The Impact Of Culture On International Marketing Communication

International marketing or business is uniquely different from the local market because the product price, place and promotion is vastly different from what is been offered to local customers (Johansson, 2000) With the emergence of the information technology, cross border marketing has never been a distant dream. However, it has never been easier even for giant multinational companies to face challenges that come in international business. The biggest challenge comes from the culture which varies from country to country.

     In business, successful communication is the key to success, and being able to relate to a customer is the best form of communication. This is why cross-cultural communication is so important as the business world continues to globalize itself. Unfortunately, “A lack of awareness about the culturally prescribed rules and norms of communication behaviors can cause public relations projects to fail, or worse, backfire.” (Zaharna, 2001, p.135).

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.

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.

For the course of International Management the following assignment has been giving with the objective to select a topic in the field of International Management. The topic for this paper is Cross-cultural Communication in Marketing/advertising.

Each country is a different market, with its own language, buying habits, ways of living, mores, business methods, marketing traditions, and laws. So instead of trying to organize new agencies with American personnel, most U.S. agencies purchase a majority. However, U.S agencies are not locked into the differences, because through global marketing, all of people’s needs around the world will be same toward U.S products sold abroad. Global consumer culture also depends upon global media to create a sense of global identify and memory without which any cultural identity is incomplete (Smith 1991).

There are many different impacts that culture has on the way business is conducted; cultural systems of values and beliefs lead to specific interpretations of events and interactions, and different demands and expectations for business relationships often exist for individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Engaging in international and multicultural business requires a level of understanding and awareness of specific cultural issues that might arise due to different customs, perspectives, and values, and a general awareness of the influence of culture is a good thing in business as well as it allows for ongoing learning and consideration without rushing to judgment. Through both a specific and a general understanding of cultural issues in business, more effective strategies for conducting business on an international level can be developed and implemented. The following paragraphs provide specific examples from four differently cultures, identifying the importance of cultural understanding in all international dealings.

Cultural difference between countries raises many issues for firms entering foreign markets. Understanding the local culture is the initial step in helping firms better understand the

Languages, behaviour patterns and the values cause the differences in all the existing cultures in the world. People have different ways to communicate with each other and how to react to information. Especially for the international business, multinational communication is essential. Understanding the many types of communication, is a subject of importance to act successful as a global player. Furthermore, there are great benefits through intercultural communication like:

The objective of this presentation is to provide meaning and reasoning to the purpose and importance of cross-cultural communication (also known as intercultural communication) competency, and to explain the importance for institutions and organizations to not only provide cross cultural education and training effectively, but to also incorporate it into their ethics and corporate responsibility policy and procedures, as it affects and pertains to business relations, community

Some scholars view culture as fragile and if influenced by western marketing principles can compromise the integrity and uniqueness of non-western cultures. The fragility of non-western cultures is compounded with the lack of technology to preserve and document the nuances of their cultures. Global marketing is viewed as the compromising factor of many cultures untouched by western culture experience ethics dilemmas in the administration of marketing. Is cultural

Culture within the society helps to develop values, norms, languages and protocol that influence behavioural pattern of the people living in the same society. It has been assessed that culture is among the prime factors that can have major impact on the effectiveness of the communicational process. Many studies have highlighted the fact that culture influences the way of thinking of an individual that can have major impact on the communication pattern of the strategies (Mazanec et al. 2015). For that reason, organizations often try to develop effective strategies to utilize cultural diversity for capturing different perspectives to a particular decision. Specifically, globalization has made proper management of cultural diversity is necessary within organizational structure. In this study, the focus will be on different perspectives of cultural diversity in order to provide an in-depth analysis regarding effective cross-cultural communication. The study will also focus on highlighting the kind of strategies that the management of different organizations will utilize in order to develop appropriate cross-cultural communication. It will also provide an idea regarding the effective management of cross-cultural communication can have on the effectiveness of the operational process of organization. Furthermore, the study will provide an idea regarding the impact of

Culture inevitably influences the needs and desires of consumers of particular countries and socialized groups, consequently, businesses, in order to succeed have to be aware of cultural interests and target their products and operations to cultural demands. Succeeding necessitates knowing the factors that crisscross with the other culture and understanding the other culture's practices in regards to these factors. It also requires an understanding of ethical practices of the other culture as well as their communication style amongst other factors. The business wishes to win customer trust and this too, hinges, on cultural constructs. In short, the goal of standardization has given place to mastery of cross-cultural communication. This is the challenge for the American corporation that does business on a global scale.

As many companies have started to work globally, it is important to understand the effects of cultural differences on ethical decision making to avoid possible business risk and to design successful international marketing management programs. With the advancement of globalization, the concept of culture has become an important part of organizations. Many companies face problems like different cultures, different consumer behavior and different way of communication etc. Marketing is one of the most appropriate and effective way of dealing with customers of different market. They need to build appropriate intercultural marketing approach, which suits the need and wishes of customers. Culture is the collective programming of the mind, which

Communication, and the difference therein, is one of the most important aspects of life to understand in both our business and personal lives. Communication styles and methods vary between different cultures. Communication is perhaps the most important cultural pattern to understand, if we are to succeed in doing business on a global scale. According to Walker (2015), “Depending on the country and the individual, this dimension of communication cab be ether more direct or more indirect” (p. 98). Because of vast cultural pattern differences, communication apprehension will often become a barrier in conducting business in the global arena.