Elaborate on the influence of culture on international marketing

strategies

prepared by: Youssef Amr Zohdi.

ID: 196168.

Major: International Business.

Module Leader: May Nagy.

Faculty of Business Administration, Economics, and Political Sciences

2022/2023
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Theoretical discussion........................................................................................................................................ 4

Introduction......................................................................................................................................................... 4

Overview about culture....................................................................................................................................... 4

Definitions......................................................................................................................................................................4

Culture and Consumer Behaviour....................................................................................................................... 5

Components of culture & how it affects marketing strategies..............................................................................6

Education........................................................................................................................................................................6

Social organization..........................................................................................................................................................6

Technology and material culture.....................................................................................................................................6

Laws and Politics.............................................................................................................................................................7

Aesthetics.......................................................................................................................................................................7

Values and Attitudes.......................................................................................................................................................8

Religion...........................................................................................................................................................................8

Language.........................................................................................................................................................................9

Practical Discussion............................................................................................................................................ 9

Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................ 13

References....................................................................................................................................................... 14

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Introduction

Will all marketing campaigns be unified and accepted across all cultural backgrounds? In the

last few decades, the globalisation process has made trade and investment better for companies

around the world. Several large companies are growing their businesses around the world or selling

their goods or services in other countries. This is called "globalization of trade." With globalisation of

trade and the rise of newly industrialised countries, the problem of cultural roots and how they affect

foreign marketing is becoming more and more important. With globalisation in full swing, many people

say that marketing, especially international marketing, meets many challenges. One of these is that

people and goods or services are constantly travelling abroad or moving across countries, which can

have a big impact on their culture.

The current research will be critically analysing various culture dimensions and how companies

should always consider the cultural differences between countries and even within the same country.

Culture is one thing that makes foreign marketing stand out. Different people have different ideas

about what culture means. Not only does it mean society, but it also means habits, traditions, and

rules. Cultures are just different; they aren't good or bad or right or wrong. A lot of globalisations have

also shown that people from various backgrounds have different views, opinions, tastes, interests,

and values, and they are still hesitant to buy goods from other countries. Also, buyer behaviour is still

different, and people aren't always logical or ready to change their buying habits to buy cheaper

goods that are becoming more and more available on the world market (Hemalatha et al., 2017).

As mentioned by (Sarathy et al., 2006), there are 8 aspects of culture that paves the road for

marketeers. Namely; education, social organization, technology and material culture, laws and

politics, aesthetics, values and attitudes, religion and language. If one of these aspects were triggered

in a way, it can leave a mark for the business either positively or negatively. This research uses

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literature on different cultural aspects to discuss how it affects companies’ marketing strategies with

various examples.

Theoretical discussion

Introduction

This research discusses how culture influences international marketing strategies. This section

includes three parts: the first one will discuss culture’s definitions in the literature, the second will

briefly explain the relation between culture and consumer behaviour with a graph, the third will tackle

the components of culture and how it affects marketing strategies in details.

Overview about culture

Definitions

Culture has been thought of in many different ways in the international marketing publications.

While (Leung et al., 2002)’s definition of culture is "the values, beliefs, norms, and patterns of

behaviour of a national group" and (House et al., 2004)’s definition is "the values and practices that

are deeply ingrained in a society”, (Hofstede, 2001) view of culture as "the software of the mind" or

"collective programming of the mind that makes one group of people different from another" shows

how culture is thought of at the intellectual, personal level. Also, the best meaning of culture for

international marketing comes from (Nakata & Huang, 2002). They say that culture is "that complex

whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other skills and habits that a

person acquires as a member of society."

Thus, culture is the unique mix of learning and experience that gives a person a place to start,

an identity, and a set of rules for how to act (Czinkota et al., 2009). Culture is passed down from one

family to the next by being learned, shared, and taught. It is mostly taught by parents to their children,

but it can also be taught by social groups, groups with a specific interest, governments, and schools.

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Culture can also be thought of as the personality of the group that a person lives in. It shows

up in the way things are made, in art, language, music, and the things people buy. It also shows up in

the ideas, value systems, and government (Brassington & Pettitte, 2006).

Culture and Consumer Behaviour

There are a number of important ways that different parts of culture affect how a consumer

sees, feels, and understands a product or message, which in turn affects how the consumer acts

during the buying process. (Jeannet & Hennessey, 2004) claim that culture affects customer

behaviour in three main ways, which are shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: Cultural Influence on Buyer Behavior

Source: (Doole & Lowe, 2008)

People consider faith, language, history, and education to be important parts of culture (cultural

factors). These things send direct and indirect messages to customers about the goods and services

they should buy (cultural message). How we answer questions like "Do we drink coffee or juice

on breakfast?" or "How often do we shop?" depends on the culture we live in (Doole & Lowe, 2008).

This affects how consumers decide what to buy. So, marketers need to understand the culture,

especially in foreign settings, in order to figure out what the customer wants and needs and try to

change them.

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Components of culture & how it affects marketing strategies

(Sarathy et al., 2006) named eight parts of culture that

make it easy to look at a culture from a marketing

point of view. This helps us understand how cultures

differ in global markets.

Education
Figure 2 Sources of Culture
source: (Usunier & Lee, 2005)
Education, whether recognized or not, is a big part of how culture is passed on and shared.

Different business tasks will be affected by the amount of education. International companies also

need to know about the quality of education, such as how different countries put more or less

emphasis on certain skills and the general level of education. Japan and Korea, for example, put

more emphasis on science and tech than "Western" countries do.

Social organization

This has to do with the way a society is put together. How the culture thinks about family, social

organizations, groups of people with similar interests, and standing groups and systems. The role of

women and caste systems are obvious examples. Most people in Switzerland rent instead of own

their homes, and they expect to move into a place that already has tools. This means that banks, not

individual families, buy the most washing machines (Doole & Lowe, 2008).

Technology and material culture

Most likely, technological progress is the main reason why cultures in many countries have

changed. For example, the fact that people in the "West" have more free time is a clear effect of how

technology has changed. Technology is the educational and professional know-how that the people of

a society have. It includes the methods used to make things (Cateora & Graham, 2002). Material

culture affects the amount of demand, the quality and types of goods that people want, and how they

work. It also affects how these goods are made and how they get to people. This part has nothing to

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do with materialism, but rather with how well the local market can deal with and use current

technology. Material culture has a lot of effects on how a country does business. Electrical tools might

sell in the UK or France, but in a market where less than 1% of homes have energy, they might not

find many buyers. Also, things like electric toothbrushes and knives, which are fine in the West, would

be seen as a waste of money in places where money could be better spent on clothes or food

(Bradley, 1995).

Laws and Politics

Most of the time, people think that the cultural norms of a foreign market shape its law and

governmental systems. Legal and political systems are often just written down versions of the rules

that people in the area think are right. In foreign markets, it is very important to be sensitive to

different cultures when talking about political problems.

So, an ad for the Orange mobile phone network in Ireland that said "The future's bright, the

future's orange" had no idea about the political situation in Northern Ireland (Doole & Lowe, 2008).

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is the study of how people feel about beauty and what makes art, music,

storytelling, and theatre great. The looks of a culture can be important for figuring out what different

kinds of art are trying to say. (Brooks et al., 2004) says that aesthetics is important for marketers

because they help understand the symbolic meanings of different kinds of art that are used to help

people recognise a brand, emphasise its features, and set it apart from others. Colours mean more in

foreign markets than they do in local markets. In the U.S. and Europe, for example, black is the colour

of grief. In Japan and the Far East, on the other hand, white has the same meaning. Customers

everywhere react to pictures, myths, and metaphors, enabling them to describe their personal and

national identities and connections in the context of culture and product benefits (Baisya, Aesthetics

in Marketing, 2008).

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Values and Attitudes

How people in different countries feel about things like time, success, work, money, and taking

risks will have a big impact on not only the goods they buy, but also how they are packaged and how

they talk to each other. Culture and customs in an area also have a big impact on how a company

tries to inspire its employees. It might not work in all countries to give cars and more money to local

sales teams to get them to sell more. So, values are important to marketers because they can be

turned into ways for people to buy things (Doole & Lowe, 2008).

Religion

Religion is a big part of culture and has big effects on marketing strategies, even if they aren't

always obvious. To understand a foreign market, it's important to know about things like taboos,

holidays, and traditions, as well as scary things and moral systems, beliefs, and rules (Doole & Lowe,

2008). Religion has a big effect on a society's value system, and a society's value system has a big

effect on business. Religion has an effect on how people act, what they think about life, what they

buy, how they buy it, and even what newspapers they read. Religion often affects how appealing

certain foods, clothes, and behaviours are, and this control can stretch to the acceptance or rejection

of advertising messages (Forbes & Mahan, 2005).

Marketers might accidentally offend when they know nothing about a religion. Understanding

all major faiths is best shown by Islam. Muslim individuals must consume "halal" (Islamically

slaughtered) meat and food. Marketers should recognise that Muslim communities purchase only

halal products. Since few Muslims live in non-Muslim countries like America and Europe, numerous

companies now provide halal items for them. The Middle East's ban on pork and alcohol shows how

religion affects worldwide marketing. Muslim nations require Islamic slaughter of beef and poultry

exports (Terpstra & Sarathy, 1997). According to (Pervez et al., 2003), cultural sensitivity reduces

conflict and improves communication, boosting collaborative marketing performance.

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Language

Language is a big part of society, which makes sense. It was said that it was a reflection of

society. International business writing is usually more about making decisions and coming up with

strategies than it is about putting choices into action. Language is most important during the

implementation phase, because so much of implementation depends on speaking with others

(customers, employees, co-workers and bosses) (Usunier & Lee, 2005). A tongue describes a

country. When a country has more than one language, it has more than one culture. Belgium has two

official languages. In the south, French is spoken, and in the north, Flemish is spoken. This split of

languages goes back to the time of Julius Caesar, but there are still political and social differences

between the groups of languages today (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 1993).

Practical Discussion

Entering the Chinese market is a challenge by itself. Currently, China has a population of 1.4

billion people, so if a marketing campaign of a wanted products grabs attention on a dense platform, it

already is a “winner winner chicken dinner” situation. Dolce & Gabbana had a huge market share in

China that in 2017 their earnings from the Asia-Pacific region alone was $910,000 (Stevenson, 2020).

However, they introduced an ad marketing campaign that was more insulting than the JingKang

incident during the Song Dynasty.

In the video, the woman can be seen trying to eat pizza with chopsticks. She looks confused,

pokes the pizza, but nothing happens, so she rips off a piece and picks it up with the chopsticks. In

the second ad, the woman is shown a big bowl of spaghetti, which isn't any better. Again, she looks at

the bowl and isn't sure how to use her favourite chopsticks to

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eat it. She ends up twisting the chopsticks around the spaghetti and then taking a bite while an

announcer talks in the background in a very disrespecting manner.

The ad campaign was sought to compare the Italian culture with the Chinese culture and bring

them closer, but the campaign received severe backlash as it disrespected the Attitudes and Values

of the Chinese people. People in China were quick to complain on social media, saying that Dolce &

Gabbana was racist and playing into stereotypes about Chinese people, which costed Dolce &

Gabbana 98% of their sales during the same year (Stevenson, 2020).

Furthermore, relating to Social Organization, Nike pulled an ad campaign that crossed on

three borders. Nike, which is known for tackling social problems and taking a stand, understood that

women needed to get over their fears and start doing sports in their everyday lives. In February 2017,

just in time for International Women's Day, three films were released in the Middle East, Russia, and

Turkey. They were all made at the same time with one main global goal in mind: to encourage women

to jump over life's hurdles and get active, no matter

what physical, social, or cultural barriers they face

(Kantli, 2018). After talking to over 90 women in

each of these countries, the marketing team was

moved by their stories and used every assumption

and misconceptions that female sports face as the

basis for the campaign.

"What will they say about you?" is a question that many teenage Arab women face when they

attempt something new or push the limits of what is expected of them (Kantli, 2018). These women

want the world to see them as pioneers, examples, and strong leaders for their area, not as

something to judge or dislike. "What our girls are made of" is one of the most well-known and loved

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songs from Russian youth. The song is still sung by children and their parents from a young age. Its

lyrics describe little girls as being made of "flowers," "gossip," and "marmalade," which is how

Russian society has always thought of women. The 60-second "This is Us" film was shot on a number

of cleverly changing sets. It tells the stories of top and daily athletes from all over Turkey to urge

women to push past their own limits and the limits others may put on them.

All three efforts relied on local strategies that were rooted in strong local insights. This is why

they had a big effect in their own areas and started discussions about women in sports. Nike's

message was able to promote self-empowerment by emphasising the ideals of teamwork while

destroying gender bias and stereotypes (Kantli, 2018).

Before Ramadan 2018, Zain, a Kuwaiti company that provides cell and internet services, put

out a commercial with a young boy and people who looked like world leaders, such as Donald Trump,

Justin Trudeau, and Kim Jong-un. The young boy says "Ramadan Kareem," which is the usual

welcome during this time, and then starts to sing. As the story goes on, the song gets sadder as it

talks about religious oppression and shows Muslim refugees (marketingsociety, 2018).

Since it was first shown, the nearly four-minute video has been watched 57 million times and

has sparked discussion on social media all over the world, especially in the Middle East. Many people

attacked the telco company for making Muslims look bad and trying to make money off of the current

situation. However, others praised the company for being brave and bringing attention to an important

humanitarian disaster.

This wasn't the first occasion that Zain Kuwait has been criticised for an ad that some people

find offensive (marketingsociety, 2018). Even as the year before that, the company put out another

Ramadan commercial that showed a fake suicide bomber getting ready for an attack, along with

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scenes of real attack survivors. At the time, many people

questioned why the company chose to use violent

pictures to mark a holy month. As for Zain’s campaign, it

didn’t appear that they made an analysis for what

damage and loss their ads costed, but making a

marketing campaign that revolves around Religion and

even hints about Politics can surely impact ones’ company and leave a permanent mark.

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Conclusion

To conclude, this research mainly focuses on the numerous culture aspects that was

mentioned above and how it affected many marketing campaigns. The research before you

addressed three incidents by which some succeeded and some failed based on how they conveyed

the ad.

It is proven that culture is definitely important in international marketing as addressed by

(Sarathy et al., 2006) and how it affected real life businesses positively and negatively. This research

elaborated on the different cultural aspects which are education, social organization, technology and

material culture, laws and politics, aesthetics, values and attitudes, religion and language by

examining how different business engaged in culturally sensitive activities in order to achieve

success, market growth and grab attention.

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