Impact of Culture in International Marketing
The wave of globalization that has been witnessed in the last few decades has created new opportunities for global businesses in both trade and investment. As a result, there is a growing number of multinationals who are expanding their business into new international markets and also marketing their goods and services in this globalized market. With globalization fast-spreading, there is an increasing need to study the issues of cultural backgrounds and how they influence international marketing. Culture is defined as a set of rules, beliefs, and traditions that regulates the behavior of a particular person. Cultural values, to a larger extent, determine the success or failure of a business. This paper evaluates four elements of culture and how they influence international marketing. These are language, religion, manners and customs, and aesthetics.
Language is one of the elements of culture that have significant impacts on international marketing. This is because language is a key cultural element that expresses patterns of thinking of a [particular group of people. It is a reflection of the culture of a people expressed in words determining what they value and what they don’t value. In international marketing, linguistic communication is the most critical cultural aspect. Language is an expression of the civilization of a people and shows what an import and non-import to what is new and what is present is. Language affects different aspects of marketing, such as advertising, website content, product descriptions, and documentation (Kushwah et al., 2019).
Religion, in this regard, refers to a collection of shared beliefs, virtues, values, and rituals. Religion also has a significant influence on international marketing. It is essential for marketers to understand how religious beliefs affect the consumer culture in the markets where they operate, so as to align their marketing activities in compliance with those beliefs. For instance, religious beliefs dictate what consumers can buy and what they cannot, as well as the conduct of business. Major world religions observe various holidays that come complete with feasting and gift-giving. Such festive seasons provide marketers with a golden opportunity to increase their sales.
Every culture has a set of customs and manners that dictates their social behavior. It is important for marketers to learn about these manners and customs so that they can know what is acceptable within a particular culture and what is not accepted. This will help them align their marketing accordingly to avoid cultural conflict that can boomerang on their business. For example, in Japan, number four is believed to carry bad luck, and products labeled with digit four or packages containing four items tend to be avoided by customers. In this case, it will be safe for marketers to have their products packed appropriately.
The aesthetic design has become critical to the acceptance and success of a brand in today’s competitive business environment (Rana et al., 2020). As marketers go to the international market, it is important that they get the right aesthetics that can best help address your brand to consumers through various sensory experiences. Aesthetic value and designs are different from one culture to another, the fact that marketers should acquaint themselves to. They must study the local culture in detail before branding their products to suit that culture. For example, different cultures attach various colors to different symbols, and it is therefore important to choose colors that appeal positively to the sensory experiences of the consumers in that culture.
Reference
Kushwah, S., Shree, D., Rezaei, S., & Sagar, M. (2019). The impact of culture on consumer’s perception of brand identity. Journal of Islamic Marketing.
Rana, S., Prashar, S., Barai, M. K., & Hamid, A. B. A. (2020). Determinants of the international marketing strategy for emerging market multinationals. International Journal of Emerging Markets.