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IIR026

DEEP
insight

GLOBAL MARKETING

Tailoring Your Strategy


to Fit the Culture
W hen a company goes global,
it often doesn’t realize that
By MARIEKE DE MOOIJ

behavior across countries, in order to help


managers better understand the relationship
its strategy is a product of its between culture and strategy. Recognizing the
own culture. Culture influ- differences will lead to increased efficiency in
ences every aspect of a company’s strategy, a company’s global marketing effort and will
whether at the corporate level or the product/ ultimately condition the success of any multi-
brand level. For this reason, companies cannot national enterprise.
simply convert a national strategy into a global
strategy without first understanding the vari- Mission, Vision & Corporate
ous cultural dynamics at play. Identity A crucial element in the strategic
In this article, I will discuss three aspects planning of any organization starts with its
of global strategy: the company’s mission, vi- mission statement, an explicit formulation of
sion and identity, brand strategies, and com- what a company stands for, and linked to this,
munications. Drawing upon Geert Hofstede’s a vision statement indicat- ing where the
dimensions of national culture (see Five Cul- company wants to be in the future, sometimes
tural Dimensions) and my own extensive re- expressed as its strategic intent. Mis- sion and
search and consultancy work, I will consider vision should give focus to everyone who is
the convergence and divergence of consumer involved with the company, be it directly (em-
ployees) or indirectly (shareholders).
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Although the concept of the mission and Canon’s corporate philosophy of kyosei. Apart
vision are Western inventions, the practice from the collectivistic values such statements
has been universally embraced by compa- express, they also indicate a high degree of
nies worldwide. Providing a statement that power distance, as in the case of Toyota,
expresses a company’s strategic intent, its whose mission is headed: “Message from Top
philosophy, values, ethics or operational ef- Management.”
fectiveness has become standard global man- Also, contrast Microsoft’s mission, “To
agement practice. Yet closer analysis of such help people and business throughout the
statements reveals telling differences in con- world to realize their full potential,” with
tent and form across the world. Philips’ to “Improve the quality of people’s
The mission statements of U.S. compa- lives through timely introduction of meaning-
nies, for example, tend to be strong state- ful innovations.” The former reflects the Ang-
ments of identity and reflect the need for lo-Saxon value of self-actualization, while the
con- sistency, performance, leadership, latter reflects the quality-of-life preferences
greatness and growth – values that are shared more in keeping with the Dutch character.
among cultures that score high on In all these cases, it is vital that a company
individualism and cultural masculinity, and review its mission statement in light of its own
low on long- term orientation, like the cultural biases. A company’s view of itself ul-
United States does. So, General Electric timately reflects the values of its leaders, and
states: “Being a reliable growth company if these values are not shared across cultures,
requires consistent execu- tion on strategic then stakeholders elsewhere may have diffi-
principles that drive perfor- mance every culties identifying with the company. A truly
quarter and every year.” global company would include values that are
Meanwhile, in collectivistic cultures, shared by more cultures than just its own.
such as those found in Asia, social harmony Based on its mission and vision, a company
is prized and companies function more like then distills its corporate identity, which also
families. What the company stands for is reveals its core values. Usually the task of
more often expressed as “Harmony with Peo- creating a corporate identity begins with the
ple, Society and the Environment,” as in the selection of an appropriate corporate name.
case of Toyota. Or “All people, regardless of Other factors that contribute to corporate
race, religion or culture, harmoniously living identity include the logo of the organization
and working together into the future,” as in and marketing communications. All this, in-
cluding language, lettering and associations,
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
is logically a reflection of the home country of
the organization.
Many widely accepted lenges managers to let go of The British communications consultant
management theories re- their preconceived ideas and Nicholas Ind has defined corporate identity
lated to mission statements, insistence on consistency and as “an organization’s identity in its sense of
branding and advertising are standardization, which they self, much like our own individual sense of
Western inventions that do may think is being cost-effec- identity. Consequently, it is unique.” If we
not translate when companies tive, but in reality will never consider this definition carefully, we see that
go global. What plays well at succeed in scratching consum- it is, in fact, a culturally bound concept. First,
home may not go down so ers where they itch. To be truly the quality of uniqueness resonates primarily
well in foreign environments. effective, global marketing with individualistic cultures. Furthermore,
The author recommends that a strategies must articulate not the insistence by many organizations that
company conduct a full review the culture-bound values of there be worldwide consistency of all the el-
of its entire global marketing one particular company, but ements of corporate ID, so that the company
strategy – from its mission the values of the stakeholders is perceived universally, again derives from
and vision, to its portfolio, in all of the countries where Western notions.
positioning and product usage, the company operates. If not, In reality, corporate identity translates
to its communications and ad- stakeholders elsewhere may differently in different parts of the world.
vertising campaigns. Through- have difficulties identifying Sticking to uniqueness and consistency in
out the discussion, she chal- with the company. corporate identity can be counterproductive,

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Five Cultural Dimensions


n his seminal study, the Dutch sociologist Geert

I
3. In MASCULINE cultures, the dominant values are
Hofstede categorized national cultures according
achievement and success, whereas the dominant values
to five key dimensions, which have become widely
in FEMININE cultures are caring for others and quality of
accepted.
life. In MASCULINE cultures, performance, achievement
and status are important to show success. FEMININE
1. POWER DISTANCE is the extent to which less
cultures are more people-oriented, “small is beautiful”
powerful members of a society accept that power is
and status is not so important. Examples of MASCULINE
distributed unequally. In large power-distance cultures
cultures are Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and the
(e.g., China, Malaysia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia)
United States. Examples of FEMININE cultures are the
everybody knows their rightful place in society and their
Netherlands, Portugal, Scandinavia and Spain.
status corresponds with the importance of their
position, versus cultures of smaller power distance
4. UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE is the extent to which
(e.g., Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and
people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity
Scandinavia) where equality is favored.
and try to avoid these situations. In cultures with
strong uncertainty avoidance, there is a need for rules
2. In INDIVIDUALISTIC cultures, people look after
and formality to structure life. In weak uncertainty
themselves and their immediate family only; in
avoidance cultures, people tend to be more innovative
COLLECTIVISTIC cultures people belong to in-groups
and entrepreneurial. The countries of southern and
who look after them in exchange for loyalty. In
eastern Europe score high on uncertainty avoidance,
INDIVIDUALISTIC cultures, people want to differentiate
while Britain, Scandinavia and Singapore score low.
themselves from others; they develop unique
personalities. In COLLECTIVISTIC cultures, the need for
5. The fifth dimension distinguishes between LONG-
harmony makes people want to conform to others.
TERM ORIENTATION, which includes elements such as
Americans and northern Europeans tend to be
pragmatism, perseverance and thrift, versus SHORT-
individualists, while southern Europeans are moderately
TERM THINKING, which is associated with respect for
collectivistic. Asia, Latin America and Africa are
tradition, social obligations and saving face.
generally more collectivistic.

Hofstede, G., G.J. Hofstede and M. Minkov. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.

as not all elements are equally effective in Global Brand Strategies


all countries. Some companies have adapted Unilever and Procter & Gamble are large com-
successfully. Coca-Cola, for instance, when it panies, but not exactly household names,
entered the Chinese market, was able to find mainly because they have chosen to market
matching Mandarin characters that made their products by their brand names, not the
the similar sounding “Ko-Kou Ko-Le,” which company name. Why? It all goes back to the
roughly translates as “delicious happiness.” In in- dividualistic branding theory that
general, however, companies are not so readi- originated in the United States: Companies
ly adaptable and maintain their single-minded should differ- entiate products and brands, and
pursuit of across-the-board consistency. position them vis-à-vis competing brands; a
Global companies need to consider the dif- brand, like a hu- man being, should be
ferent cultural contexts in which they operate. positioned as a unique personality with a clear
Instead of formulating a consistent sense of identity. And that’s typi- cally what Unilever has
self, corporate identities would do better to done, choosing not to use its corporate name on
include some variations that take account of any of its different brands and products – until
more collectivist interpretations, where con- recently. Driven by the specifics of
ceptions of self can change according to vary- collectivistic cultures like Rus- sia, Japan and
ing social positions and situations. China, Unilever now includes its corporate
name on all its brands.
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Look around and you will see companies ics and diapers go together. In Asia, the name
have many different ways of using their corpo- and reputation of Shiseido alone is enough jus-
rate name as a brand. Some companies, such tification for giving the product a try.
as Sony, Mitsubishi and Daewoo, use their cor- In determining brand-extension fit, global
porate name on almost all of their products. marketers must consider the variety of ways
Some Western companies such as Heineken in which different cultures categorize other
(Amstel, Tiger) and Nestlé (Perrier, Nestea, people and objects. In certain experiments,
Kit Kat) keep using the brand names of the Chinese children will group items together
companies that they acquired. For some time, that share a relationship, whereas Canadian
P&G in China has added its corporate signa- children will group items together that share
ture to Head & Shoulders, and Nippon Lever a category. Ask an African to sort a few objects
has done likewise for its products in Japan. – say, some utensils, food items and clothes –
Danone, which masquerades under the brand and he will put a knife in a potato, as a knife is
name Lu in Europe, announces its corporate needed to slice a potato. Japanese and Chinese
name on the same type of product in Asia. languages don’t even have words for the con-
None of this is chance but is determined cept of personality in the sense of the person
by the different sales process in individualis- as a unique entity separate from the social en-
tic versus collectivistic cultures. Whereas in vironment. There, harmony and trust are the
individualistic cultures the sales process is di- basis of business.
rect and based on argumentation and persua- Such cultural differences have profound
sion, in collectivistic cultures the sales pro- im- plications for brand strategy, as studies by
cess starts with building trust between seller Mon- ga and others have shown. In the United
and buyer. Also, consumer decision making in States, “fit” is judged on the basis of product
collectivistic cultures is based on trust in the class simi- larity, so U.S. consumers would
company, not on uniqueness of the brand, so view a brand ex- tension into a different
knowing the company behind the brand is of product category as not fitting with the
utmost importance to consumers. parent brand. In other countries, trust in the
This is why in Asia, especially, companies overall reputation of the company is enough,
tend to stick to using one corporate brand so they are able to accept bigger leaps across
name, or the company cosigns its name along- product categories. This is why Japanese
side product brand names at the very least. consumers can hold cosmetics, diapers and
Because brands are most successful if they are even food categories together under one Shi-
linked to companies that are trusted by con- seido label, while European companies such as
sumers, all sorts of products or brand exten- Nivea are more careful to limit line extensions
sions that would never fit in the West, can sit to related personal care products only.
together comfortably in Asia. For example, a
line of diapers produced by the Japanese cos- Brand Positioning Across Cultures
metics company Shiseido would be judged in When marketing a brand, companies typically
the West primarily in terms of whether cosmet- start with a positioning statement, which links
the internal and external aspects of the
brand. Internal aspects include the identity,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
values and personality that the company wants
to convey about the brand by which consumers
are sup- posed to recognize it. External aspects
include
Marieke de Mooij is a visiting Willem de Kooning academy Erasmus University and Gron- ingen
professor at various univer- in Rotterdam, and seminars at University. She is the
sities, including the Euro- author of several publications on the influence
pean University Viadrina in of culture on marketing and advertising,
Germany and the University which are used by practitio- ners and
of Navarra in Spain. In the universities world- wide. She is also a
Netherlands, she teaches business consultant in cross-cultural
Cultural Perspectives at the communications.

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the image – how the
consumer perceives the brand
– and usage – how the brand’s
products are used in daily
life. A brand is considered
well positioned when there is a
proper match- up between
these aspects. Of this mix of
ele- ments, the product itself
and the communica- tion are
the most culturally sensitive
elements. INTERNAL ASPECTS.
Many international companies
aspire to go beyond just
presenting product at- tributes
or consumer benefits, and
they attempt

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Opting for consistency stems from an obsession for


control. It would be a fundamental error to attempt to
project your own value of consistency into strategies
targeted at consumers of different cultural values.

to inject personality characteristics and values to consumers, they convert them into per-
associated with the product in the mind of sonalities that fit their own culture. So, the
the consumer. Moreover, they want these same product may be viewed as trustworthy in
values to be communicated consistently across high uncertainty-avoidance cultures, where
target groups and across countries. Anglo- people want to reduce anxiety; as prestigious
American companies, in particular, have in high power-distance cultures, where
adopted this ap- proach. Thus, happiness is people need status symbols; and as innovative
used to sell fast food, success to sell cars, in low uncertainty-avoidance cultures, where
unlimited human potential to sell running shoes. people like change. Also, many of the most
Yet such values are not of equal importance successful global brands are older products,
to all cultures. One Levi’s commercial showed which have become so ingrained in the daily
two people running fast, to communicate a lives of con- sumers around the world that
positive brand value – freedom of movement. In they have em- braced them as their own, and
Spain, however, viewers saw not freedom but thus, they have become embedded in local
competition, which they don’t much like. cultures.
Opting for consistency in global branding This is what I mean by being out of control.
strategies stems from an obsession for con- Global marketing managers deceive them-
trol. Companies know what plays well with selves if they make consistency their goal. It
the home crowd, and the idea that consumers would be a fundamental error to attempt to
elsewhere might perceive their products as project your own value of consistency into
having different values from those the com- strategies targeted at consumers of different
pany intended causes brand managers to be cultural values.
out of control. An alternative option, and one that may
Ideally, the values the marketer injects serve to restore a certain degree of control, is
into the brand should be reflected in what the to define culturally specific brand characteris-
consumer takes away. But there is no getting tics for each of the countries in which you op-
around the fact that the gap between identity erate. Try to discern what is meaningful with
and image only grows wider the more you respect to the brand and its role in people’s
move across cultures. What consumers take lives in different cultures, and load the brand
out is often very different from what the with various core values, so that even though
company puts in. In a six-nation study of the the product may be the same worldwide, con-
impact of culture on brand perceptions, sumers in each market believe they are being
Foscht et al. made this point, citing Red Bull spoken to by someone who understands them
as an example of a brand that has been and who talks and feels just as they do.
marketed with a con- sistent brand identity, EXTERNAL ASPECTS. The second part of the posi-
yet consumer take-out varies across cultures. tioning equation is how consumers deal with
Brands that have been successful globally the brand and the products being presented to
may be more a function of their high quality them. Knowing how a brand is perceived and
and intensive distribution channels than any how the brand’s products are being used is
consistent brand identity put across by a essential for defining the brand identity. In-
mar- keting manager, because consumers depth consumer research is needed to prevent
ultimate- ly attribute their own identities to the development of products that don’t serve
brands that fit their own values, rather than the culturally specific needs. For years, Western
other way around. As certain brands become companies have been selling irons to Japanese
important
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and Korean consumers, only to discover, at a very late
stage, that they do

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FIGURE 1
The Future of Global Strategy
THE NEW PARADIGM IS CULTURAL SEGMENTATION: DEFINE MARKETS BASED ON CULTURAL SPECIFICS, AND THE
DEVELOP CULTURE-FIT STRATEGIES.

Mission, Vision &


Branding & Positioning Communications &
Corporate Identity
Advertising
INTERNAL ASPECTS EXTERNAL ASPECTS

Review in light
Define culturally specific brand Conduct in-depth Communicate values that
of your own company’s
characteristics for each of the consumer research to match those of the receiver
cultural biases
countries in which you operate make sure you are rather than the producer
Include values shared serving culturally
Discern what is meaningful Information gathering may
by more cultures than specific needs
and its role in people’s lives not be the top aim of your
your own
in different cultures Use past or current advertising
Instead of insisting on a behavior to predict the
Load the brand with different Use other planning models
consistent sense of self, future
core values in different that put feelings rather than
include conceptions that
cultures, so that consumers in Map your target thinking first
can change according to
each market believe they are countries for varying
varying social positions Define according to each
being spoken to by someone approaches
and situations and every market
who speaks their language
Recognize limitations of
Vary identities by culture and measuring brand equity
recognize that, in most parts of across countries
the world, consumers
associate not with abstract
identity terms but real people,
like celebrities

Leverage existing reputations


in different countries if your
brand is older and established
as “new” consumer
behavior is, in fact, a fresh

not iron standing up but sitting down. This obvi-


ously asks for different ergonomic requirements.
In general, product usage does not change
overnight, although marketing and advertis-
ing people tend to think it does. People’s be-
havior is quite stable, and contrary to what the
media would have us believe, it changes much
less than we think. Much of what is regarded

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manifestation of old, existing behavior.
Because people’s behavior is more or less stable, past or
current behavior can be used to predict the future – something
to bear in mind when developing and marketing new products.
Western companies may have thought they were witnessing a
fundamental shift when the Japanese increasingly donned
Western-style clothing following World War II, but the start of
the 21st century sees a new generation of Japanese
reclaiming the kimono and other traditional garb. Cultures may
choose to try out new things because it delivers social status for
a time, but eventu- ally people revert to their old culturally con-
ditioned habits and preferences.
The fact that cultural behavior is rela- tively fixed also
means there is very little

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convergence of behavior happening across Communications & Advertising


cultures, even with the greater wealth and When it comes to global communications and
development that globalization brings. The advertising, once again multinational compa-
wealthier that countries become, the more nies want to opt for a standardized approach
the influence of culture on consumption because of the obvious benefits of economies
and consumer behavior manifests itself. of scale. However, what they gain by econo-
More discretionary income gives people mies of scale, they lose in effectiveness.
more freedom and choice to express them- For a long time, international advertising
selves, and that expression will be based, strategists believed that emotional or feelings-
in part, on their indigenous value systems. based appeals would travel better than think-
They may choose more leisure time or more ing-based appeals, because of the assumed
status goods or more self-improvement, but universality of human values such as love and
no matter what they choose, it will be his- happiness. Analysis of advertisements in inter-
torically and culturally defined. Wealth es- national media such as Newsweek, BusinessWeek
sentially makes it easier for people to select and CNN shows that this is the approach that
brands according to their preferred cultur- has been taken by U.S. companies in particular.
ally determined behaviors. This underscores In reality, however, the messages being com-
the importance of developing a multifaceted municated are less universal than is commonly
marketing approach, because the same brand assumed, more a reflection of the home coun-
will represent something very different to a try’s own value system. As with a company’s
Portuguese as opposed to a Vietnamese con- identity and its brand strategies, advertising
sumer. must also communicate values that match
This relates to the image of the brand those of the receiver rather than the culture
that is held in the mind of the consumer. For of the producer. Advertising is most effective
some, the brand will have human-like quali- when it succeeds in reflecting the culture of
ties that they may even associate with a real the consumer it is trying to reach.
person; for others, it boasts specific product Underlying many of our assumptions about
features and forms part of a trusted family of how advertising works we find more Anglo-
products. When formulating the brand iden- Saxon-derived theories related to how people
tity, be aware that not every culture will make supposedly process information – how they
the same associations, and this affects how acquire it, how they organize it, how they use
you measure brand equity. it. People of collectivistic or high-context cul-
Global companies like to measure the eq- tures are more accustomed to symbols, signs
uity of their brands in the various countries and indirect forms of communication, which
in which they operate. One way they do this is very different from the way people of indi-
is by measuring brand associations. Many vidualistic, low-context cultures process in-
of these associations are abstract, and col- formation, which is more verbal, explanatory,
lectivistic cultures generally do not relate persuasive and rhetorical. In individualistic,
well to brands in the abstract sense, more in low power-distance cultures, people actively
terms of specific product features. Studies acquire information via the media – books,
by Koçak and others have shown significant newspapers and so on – to prepare themselves
variations in brand evaluations depending for purchases. In collectivistic, high power-
on the cultural conditions. Hsieh calculated distance cultures, on the other hand, people
brand value based on associations for 18 car base their buying decisions more on feelings
brands in 16 countries. He found that the av- and trust in the company, which they acquire
erage brand value was higher in the European via frequent social interactions in which
countries than in the Asian ones, and these knowledge is absorbed unconsciously.
differences appear to correlate with individ- Study after study bears this out. A 2002
ualism. With this in mind, it is important that consumer survey by Eurobarometer asked
your benchmarking measures take account people to what degree they viewed themselves
of national weighting factors like this when as “well-informed” consumers. Those who
seeking to determine a brand’s relative value regarded themselves as “well-informed” all
in a global market. correlated with low power-distance, low un-

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certainty-avoidance, individualistic cultures. response of the


In 2008, Mediascope gathered data about the
effect of online research on the brand chosen:
this, too, correlated with low power-distance
and low uncertainty-avoidance cultures.
Whenever people are asked to think about
how well they are informed about all sorts of
is- sues – from the environment to politics –
the findings follow this same pattern.
Basically, it is the configuration of
individualism, low power-distance, low
uncertainty-avoidance and low-context
cultures, which are essen- tially the northern
and western European countries and Anglo-
Saxon cultures, in which people consciously
search for information and are verbally
oriented.
But what happens when advertising de-
signed for one of these audiences is targeted
at Chinese consumers, who rely more on word
of mouth because of their higher rate of group
contact? What about southern and eastern
European countries? Europe, despite its at-
tempt at union, is by no means monolithic. A
2007 Eurobarometer poll across 24 different
European countries found that uncertainty
avoidance explained 63 percent of differences
between countries with respect to reading
books. This also applies to newspaper reading.
Given such wide variance across cultures, why,
then, do mainstream models of how advertis-
ing works regard information gathering as the
No. 1 aspect?
Consider the well-known advertising
planning model developed by Richard Vaughn
and his associates at the Foote, Cone & Beld-
ing agency. The FCB matrix suggests four se-
quences in the process by which advertising
influences consumers: LEARN, FEEL, DO; FEEL,
LEARN, DO; DO, LEARN, FEEL; DO, FEEL, LEARN. Many
advertisers use this as a rule of thumb to help
them in deciding which aspects to emphasize
when marketing their products: facts for car
insurance, price for routine purchases like
toothpaste. But these distinctions and catego-
ries fall largely into the “thinking” camp, with
purchase decisions made according to rational
economic motives.
Gordon Miracle has argued that, for the
Japanese consumer at least, another sequence
is valid: FEEL, DO, LEARN. Japanese advertising, he
explains, is based on building a relationship of
trust between the company and the
consumer. As a result, “feel” is the initial
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Japanese consumer, after which action is tak- en: a visit to the
shop to purchase the product. Only after this comes knowledge.
When deal- ing with different cultures, more strategies are needed
than fit neatly into a single box.
A communications and advertising strat- egy that is defined
according to each and every distinct market may make Western
marketers nervous, but in the end, it earns money by be- ing
more effective than taking a one-size-fits- all approach. If you
want to reach consumers in different parts of the world, my
advice is al- ways the same: Speak to them in a way they un-
derstand, that fits their communication style. The new
paradigm is cultural segmenta-
tion: defining markets based on their cultural specifics, and then
developing culture-fit strategies. A strong corporate identity
needs to go hand in hand with cultural sensitivity. In- stead of
being “consistent,” companies should be pragmatic and adapt to
the cultural mind- sets of consumers. This is the future of global
strategy.


De Mooij, M. Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding TO KNOW MORE
Cultural Paradoxes, third edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications, 2010.


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