Global Marketing: Social & Cultural Environments

Global
Marketing
Warren J. Keegan Mark C. Green
Social & Cultural

Environments
Chapter 4
Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

Introduction
This chapter includes:
• Society, Culture, and Consumer
Culture
• Hall’s Theory
• Hofstede’s Cultural Typology
• Ethnocentricity and
Self-Reference Criterion
• Maslow’s Hierarchy
• Diffusion Theory
African Village
Task of Global Marketers
• Study and understand the cultures of countries in
which they will be doing business
• Understand how an unconscious reference to

their own cultural values, or self-reference
criterion, may influence their perception of the
market
• Incorporate this understanding into the

marketing planning process

Society, Culture and
Global Consumer Culture
• Culture–ways of living, built up by a group of human
beings, that are transmitted from one generation to
another
• Culture has both conscious and unconscious values,

ideas, attitudes, and symbols
• Culture is acted out in social institutions
• Culture is both physical (clothing and tools) and

nonphysical (religion, attitudes, beliefs, and values)
Social Institutions
• Family
• Education
• Religion
• Government
• Business
These institutions
function to reinforce cultural norms

Material and
Nonmaterial Culture
Physical Culture Abstract Culture
– Clothing – Religion
– Tools – Perceptions
– Decorative – Attitudes
art
– Body – Beliefs
adornment – Values
– Homes

Society, Culture, and
“Culture is the collective programming of the mind
that distinguishes the members of one category of
people from those of another.”
Geert Hofstede
A nation, an ethic group, a gender group, an

organization, or a family may be considered as
a category.

Society, Culture, and
• Global consumer cultures are emerging
– Persons who share meaningful sets of consumption-
related symbols
– Pub culture, coffee culture, fast-food culture, credit card
culture
• Primarily the product of a technologically

interconnected world
– Internet
– Satellite TV
– Cell phones
Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values
• Attitude–learned tendency to respond in a consistent
way to a given object or entity
• Belief–an organized pattern of knowledge that an

individual holds to be true about the world
• Value–enduring belief or feeling that a specific mode

of conduct is personally or socially preferable to
another mode of conduct
Religion
• The world’s major religions include Buddhism,
Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism and are an
important source of beliefs, attitudes, and values.
• Religious tenets, practices, holidays, and history

impact global marketing activities.

Aesthetics
• The sense of what is • Visual–embodied in the
beautiful and what is color or shape of a
not beautiful product, label, or
package
• What represents good • Styles–various degrees

taste as opposed to of complexity, for
tastelessness or even example, are perceived
obscenity differently around the
world

Aesthetics and Color
• Red–associated with blood, wine-making, activity,
heat, and vibrancy in many countries but is poorly
received in some African countries.
• White–identified with purity and cleanliness in the

West, with death in parts of Asia.
• Gray–means inexpensive in Japan and China, but high

quality and expensive in the U.S.
Dietary Preferences
• Domino’s Pizza pulled out of Italy because its
products were seen as “too American” with bold
tomato sauce and heavy toppings.
• Subway had to educate Indians about the benefits of

sandwiches because they do not normally eat bread.

Language and Communication
Linguistic Category Language Example
Syntax-rules of sentence English has relatively fixed word order;
Russian has relatively free word order.
formation
Semantics-system of Japanese words convey nuances of
feeling for which other languages lack
meaning
exact correlations; ‘yes’ and ‘no’ can be
interpreted differently than in other
languages.
Phonology-system of Japanese does not distinguish between
the sounds ‘l’ and ‘r’; English and
sound patterns
Russian both have ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds.
Morphology-word Russian is a highly inflected language,
with six different case endings for
formation
nouns and adjectives; English has fewer
inflections.
Marketing’s Impact on Culture
• Universal aspects of the cultural environment

represent opportunities to standardize elements of a
marketing program
• Increasing travel and improved communications have

contributed to a convergence of tastes and
preferences in a number of product categories

High- and Low-Context Cultures
• High Context • Low Context
– Information resides in – Messages are explicit
context and specific
– Emphasis on – Words carry all
information
background, basic
– Reliance on legal
values, societal status paperwork
– Less emphasis on legal – Focus on non-personal
paperwork documentation of
– Focus on personal credibility
reputation
Saudi Arabia, Japan Switzerland, U.S., Germany

High- and
Low-Context Cultures

Hofstede’s Cultural Typology
• Power Distance
• Individualism/Collectivism
• Masculinity
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Long-term Orientation

Self-Reference Criterion
and Perception
• Unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values;
creates cultural myopia
• How to Reduce Cultural Myopia:

– Define the problem or goal in terms of home country
cultural traits
– Define the problem in terms of host-country cultural traits;
make no value judgments
– Isolate the SRC influence and examine it
– Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and solve
for the host country situation
Diffusion Theory:
The Adoption Process
The mental stages through which an individual passes from
the time of his or her first knowledge of an innovation to
the time of product adoption or purchase
• Awareness
• Interest
• Evaluation
• Trial
• Adoption

Diffusion Theory:
Characteristics of Innovations
• Innovation is something new; five factors that
affect the rate at which innovations are
adopted include:
– Relative advantage
– Compatibility
– Complexity
– Divisibility
– Communicability
Diffusion Theory:
Adopter Categories

Marketing Implications
• Cultural factors must be considered when
marketing consumer and industrial products
• Environmental sensitivity reflects the extent to

which products must be adapted to the
culture-specific needs of different national
markets

Environmental Sensitivity

Environmental Sensitivity
• Independent of social class and income,
culture is a significant influence on
consumption and purchasing
• Food is the most culturally-sensitive category

of consumer goods
– Dehydrated Knorr Soups did not gain popularity in the U.S.
market that preferred canned soups
– Starbucks overcame cultural barriers in Great Britain and
had 466 outlets by 2005

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Global

Social & Cultural

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• Understand how an unconscious reference to

• Incorporate this understanding into the

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• Culture has both conscious and unconscious values,

• Culture is acted out in social institutions

• Culture is both physical (clothing and tools) and

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

A nation, an ethic group, a gender group, an

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• Primarily the product of a technologically

• Belief–an organized pattern of knowledge that an

• Value–enduring belief or feeling that a specific mode

• Religious tenets, practices, holidays, and history

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• What represents good • Styles–various degrees

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• White–identified with purity and cleanliness in the

• Gray–means inexpensive in Japan and China, but high

• Subway had to educate Indians about the benefits of

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• Universal aspects of the cultural environment

• Increasing travel and improved communications have

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

Saudi Arabia, Japan Switzerland, U.S., Germany

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• How to Reduce Cultural Myopia:

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• Environmental sensitivity reflects the extent to

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

• Food is the most culturally-sensitive category

Copyright 2013, Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice-Hall

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