Importance of Culture in Success of International Marketing (original) (raw)

THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Marketing is one of the most essential components in business. The prosperity of the business is dependent on how well it survives in the selling of its products or service. It is this that makes marketing an imperative tool for company’s success more so when businesses nowadays are going global. However, just as firms are finding ways and means to sharpen their marketing skills to beat down competition they are confronted with series of challenges, among which is culture. Culture has now become issue in marketing especially international marketing due to different countries participating in global trade. Many authorities have researched into the extent of which culture impacts on trade. As a result, students of international marketing are required to delve into these matters of culture and how culture affects international marketing, hence this report. This report thus tries to review related literature on the impacts of culture on international marketing. In reviewing the literature, it came to the fore that culture positively or negatively impacts on international marketing. Many examples of failed and successful firms due to cultural related issues have been cited. Other authorities thought differently to state that failure and success of firms are dependent on factors other than culture. The literature, however, confirmed that really culture impacts on international marketing. The drawn conclusions include cultural impacts on international marketing, leadership and technology impacts on the foreign market. As part of recommendation, it is always important for foreign marketers to abreast themselves with the cultural issues in their area of operation in other to adjust to the changing needs of the people they market their product or service to. Although technology enhance their operation and even serve as the driving force such technology should be suitable to the culture they find themselves.

Culture as a Driving Force in Marketing Activities in The Global Market

Abstract- More and more organizations are evolving into multinational organizations, and as such there is a need for these organizations to penetrate local markets as well as dominate the global market. In other to accomplish this task of penetrating the local market the organization has to cross the barrier of culture. This paper reviews research done by previous scholars and attempts to establish the reasons for overcoming culture barrier in an attempt to be successful in the Global market. Keywords – Culture, Global Market, Marketing Activities.

Culture study in international marketing: a critical review and suggestions for future research

International Marketing Review, 2008

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present a critical review of culture study streams in international marketing and offer suggestions for future development. Design/methodology/approach -A comprehensive review of earlier and current approaches to culture study in international marketing is offered. Shortcomings of earlier studies are highlighted and suggestions for remedies are presented. Future research suggestions are also offered. Findings -Five streams of earlier studies and their shortcomings are presented, along with four avenues for future research. Practical implications -More sharply framed culture study will lead to a deeper understanding of culture's role in targeting, segmentation, and positioning and strategy formulation by scholars and managers of international marketing. Originality/value -The paper integrates a large body of research in an important research area in international marketing and offers future research directions.

International marketing and Culture

International marketers struggle to find the best way to tailor pieces of the marketing mix to each country or region. Customizing to each market is effective yet prohibitively costly, and standardizing one approach across the world is efficient and mostly ineffective. An approach based on cultural differences offers the solution, i.e. efficiency and effective impact. Extensive research of cultural differences among nations has revealed 5 dimensions explaining cultural differences and their implications for marketing. Packaging the dimensions into six regional culture clusters, this article introduces a new approach to segment the globe so marketing efforts are effective, relevant, focussed, and yet efficient. Globalization of

Impact of Culture on Marketing Strategies

Due to the era of globalisation where the economies are expanding and integrating with the other economies and are exposed to universal marketing mix, there is a need to understand the fact that promotion of a product is highly affected by the cultural patterns of different countries. The article attempts to identify and analyse the impact of culture on marketing strategies of different products. The choice of people and demand trends of different products depend upon customs, traditions and cultural values of specific region. The contribution of this article is attained by providing emphasis on how cultural diversification affects the marketing strategies and also discuss the role of country culture in determination of marketing programs for product promotion.

The Influence of Culture on Global Marketing Strategies: A Confirmatory Study

The International Journal of Business and Management, 2017

Background to the Study The revolution of technology has bridged the gaps between and among nations and continents. Thus, countries are now closer and interconnected than ever before. This phenomenon of interconnectedness is called globalization. Globalization is now a dominant force driving business and marketing strategies in the world today. That is, globalization of the world's economy and markets are leading companies and nations to become global players and investing across nations and continents (Ocansey & Enahoro, 2014). Several firms (including medium-scale to large scale) around the world (developed and emerging markets) are expanding their production and marketing activities beyond national and continental boundaries. Chatterjee (2016) posits that, due to the movement of people around the world and the widespread use of the internet, there has been an extensive interaction which is making the world a single society and has called for a global trade. What is really propelling the globalization of the world markets? The converging needs and wants of customers around the world have created the opportunity for globalization of markets and have stimulated global competition for global resources and customers. Djordjevic (2014) succinctly explains that, "regional economic agreements, converging marketing needs and wants, technology advances, pressure to cut down cost, pressure to improve quality, improvement in communication and transportation technology, global economic growth, and opportunities for leverage" (p.1) are the forces driving globalization. Many firms or organizations are established with the intention to expand and grow without any restriction to grow. The desire to grow stimulates the formulation of business strategies that help these firms or organizations to expand their marketing strategies beyond national and continental boundaries. In order for firms to be successful in global trade requires global marketing strategies. According to Djordjevic (2014), the use of various marketing efforts has created global markets from the common needs and wants of human nature around the world on cultural universality as differences. The continuous growth of this cultural universality has brought to bear "the emergence of international markets for consumers" (Naghi & Para, 2013, p. 2). Notwithstanding the globalization of the world, there are still differences in the way people live in different nations and continents. Thus, different cultures exist in different countries and difference continents. Cultural elements such as language, food, clothing, beliefs and practices differ from country to country and continent to content. Because firms seek to expand to other geographical boundaries, their global marketing strategies meet the barrier of culture. The fundamental shaper of consumer behavior is culture (Cleveland, Naghavi & Shafia, 2017). As asserted by Hart (2014) cultural study embodies the knowledge of custom and social behavior. The influence of culture on marketing strategies has highly been debated in academic literature in recent years. Articles published in ten renounced journals during 1996-2001 revealed that almost 10% of the articles used culture as the explanatory variable

DEFINING CULTURE IN A MARKETING MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVES

The purpose of this paper is to redefine the construct of culture both in marketing and in management perspectives. This research is focused on qualitative approach that is focused on a sound systematic literature review, and a sound documentary analysis on the construct of culture. The results indicate that culture can include several dimensions such as the aspect of religious beliefs, lifestyles, habits, and customs. Culture can also be viewed as these sets of life styles, beliefs, and habits that are inherited, created, either imitated or imported by a group of individuals or a community and that govern their daily lives. The findings imply that there should be a consideration of culture for both marketing and management strategic decisions. To the best of author's knowledge, this original research adds more value to the numerous previous research papers that are focused on defining the construct of culture in a marketing perspective and in a management perspective.

Instituting the Marketing Concept in a Multinational Setting: The Role of National Culture

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2001

A growing concern among international marketing managers is how to increase the market orientation and thereby performance of their transnational organizations. This study broaches this issue by investigating how the marketing concept, the heart of the market orientation, may be established in a multinational setting and the effects of national culture on that process. From a wide array of literature, the authors construct a theoretical framework and propositions on how global organizations may transform this philosophy from an abstract platitude to an operational reality. Theirfindings suggest that the process consists of complex, interdependent steps-interpretation, adoption, and implementation of the marketing concept. Cultural values shape interpretation and facilitate or impede adoption and implementation. The overall framework and findings can be used to guide institutionalization of the marketing concept across the organizational span, in particular by anticipating culture-based reactions from international subsidiaries. For nearly half a century, companies have been exhorted to follow a seemingly simple business philosophy: direct all organizational activities toward understanding and satisfying customers (Drucker 1954; Kotler 1988). Use of this philosophy, called the marketing concept, has been empirically associated with higher sales,