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Principles of
International
Marketing
Chapter 4
The Cultural
Environment
9th Edition
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Culture Defined
• Culture - An integrated system of learned behavior
patterns that are distinguishing characteristics of the
members of any given society.
• It encompasses a wide variety of elements, from
materialistic to the spiritual.
• Acculturation - Adjusting and adapting to a specific
culture other than one’s own.
• It is one of the keys to success in international
operations.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Culture Defined
• It is important to understand the difference between
the context cultures to avoid misunderstanding of
messages and intentions.
• High-context culture - The social context in what is
not being said can carry more meaning than what is
said
• Low-context culture - The meaning of the message
is explicitly expressed by the words and is less
affected by the social context. what is said is more
important that what is not said
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Culture Defined
• The international manager must identify cross-cultural
and intracultural differences and isolate potential
opportunities and problems.
• The international business entity acts as a change
agent by introducing new products, ideas, or practices
which may lead to change in consumption.
• The international marketer may be accused of “cultural
imperialism,” especially if the changes brought about
are dramatic or if culture-specific adaptations are not
made in the marketing approach.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Cultural universals - Manifestations of the total way
of life of a group of people.
• This includes elements such as body adornments,
courtship, etiquette, family gestures, joking,
mealtimes, music, personal names, status
differentiation, and trade.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Exhibit 3.1 - Elements of Culture
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Language
– Is described as the mirror of culture and is
multidimensional by nature.
– Include both verbal and nonverbal communication.
– Aids information gathering and evaluation efforts.
– Provides access to local society.
– Is important for company communication.
– Allows for interpretation of context.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Dealing with language problem invariably requires
the use of local assistance.
• When translation is required, one of the simplest
methods of control is back-translation.
• Back-translation - The translating of a foreign
language version back to the original language by a
different person from the one who made the first
translation.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Managers must analyze and become familiar with
the hidden language of foreign cultures.
• The five key topics being time, space, material
possessions, friendship patterns, and business
agreements.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Values and attitudes
– Values are shared beliefs or group norms that have
been internalized by individuals.
– Attitudes are evaluations of alternatives based on
values.
– Attitudes towards change is positive in industrialized
countries, while in tradition bound societies change is
viewed with suspicion.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Manners and customs
– Understanding manners and customs is especially
important in negotiations.
– Potential problem areas for marketers arise from
insufficient:
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•
•
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Understanding of different ways of thinking.
Attention to the necessity of saving face.
Knowledge and understanding of the host country.
Recognition of the decision-making process and the
role of personal relations.
• Allocation of time for negotiations.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Manners and customs
– Managers must be concerned with differences in the
ways products are used.
– Package sizes and labels must be adapted in many
countries to suit the needs of the particular culture.
– Concept tests determine the potential acceptance of a
proposed new product.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Material culture results from technology and is
manifested in the availability and adequacy of the
following basic infrastructures.
– Economic - Consists of transportation, energy, and
communications systems.
– Social - Refers to housing, health, and educational
systems.
– Financial and marketing - Provide the facilitating agencies
for the international firm’s operation in a given market; for
example, banks and research firms.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Aesthetics
– Each culture makes a clear statement concerning good
taste, as expressed in the arts and in the particular
symbolism of colors, form and music.
– Color is often used as a mechanism for brand
identification, feature reinforcement, and differentiation.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Education
– Formal and informal education play a major role in the
passing on and sharing of culture.
– Educational levels of a culture can be assessed by
using literacy rates and enrollment in higher education.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Social institutions
– Affect the ways in which people relate to each other.
– Kinship or blood relationships - Family relations and a
strong obligation to family are important factors to be
considered.
– Social stratification - Division of a particular
population into classes, in which the higher strata
control most of the buying power and decision-making
positions.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Social institutions
– Reference groups - Provide the values and attitudes
that become influential in shaping behavior; can be
primary or secondary.
– Social organization also determines the roles of
managers and subordinates and the way they relate
to one another.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Elements of Culture
• Sources of cultural knowledge
– The concept of cultural knowledge is broad and
multifaceted and can be defined by the way it is
acquired.
– Factual information - Acquired through
communication, research, and education.
– Experiential knowledge - Acquired by being involved
in a culture other than one’s own.
– Interpretive knowledge - Acquired by understanding
the nuances of different cultural traits and patterns;
achieved through experience over a sufficient length of
time.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Cultural Analysis
• Dimension of culture
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Individualism
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Masculinity
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Cultural Analysis
• Self-reference criterion – The unconscious
reference to one’s own cultural values.
• Recommendations to reduce the influence of one’s
own cultural values:
– Define the problem in terms of domestic and foreign
cultural traits, habits, or norms.
– Isolate the self-reference criterion influence in the
problem and examine it to see how it complicates the
problem.
– Redefine the problem without the self-reference
criterion influence and solve for the optimal situation.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Cultural Analysis
• Ethnocentricism - The belief that one’s own culture
is superior to others.
• It can be controlled only by acknowledging it and
properly adjusting to its possible effects in managerial
decision making.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Training Challenge
• The objective of training programs is to foster
preparedness, sensitivity, patience, and flexibility
in managers and other personnel.
• Internal educational programs used to foster culture
sensitivity and acceptance of new ways of doing
things include:
– Culture specific information
– Culture general information
– Self-specific information
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Training Challenge
• Area studies - Provide factual preparation for a
manager to operate in, or work with people from, a
particular country.
• Cultural assimilator - A program in which trainees
must respond to scenarios of specific situations in a
particular country.
• Sensitivity training - Focuses on enhancing a
manager’s flexibility in situations that are quite
different from those at home.
• Field experience - Exposes a manager to a
different cultural environment for a limited amount of
time.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Making Culture Work for Marketing Success
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Embrace local culture.
Build relationships.
Employ locals to gain cultural knowledge.
Help employees understand you.
Adapt products and processes to local markets.
Coordinate by region.
© 2010 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.