All images in this presentation are used for educational purposes. Fair dealing.

44

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
MGT 382
Dr. Zahra Shah

International Consumers &

Cultural Differences
1
 Agenda

• Understand how cultural differences inform

differences in consumption

• Examine applications of key culture-informed

consumer behaviour theories to marketing
strategy and decision making

2
 Recap: Multiculturation
 Migration and globalisation are amongst the driving forces
behind multiculturation

 Culture is learnt through socialisation

 Acculturation
 Enculturation

Multiculturation: “…a process of changes in the cultural

identification and consumption behaviors of individuals that
happen when the individual, social group and/or society as a
whole come into continuous contact with multiple cultures.”

 Levels of culture formation: Transnational level, national level,

Group level and individual level 3
 Types of cultures in
global environment
 Alden et al. (1999) were first to identify Global, Foreign and
Local cultures – but associated Foreign and Local cultures
with national level

 This view was subsumed by Global-Local categorisation which

you still will see dominating books. The concept of
glocalisation stems from this view

 Kipnis, Broderick and Demangeot (2014) argued for the need

to return to Global, Foreign and Local cultures view but go
beyond national level when considering how these cultures
are understood by consumers

4
 Multiple cultural forces that
can shape cultural identities

5
Kipnis et al. (2014)
 Analysing marketing
environment
Secondary (desk) research
 National statistics bureaus reports (population by ethnic groups; religion
etc)

 Country background reports by market analyst

organisations (Datamonitor; Euromonitor; Business Monitor)
 Consumer lifestyle trends reports by market/marketing
research agencies (AC Nielsen, Mintel, Euromonitor)
 Industry publications (Marketing Week; The Marketer; Campaign; FT etc)
 Consumer research developments (journal papers; academic books;
Hofstede’s cultural values index; academic research projects reports etc)

Primary research. Not a requirement for your assignments!

6
 Recap: culture shapes behaviour

 Values, attitudes, customs, language, symbols: people learn

these through socialisation and internalise them (or not)
 Provides people with a frame of identity references – cultural
self is one of many forms of social self (Reed, 2002; Belk, 1988)
which is fundamental to identity. It provides individuals with
“the sense of the self derived from formal or informal
membership in groups that impart knowledge, beliefs, values,
attitudes, traditions, and ways of life” (Jameson, 2007, 200).
 Self-reference criteria (SRC): “unconscious reference to own
culture when examining others” (Lee, 1966)

7
 Types of cultural identity references

 Ethnic/racial identity

 National identity

 Affiliative identity

 Religion, gender, ability/disability, regional

Subjective aspect of identity construction/perception

8
 Ethnic and racial identity

• Multiple groups
– America, Singapore, Malaysia, UK
– vs. Japan (ethnicity synonymous with national culture)
• International/intercultural families, mixed race
• Multiple ethnic/racial
identities

Cheerios Advert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLAYkUHnvWw

Source: http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/samoan/en/audiotrack/are-mixed-race-people-more-attractive
9
 National identity

• A sense of belonging to a nation

• Citizenship = national identity?
• Monocultural ethnic composition vs ‘multiculture’?

Molson beer examples:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_yW4-cgG4g
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtiqWBuFROM
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmpGg6Jydq4

10
 Affiliative identity

• A sense of self derived from emotional bonds and

deployment of a culture(s) that is unconnected to
one’s ethnic ancestry and/or nationality (Jiménez,
2010)
• International/intercultural families
• Short-term migration, refugees, etc
• Global citizenship

11
 Same or different?
• Factors favouring convergence:
– Rise of telecommunications Convergence vs.
Divergence theory
– Rise of the Internet and satellite TV
– Economic systems are clearly converging
– Marketing infrastructures are converging
– Marketing knowledge is largely Anglo American and has been
adopted worldwide.

• Travel, global media and technology bring us

together, but do we retain differences?

12
 Multiple cultural forces that
can shape cultural identities

Kipnis et al. (2014) HSBC ‘We are not an island

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ3uwPHUV9w
SAS ‘What is truly Scandinavian’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShfsBPrNcTI 13
 Types of cultures – definitions

 Global culture: is a set of universal values, beliefs, lifestyle, products and

symbols that are developed through contributions from knowledge and
practices in different parts of the world, are present, practiced and used
across the world in a broadly similar way and symbolize a connectedness
with the world, regardless of one’s residence or heritage.

 Local culture: a set of values beliefs, lifestyle, products and symbols

characteristic of one’s locale of residence, which originate in the locale
and uniquely distinguish this locale from other locales.

 Foreign culture: a set of values, beliefs, lifestyle, products and symbols

originating from and represented by an identifiable cultural source (a
country or group of people) different from LC, and is known to individuals
either as culture-of-origin, diasporic culture of ethnic ancestry or an
aspired-to foreign culture with no ancestral links.
14
Kipnis et al. (2014)
 How culture shapes consumption – I

 All places (countries) and cultures have certain images in

people’s minds, whether they identify with these cultures or
not
 Consumers use perceptions/knowledge of cultures existing in
their minds to act as mental references or schemas for
evaluating consumption objects and experiences
 Consumers derive brand knowledge from signals, or cues – can
also be referred to as appeals (Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999;
Keller, 1993)
 Consumers contrast cultural associations assigned to a brand
against their perceptions of countries/cultures to inform brand
evaluations

15
 How culture shapes consumption - II
 Country/culture associations (either of the producing company
or of the product itself) influence the perceptions of and
responses to functional and symbolic attributes of the brand:
county/culture-of-origin, or COO effect

 Identity accessibility effect: unconscious reference to one’s

cultural identity schema(s) influence information processing.
Building on SRC.

16
All images in this presentation are used for educational purposes. Fair dealing.

44

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
MGT 382
Dr. Zahra Shah

International Consumers &

Cultural Differences
17
 COO effect:
history and key elements
 First proposed by Dichter (1962), and was then viewed the effect
of ‘made in’ information on product/brand
perceptions/evaluations

 Based on country/culture beliefs: mental & verbal processes which

reflect our assessment of other countries and cultures based on
knowledge or assumptions. Examples:
 Which country is best in cricket?
 Which culture is leading in fashion/style?
 Which country makes best cars?
 Which country/culture do you really really like? Why? (history, heritage,
political events etc)
18
 COO effect
 COO associations can be positive & negative, generic and/or
country/category specific

 COO associations can be cognitive, normative and affective

(Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999):
 Cognitive: COO indicates quality, safety, taste – functional
attributes
 Normative: are based on beliefs about social acceptance and
personal/collective integrity associated with engaging with a
specific country
 Affective: symbolic value and emotional significance of a
specific country for consumer
19
 Culture-based attitudes
 Culture-based attitudes are about how one feels about ‘us’
(e.g., cultural ingroups) and ‘others’ (cultural outgroups)

 ‘Us versus others’  dislike (of ‘others’ or ‘us’) – centres

on one or another

 ‘Us and others’  neutrality/liking

20
 Country/culture based
attitudes (centristic)

 Ethnocentrism: favourable attitude towards own country/culture (in-group)

combined with an unfavorable attitude towards others (outgroups) (Sumner
1906; Shimp and Sharma 1987)
 Patriotism: Strong emotional attachment to own country/culture (Han 1988;
Feshbach 1990)
 Nationalism: emotional belief in own country's superiority combined with
hostility towards the others (Druckman 1994; Frank 1999)
 Xenophobia: extremely negative views about and dislike of foreigners (De
Master and Le Roy, 2000)
 Animosity (Klein 1998; 2002)
 Xenocentrism/xenophilia: favorable attitudes towards outgroups
(countries/cultures) combined with rejection of in-group (Kent and Burnight
1951)

21
 Country/culture based
attitudes (non-centristic)
 Internationalism: positive feelings for other nations and their people,
concern for welfare of people in other countries (Kosterman and Feshbach 1989)

 Cosmopolitanism: readiness to engage with diverse cultural experiences,

i.e. world citizenship; “willingness to engage with the other” (Hannerz 1992,
p. 252; Cannon and Yaprak 2002)

 World-mindedness: acceptance and adaptability to ideas and cultural

norms of other countries/cultures. Concern for social, environmental
issues in context of the world (Hannerz 1992)

 Cultural openness: acceptance or no hostility towards foreign cultures

(Sharma et al 1995)

22
 From COO to
culture-of-brand origin (COBO)
 Globalisation resulted in complexity of company operations: several products are
designed in one place, manufactured in another, have headquarters located in
yet another one and so on
 Therefore, it became difficult to maintain definition of COO as ‘made in’ effect.
The more recent view is the notion of ‘decomposed’ COO that includes the
following key elements (Pharr, 2005): Country-of-design (COD); Country-of-
manufacture (COM); Country-of-parts (COP) Country-of-assembly (COA) and
 Culture-of-brand-origin (Lim and O’Cass, 2002) or culture-of-brand (Steenkamp,
2014)
 From ‘brand origin’ to ‘brand culture, cultural branding or brand meaning’: brand
‘globalness’; ‘foreignness’; ‘localness’ (Schroeder 2009; Guzman & Paswan, 2008;
Cayla & Arnould, 2008; Özsomer, 2012; Steenkamp et al., 2003)
 ‘Hybrid’ culture/country-based positioning approaches: multiple COO and/or
COBO cues – multicultural branding (glocal brands)
23
 Why is COBO important
 Normative and symbolic associations can override functional
evaluations (Mikhailitchenko et al. 2009)  identity and social
membership maintenance
 Functional attributes can be easily copied (Steenkamp, 2014)

“In a world where commoditization is an ever lurking threat, the

ability to link your brand to a particular type of consumer culture is
seen as an important way to differentiate yourself” (Steenkamp 2014
p. 15)

24
 Impacts on positioning
 Brand-culture association(s): an element of brand identity

“Lenovo views itself as a global company with roots in China”

(Lenovo’s Chief Marketing Officer David Roman quoted in Backaler, 13th May
2012; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17998321)

Stella Artois example :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZCWj2GoG0A

 A wide range of marketing decision-making implications – we will

examine this in coming weeks
 Applications in international market research and segmentation –
see readings list
25
 Identity accessibility effect
 Culture-based appeals conveyed by consumption objects and
experiences that are consistent with identity schema increase
accessibility (i.e., relevance to an individual) and diagnosticity (i.e.,
usefulness to an individual) of these appeals to an individual for
evaluation (Forehand et al., 2002).
 Two outcomes:
 Information processing
 Self congruence or incongruence (e.g., this is me, or not me)

26
 Impacts on ads and communication
• How people communicate varies
– Low context  explicit, direct, facts, data, words
– High context  implicit, indirect, visual, metaphors
• Implications in advertising, web design,
interpersonal communication
• Different styles relate to different purposes
• Anglo-Saxon world, Germany: sale/ persuasion -
ads persuades through argumentation, direct style
• Most of Europe, Asia: relationship/ trust/ likability -
more indirect, complex communication styles,
e.g. emotions, metaphors, art. - direct style offends.
(Source: de Mooj 2013)

Examples- John Frieda in the UK and Nike in South Korea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=rXmPRxB4TAE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Flrod0Sgs27
 Example
– Chinese: rely on visual
presentation, brand name
rendered in appealing
writing (calligraphy)
– English native speakers
also pay attention to sound
qualities of brand names
(onomatopoeic)
– Japanese? Your language?
Pictographic/ ideographic
vs. Phonetic?

(source: student coursework)

28
 Impacts on ads - representation
Some examples:
• Language
• Colours
• Ad models
Your thoughts?

Volvo example: (remember to watch)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbvdzQ7uVPc
29
 Ethical and CSR considerations
• Stereotypes: identification of a person’s individual attribute(s) with
few generalized characteristics believed to be fixed by nature and
representative of a given cultural group (Ashmore and Del Boca,
1981). May not be universal

• Negative vs positive stereotypes –harmful?

Downing and Husband (2005): “racism may also entail a distorted form
of admiration, such as obsession with the supposedly exotic qualities of
the Other(s)” (p.87).

• Othering: identification of a person as different from oneself and the

mainstream due to their cultural attributes, magnifying and
enforcing apparent differences in reference to oneself (Weis, 1995)
30
 Examples
• Stereotypes of the French
– Germans: Fashionable, womanising
– Dutch: Cultured, good living, talkative, not serious
– Spanish: Early sleepers, cold, impolite
– US: Chauvinistic, curious of visitors
– Russians: Lazy, intelligent.
– North Africans: Racist, stingy, honest, selfish
– Asians: Exhibitionist, bureaucratic

(Source: theenglishstudent.com)

Colorelia example: Withdrawn advert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qSwZT3VSFk 31
So if so much can go wrong, perhaps it is best
for marketers to avoid dealing with culture?
 Culture is pervasive and all-encompassing

 Getting it right is the right thing to do, and when ‘done well’
remarkable returns
Dear Future Mom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju-q4OnBtNU

Maltesers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-98GDrJZk4E

This campaign of Maltesers twice exceeded brand growth and affinity targets, achieving
8% to target 4% and 20% to target 10% respectively (Oliver, in Roderick, 2017 -
https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/03/10/mars-diversity-flipped/). 32