Social and Cultural

Environments
Chapter 4

Global Marketing

Tasks of the Global Marketers

Study and understand the country
cultures in which they will be doing
business
Incorporate this understanding into
the marketing planning process

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Conceptual Frameworks

Halls high and low context cultures

Maslows hierarchy
Hofstedes cultural typology
Self-reference criterion
Diffusion theory

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Culture
Ways of living, built up by a group of human
beings, transmitted from one generation to
another
Social institutions

Family
Education
Religion
Government
Business

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture

Physical components
of culture
Objects
Artifacts
Clothing
Tools
Pictures
Homes
Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Subjective or abstract
culture
Religion
Perceptions
Attitudes
Beliefs
Values

Cultural Universals

Athletics
Body adornment
Cooking
Courtship
Decorative arts
Education
Ethics
Property rights
Religious rituals

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Etiquette
Family feasting
Food taboos
Language
Marriage
Mealtime
Mourning
Music
Status differentiation
6

Attitudes, Beliefs, Values

Attitudes - learned tendency to respond in a
consistent way to a given object or entity
Belief - an organized pattern of knowledge
that an individual holds to be true about the
world
Value - enduring belief or feeling that a
specific mode of conduct is personally or
socially preferable to another mode of
conduct
Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Aesthetics and Color

What do you associate With white?
with Red?

Active, hot, vibrant

Weddings in some
Asian cultures
Poorly received in
African countries
Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Purity, cleanliness
Death in parts of Asia

Dietary Preferences
Would you eat..

Reindeer (Finland)
Rabbit (France)
Rice, soup, and grilled fish for breakfast (Japan)
Kimchi - Korea
Blood sausage (Germany)

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Language and Communication

Verbal Cues
Nonverbal cues or body language

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

10

Language and Communication

Linguistic Category Language Example
Syntax
Semantics
Phonology

Morphology

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

English has fixed word order; Russian

has free word order
Japanese words convey nuances of
feeling
Japanese does not distinguish between
the sounds l and r; English and
Russian have both l and r sounds
Russian is highly inflected compared
to English

11

High and Low Context Cultures

High Context
Information resides in
context
Emphasis on
background, basic
values
Less emphasis on legal
paperwork
Focus on personal
reputation

Saudi Arabia, Japan

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Low Context
Messages are explicit
and specific
Words carry all
information
Reliance on legal
paperwork
Focus on non-personal
documentation of
credibility

Switzerland, US,
Germany
12

Factors

High Context

Low Context

Lawyers

Less important

Very important

A persons word

His or her bond

Still must get it in writing

Responsibility for
organizational error Accepted at
highest level

Pushed to lowest level

Space

Close

Private space maintained

Time

Polychronic

Monochronic

Negotiations

Lengthy

Proceed quickly

Competitive bidding Infrequent

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

Common
13

Hofstedes Cultural Typology

Power Distance
Individualism / Collectivism
Masculinity
Uncertainty Avoidance
Long-term Orientation

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

14

Self-Reference Criterion
Unconscious reference to ones own cultural values; creates cultural myopia

How to Reduce Cultural Myopia

Define the problem or goal in terms of home country cultural traits

Define the problem in terms of host-country cultural traits; make no value judgements
Isolate the SRC influence and examine it
Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and solve

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

15

Diffusion Theory
Adoption process
Characteristics of Innovations
Adopter categories

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

16

The Adoption Process

1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Evaluation
4. Trial
5. Adoption
Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

17

Rate of Adoption can be explained

by these characteristics

Relative Advantage
Compatibility
Complexity
Divisibility
Communicability
Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

18

Adopter Categories (Fig. 4-1)

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

19

Environmental Sensitivity
(Fig. 4-3)

Keegan and
Green, Chapter 4

20