a) Material Culture Material culture refers to tools, artifacts and technology. It is those products made by people.

It is not products produced by nature or naturally occurring. To understand this distinction lets take an example. A tree in itself is not part of a material culture, - a Christmas Tree is. Before marketing in a foreign culture it is important to assess the material culture like transportation, power, communications and so on. All aspects of marketing are affected by material culture like sources of power for products, media availability and distribution. For example, refrigerated transport does not exist in many African countries. Material culture introductions into a country may bring about cultural changes which may or may not be desirable.
Material culture refers to the results of technology and is directly related to how a society organizes its economic activity. It is manifested in the availability and adequacy of the basic economic, social, financial, and marketing infrastructure for the international business in a market. The basic economic infrastructure consists of transportation, energy, and communications systems. Social infrastructure refers to housing, health, and educational systems prevailing in the country of interest. Financial and marketing infrastructures provide the facilitating agencies for the international firms operation in a given marketfor example, banks and research firms. In some parts of the world, the international firm may have to be an integral partner in developing the various infrastructures before it can operate, whereas in others it may greatly benefit from their high level of sophistication. The level of material culture can aid segmentation efforts if the degree of industrialization of the market is used as a basis. For companies selling industrial goods, such as General Electric, this can provide a convenient starting point. In developing countries, demand may be highest for basic energy-generating products. In fully developed markets, time-saving home appliances may be more in demand. While infrastructure is often a good indicator of potential demand, goods sometimes discover unexpectedly rich markets due to the informal economy at work in developing nations. In Kenya, for example, where most of the countrys 30 million population live on less than a dollar a day, more than 11,444,000 cell phones (2007) have been bought; wireless providers are scrambling to keep up with demand. Leapfrogging older technologies, mobile phones are especially attractive to Kenyas thousands of small-time entrepreneursmarket-stall owners, taxi drivers, and even hustlers who sell on the sidewalks. For most, income goes unreported, creating an invisible wealth on the streets. Mobile phones outnumber fixed lines in Kenya, as