Cultural Influence In International Marketing

Taking into account such an important ingredient when doing international marketing, would draw away the risk of failing to attract customers at best, or at worst, alienating some potential customers and experiencing a huge loss of sales (Bratu, 2011). However, it is important to understand first the elements of culture in the context of international business. Business people need to be careful not to underestimate the impact that culture can have on consumer buying behavior. It is generally assumed that people are not born with a culture, but are born into a society in which they develop certain cultural traits and beliefs. Culture has an impact on people right from when they are born all the way into adulthood, which gives it a highly

Many countries are reluctant to let go of their culture and actively try to preserve it against foreign influence. Developing both tolerance and acceptance of cultural differences is crucial for accomplishing international marketing objectives. Cultural competence in international marketing requires a conscious aware of the ways in which cultural elements could influence the relationship between the customer and the product as well as the market place itself.

There are a number of key cultural elements that international marketers need to take into consideration when designing products, developing promotions and implementing distribution systems in foreign markets. These elements include language, social structure, symbols and religion. Language is the most obvious and easily identifiable difference between cultures. Language reflects the nature and values of a particular culture. Language diversity at times, places a great strain in conducting international business. Every time a language barrier has to be crossed there would be potential communication problems and it can happen at several different levels. Language is a particularly important factor to consider when developing

. The choice of communication channels and tools, itself could have cultural overtones. The determining factor may not be the degree of industrialization, but rather whether the country falls into a high-context or low-context culture. Low-context cultures (mostly Germanic and English-speaking countries) expect messages to be explicit and specific. On the contrast, high-context cultures (such as Mediterranean, Central European, Latin American, African, Middle-Eastern and Asian countries) leave much of the message unspecified, to be understood through context, nonverbal cues, and between-the-lines interpretation of what is actually said and meant. The notions of emotion and reason both play a role in international business communication practices. One of the two notions could dominate on the culture depends upon whether it is a culture that is characterized by emotional behavior that can be obviously seen or cultures characterized by emotional neutrality. Members of neutral cultures do not show their feelings, but keep them carefully controlled and hidden. In cultures with high emotional behaviors, people show their feelings plainly by laughing, smiling, crying or shouting. When it comes to business