Differences in cultures Essay

Culture impacts the strategies of marketer for different markets and consumer groups. There are various factors which impacts culture for instance globalization, internationalization and development in the telecommunication sector. These have enabled transfer of ideas and views of one culture to another. Hence impacts the populations worldwide. Various markets today are transforming to homogenous marketplace. The differences in consumer preferences and choices are reducing day by day. Either consumer would ask for totally different product or will buy something which is common. The choices of consumer are based on the factors like his needs and financials. As said by Williams, â€Å"People across cultures can do the same thing for different reasons or motives, and people in different countries may do different things for the same reasons. †(Mooij and Marieke K. de, 2004, p. 138) Cultural values vary with product categories. A marketer would use those attributes of any product which are culturally more accepted to design its marketing, selling and advertisement strategies. Buying motives will be different in different cultures. For instance for a particular country having automobile can be a status symbol while in other having environmental friendly vehicle can be more important issue. Culture impacts the attitude and decision making capability of the consumer. It impacts the branding, packaging and promotions strategies. Different Colours and shapes have different meanings attached to it. Marketer needs to understand these meanings and factors in order to decide for the marketing mix product, price, place and promotion. The packaging which plays different roles for the marketer and consumer from protecting the product to attracting the consumer requires special attention so that it can be accepted within the target consumer groups. â€Å"Throughout the past two decades globalization has resulted in saturation of domestic markets which lead companies to become more international. The ideal strategy in the evolution to the international marketplace would be to produce, package and sell the exact same product that was sold in the domestic market. This concept is supported by a variety of researchers (Samli, 1995), who declare that 75% of the world market may be quite alike culturally. Yet, this might be an egocentric perspective of the world, ignoring the unique qualities of each culture. In quintessence, the remaining 25% of the world is culturally different. † (Weber, J. M. et al. , 2002, p. 396) I. i. a. Various Factors Influenced by Culture There are various factors influenced by culture. The reason why people buy certain product at specific period of tie may be influenced by the cultural setting of the individual. Organizations’’ prior to launching their product or setting any operational study go through the cultural aspects of the specific market. This helps organizations to serve and operate within that area effectively. Many global standard products, assumed to be culture-free, are brought for different reasons across cultures. But there are differences in understanding certain product attributes and varying buying motives which can be well explained by underlying cultural values that vary by product category. For instance, advertising appeals which are effective in one culture may result in different responses when used in another culture such as, in UK beer advertising uses humorous appeals and German car advertising uses technological appeals. Apart from advertising appeals even in case of basic needs the motives of buying varies as for example, motives for buying a car may vary between safety, status, design, and environmentally friendly, all based on different cultural values. (Mooij and Marieke K. de, 2004) Some of those are discussed below: †¢ Attitude †¢ Ethnocentrism and Ethnic Background. †¢ Lifestyle †¢ Language †¢ Aesthetic Experience †¢ Purity †¢ Colour Perception †¢ Selective Perception †¢ Communication †¢ Visual Images †¢ Shopping & Buying Behaviour Attitude: Attitude of individuals are guided by their values and beliefs. These factors are also influenced by the culture individual belongs or lives. Attitudes have an impact on behaviour and vice versa. Different culture shows different kind of attitudes on various issues like countries of origin of products, brands, ethical standards and many more within its members. Ethnocentrism and Ethnic Background. â€Å"When consumers prefer products or brands from their own country to the products or brands from other countries, this is called Consumer Ethnocentrism† (De Mooij, pp. 120). The social identity of the product varies according to its country of origin. The products from west are considered prestigious and sophisticated while products from china are considered to be low quality products. Lifestyle: As mentioned in the work of Mooij and Marieke K. de, (2004) Lifestyle is defined as the way of living. Living across the globe is different in different cultures. Language: Language is a medium of communication. It can be either in written, spoken or even in sign form. Language is an expression or a demonstration of a society and culture. Various elements of culture like thoughts, ideas, values, beliefs are reflected through language. Particular language represents its own cultural framework. Speakers of different languages not only say things differently, they experience things differently. Aesthetic Experience: Aesthetic experience refers to the experience of pleasure or displeasure caused by stimuli that are perceived as being beautiful or not beautiful, attractive or un-attractive, and rewarding or unrewarding (Russell et al., 1997. p. 125). The aesthetic value can be created by the visuals, shape, language use and others. Particular society may consider particular factor important for instance Visual language is culturally specific in Western cultures. In Asian cultures visuals plays an important role in the imagination. For the Asian designers as centering is meant to be a fundamental principle in visual art in many Asian cultures. There is a big difference on the aesthetic appeals impacting individuals in east or west. In Asian cultures complexity in the designs and visuals is very common. The use of Colours and shapes will be different. Usually bright Colours are used in Asian countries which have its own meaning attached to it. Brides usually wear red bridal uniform as red is the symbol of prosperity and growth in many cultures. Environment: Different cultures deal with the environment in different ways. In the west countries like Britain and US environmental concerns are so high these concerns have impact on the product manufacturing to product packaging strategy. The packaging would vary according to the environmental standards. This is the reason why the use of poly begs have been replaced by the recyclable paper and products for the packaging. Purity: Purity is a subjective terms used by the researchers and academicians. Purity is sometimes attached to the cleanliness and sometimes to the soul of people. It varies from culture to culture. In some culture eating food from hand may be acceptable while in other it can be unacceptable. The recent controversy on the leading reality show of UK â€Å"Big brother† the aspects of culture and purity come into picture where one member refused to eat meal prepared by the other member and would have been one of the issues of content. Colour Perception: â€Å"Colours are known to posses emotional and psychological properties (Hevner 1935; Ward 1995). † (Thomas, J. M. et al. , 2000) According to Gunnerod (1991), Japanese consumers prefer white, while consumers from Hong Kong prefer red. Tektronix (1998) found that in India, orange is considered the most sacred Colour by Hindus whereas the Ndembo in Zambia do not even consider orange as a separate Colour. In a study a Housewife’s were given 3 different packages containing the same detergent of different Colours; blue Colour (quiet Colour), the second yellow (it had strong visibility) and yellow with blue stripes. The feed back of consumer was that detergent in Blue did not clean properly. While detergent in Yellow – ‘was too strong’ and Yellow with blue stripes ‘was just perfect’. The results can be based on various factors of an individual. In US Colours are associated with certain images. These images are as follows: †¢ BLUE is associated with Wealth, Trust, and Security †¢ GRAY is associated with Strength, Exclusivity and Success †¢ ORANGE denotes cheapness †¢ YELLOW, ORANGE, BLUE are connected with happiness †¢ RED, BLACK, BROWN are connected with sadness The perception of Colour is different across cultures. In Dutch culture RED is the prominent Colour comes to mind whereas in US it is BLUE. Similarly BLACK and BROWN are the two Colours strongly associated with Sad and Stale in various cultures has some additional meaning of Formal in Brazil, Colombia, PRC and Taiwan. These Colours are considered Masculine in Austria, Hong Kong and US. BLUE, GREEN and WHITE Colours are associated with Peace, Gentle and Calm in almost all the countries. Colours like GOLD, ORANGE and YELLOW which do not posses strong association with any of the Colour meanings and are some how close to one another. In India white Colour is also associated with mourn. People wear white Colour clothes in death ceremony. Widows in Hindu culture wear white dress throughout their life after the death of husband. They are not allowed to use any form of Colour. While in west white is used as a Colour of the bridal dress. Selective Perception: Perception of an individual regarding any particular aspect depends on number of factors like values, beliefs, level of education and others. It can be defined as selective observation of reality. Selective observation is distorted understanding and formation of view regarding particular thing. People see what they want to see and how they want to see. They reinforce their perception by seeing certain things and would hardly like to change it. Selective perception is a universal phenomenon. It is reinforced by culture. Communication: Communication is a process through which ideas, emotions, faith belief and actions are transferred to one individual to another. To communicate properly one should have the knowledge of rules of communications, norms and other factors of the related community. One of the most important aspects of proficient communication is knowledge of appropriate words used at a particular point of time. There is a strong relationship between culture and language. Each of these factors is functional and mutually complementary to each other. In the process of communication message is selected and encoded in order to transfer meaning to the receiver. Cultural knowledge provides the basis for interaction. The purpose of communication may also be different across cultures. †¢ Visual Images: Most of the researches on perception are carried out in Western societies. Since the development of visual perception depends on certain kinds of learning experiences, due to which there are cross-cultural differences in perception. Evidence of a basic cross-cultural difference in perception was reported by Turnbull. Some studies suggest that the integration of pictorial elements varies cross-culturally. The correct naming of elements of a picture does not predict ability to correctly perceive their mutual relationships. There are significant cultural differences in pictorial perception and recognition. As discussed earlier, complex visual images, relying on implicit meaning, can be better processed by members of collectivistic cultures who are more used to deriving meaning from context, than by members of individualistic cultures who are made used to simple visual images that carry explicit meaning i.e. pictures speak for themselves. A picture that is very meaningful for the members of one culture because it expresses important values of that culture can be completely meaningless to the members of the other culture. For instance, imagery is a very important element of advertising which has been undervalued in research due to the historical focus on verbal communication in US. This has been proved by an advertisement of Benetton in which a black women is nursing a white baby, was been awarded fro its message of unity and equality in Europe. Simultaneously, the same advertisement stirred up controversy in US, since many believed it depicted a black nanny in the subordinate role as a slave. Shopping & Buying Behaviour: Shopping & buying behaviour is also to a large extent affected by the culture of the nation. In low power distance cultures more number of women work part-time so it influences the number of visits they make to the shop where as in high power distance cultures women mostly work full-time so they have fewer shopping-time.