CHAPTER IV

THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

4.1 THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
Cultural Imperialism Does Not Sell in International Markets

 The dominance of U.S. cultural exports is felt everywhere. Of

the 50 worldwide highest-grossing films by 2008, all were U.S.
productions. Kung Fu Panda (which came in at thirty-sixth)
had grossed $631.5 million in its first year and had been the
top earner of the year in diverse markets such as Singapore
($4.3 million), Lithuania ($493,000), Argentina ($5.8 million).

 In television, during the initial stage of the life cycle, the

domestic industry has only fledgling production and cheap
imports-primarily from the United States-to fill the time slots.
With time, however, homegrown production develops and its
market share increases. The top TV show in South Africa is
Generations (a soap opera); in France, it is Julie Lescaut (a
police series); and in Brazil, it is O Clone (a soap opera).
Cultural Imperialism Does Not Sell in International Markets

 Art Attack, an art show for Disney Channel (which is seen

around the world), included 216 episodes shot in 26 different
languages. A single format (a set that features oversized paint
pots and paint brushes, in fuchsia pink and lime green).

 In Europe, a number of developments seem to conspire to

favor U.S. films. The spread of multiplex cinemas has
increased attendance, but the multiplexes tend to show more
U.S. movies. Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amѐlie Poulain, a French-
made romantic comedy, recaptured the French box office to
the tune of $37.7 million in receipts. It was one of four French
films released in 2001 that sold more than five million tickets,
beating a record set in 1947.
Cultural Imperialism Does Not Sell in International Markets

 The trade in entertainment is no longer a one-way street

making all who watch and listen clones of one another.
Much of the U.S. content going abroad is adjusted to its
markets, as is the material coming into the United
States. Britain’s Bob the Builder has hammered his way
into U.S. homes and the homes of 29 other countries but
with the loss of his Staffordshire accent; since its
introduction in May 2001, 2.9 million videos of this
animated series have been sold.
 Cultural Imperialism Does Not Sell in International Markets

 For years, marketers have been heralding the arrival of

the global customer, an individual or entity that would
both think and purchase alike the world or region over.
These universal needs could then be translated into
marketing programs that would exploit these similarities.
However, if this approach were based on the premise of
standardization, a critical and fatal mistake would be
made. Overseas success is very much a function of
cultural adaptability: patience, flexibility, and tolerance
for other’s beliefs.
Cultural Imperialism Does Not Sell in International Markets

 In expanding their presence, marketers will acquire not

only new customers but new partners as well. These
essential partners, whose efforts are necessary for
market development and penetration, include agents,
distributors, other facilitating agents (such as advertising
agencies and law firms), and, in many cases, the
government.
Cultural Imperialism Does Not Sell in International Markets

 Cultural differences often are the subject of anecdotes,

and business blunders may provide a good laugh.
Cultural diversity must be recognized not simply as a
fact of life but as a positive benefit; that is, differences
may actually suggest better solutions to challenges
shared across borders. Cultural competence must be
recognized as a key marketing skill.

 The intent of this chapter is first to analyze the concept

of culture and its various elements and then to provide
suggestions for meeting the cultural challenge.
 CULTURE DEFINED

 Culture gives an individual an anchoring point-an

identity-as well as codes of conduct. Of the more than
160 definitions of culture analyzed by Alfred Kroeber and
Clyde Kluckhohn, some conceive of culture as
separating humans from non-humans, some define it as
communicable knowledge, and some see it as the sum
of historical achievements produced by humanity’s
social life. Common ways of thinking and behaving that
are developed are then reinforced through social
pressure. Geert Hofstede calls this the “collective
programming of the mind.”
 CULTURE DEFINED

 Culture is defined as an integrated system of learned

behaviour patterns that are distinguishing characteristics
of the members of any given society. Every person is
encultured into a particular culture, learning the “right
way” of doing things. Problems may arise when a
person encultured in one culture has to adjust to another
one. The process of acculturation-adjusting and
adapting to a specific culture other than one’s own-is
one of the keys to success in international operations.
 CULTURE DEFINED

 Edward T. Hall, who has made some of the most

valuable studies on the effects of culture on business,
makes a distinction between high and low context
cultures. In high context cultures, such as Japan and
Saudi Arabia, context is at least as important as what is
actually said. The speaker and the listener rely on a
common understanding of the context. In low context
cultures, however, most of the information is contained
explicitly in the words. North American cultures engage
in low context communications.
 CULTURE DEFINED

 The international manager’s task is to distinguish

relevant cross-cultural and intracultural differences and
then to isolate potential opportunities and problems.
Good examples are the Hispanic subculture in the
United States and the Flemish and the Walloons in
Belgium. For example, IKEA’s research in the United
States found that Latin families wanted bigger dining
room tables to accommodate bigger families. Here the
international business entity will act as a change agent
by introducing new products or ideas and practices.
 CULTURE DEFINED

 The example of Kentucky Fried Chicken in India illustrates

the difficulties marketers may have in entering culturally
complex markets. KFC could have alleviated or eliminated
some of the anti-Western passions by taking a series of
preparatory steps:
1. First, KFC should have allied with local partners for advice
and support.
2. Second, KFC should have tried to appear more Indian
rather than using high-profile advertising with Western
ideas.
3. Finally, KFC should have planned for reaction by
competition that came from small restaurants with political
clout at the local level.
 CULTURE DEFINED

 In some cases, the international marketer may be

accused of cultural imperialism, especially if the
changes brought about are dramatic or if culture-specific
adaptations are not made in the marketing approach. In
2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization passed the Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural
Expressions, which declares the right of countries to
“maintain, adopt, and implement policies and measures
that they deem appropriate for the protection and
promotion of music, art, language, and ideas as well as
cultural activities, goods, and services.
4.2 THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
 Cultural Sustainability: Protecting
Feta and Mozzarella
 In October 2005, the European Court of Justice brought
to a close one of the most controversial disputes over
geographic indications, removing the right of any non-
Greek EU producers to use the name Feta for cheese.

 If European negotiators in the World Trade Organization

get their way, food names associated with specific
regions-Parma ham from Italy, Stilton cheese from the
United Kingdom, and Marsala wine from Italy-would be
reserved solely for companies located in the respective
regions.
 Cultural Sustainability: Protecting
Feta and Mozzarella
 For many, the European idea is bald-faced protectionism and has
no merit on protecting cultural values. “This does not speak of
free trade; it is about making a monopoly of trade,” said Sergio
Marchi, Canada’s ambassador to the WTO. “It is even hard to
calculate the cost and confusion of administering such a thing.”

 Furthermore, no market is only an exporter of culture. Given the

ethnic diversity in the United States (as in many other country
markets), programming from around the world is made readily
available. Global marketers and media have made it possible for
national and regional artists to break into worldwide markets,
especially the U.S. and European markets. Thailand’s Tata Young
has been signed by SONY BMG to be groomed for global
stardom.
 Cultural Sustainability: Protecting
Feta and Mozzarella
 The worst scenario for marketers is when they are
accused of pushing alien behaviors and values-along
with products and promotions-into other cultures, which
can result in consumer boycotts and even destruction of
property. McDonald’s, KFC, Coca-Cola, Disney, and
Pepsi, for example, have all drawn the ire of anti-
American demonstrators for being icons of globalization.
In the United States, those protests were aimed at
French and Germans, while opponents of the war
focused on U.S. companies.
 THE ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

 The study of culture has led to generalizations that may apply

to all cultures. Such characteristics are called cultural
universals, which are manifestations of the total way of life of
any group of people. These include such elements as bodily
adornments, courtship, etiquette, family gestures, joking,
mealtimes, music, personal names, status differentiation, and
trade.

 Observation of the major denominators summarized in Exhibit

4.1 suggests that the elements are both material (such as
tools) and abstract (such as attitudes). The sensitivity and
adaptation to these elements by an international firm depends
on the firm’s level of involvement in the market.
 LANGUAGE

 A total of 6,912 known living languages exist in the world, with

311 being spoken in the United States, 297 in Mexico, 13 in
Finland, and 241 in China. Language has been described as
the mirror of culture. Language itself is multidimensional by
nature.

 Language capability serves four distinct roles in International

Marketing:

1. Language aids in information gathering and evaluation efforts.

2. Language provides access to local society.
3. Language capability is increasingly important in company
communications, whether within the corporate family or with
channel members.
4. Language provides more than the ability to communicate.
 LANGUAGE

 Similar challenges occur with other languages and

markets. Swedish is spoken as a mother tongue by 8
percent of the population in Finland, where it has idioms
that are not well understood by Swedes. Good year has
identified five different terms for the word tires in the
Spanish-speaking Americas: cauchos in Venezuela,
cubiertas in Argentina, gomas in Puerto Rico,
neumaticos in Chile, and Ilantas in most of the other
countries in the region.
 LANGUAGE

 The role of language extends beyond that of a

communications medium. Linguistic diversity often is an
indicator of other types of diversity. In Quebec, the
French language has always been a major consideration
of most francophone governments because it is one of
the clear manifestations of the identity of the province
that separates it from the English-speaking provinces.
 LANGUAGE

 Despite the fact that English is encountered daily by those

on the Internet, the “e” in e-business does not translate into
“English”. In a survey, European users highlighted the need
to bridge the culture gap. One third of the senior managers
said they will not tolerate English online, while less than 20
percent of the German middle managers and less than 50
percent of the French ones believe they can use English
well.

 One of the simplest methods of control is back-translation-

the translating of a foreign language version back to the
original language by a different person from the one who
made the first translation.
 NONVERBAL LANGUAGE

 Managers must analyze and become familiar with the

hidden language of foreign cultures.

 Five key topics

 Time
 Space
 Material possessions
 Friendship patterns and
 Business agreements
 NONVERBAL LANGUAGE

 Offer a starting point from which managers can begin to

acquire the understanding necessary to do business in
foreign countries.

 Individuals vary in the amount of space they want separating

them from others. Arabs and Latin Americans like to stand
close to people they are talking with. International body
language must be included in the nonverbal language of
international business. Northern Europeans are quite
reserved in using their hands and maintain a good amount of
personal space, whereas Southern Europeans involve their
bodies to a far greater degree in making a point.
 RELIGION

 Religion defines the ideals for life, which in return are

reflected in the values and attitudes of societies and
individuals. Religion provides the basis for transcultural
similarities under shared beliefs and behaviour.

 The impact of these similarities will be assessed in terms of

the dominant religions of the world:
 Christianity
 Islam
 Hinduism
 Buddhism
 Confucianism
 RELIGION

 Christianity has the largest following among world

religions, with more than 2 billion people. While there
are many significant groups within Christianity, the major
ones are Catholicism and Protestantism.

 Islam, which reaches from the West coast of Africa to

the Philippines and across a wide band that includes
Tanzania, Central Asia, Western China, India and
Malaysia, has more than 1.2 billion followers. One of the
fastest growing segments in the financial sector is
Islamic banking. Religion affects the marketing of
products and service delivery.
 RELIGION
 Hinduism has 860 million followers, mainly in India,
Nepal, Malaysia, Guyana, Suriname, and Sri Lanka. The
family is an important element in Hindu society, with
extended families being the norm.

 Buddhism, which extends its influence throughout Asia

from Sri Lanka to Japan, has 360 million followers. The
emphasis in Buddhism is on spiritual achievement rather
than worldly goods.

 Confucianism has over 150 million followers throughout

Asia, especially among the Chinese, and has been
characterized as a code of conduct rather than a religion.
The emphasis on relationships is very evident when
developing business ties in Asia.
 VALUES AND ATTITUDES

 Values are shared beliefs and group norms that have

been internalized by individuals. Attitudes are
evaluations of alternatives based on these values. The
more rooted values and attitudes are in central beliefs
(such as religion), the more cautiously the international
marketing manager has to move. Attitude toward change
is basically positive in industrialized countries, whereas
in more tradition-bound societies, change is viewed with
great suspicion, especially when it comes from a foreign
entity.
 VALUES AND ATTITUDES

 While products that hit the right cultural buttons can be

huge successes in foreign markets, not all top brands
will translate easily from one culture to another. One of
the main reasons was that while the Japanese have
positive attitudes toward American pop culture, the
Europeans are quite content with their own cultural
values and traditions.
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

 Changes occurring in manners and customs must be

carefully monitored, especially in cases that seem to
indicate narrowing of cultural differences between
people.

 Understanding manners and customs is especially

important in negotiations, because interpretations based
on one’s own frame of reference may lead to a totally
incorrect conclusion. To negotiate effectively abroad,
one needs to read correctly all types of communication.
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

 Preparation is needed not only in the business sense but

in a cultural sense as well. Some of the potential areas in
which marketers may not be prepared include:

 Insufficient understanding of different ways of thinking;

 Insufficient attention to the necessity of saving face;
 Insufficient knowledge and appreciation of the host
country-history, culture, government, and image of
foreigners;
 Insufficient recognition of the decision-making process
and the role of personal relations and personalities; and
 Insufficient allocation of time for negotiations
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

 Managers must be concerned with differences in the ways

products are used. The international manager must ask,
“What are we selling?” “What are the use benefits we
should be providing?” and “Who or what are we competing
against?”

 Meticulous research plays a major role in avoiding these

types of problems. Concept tests determine the potential
acceptance and proper understanding of a proposed new
product. Focus groups, each consisting of eight to twelve
consumers representatives of the proposed target
audience, can be interviewed and their responses used to
check for disasters and to fine-tune research findings.
 MATERIAL ELEMENTS

 Material culture results from technology and is directly

related to the way a society organizes its economic
activity. It is manifested in the availability and adequacy
of the basic economic, social, financial, and marketing
infrastructures. The basic economic infrastructure
consists of transportation, energy, and communications
systems.
 MATERIAL ELEMENTS

 Social infrastructure refers to housing, health, and

educational systems. Financial and marketing
infrastructures provide the facilitating agencies for the
international firm’s operation in a given market in terms
of, for example, banks and research firms. The level of
material culture can be a segmentation variable if the
degree of industrialization of the market is used as a
basis.

 One the one hand, many Chinese do not comprehend

the need to return phone calls or to respond to
customers. On the other hand, Chinese do not leave
messages either, expecting to talk to a live person.
4.3 THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
Mobile Payments Across the Globe?

 Mobile payment services (m-payments) enable

consumers to pay for goods and services from their
bank account using their mobile phone. These services
have evolved over time from using voice or short
message services (SMS) to initiate and settle a
transaction to the present-day use of a phone for one-
step instant purchases.
Mobile Payments Across the Globe?

 However, while analysts predicted that m-payments

would account for as much as $15 billion by 2010, m-
payments have taken off in Japan and Korea but failed
to reach estimated potential within the European Union
and the United States. In the European Union and the
United States, payment cards are already deeply
embedded in consumer behaviour; consumers may not
be eager to move away from a familiar system, and they
may not have thought of using phones as payment
devices.
Mobile Payments Across the Globe?

 Technological advances have probably been the major

cause of cultural change in many countries. Consumers
around the world are showing greater acceptance of
equipment for personal use, reflected in increased sales of
mobile phones and small computers as well as increased
Internet use. With technological advancement also comes
cultural convergence.

 Material culture-mainly the degree to which it exists and

how much it is esteemed-will have an impact on marketing
decisions. Many exporters do not understand the degree
to which U.S. consumers are package-conscious.
 AESTHETICS

 Each culture makes a clear statement concerning good

taste, as expressed in the arts and in the particular
symbolism of colors, form, and music. What is and what
is not acceptable may vary dramatically even in
otherwise highly similar markets.

 Color is often used as a mechanism for brand

identification, feature reinforcement, and differentiation.
In international markets, colors have more symbolic
value than in domestic markets.
 AESTHETICS

 International firms have to take into consideration local

tastes and concerns in designing their facilities. They
may have a general policy of uniformity in building or
office space design, but local tastes may often warrant
modifications. Respecting local cultural traditions may
also generate goodwill toward the international marketer.
For example, McDonald’s painstakingly renovated a
seventeenth-century building for its third outlet in
Moscow. History may also play a role. The Shanghai
World Financial Center (developed largely by the
Japanese Mori Building Corporation) became the tallest
structure in China in 2008 at 492 meters/1,641 feet.
 EDUCATION

 Education, either formal or informal, plays a major role in

the passing on and sharing of culture. Educational levels
of a culture can be assessed using literacy rates and
enrollment in secondary or higher education, information
available from secondary data sources.

 Educational levels will have an impact on various

business functions. Training programs for a production
facility will have to take the educational backgrounds of
trainees into account.
 EDUCATION

 The international marketing manager may also have to

be prepared to fight obstacles in recruiting a suitable
sales force or support personnel. If technology is
marketed, the level of sophistication of the product will
depend on the educational level of future users. Product
adaptation decisions are often influenced by the extent
to which targeted customers are able to use the product
or service properly.
 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

 Social institutions affect the ways in which people relate to

each other. The family unit, which in Western industrialized
countries consists of parents and children, in a number of
cultures is extended to include grandparents and other
relatives. This will have an impact on consumption patterns
and must be taken into account, for example, when
conducting market research.

 The division of a particular population into classes is termed

social stratification. Stratification ranges from the situation
in Northern Europe, where most people are members of the
middle class, to highly stratified societies such as India, in
which the higher strata control most of the buying power
and decision-making positions.
 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

 An important part of the socialization process of consumers

worldwide is reference groups. These groups provide the
values and attitudes that become influential in shaping
behaviour. Reference groups also provide a baseline for
compliance with group norms through either conforming to
or avoiding certain behaviors.

 Social organization also determines the roles of managers

and subordinates and the way they relate to one another. In
some cultures, managers and subordinates are separated
explicitly and implicitly by various boundaries ranging from
social class differences to separate office facilities.
 SOURCES OF CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE
 Cultural knowledge can be defined by the way it is
acquired. Objective or factual information is obtained
from others through communication, research, and
education.

 Experiential knowledge, on the other hand, can be

acquired only by being involved in a culture other than
one’s own. Both factual and experiential information can
be general or country-specific. In fact, the more a
manager becomes involved in the international arena,
the more he or she is able to develop a meta-
knowledge, that is, ground rules that apply to a great
extent whether in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, or Asuncion,
Paraguay.
 SOURCES OF CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE
 Various sources and methods are available to the
manager for extending his or her knowledge of specific
cultures. Most of these sources deal with factual
information that provides a necessary basis for market
studies. Beyond the normal business literature and its
anecdotal information, specific country studies are
published by governments, private companies, and
universities.
 SOURCES OF CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE
 U.S Department of Commerce’s (http://www.ita.doc.gov)
Country Commercial Guides cover 133 countries
 Economist Intelligence Unit’s (http://www.eiu.com)
Country Reports cover 180 countries
 Culturegrams (http://www.culturegrams.com) which
detail the customs of peoples of 187 countries

 Many facilitating agencies-such as advertising agencies,

banks, consulting firms, and transportation companies-
provide background information on the markets they
serve for their clients.
 SOURCES OF CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE
 For example:

 Runzheimer International’s (http://www.runzheimer.com)

international reports on employee relocation and site
selection for 44 countries
 Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation’s (
http://www.hsbc.com) Business Profile Series for 22
countries in the Asia-Pacific
 World Trade magazine’s (http://www.worldtrademag.com
) “Put Your Best Foot Forward” series, which covers
Europe, Asia, Mexico/Canada, and Russia.
 SOURCES OF CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE
 International business success requires not only
comprehensive fact finding and preparation, but also an
ability to understand and fully appreciate the nuances of
different cultural traits and patterns. Gaining this
interpretive knowledge requires “getting one’s feet
wet” over a sufficient length of time.
 CULTURAL ANALYSIS
 To try to understand and explain differences among cultures and
subsequently in cross-cultural behavior, the marketer can develop
checklists and models showing pertinent variables and their
interaction.

 The key variable of the model is propensity to change, which is a

function of three constructs:

1. Cultural lifestyle of individuals in terms of how deeply held their

traditional beliefs and attitudes are, and also which elements of
culture are dominant;
2. Change agents (such as international marketers and their
practices) and strategic opinion leaders; and
3. Communication about the innovation from commercial sources,
neutral sources (such as government), and social sources, such
as friends and relatives.
 CULTURAL ANALYSIS

 It has been argued that differences in cultural lifestyle can

be accounted for by four major dimensions of culture:

 Individualism
 Power distance
 Uncertainty avoidance
 Masculinity

 Knowledge of similarities along these four dimensions

allows us to cluster countries and regions establish
regional and national marketing programs.
 CULTURAL ANALYSIS

 Adjusting to differences requires putting one’s own

cultural values aside. James E. Lee proposes that the
natural self-reference criterion- the unconscious
reference to one’s own cultural values-is the root of most
international business problems. However, recognizing
and admitting this are often quite difficult.
 CULTURAL ANALYSIS

 The following analytical approach is recommended to

reduce the influence of one’s own cultural values;

Define the problem or goal in terms of domestic

cultural traits, habits, or norms.
Define the problem or goal in terms of foreign cultural
traits, habits, or norms. Make no value judgments.
Isolate the self-reference criterion influence in the
problem and examine it carefully to see how it
complicates the problem.
Redefine the problem without the self-reference
criterion influence and solve for the optimal goal
situation.
4.4 THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
 Anyone For Flatbread?

 Food is arguably one of the most culture-sensitive

categories. Gruma, a company headquartered in
Monterrey, Mexico, is a $2.5 billion international
powerhouse transcending to markets as diverse as the
United States, Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and
more recently, Europe. The Company began operations
in Mexico in 1949. Gruma developed proprietary
technology that has allowed the company to position
itself as the worldwide leader in corn flour and tortilla
production, in production cost, and product quality.
 Anyone For Flatbread?

 Gruma’s success has come in part from the realization

that its product is a carrier of local tastes and it is the
company’s job to adapt that carrier to local tastes.
Ultimately, Gruma’s most versatile and marketable
product has proven to be not a food, but a process-more
specifically, the ability to roll any kind of flour, from corn
to wheat to rice, into salable flatbread.
 Anyone For Flatbread?

 In many European countries, however, such as Portugal,

Spain, Italy, Greece, and France, where the food is
healthy and the eating habits are good, it’s harder to
make inroads. Because Italians have very traditional
eating habits, quick-serve restaurants that offer flatbread
were not successful for many years. Similar sensitivities
have to be applied in single-market efforts as well.
 THE TRAINING CHALLENGE

 International managers face a dilemma in terms of

international and intercultural competence. U.S firms
lack of adequate foreign language and international
business skills has resulted in lost contracts, weak
negotiations, and ineffectual management.

 The increase in overall international activity of firms has

increased the need for cultural sensitivity training at all
levels of the organization. Today’s training must take into
consideration not only outsiders to the firm but
interaction within the corporate family as well.
 THE TRAINING CHALLENGE

 Some companies try to avoid the training problem by

hiring only nationals or well-travelled executives for their
international operations. To foster cultural sensitivity and
acceptance of new ways of doing things within the
organization, management must institute internal
education programs. These programs may include;

1. Culture-specific information
2. Cultural general information
3. Self-specific information
 THE TRAINING CHALLENGE
 Environmental briefings and cultural orientation
programs are types of area studies programs. These
programs provide factual preparation for a manager to
operate in, or work with people from, a particular
country. Area studies should be a basic prerequisite for
other types of training programs. Other, more involved
programs contribute the context in which to put facts so
that they can be properly understood.

 The cultural assimilator is a program in which trainees

must respond to scenarios of specific situations in a
particular country. These programs have been
developed for the Arab countries, Iran, Thailand, Central
America, and Greece.
 THE TRAINING CHALLENGE

 Sensitivity training focuses on enhancing a manager’s flexibility

in situations that are quite different from those at home.

 Finally, training may involve field experience, which exposes a

manager to a different cultural environment for a limited amount
of time.

 Regardless of the degree of training, preparation, and positive

personal characteristics, as a manager will always remain
foreign. A manager should never rely on his or her own judgment
when local managers can be consulted. Overconfidence in one’s
language capabilities can create problems.
4.5 THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
 Online Cultural Training

 Managers heading abroad to negotiate a deal, relocating

to a foreign environment, or multicultural teams working
within large organizations are just some of the scenarios
that benefit from cross-cultural training. Skimping on
training in this area can be potentially hazardous.

 Many organizations are adding online training following

the face-to-face classroom training in order to gain
continuous and additional training.
 Online Cultural Training

 Many of the programs use the following elements:

Detailed Scenarios
Gradual Delivery
Support
Relevant Exercises
Online Discussions
 MAKING CULTURE WORK FOR
MARKETING SUCCESS
 Culture should not be viewed as a challenge but as an
opportunity that can be exploited. This requires, as has been
shown in this chapter, an understanding of the differences and
their fundamental determinants.

 The following rules serve as a summary of how culture and its

appreciation may serve as a tool to ensure marketing success.

 Embrace local culture

 Build relationships
 Employ locals to gain cultural knowledge
 Help employees understand you
 Adapt products and processes to local markets
 Coordinate by region
4.6 THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
 Romancing the Globe

 Of all the brands in the world, there is none more

consistent than Disney, which stands for “family magic,”
whether in Penang, Pisa, or Peoria. For the last ten
years, the Walt Disney Company has made it a priority
to build its international business in television, movies,
retail, and theme parks with the goal of half of profits to
come from overseas by 2010. The main approach of
getting to the goal is by embracing local culture.
 Romancing the Globe

 Disney’s efforts to give its Hong Kong park a more Chinese

character reflect a broader effort by the company to
understand local culture. Research is conducted in the
homes of Chinese consumers, who are asked about their
knowledge of the Disney brand and their lifestyles as busy
families.

 Adapting products and processes to local market is a key

ingredient of successful global strategy. The gods of wealth;
longevity, and happiness have been added to the Hong
Kong Disneyland gang. To support the marketing efforts of
the theme park, Disney has expanded its TV, online, and
film businesses in China.
 Romancing the Globe

 The role of local employees is critical in gaining cultural

knowledge. Disney has given more power to local
managers to develop completely local approaches, to
adapt U.S. franchises and make local versions of them,
or build interest in U.S. shows such as “Hannah
Montana” and “Kim Possible.”