Chapter 1: the cultural process
Why studying cross cultural marketing behavior?
- Fiat = successful.
- Wanted to sell it in China.
- Assumed it.
- Used a symbol against its principles.
- Used an outgroup to promote.
- Negative commercial.
- Pespi = brand leader in Southeast Asia.
- Cultures give symbolics to colors.
- Dark blue ≠ light blue.
- Small differences in design can have a
huge impact on the sales.
- Man can’t enter bathroom when wife is
in the shower/ bath.
- In other cultures, we can approach
people closely without feeling un-
natural.
- P&G affended (beledigd) the space
rules.
Ingroup: group with which an individual identifies.
Outgroup: the others.
Example: beer drinking behavior around the world.
ð Big beer of 50 cl is too much in Belgium.
ð 25 cl is more acceptable.
ð In Germany this is the opposite.
ð Shape of the glass is also different.
ð Germans associate 25 cl with more feminine drinkers.
- To understand our customers ⇒ be successful.
- Growth in developed countries slows down.
- Increasing power of middle class in emerging economies ⇒ increasing
importance of cross-cultural marketing.
- Behavior influenced/ not determined by culture ⇒ which cultural processes & elements of culture
impact international businesses.
1
, What is culture: definitions
Cross-cultural marketing: ≠ cross border marketing ≠ imposing uniformity ≠ inter-national marketing.
ð Is about:
o diversity
o respect
o interactions
Culture: naturally “right” behavior = link between individuals & societies.
ð Learned behavior & results of behavior shared & transmitted by the members of a particular society.
ð Societal solutions to common universal problems ⇒ all solutions are present in all societies at all times
but are differentially preferred.
ð Useful to individuals ⇒ not a characteristic of ⇒ set of beliefs/ standards/ control mechanisms, shared
by a group of people ⇒ helps individual what is/ what can be/ how to feel/ what to do/ how to go about
doing it.
ð Variable solutions to common problems ⇒ available in all societies, differentially preferred.
o Cultural “rules” feel naturally right.
o Other “solutions” feel strange.
ð For individuals, culture is a learned behavior ⇒ shared & transmitted, necessary for smooth functioning
in a coherent society.
o Individuals are distinct.
These unwritten cultural ‘rules’ lead us to feel that our own cultural norms are naturally right and that other
different cultural norms are unnatural or strange.
Same problems, different solutions: … ↓
ð Innate human nature:
o Good
o Evil
o Mixed
ð Nature:
o Subjugation = nature dominates
o Harmony = live with
o Mastery = over nature
ð Time orientation:
o Past = build on history
o Present = here & now
o Future = plan for future
2
, ð Activity orientation:
o People should be = being
o People should be = doing
o People should do to be = being in becoming
ð Relational:
o Linearity in relationships
o Collaterality in relationships
o Individuality in relationships
ð Space:
o Private
o Public
o Mixed
Elements of culture
= 4 elements.
1) Language & communication
2) Institutions
3) Material productions
4) Symbolic productions
1 - Primary mechanism to convey & share information.
- Transmitting information between members of a particular society.
- Includes explicit & implicit elements (verbal & non-verbal).
- Approximately 6.000 languages.
- 389 are spoken by more than 1 million people.
- Language we learn in our native community shapes & structures our world view & our social
behavior, because it influences how we select issues, solve problems & act.
2 - Every individual belongs to multiple organizations.
- Links individual to the group.
- Family, political institutions, social organization…
- Organize people into groups.
- Institution =group of people (min 2) who have something in common.
- Family = for example an institution, because they have the same blood (in common).
3
, Rules to enter a group/ organization are based on:
- Reproduction = integrates people around blood relationships & marriage as an established
contractual framework.
- Territoriality = integrates people around common interests dictated by neighborhood.
- Physiological = integrates people around their sex, age & physical traits, or defects.
- Spontaneous = integrates people around their sex, age & physical traits, or defects.
- Occupational = integrates people around labor divisions & expertise.
- Hierarchy = integrates people around ranks and status, including the nobility, the middle class,
and slaves or more general any kind of social class system or caste system.
- Totality = integrates diverse elements into a reasonably coherent whole.
3 - Transmit, reproduce, update & improve knowledge & skills.
Primary material productions include:
- Artistic ⇒ music, art.
- Intellectual ⇒ books.
- Physical ⇒ buildings, tools, products.
- Service ⇒ education, media, banks.
Religion defines material output:
- Christianity ⇒ achievement, individualism.
- Brahmanism (India) ⇒ spiritualism.
- Confucianism ⇒ harmony, meritocracy (action, hard work).
4 - Determine relationships between physical & metaphysical world.
- Religious/ moral beliefs.
- Life after death.
- Symbol conveys more than the object.
- Symbolic meaning in many things.
- Quick understanding.
Interpreting symbols:
- 7 = bad luck in Kenya.
- 7 = good luck in Western Society.
- 7 = magical in Benin & Africa.
- 10 = bad luck in Korea.
- 4 = death related in Japan.
- Red = witchcraft & death in many African countries ⇒ + in Denmark.
- Triangular shapes = negative in Hong Kon, Korea & Taiwan.
4
Why studying cross cultural marketing behavior?
- Fiat = successful.
- Wanted to sell it in China.
- Assumed it.
- Used a symbol against its principles.
- Used an outgroup to promote.
- Negative commercial.
- Pespi = brand leader in Southeast Asia.
- Cultures give symbolics to colors.
- Dark blue ≠ light blue.
- Small differences in design can have a
huge impact on the sales.
- Man can’t enter bathroom when wife is
in the shower/ bath.
- In other cultures, we can approach
people closely without feeling un-
natural.
- P&G affended (beledigd) the space
rules.
Ingroup: group with which an individual identifies.
Outgroup: the others.
Example: beer drinking behavior around the world.
ð Big beer of 50 cl is too much in Belgium.
ð 25 cl is more acceptable.
ð In Germany this is the opposite.
ð Shape of the glass is also different.
ð Germans associate 25 cl with more feminine drinkers.
- To understand our customers ⇒ be successful.
- Growth in developed countries slows down.
- Increasing power of middle class in emerging economies ⇒ increasing
importance of cross-cultural marketing.
- Behavior influenced/ not determined by culture ⇒ which cultural processes & elements of culture
impact international businesses.
1
, What is culture: definitions
Cross-cultural marketing: ≠ cross border marketing ≠ imposing uniformity ≠ inter-national marketing.
ð Is about:
o diversity
o respect
o interactions
Culture: naturally “right” behavior = link between individuals & societies.
ð Learned behavior & results of behavior shared & transmitted by the members of a particular society.
ð Societal solutions to common universal problems ⇒ all solutions are present in all societies at all times
but are differentially preferred.
ð Useful to individuals ⇒ not a characteristic of ⇒ set of beliefs/ standards/ control mechanisms, shared
by a group of people ⇒ helps individual what is/ what can be/ how to feel/ what to do/ how to go about
doing it.
ð Variable solutions to common problems ⇒ available in all societies, differentially preferred.
o Cultural “rules” feel naturally right.
o Other “solutions” feel strange.
ð For individuals, culture is a learned behavior ⇒ shared & transmitted, necessary for smooth functioning
in a coherent society.
o Individuals are distinct.
These unwritten cultural ‘rules’ lead us to feel that our own cultural norms are naturally right and that other
different cultural norms are unnatural or strange.
Same problems, different solutions: … ↓
ð Innate human nature:
o Good
o Evil
o Mixed
ð Nature:
o Subjugation = nature dominates
o Harmony = live with
o Mastery = over nature
ð Time orientation:
o Past = build on history
o Present = here & now
o Future = plan for future
2
, ð Activity orientation:
o People should be = being
o People should be = doing
o People should do to be = being in becoming
ð Relational:
o Linearity in relationships
o Collaterality in relationships
o Individuality in relationships
ð Space:
o Private
o Public
o Mixed
Elements of culture
= 4 elements.
1) Language & communication
2) Institutions
3) Material productions
4) Symbolic productions
1 - Primary mechanism to convey & share information.
- Transmitting information between members of a particular society.
- Includes explicit & implicit elements (verbal & non-verbal).
- Approximately 6.000 languages.
- 389 are spoken by more than 1 million people.
- Language we learn in our native community shapes & structures our world view & our social
behavior, because it influences how we select issues, solve problems & act.
2 - Every individual belongs to multiple organizations.
- Links individual to the group.
- Family, political institutions, social organization…
- Organize people into groups.
- Institution =group of people (min 2) who have something in common.
- Family = for example an institution, because they have the same blood (in common).
3
, Rules to enter a group/ organization are based on:
- Reproduction = integrates people around blood relationships & marriage as an established
contractual framework.
- Territoriality = integrates people around common interests dictated by neighborhood.
- Physiological = integrates people around their sex, age & physical traits, or defects.
- Spontaneous = integrates people around their sex, age & physical traits, or defects.
- Occupational = integrates people around labor divisions & expertise.
- Hierarchy = integrates people around ranks and status, including the nobility, the middle class,
and slaves or more general any kind of social class system or caste system.
- Totality = integrates diverse elements into a reasonably coherent whole.
3 - Transmit, reproduce, update & improve knowledge & skills.
Primary material productions include:
- Artistic ⇒ music, art.
- Intellectual ⇒ books.
- Physical ⇒ buildings, tools, products.
- Service ⇒ education, media, banks.
Religion defines material output:
- Christianity ⇒ achievement, individualism.
- Brahmanism (India) ⇒ spiritualism.
- Confucianism ⇒ harmony, meritocracy (action, hard work).
4 - Determine relationships between physical & metaphysical world.
- Religious/ moral beliefs.
- Life after death.
- Symbol conveys more than the object.
- Symbolic meaning in many things.
- Quick understanding.
Interpreting symbols:
- 7 = bad luck in Kenya.
- 7 = good luck in Western Society.
- 7 = magical in Benin & Africa.
- 10 = bad luck in Korea.
- 4 = death related in Japan.
- Red = witchcraft & death in many African countries ⇒ + in Denmark.
- Triangular shapes = negative in Hong Kon, Korea & Taiwan.
4
