Global Marketing Management

Social and Cultural

Environments
Basic Aspects of Society and Culture
 Culture as “ways of living”
 Conscious and unconscious values, ideas, attitudes,
and symbols that shape human behaviour
 Culture is learned, not innate
 Culture defines the boundaries between different
groups
 All facets of culture are interrelated
The Search for Cultural Universals
 Universal = Mode of behaviour existing in all cultures
 Universal aspects = opportunities to standardize some
or all elements of a marketing program
 Cultural universals: athletic sports, body adornment,
religious rituals, music
 Increasing travel & improving communications are
leading to convergence
The Anthropologist’s Standpoint
 Must understand human experience from the local point
of view & become insiders with cultural empathy

 Need combination of tough-mindedness & generosity

 Tough-mindedness: be secure in your own convictions &
traditions
 Generosity: Appreciate the integrity & value of other ways
of life
High- and Low-Context Cultures
 Low-context culture:
 Messages are explicit
 Words carry most of the information in communication
 United States, Switzerland, Germany
High- and Low-Context Cultures
 High-context culture
 Less information is contained in the verbal part of the message
 More information resides in the context of communication
(background, associations, basic values of communicators)
 Japan, Saudi Arabia.
High- and Low-Context Cultures (3)
Factors High-Context Low-Context
Lawyers - less important - very important
A person’s word - his/ her bond - ‘get it in
writing’
Time - everything is dealt - ‘time is money’
with in its own time
Negotiations - lengthy - quick
Competitive - infrequent - frequent
Bidding
Communication and Negotiation
 Challenges in:
 Verbal communication
 Non-verbal communication

 Knowledge & understanding of cross-cultural differences is

crucial during negotiations

 “You can buy in your home-country language but you need

to learn your customers’ language to sell.”
Analytical Approaches to Cultural
Factors
 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

SELF-ACTUALISATION
ESTEEM
SOCIAL NEEDS
SAFETY NEEDS
PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS
Analytical Approaches to Cultural
Factors
 Hofstede’s cultural typology
 Cultures of different nations can be compared in terms
of four dimensions
 Power distance ( the extent to which the less resourceful in a
society expect the power to be distributed unequally)
 Integration into groups( As opposite to individualist culture).
 Masculinity
 Uncertainty avoidance ( The extent to which the members of
a society get unsettle when faced with disturbing things)
Analytical Approaches to Cultural
Factors
 Environmental Sensitivity
 The extent to which products must be adapted to the
culture-specific needs of different national markets
 Environmental sensitive products
 Require significant adaptation to the environments of various
global markets
 Environmental insensitive products
 Do not require significant adaptation
Handling Cultural Diversity (3)
 Example: Consumption of Soft Drinks (Y)
Y = f (A, B, C, D, E, F, G)

 A = influences of other beverages’ relative prices, quality,

taste
B = advertising expenditure and effectiveness, all beverage
categories
C = availability of products in distribution channel
D = cultural elements, tradition, custom, habit
E = availability of raw materials
F = climatic conditions, temperature, relative humidity
Handling Cultural Diversity (4)
 Culture always has been a major source for
disagreement and misunderstandings
 Cross-cultural complications can lead to costly failures
 Companies realize the importance of training and
supporting people in cultural awareness
 Cultural Diversity

 Why People Fail:

• Ethnocentric Orientation

• Ignorance

• Arrogance

• Time Factor
Summary
 Culture has both a pervasive & changing influence on
each national market environment
 Global marketers must recognize the influence of
culture
 Nations can be classified as high- or low-context
cultures
 Maslow’s hierarchy, Hofstede’s typology, and the self-
reference criterion can provide clues about cultural
differences & similarities