The Cultural Dimensions Of The International Adaptation Of Products

Culture of an individual is the way that decides he/she behaves. The consumer choice and their behaviour is much more related to the

Cultural differences between nations often require a company to have multiple marketing strategies. What may be acceptable in on country may not be acceptable in another country. The cultural differences require companies to develop marketing plans that are suitable for each individual culture. Not being aware of and understanding the cultural differences can create costly and embarrassing errors that may actually offend those in other countries. Cultural differences can affect the colors of products, the graphics used on packaging, and how the product is communicated to the foreign target market.

Every country differs in culture which has been there for centuries. The international market is growing rapidly, with more and more multinational organisations entering new markets each day. In this assignment I will evaluate how the difference in cultures affects the performance of international businesses.

1.2: Cultural factors affect customers expectations because if you do not provide for a certain culture the customer would have had a negative experience and is unlikely to return. For example, in my organisation we realised that we needed to ensure there was adequate options for vegetarians and vegans and have used this to broaden the cultural scope of our customers.

The impact of national cultures on marketing practices has been such that it brought about the creation of an academic field, with as a lead-researcher, Geert. Hofstede, on whose writings I have based my analysis.

It is this gap in cultural understanding and increase in globalization that makes cultural models, such as Hofstede’s, that much more important to learn and apply during business relations. Many companies that try to expand beyond their current borders end up failing due to refusing to recognize the differences between cultures. An American company that expands into foreign markets, yet tries to run their operations and marketing as they would in America, is going to have a difficult time. Products and well as company practices need to be adapted to suit the country’s business culture, current market climate, taste/preferences of the citizens, etc.

In an article called Cultural Factor Highly Influences On Consumers & Their Buying Behavior – In Indian Context, the basic characteristics of culture are described:

Introduction: There are around 196 countries in the world and the cultures and values differ between the different countries. There are still similarities in some of the culture traits. In today’s world people are more willing to engage in global business and for this reason they need to be able to adapt to the different cultures. As the cultures vary from country to country, people around the world may face many difficulties during their communication. Many businesses have failed due to the fact that they failed to fully assess the market they were entering in. The paper will portray three different approaches that will aid in understanding cultural differences that can be utilized as effective tools in conducting global business. These approaches are known as the context approach, the cluster approach and the dimension approach.

There are many cultural and ethical differences between countries and it is important for mutual trust and respect that no organization try to strong-arm another into their way of thinking or take a position that their culture is more valuable than the other. According to Pitta, Fung, and Isberg (1999), it is vital for success to have a basic understanding of the culture and the expectations within cultures as they affect all business transactions. Failing to understand and consider the cultural differences will likely result in failure.

     Cultures are varying among different parts of the globe. People with different cultures have different characteristics and viewpoints on the subjects due to diverse understanding and method of learning. During the past few decades, the international trade grows in a very rapid rate due to the advantages that it provides; “increased sales, operational efficiencies, exposure to new technologies and broader consumer choices” (Heslin). Therefore, when considering the culture aspect to current business world, it is crucial for business to understand the culture aspect because of the tremendous growth of international business as well as utilize the international market to its maximum

The Culture plays an important role because if product is not according to specific culture then company may suffer heavy loss.

The major problems facing companies, especially smaller ones, in resolving product-adaptation issues are things that can differ in different cultures such as the taste of the product, the style, the color, or symbols, language, but also more specific like differences in technology, environmental differences, religion etc.

Culture indeed plays a very important role in deriving the Marketing strategies of a Firm. A good marketer is the one who adapts to the culture he is selling in and alters his Marketing Mix accordingly. In the current assignment we have selected China, one of the BRICS Nation, and analyzed how different aspects of the Chinese Culture impacts the Marketing Mix and how a marketer should respond to ensure he could grab a good market share while working in China.

Cultural Distance is presumably measured by “the extent to which different cultures are similar or different” (Shenkar, 2001). This construct is now widely used and applied to most business organisation disciplines, such as, management, finance, marketing, and accounting. However, to better explain the impact on global marketing operations, this essay will focus on the marketing segment of the discipline. The study of cultural distance has been used to innovate and transform organisations into foreign expansions and technology transfer (Gomez-Mejia & Palich, 1997). Besides, looking at culture by itself, it is a complicated term to understand. It is seen as a woolly concept , almost impossible to observe and ‘measure’ (Tayeb, 2000c); by then adding the measurement of “distance” between different cultures presents a greater challenge due to the fact that cultural behaviour is not the same across the world. A close attempt at measuring culture would be to break it down to components or dimensions.

The most challenging decision that a company may face in internationalization is the degree of standardization or adaptation in its operations. The question of standardization or adaptation affects all avenues of a business’ operations, such as R&D, finance, production, organizational structure, procurement, and the marketing mix. Whether a company chooses to standardize or adapt its operations depends on its attitudes toward different cultures. These attitudes are defined by three orientations toward foreign culture: ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric.