266 Reading: Cultural Factors Shaping the Global Marketing Environment
266 Reading: Cultural Factors Shaping the Global Marketing Environment
The Immense Impact of Culture in Global Marketing
Culture refers to the influence of religious, family, educational, and social systems on people, how they live their lives, and the choices they make. Marketing always exists in an environment shaped by culture. Organizations that intend to market products in different countries must be sensitive to the cultural factors at work in their target markets. Even cultural differences between different countries–or between different regions in the same country–seem small, marketers who ignore them risk failure in implementing their programs.
Culture is complex, and fully appreciating its influence takes significant time, effort, and expertise. Various features of culture can create an illusion of similarity, but marketers need to dig deeper to make sure they truly understand the people and environments in which they work. Even a common language does not guarantee similarity of interpretation. For example, in Canada, we purchase “cans” of various grocery products, but the British purchase “tins.” In India, where English is one of a number of officially recognized languages, “matrimonial” is used as a noun in casual conversation, referring to personal ads in newspapers seeking marriage partners.
Several dimensions of culture that require particular attention from global marketers are listed below.
Language
As suggested above, the importance of language differences cannot be overemphasized, and there are nearly three thousand languages in the world. Language differences can be a challenge for marketers designing IMC campaigns, product labels, brand and product names, tag lines, and so on. Finding a single brand name that works universally in terms of pronunciation, meaning, and “ownability” is a monumental challenge. Of course, correct and grammatical use of language in marketing communication is essential for a product, brand, or company to be viewed as credible, trustworthy, and of high-quality.
Language gains complexity when a country has more than one officially recognized language. To illustrate, in Canada, national law requires that labels include both English and French. In India and China, more than two hundred different dialects are spoken. India has more than twenty officially recognized languages. Mainland China’s official spoken language is Standard Mandarin, and several autonomous regions have designated other additional official languages. Meanwhile in Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese Chinese, English, and Portuguese are the official languages. Clearly, language can become a very complicated issue for marketers very quickly!
Finally, marketers should be attuned to what they communicate when they choose which languages to use–or not use. In Eastern Europe, for example, the long history of Soviet occupation during the Cold War has left many inhabitants with a negative perception of the Russian language. Products that carry Russ