The impact of culture on international marketing - Essay Example

Globalization has vitalized the international trade and there have been concerted strategic moves on the part of various organizations to acquire large pieces of the global market place. Communication and information industry has come of age making the internet as a medium which helps the global consumers shrink around clicks of mouse button. Both virtual and brick & mortar global market spaces have increasingly become available. Both multinational corporations and small manufacturers and service providers are making a beeline for the large markets such as China, India etc adopting various entry routes.

However it is observed that the new emerging markets have socio-cultural contexts much different from the parallel contexts in western countries. Such cultural differences present themselves both as an opportunity and threat to those organizations expecting to find niche in these markets. If properly researched and read into the cultural dimensions of the foreign market can be woven into the international marketing mix and help establish the global supplier as a trustworthy supplier who understands the local realities.

Inadequate research into these aspects and thereby deficient weaving of cultural dimensions in the international marketing mix can prove to be an expensive marketing mistake. This paper takes up a substantive literature review of the impact of cultural dimensions in international marketing mix before taking up a library based approach to examine major arguments in respect of culture, its dimensions, international marketing mix and the impact of cultural dimensions on international marketing mix.

A hypothesis that international marketing mix was made more effective by conscious in building within such mix cultural dimensions and their implications was tested through the analysis of major arguments presented in the researched library material. The analysis also found support in some case studies examined from the library resources. The overall analysis revealed that the major arguments in the literature supported the hypothesis. The paper ended with presenting the futuristic scenarios of weaving cultural dimensions in the international marketing mix.