marketing across cultures

It’s a necessity to understand the cultural differences as it may have a significant influence for new business opportunities (Why Cultural Differences in Business Matter, 2021). In order for any new company to implement its tactics or strategies, they would have to cast around for new cultural differences in new diverse markets they are recently ingoing (Marzena, 2021). Settling advantages and the disadvantages of cultural differences in contrast with the companies’ home strategies increases the possibility of having a successful execution of new business opportunities. Understating the culture your business is moving in is more important than the business itself. (Marzena, 2021)

The assignment focuses on cross culture analysis between Egypt and France and I will be introducing Sephora the French company to Egypt. Firstly, Sephora is a French worldwide chain of personal upkeep and exquisiteness stores. It was established in 1970 via Dominique Mandonnaud and preserved by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (2021) . Remarkably, the name Sephora originates and stems from the Greek word sephos, meaning beauty, and Zipporah, the wife of Moses in the book of Exodus (Schwanke, 2021). Sephora is mainly from France but it participates in a dominant beauty existence in many countries around the world (Schwanke, 2021). However, Sephora has been able to achieve such a reputation because of its incomparable collection of prestigious products in every class, impartial provision from beauty professionals, cooperative shopping atmosphere. Sephora also partakes an online website that initially made a start in the U.S in 1999 where its customers can enjoy the experience of engaging with the beauty community (Schwanke, 2021). Moreover, the launching of Sephora stores in Egypt is essential because there is not any beauty store in Egypt that covers all the brands and products. This fact will give Sephora stores an advantage in the Egyptian market. (Egypt Cosmetic Market Size, Share & Demand | Research Report 2026, 2021)

Due to new business expansion and new technological factors, cultures around the world are now being linked together (Why Cultural Differences in Business Matter, 2021) . Enterprises are going global, which means that managers of today's era may have to deal with many different cultural backgrounds (Why Cultural Differences in Business Matter, 2021). However, this fact may seem enlightening to new career opportunities but regularly managers miscarry to foresee how cultural backgrounds affect employees’ performances and intelligence.

In time, a great deal of studies has been made to assess different cultural issues and to combine them together in anticipation of a certain outcome solution. In 1980, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, which was constructed on ranking cultures into 6 different categories in order to be able to identify cultural backgrounds to function based on them (The Hofstede model, 2021). The dimensions consist of power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, time orientation, and indulgence. (for explanations in the appendix) (The Hofstede model, 2021) Moreover, the prodigious dimensions of Hofstede’s were applied by Sondergaard on 61 replications focusing on validating his work. The results were respectable, most of the duplications were identical, and a partial percentage corresponded to his work. Even from the point of view of individualism, which wasn’t a flawless match, the researcher clarified that cultures will regulate over time (Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: – Understanding Different Countries, 2021). When companies start to expand and become internationalized, more conflicts arise. Businesses then were in much need of guidance and dependability on reliable studies and research. Hofstede’s dimensions were in a position to satisfy requests therefore, companies started surviving which demonstrates it is revolutionary. (Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: – Understanding Different Countries, 2021)

Despite being successful, people believe that only 6 dimensions aren’t enough to compete with numerous cultural background issues. Hofstede himself believes that his work must be further supplemented with new dimensions. What's more, Hofstede’s theory combines the entire population as a whole regardless of the different regions and several traditional backgrounds (CRITICISM OF HOFSTEDE, 2021) . The process led to doubts of its effectiveness due to several different characteristics of people answering the survey; that would then affect the entire country. (CRITICISM OF HOFSTEDE, 2021)

Secondly, Lewis's model was created by the researcher Richards D. Lewis. The basis of his research focused on data collection. The researcher gathered data from 150,000 online surveys, 50,000 administrators over 65 nationalities in order to reach a precise diagram (The Lewis Model – Dimensions of Behaviour | Cross Culture, 2021). However, after long research and questioners, he settled on dividing them into 3 groups of people. The divergent groups are linear active, multi-active, and reactive. (for meanings in the appendix) (The Lewis Model – Dimensions of Behaviour | Cross Culture, 2021). Even though the dividends might be dissimilar but they comprehend a small percentage of similarities. Anyhow, people criticized the model uttering that it has no scientific foundation by blaming it to be more of general research that’s unreliable for businesses to depend on . Basically, it's believed to be more of general research that focuses on the basis of how different cultures may react to different situations. The research should be assisting in foreseeing issues between communities in the sector of communication. (The Lewis Model – Dimensions of Behaviour | Cross Culture, 2021) Though, it’s impossible to be 100% accurate due to different factors an individual may face during different days that could deeply affect his decision-making and behaviors. However, the diagram could positively support understanding how different businesses favor cultures; long or short-term-oriented cultures. (2021)

Lastly, Hofstede’s and Lewis’s diagrams are similar but for the application of one of them, I choose Hofstede. It’s more clear that Hofstede is the best applicant since after experimenting the replications of the 6 diagrams were more accurate and some of them were typical to his research. New business opportunities can rely more on the 6 diagram theory. On the other hand, the criticism for Lewis is model is vast and some believe it’s not reliable enough because of how many different factors can affect the results. (Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights, 2021)

As Sephora is a brand that is loved and known by many people, it is an advantage to have a Sephora in Egypt because throughout different countries it is the number one leading makeup and skincare brand (2021). As Sephora is also skincare inclusive it provides a chance for people in Egypt to have both aspects of makeup and skincare in one place instead of having to order the products they need online. Ordering online works, but people prefer to have physical stores to choose the products to their liking with the aid of the employees. With the allowance of Sephora having all the makeup brands in one place, expansion of the store increases profits as well as the number of customers. Seeing as France is a modern country, bringing that aspect of modernism to Egypt (a country that continues to develop), Sephora will increase the chance of having a partnership between these two countries as the same brands will be available for customers.

By using the Hofstede 2010 theory, breaking down the marketing aspect linked with the psychological aspect, using a social media campaign implying that they are expanding to Egypt from France can create a sense of attachment to Sephora, thus allowing the brand to meet its customers’ needs that those other existing brands in Egypt were not fulfilling (Sondergaard, 1994; Steenkamp, 2001). Linking back to Part 2 above, talking about the cultural aspects as well as the conservative aspect, it allows majority of the different cultural backgrounds in Egypt to be more educated when it comes to different makeup brands. Even though they are educated now it allows them to create a broader sense of awareness of other brands that may be presented to them, i.e., those that they are unfamiliar with. This may also give a chance to employees working for other makeup stores in Egypt to be presented with the same opportunities as those in France. This can be linked back to the economic aspect that Hofstede’s theory provides, i.e., the dimension of power distance states that power is distributed unequally within a country to less powerful members of organisations (Country Comparison, 2021). Through economically creating more job opportunities for people in Egypt, it allows for individualism as in Hofstede’s theory (Kale and Barnes, 1992). Currently, Egypt is a collectivistic society (80), as Sephora moves from France – an individualistic society – there is a better chance for individuals to gain interdependence and thus have more jobs available. In addition to that, since France is an individualistic society, expanding Sephora from there to Egypt can also be challenging due to the vast cultural differences, mainly the beliefs. For example, the Egyptian culture can tend to be more conservative and therefore for an individual to work for Sephora it can be considered offensive as the family of an employee has to take responsibility for their actions in such societies. On the other hand, the expansion can continue to infuse and influence the marketing mix such as providing the people in Egypt with services, e.g., free makeup trials, as well as the use of promotions. Once a Sephora has been opened in Egypt, it gives customers the chance to feel the products before purchasing as compared to when they ordered online.

The move from France allows the customers to give feedback and recommend more products. The reason this is beneficial is because even though the Sephora in France is fully equipped and the country itself is developed, it lets the two countries collaborate and work as one to better each other in their weak points. This can be linked to Hofstede’s dimension of uncertainty avoidance. As seen in Hofstede’s Insights, (Country Comparison, 2021), the uncertainty avoidance for Egypt (80) and France (86) is close, now with the opening of Sephora and sharing thoughts and communicating with one another regarding new prospects uncertainty avoidance for both countries can reduce as they will automatically disregard their previous beliefs. Furthermore, using Hofstede’s theory to explain the expansion has proven to be quite thorough and comprehensive (Smith et al., 1996).

· Hofstede Insights. 2021. Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights. [online] Available at: <https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/egypt,france/> [Accessed 18 November 2021].

· Kale S, Barnes J. Understanding the domain of cross-national buyer-seller interactions. J Int Bus Stud 1992;23(1):101.

· Smith P, Dugan S, Trompenaars F. National culture and the values of organizational employees — a dimensional analysis across 43 nations. J Cross-Cult Psychol 1996;27(2):231–64.

· Sondergaard M. Research note: Hofstede's consequences: a study of reviews, citations and replications. Organ Stud 1994;15(3):447–56.

· Marzena, A., 2021. [online] Econstor.eu. Available at: <https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/229732/1/cerem-v1-i2-335.pdf> [Accessed 18 November 2021].

· 2021. [online] Available at: <https://craft.co/sephora> [Accessed 14 November 2021].

· Schwanke, C., 2021. [online] Makeup.lovetoknow.com. Available at: <https://makeup.lovetoknow.com/cosmetics-brands/what-is-history-sephora> [Accessed 14 November 2021].

· Allied Market Research. 2021. Egypt Cosmetic Market Size, Share & Demand | Research Report 2026. [online] Available at: <https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/egypt-cosmetic-market> [Accessed 14 November 2021].

· Taylor & Francis. 2021. The Hofstede model. [online] Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2501/s026504870920104x> [Accessed 16 November 2021].

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Source: Mindtools.com. 2021. Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: – Understanding Different Countries. [online] Available at: <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm> [Accessed 16 November 2021].

· Individualism: The scale of reach of one individual to other people. A high scale of an individual culture means that each individual is more responsible for himself and mostly their family. As for a collective culture is when people become more responsible for each other and is usually in superior societies.

· Power Distance: Is when lower class population accept and believe the inequality of health and influence between them and other higher classes. The point is acceptance of personal status between all classes.

· Masculinity: A high scale of masculinity in a society means there is more competition between people. So to be successful is having the highest performance in the society. As for lower scale it means, that people only focus on what they really relish doing and that’s the real meaning for success to them.

· Uncertainty Avoidance: is the when people are more concerned in fear about what the future embraces and the actions they will do to avoid future responses.

· Time orientation: Is when a society focuses more on what the future holds and they’re more alarmed about long term visions.

· Indulgence: The scale of how a society of individuals can maintain self-control over their desires and wishes concerning something.

Source: Crossculture.com. 2021. The Lewis Model – Dimensions of Behaviour | Cross Culture. [online] Available at: <https://www.crossculture.com/the-lewis-model-dimensions-of-behaviour/> [Accessed 18 November 2021].

· Linear active: is when a culture focuses more on having plans for the future. They fancy more reasonable tactics and they are always organized and like to do each task at a time.

· Multi active: when a culture feels comfortable with doing multi tasks. They organize their tasks based on personal partialities.

· Re-active: when a culture respect each other, signify politeness, loves other people, and they always react well to conversations.