Chapter-4

Cultural dynamics in Assessing Global Markets

Culture
 Culture deals with a group’s design for living.
 It is the human-made part of human environment.
 It is ‘the sum total of knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs, and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by humans as members of society’.
 Marketing mix must be culturally acceptable.
 Markets are the interaction of a marketer’s efforts, economic conditions, & all
other elements of the culture.
 Marketers act as change agents due to cultural change.

Culture’s Pervasive Impact

 It affects every part of our lives, every day, from birth to death. It even affects
how we sleep.
-For example, Japanese children often sleep with their parents.
 Culture is pervasive in all marketing and the marketer’s efforts actually become a
part of the fabric of culture.
 It is important to learn to appreciate the intricacies of cultures different from
their own if they are to be effective in foreign markets.

Definitions and Origins of Culture

 Dutch mgt. professor Hofstede refers to culture as the,
- ‘Software of the mind’ and argues that it provides a guide for humans on how
to think and behave and acts as a a problem solving tool.
 James Hodgson, former U.S. ambassador to Japan, describes culture as a
“thicket”.
 ‘It is the sum of the values, rituals, symbols, beliefs, & thought processes that are
learned, shared by a group of people, & transmitted from generation to
generation’.
 Culture resides with an individual’s mind.
Origins, Elements, and Consequences of Culture

Elements of Culture
 Five elements of culture:
-Values.
-Rituals.
-Symbols.
-Beliefs.
-Thought.
 Marketers must design 4 Ps with due consideration of each of the five elements.

Elements of Culture - Values

 Fundamental differences in cultural values exist among countries.
 Hofstede studied over 90,000 people in 66 countries; he found that cultures
differed along 4 primary dimensions:
-Individualism/Collectivism Index (IDV)
-Power Distance Index (PDI)
-Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)
-Masculinity/Femininity Index (MAS)

Elements of Culture - Rituals

 Patterns of behavior & interaction that are learned & repeated.
 Associated with major events in life.
-For example, marriage ceremonies & funerals, dinner at a restaurant or a visit to
a department store
 Coordinate everyday interactions and special occasions.
 Let people know what to expect.
Elements of Culture - Symbols
 Edward T. Hall says ‘culture is communication’.
-He talks about the ‘languages’ of time, space, things, friendships and
agreement’.
 Learning to correctly interpret the symbols is a key part of socialization.
 Learning starts immediately after birth.

Elements of Culture - Symbols: Language

 Language itself is a social institution with political influence (Canada).
 The number of spoken languages and cultural diversity are decreasing.
 Marketers must achieve expert communication.
 Be concerned less with obvious differences between languages & more with the
idiomatic meanings expressed.
-For example, Tambo means a ‘roadside inn’ in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, &
Peru ‘a diary firm’ in Argentina and a ‘brothel’ in Uruguay and in Chile.
 Language and international marketing are related.
 Linguistic distance increases transaction costs.
-Useful in market segmentation & strategic entry decisions.
 Languages around the world conform to family trees based on similarity of forms
and development.
-For example, Spanish, Italian, France, & Portuguese are all classified as
Romance languages because of their common roots in Latin.
 Influence of language on cultural values & expectations.
-For example, as English language spreads, the culture of individualism &
egalitarianism increases.

Elements of Culture - Symbols: Aesthetics As Symbols

 Components are the arts, folklore, music, drama,& dance.
 A picture is worth a thousand words.
 Responses to images, myths, & metaphors are based on consumers’ personal &
national identities & relationships within their culture.
-For example, think about the subtle earth tones of the typical Japanese
restaurant compared with the bright reds & yellows in the décor of ethnic Chinese
restaurants.
 Product styling, ad. & package designs must be aesthetically pleasing.
 Know the strong symbolic meanings.
-Four means death in Japan, thus tea cups are not sold in sets of 4.
 Marketers need to know the symbolic system in aesthetics.
Elements of Culture - Beliefs
 Most beliefs come from religious training.
 Relationship between superstition and religion is not at all clear.
-For example, one explanation of the origin of Western aversion to the number
13 has to do with Jesus sitting with his 12 disciples at the Last Supper.
 Many of our beliefs are secular in nature.
 Superstition plays a large role in a society’s belief system in some parts of the
world.
-For example, in parts of Asia, ghosts, fortune telling, palmistry, blood types,
head-bump reading, phases of the moon, faith healers, demons, & soothsayers can all
be integral elements of society.
 One person’s belief are another person’s funny story.
 Consider the importance of myths/ beliefs/ superstitions/ other cultural beliefs.

Elements of Culture - Thought Processes

 Thinking process vary across cultures.
-For example, Asians tend to see the whole picture & can report details about the
background & foreground. Westerners alternatively focus on the foreground & can
provide great details about central figures, but see almost nothing in the background.

Each of the cultural elements must be evaluated in light of how they might affect a
proposed marketing program.

Cultural Knowledge - Factual Knowledge

 Factual Knowledge is obvious and must be learned.

 Different meaning of colors, different tastes, and other traits in a culture are facts
that a marketer can anticipate, study, and absorb.
 It has a meaning as straightforward fact about a culture.
-For example, in Mexico 98% people are Roman Catholic, but equally important
is what it means to be a Catholic within Mexican culture vs being Catholic in Spain
or Italy.

Cultural Knowledge - Interpretive Knowledge

 It is an ability to understand and appreciate the nuances of different cultural traits

and patterns.
-For example, the meaning of time, attitudes and the understanding of one’s role
in society, and the meaning of life can differ considerably from culture to culture and
may require more than factual knowledge.
 It is something deeper and needs insight, like feeling.
 It is kind of knowledge that depends on past experience for interpretation.
 It is prone to misinterpretation if SRC is used.
 Easy to learn living with people in other cultures.
Cultural Knowledge - Cultural Sensitivity and
Tolerance
 It means being attuned to the nuances of culture so that a new culture can be
viewed and evaluated objectively.
 Cultural empathy must be carefully cultivated.
 Nothing is right or wrong, better or worse; they are simply different.
 The more exotic the situation, the more tolerant, flexible and sensitive be.
 Know how cultures change or accept or reject ideas.

Cultural Change
 Culture is dynamic in nature- a living process.
 That cultural change is constant is paradoxical because it is conservative and
resists to change.
 Cultural change:
-By war, like the change in Japan after World War II.
-By natural disaster.
-By seeking ways to solve the problems created by change in envt.
-By accident.
-By borrowing.
-By acculturation.

Cultural Change - Cultural Borrowing

 It is a responsible effort to learn from others’ cultural ways in the quest for better
solutions to a society’s particular problems.
 Cultural borrowing is common to all cultures.
 Cultural diversity is imitated from other cultures.
 Behaviors borrowed from other cultures are combined in a unique manner that
becomes a typical culture.

Cultural Change - Similarities: An Illusion

 Similar-but-different aspect of culture creates illusions of similarity that do not
exist.
-For example, both British & Americans speak English. An American when
speaking of a bathroom, generally refers to a toilet, whereas in England a bath room
is a place to take a tub bath.
 In economically unified Europe, there are variations in needs.
 There exists subcultures.
 Never rely on often-used axiom.
Cultural Change - Resistance to Change
 Culture change gradually.
 Change does not occur without some resistance.
 The degree of resistance to new patterns varies.
-Some are accepted completely and quickly and some are not.
 Hofsted’s data show that:
-acceptance of innovation varies across cultures.
-innovation is associated with higher IDV, lower PDI and UAI .
 Acceptance of innovation depends on:
-the degree of interest in the subject.
-how drastically the new will change the old.
 Resistance can be overcome.
 Feeling the need to change helps overcome resistance.
 Planned change may be required.

Cultural Change: Planned & Unplanned

 Planned change needs to:
-determine which cultural factors conflict with an innovation.
-change those factors from obstacles into stimulants for change.
 Two options when introducing any innovation:
-Wait -Cause change
 The latter involves introducing an idea and deliberately setting about to
overcome resistance.
 Not all marketing efforts require change to be accepted.
 Cultural congruence strategy can help overcome resistance.
 Unplanned change is to introduce a product and hope for the best.
-For example, the Japanese diet has changed since the introduction of milk &
bread soon after World War II.
 Marketing strategy is judged culturally in terms of acceptance, resistance, or
rejection.
 How marketing efforts interact with a culture determines the degree of success or
failure.

Cultural Change- Consequences of Innovation

 When product diffusion (acceptance) occurs, a process of social change may also
occur.
 Diffusion efforts inadvertently bring about changes.
 Consequences may be functional or dysfunctional, depending on whether the
effects on the social system are desirable or undesirable.
 Functional consequences are related to positive effect.
 Dysfunctional consequences are related to negative effect.
-For example, the introduction of a processed feeding formula into the diet of
babies in Nicaragua and other underdeveloped countries-protein deficiency and
breast-feeding to bottle feeding.
 Marketer’s concern is with perceived functional consequences.