Give an example of how culture would impact a marketing strategy. Pick one specific product/service/company and then present your strategy.
Spanish Culture
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I took a business course while I was in Spain and actually talked a lot about this topic. One thing I remember specifically talking about was how internationally known brands were trying to translate their slogans and it just wasn't coming out right. One example we talked about was the Pringles original slogan "once you pop, you can't stop" and how they were trying to translate it for different countries. "Pop" isn't really a recognized word in Spanish (I'm not sure if it's the same with other languages, but I want to assume yes) it's more of a sound that we made a word for. So there is clearly a challenge in trying to get the Spanish people to understand their slogan. Something we discussed was just not translating it at all. I like this strategy because it eliminates the possibility of error and misunderstanding, but I also dislike this strategy because not every one knows English.. obviously.
Another idea could be just to change the slogan all together to cater to each country/culture; something that they can relate to. It would take a lot of understanding and knowledge of that culture, but it can be done and would definitely have a greater impact on the consumer.
The Culture of Football
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One company that is looking to go global is the National Football League. It is certainly an interesting pursuit since American Football is scarcely played outside of the United States. However, the NFL continues scheduling games in London every year and will even have a game in Mexico City in 2016. By nature, football is a violent game. The point is to hit the player with the ball as hard as you can in order to get the ball out. In some ways, it is indicative of the American culture, we can be seen as violent. After all, America has been involved in many wars and most video games, (at least the popular ones) are shooting/violent games. Whether we like or not violence is a big part of the culture here in America.
However, that is not true for most other countries. Countries like China and Japan place a strong emphasis on respect and teamwork. It would be hard to imagine games like football being successful. The most popular sport around the globe is the other football, soccer, which is the polar opposite of American football in terms of violence. That being said, in order for football to be successful in countries that do not have a violent culture the game would need to change dramatically. After many changes, the game might not fit into the culture here in America. Therefore, in my opinion, I do not think the NFL should continue in its efforts to expand the game across the globe. With major culture differences, I believe it is just a misguided effort and a waste of time.
Italian Culture and the Food Industry
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In Italy, there is a very strong loyalty and pride when it comes to products, especially food stuffs, that are made in Italy. The importance of local goods was impressed upon international franchisers when McDonalds tried to open it's doors in Italy. Because of its lack of local ingredients and the lack of focus on the ones that were local in its marketing campaigns, McDonalds suffered terribly and most of their Italian stores were forced to close. Once they got on track with what was culturally desired by the Italian people, they finally changed their supply to get almost all of their ingredients locally, and to focus all of their marketing efforts on showcasing this fact. If I were to open a franchise of Dunkin-Donuts in Italy I would make sure that I changed a lot of things before I decided to open. Not only would I make sure to focus on the locality of my suppliers and ingredients in an effort to please my Italian consumers, but I would also take note of the types of coffee they preferred and how the culture of coffee is different in Italy than in the U.S. I would make the Dunkin-Donuts smaller, and realize that to-go coffee is not a concept that exists in Italy. I would change the menu to reflect this, serving cafe lattes, macchiatos, and espresso in a smaller form. I would also use less food dye in the donuts and focus more on sugared outsides rather than frosting to try and appeal to the local tastes. I would then use my marketing strategy to present Dunkin-Donuts as a quick, slightly new and different--while still upholding the traditional values of a morning coffee and sweet--coffee place for Italians to try. I
Culture
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Every culture has its traditions and way of living that is considered average to them, while actually considered very low by our standards. One example of this is the people of China whose yearly income is around $2,000. By American standards, this income is extremely low, but in China, families can easily live on a $2,000 per year budget. In the article, "How to Market to Asia's Masses" it explains that the Chinese pay closer attention to brands that provide a better quality or service rather than a famous name brand. Because they live on a smaller budget, they would much rather pay a little extra for a service or product if it meets all of their needs. For example, the article mentions a man that paid extra money for a particular cell phone brand because it met the needs he was looking for. This man needed a phone to make calls, to play music, to take pictures, to have an accessible calendar, and more. After his purchase, he felt that his money was well spent and he received the services that he needed from this phone. Many people in China live similarly and expressed that certain name brands do not necessarily meet all of their standards. For marketers that plan on targeting countries like China, their products should meet their general standards and have the pricing that keeps their standard of living in mind.
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In 1994, during the World Cup Heineken launched a promotional campaign. One of Heineken's ideas for the marketing campaign included printing the flags of all World Cup finalists under the bottle cap. Issues occurred when Saudi Arabia's flag was printed on a bottle cap because it depicted a holy verse. Muslims all over the world were upset and Heineken quickly pulled the bottles and the campaign.
Companies, like Heineken need to research and be aware of culture differences that might cause issues within a culture. Partnering with customers from each country before launching their campaign would have been an effective marketing strategy. Getting feedback from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries would have prevented Heineken from offending and upsetting numerous customers around the world.
Culture
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Each country has its own traditions, cultural norms and taboos. Thus when designing global marketing strategies, companies have to understand how culture in each of its international markets affects customer reactions. For example, in Japan, Coca cola has to renamed "Diet Coke" to "Coke Light" after the firm learned that the term "diet" carried an embarrassing connotation. And the name "Coke Light" still carries until now in many Asia countries such as Vietnam, China, Thailand, etc. Or the luxury cosmetics brand Guerlain, when released the perfume advertisement with actress Sophie Marcaeu in London, France, made Sophie looks classic, charming and sexy. But when this perfume advertisement aired in Muslim countries, the ads showed a Sophie with covered face and body. Since in the Muslim world, women can not expose too much of their skin, it is important how a woman would dress in the public.
Consequently, we can see that culture has essential impact on company's marketing strategies. By paying attention to these cultural insights, marketers can get ahead of the curve and deliver their messages effectively to customers.
Culture
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So some ways culture can effect marketing stragties are things like Values of the society say what is ok and not ok behavior then you also have some countries who will allow more or less forgien influence on things because they want to keep there specific cultural heritage. Then you also have things like where I can show and add to one cultural and they will process everything and see all the messages in the back ground and can relate to the whole message where another group may just relate to the lead actor and not notice things in the back ground which can make marketing difficult.
So one small example is that the Japanese buying behavior is to see what the food looks like before buying it. Now when not paying attention it can go bad like when "Nike" stylized their "air" it looked like the word Allah in Arabic. So when designing a stragty for marketing depends on the region of the world you are in and then finding reglious and social cultural thins and then when you are able to work in these normas you will be ok.