International Marketing Report: Cultural Influences on Strategy

This report delves into the crucial role of culture in international marketing, emphasizing its impact on consumer behavior and strategic decision-making. The introduction highlights the increasing importance of cultural considerations in a globalized market, driven by technological advancements and evolving consumer preferences. The report explores how cultural factors, including values, beliefs, and attitudes, influence marketing strategies. It examines the need for marketers to understand local nuances, adapt to diverse perceptions of products, and navigate political and legal landscapes that vary across countries. The report also discusses the influence of culture on various marketing activities like pricing, promotions, packaging, and distribution channels. The conclusion reinforces the need for international marketers to align their strategies with cultural factors, ensuring that they consider consumer needs and wants within their cultural context. The report emphasizes that marketers can achieve greater success by integrating cultural diversity into their marketing plans, from identifying advertising concepts to determining target customers and market segmentation. The report includes a bibliography of relevant sources.

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International Marketing
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Teacher’s Name
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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Importance of culture in international marketing...................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography........................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
In the recent years, culture has become one of the most important factors that
businesses need to consider while making their decisions to globalize1. Carious changes
including technological changes, communication, religious believes, education levels among
others have been changing, forcing businesses to change their marketing strategies in order to
cope with the changes. Various changes that have been occurring in the society shows the
global market has become homogenous. As a result of these, most companies constantly
improve their marketing programs in order to meet the standards of consumers in their target
markets.
The improvement of these marketing programs and strategies makes many researchers
and analysts to discuss the perceived implications of globalization and culture on
international marketing2. This paper will seek to identify if with makes culture in
international marketing something to matter, and the importance of culture in international
marketing.
Importance of culture in international marketing
Culture comprises of various things which affect day to day lives of the consumer.
This includes all aspects which impact what they consume, be it food, service or knowledge.
International marketers have to consider this because it can lead to various consequences on
1 Brady Donald. 2015. Essentials of International Marketing. London: Routledge.
2 Colon, Geoffrey. 2016. Disruptive Marketing: How Data Punks, Designers and
Creative Hybrids Are Reshaping Brand Strategy. New York: American Management
Association; 2016.
.

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the company3. For international markers to attain their goals, they must be excellent
communicators, be able to understand consumer issues and try to comprehend the foreign
expectations.
Although most companies are trying to go global, the aspect of culture in marketing
remains a subject to matter. The reason why this is occurring is because every country has
consumers with different characteristics and different believes. This means to effectively
conduct marketing in these countries, the marketers must first look at the strategies which
align with the characteristics of target consumers.
Values, attitudes and believes varies from one nation to the other. This means if one is
to take products or services across the boarders, he has to ensure that he well understands the
locals before entering the market4. This could including understanding their perception
towards the goods and products which the company deals with, their religious beliefs, their
perception towards foreign companies among others.
Marketing is influenced by various factors including law and politics. The political
ideology in which consumers are based will always influence the marketing decisions which
a company decides to use5. For example, some countries like United Kingdom are largely
market-driven democratic societies with laws and regulations based upon precedent and
legislation, whereas others Iran have political and legal systems which are based on principles
3 Daniela, Ionita. 2012. Entrepreneurial Marketing: A New Approach for Challenging
Times. Management & Marketing, 7(1): 89-92.
4Dusan, Pavlu. 2013. Marketing and Marketing Communication in SMEs. European
Research Studies, 16(4): 201-213.
5 Gummesson, Evert. 2013. Total Relationship Marketing. London: Routledge.

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and teachings of Islam and sharia traditions. These means the strategies used to market a
particular products in the two countries must vary for them to be effective.
In different countries, people have different perceptions concerning different products
and services. This means to market a particular product or service, one has to consider the
kind of perception which the society have towards the product or service. Marketing a
particular product where the society has a negative attitude towards the brand can be
challenging and requires one to use best strategies.
The role and influence of culture in the modern day society are evolving as different
economies becomes interlinked. One of the major aim of marketing is to make the consumer
see the importance of purchasing products from one company than the other6. For marketing
managers to attain their goals, they must understand the culture of their consumers so that
they can establish better ways of satisfying their needs and wants. Understanding culture is
very fundamental when international marketers interact with foreign suppliers, competitors,
distributors and government officials.
Culture is based on various elements of a society like religion, history, education and
language7. Understanding these factors is vital because it assists marketers to come up with
unique strategies which can make consumers to build positive relationship with a particular
product or service.
6 Mathieson, Rick. 2010. The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success
in an Anytime, Everywhere World. New York: AMACOM
7 Papke, Edgar. 2013. True Alignment: Linking Company Culture with Customer Needs
for Extraordinary Results. New York: AMACOM

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In the recent times, business dealings are becoming so common on international
perspective and the need to establish effective cross-cultural communication has become
more fundamental for companies which want to expand their business to foreign countries8.
Understanding a foreign culture is a long-term process of assimilation, integration and
comprehension, and one of the key factors which determine the success business operations
in foreign markets.
When developing product various factors including the style and design should be
made culturally acceptable in order to be operative and meaningful. Culture is influential in
various marketing activities like pricing, promotions, packaging, selecting distribution
channels, among others. The efforts of marketers are judged in a cultural context for either
acceptance or resistance.
As most companies continue to expand to other countries, cultural influences can be
identified in areas of taste, appearance and preferences of marketing products. Failure to
respect and interpret the appealing values of culture can lead to negative impressions and
hence make the marketing professionals not to attain their desired outcome. This is one of the
primary reasons which makes Nestle Corporation to continuously modify its products to suite
culture, tastes and traditions of the locals.
For international marketers to succeed, they must access various factors like cultural
education level of a particular society because such factors have an influence on the
marketing strategy and technique when it comes to areas of communication and
8 Piotr, Wyrnski. 2013. Marketing Self-Diagnostic Tool for Smes - Assumptions of the
Project*. Journal of Positive Management, 4(1): 524-545.

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advertisement. Because education levels vary from one society to the other or from country to
the other, marketing managers should change their strategies when the company decides to
globalize so that the marketing goal can be achieved.
Culture not only has an influence on people’s behaviour, but also has an effect on the
rationalization process of the behaviour. This means each culture is seen to impact the
development of consumer perceptions9. This means international marketers must consider
cultural differences when making their marketing decisions. The strategies must align with
the perceptions which the consumers have concerning the product or service which the
company wants to sell abroad.
In international business environment, the survival of a company depends on the kind
of relationship which the company has with its consumers. Positive relationship cannot be
embraced without understanding the customer needs, believes and what they expect from the
company. This means for international marketers to succeed, they must understand what the
consumer believes in terms of the nature of products or services which the company offers.
With understanding cultural variations between countries, marketers assist their
companies to avoid landing in pitfalls. For example, understanding the kind of believes which
a particular society has on a particular product or service can assist the company to design it
in a manner which can make the consumers to accept it. Lack of understanding cultural
aspects has made marketers to fail in implementing their marketing strategies.
9 Ronald, Busse. 2015. Marketing Channel Integration -A Review of Current Debates.
Advances in Management, 8(5): 56-89.

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Conclusion
Based on this analysis, it is clear that culture is important in international marketing.
To be an effective international marketer, one must understand the cultural differences that
exist between markets. For marketers to succeed, they must align their strategies with several
factors like what the society believe in, their level of education, lifestyle, and religion among
others. Failing to consider these factors while marketing for a particular product or service
can make a company to experience different problems.
Culture also plays a significant role in determining several factors concerning
marketing. Some of these factors comprise of pricing, packaging, target customers, market
segmentation, selling, distribution channels, designing of products among others10. Marketers
cannot make an organization to succeed in foreign countries if they fail to understand the
needs and wants of the consumer and how they relate to their culture. If marketers consider
including the importance of cultural diversity when coming up with marketing strategies,
whether in identifying advertising ideas, deciding the target customer, segmentation and
differentiation, they can realize great success.
10 Vanauken, Brad. 2015. Brand Aid: A Quick Reference Guide to Solving Your Branding
Problems and Strengthening Your Marketing Position. New York: AMACOM.

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Bibliography
Brady, Donald. 2015. Essentials of International Marketing. London: Routledge.
Colon, Geoffrey. 2016. Disruptive Marketing: How Data Punks, Designers and Creative
Hybrids Are Reshaping Brand Strategy. New York: American Management Association;
2016.
Daniela, Ionita. 2012. Entrepreneurial Marketing: A New Approach for Challenging
Times. Management & Marketing, 7(1): 89-92.

10
Dusan, Pavlu. 2013. Marketing and Marketing Communication in SMEs. European
Research Studies, 16(4): 201-213.
Gummesson, Evert. 2013. Total Relationship Marketing. London: Routledge.
Mathieson, Rick. 2010. The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success
in an Anytime, Everywhere World. New York: AMACOM
Papke, Edgar. 2013. True Alignment: Linking Company Culture with Customer Needs for
Extraordinary Results. New York: AMACOM
Piotr, Wyrnski. 2013. Marketing Self-Diagnostic Tool for Smes - Assumptions of the
Project*. Journal of Positive Management, 4(1): 524-545.
Ronald, Busse. 2015. Marketing Channel Integration -A Review of Current Debates.
Advances in Management, 8(5): 56-89.
Vanauken, Brad. 2015. Brand Aid: A Quick Reference Guide to Solving Your Branding
Problems and Strengthening Your Marketing Position. New York: AMACOM.