Culture and Perceptions and Attitudes and Values - Essay Example

Marketing within the domains of one’s own country differs greatly as compared to international marketing since the environment is relatively familiar, access to required data and sources of information are easily available, and there is a greater degree of awareness and familiarity as regards the country’s social, political, economic and cultural factors (Bennett, Blythe, 2002).

Culture relates to the set of beliefs and traditions which is followed by a segment of a nation's community and includes subcultures, corporate cultures as well as national and social cultures. It includes religious beliefs, norms, traditions, rituals, etc that are specific to that particular country or region. The cultural framework encompasses within its gamut, various other factors such as language, religion, values, attitudes, and educational qualifications that is peculiar to the nation and plays a significant role in influencing their purchase decisions.

For instance, in the case of the famous beverage marketing firm Captain Morgan rum the marketing management of the company perceived Hispanic male consumers as a probable target audience to whom the product could be successfully marketed and sold. However, such a notion was held wrong since the Hispanics perceived the product as symbolizing domination and exploitation owing to the company logo of a pirate. This proves that the concept/idea that was appealing to the Anglos was found to be disgusting by the Hispanics owing to their cultural differences (Korzenny, 2005).

In China, the year 2007 which was considered to be the year of the pig - a symbol of wealth and prosperity according to their culture and traditions, all the advertisements related to pigs were banned. The move was intended to respect the religious sentiments of the 20 million-odd Muslim population and was considered a gesture of respect to their traditional values (The Sunday Times, 2007). In the year 2005, France's Catholic Church banned an advertisement (Appendix 2) featuring a popular clothing brand that was based on Leonardo Da Vinci's Christ's last Supper since it hurt the religious sentiments of the Catholics worldwide (BBC News, 2005).

In 2004 China banned the Nike advertisement featuring LeBron James battling a cartoon kung fu master, alleging that it was a national insult and it hurt the dignity of the nation (China daily, 2004). International Marketing can be better understood in terms of high-context and low-context culture whereby it is argued that people belonging to the same set of backgrounds share a high degree of understanding of the concepts intended to be depicted in the advertisements and hence the need to explain or clarify the intentions are not recognized.

High context culture largely relies on nonverbal communication since it is fast and efficient within their group eliminating the need to explain or explicitly express the intended meaning, their behavior is predictable and is considered to be misinterpreted or incomprehensible by outsiders i.e., those belonging to the low context culture (Bennett, Blythe, Pp.44). These specific points related to high context and low context culture need to be understood adequately since it holds utmost significance in terms of international marketing of products or services.

It helps the marketers to better understand the targeted consumer groups and assist them in designing appropriate marketing campaigns suitable to their tastes and cultures.

People’s attitudes and values are also crucial in ascertaining the appropriateness of the choice of marketing campaigns in accordance with the country’s cultural, national, political, economic and social traditions. The United States, for instance, is often depicted and described as an affluent, achieving or acquisitive society which reflects motivating values in its society since in the United States acquisition and consumption of wealth are perceived as a sign of success and achievement and are socially accepted principles.

However, in a Hindu or a Buddhist society and cultural values such as nirvana or witlessness are considered to be more important and are a socially accepted value that governs their societies. But the attitudes of people in Buddhist and Hindu dominant countries have undergone significant renovation in terms of change in their social and economic fabric which is evident from the fact that these Asian countries are increasingly becoming a haven – a profitable marketplace for the world over to market their goods and services (Keillor, 2007, Pp.129).

The introduction of new products or foray of local companies into an international market is regarded as a welcome change in the United States. However, several countries across the world are highly resistant to such change owing to their high degree of cultural and traditional orientation. International marketing has an immense responsibility in terms of approaching such traditional societies and hence in a bid to expand their markets and gain a competitive advantage over their local counterparts any move to venture into foreign markets should be given utmost significance and the marketing campaigns be diligently planned to keep in mind the cultural and traditional orientation of the target customers.