csq1o
Apple’s ad Inclusion and Diversity.
The ad portrayed different culture and religion from around the world and how the
company Apple doesn’t differentiate on the basis of one’s culture, race, belief and
religion, etc. It will result in the increase of reputation of brand and also ultimately
result into to the increase in sale of their products.

Kellog’s Failure in Indian Market.

In 1994, Kellog’s, a breakfast and snack cereal based product brand introduced
itself to the Indian market. Kellog’s was culturally very different according t the
eating habits of the Indians as Indians mostly consume heavy and highly flavored
breakfast. Whereas, Kellog’s is light in weight and was completely bland
according to the Indian pallet. Also, the price was high comparing to its existing
competitor. All these factors resulted in the huge loss of Kellog’s. Later the brand
made a successful comeback by understanding the market better and provided what
the Indian market really wanted.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, Brand should consider ones culture and give it utmost importance. The
sentiment of a person belonging to particular race, cast, religion, etc should not be
hurt by brand in any way. A company which is culturally ware of its target market
has a longer lifespan and better reputation in the market.

REFERANCE
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/how-culture-plays-a-role-in-international-marketing-
business-essay.php

https://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2014/04/07/culture-as-competitive-advantage-for-
marketers/ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?
abstract_id=1267863