Global Dexterity

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Chapter 4

Cultural Dynamics

in Assessing

Global Markets

Learning Objectives

LO1 The importance of culture to an international marketer

LO2 The origins of culture

LO3 The elements of culture

LO4 The impact of cultural borrowing

LO5 The strategy of planned change and its consequences

Culture’s Pervasive Impact

Culture affects every part of our lives

How we spend money

How we consume

How we sleep

Culture and Birthrates

The birthrate tables in Exhibit 4.1 show the gradual decline beginning in the 1960s.

Birthrate spikes in Singapore in 1976 and 1988 are not a matter of random fluctuation.

In Chinese cultures, being born in the Year of the Dragon is considered good luck.

A sudden and substantial decline in fertility in Japan in 1966 reflects abstinence, abortions, and birth certificate fudging.

The Japanese believe that women born in the Year of the Fire Horse will lead unhappy lives and perhaps murder their husbands.

Exhibit 4.1 Birthrates (per 1000 women)

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2012. Copyright © 2012 by World Bank. Reproduced with permission of World Bank via Copyright Clearance Center.

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Culture and Consumption

Exhibit 4.2 illustrates culture’s influence on consumption patterns

The Dutch are the champion consumers of cut flowers.

The Germans and British love their chocolates.

The Japanese and Spaniards prefer seafood.

The Italians love pasta.

The French and Italians consume wine.

The Japanese are the highest consumers of tobacco.

Exhibit 4.2 Patterns of Consumption (annual per capita)

Country	Cut Flowers (€)	Chocolate (kg)	Fish and Seafood (kg)	Dried Pasta (kg)	Wine (liters)	Tobacco (sticks)
France	42	4.3	5.2	9.2	37.9	682
Germany	48	8.1	8.6	9.0	24.6	980
Italy	45	2.5	8.3	24.7	35.1	1147
Netherlands	49	4.9	4.8	3.7	25.7	659
Spain	23	2.1	28.2	5.2	19.5	911
United Kingdom	38	8.0	11.3	4.7	21.2	568
Japan	46	1.1	32.1	8.0	7.2	1490
United States	32	4.4	5.0	2.2	9.9	874

Source: CBI Marketing Information Data Base, “CBI Tradewatch for Cut Flowers and Foliage,” http://www.cbi.eu, 2012; and 2015. EuroMonitor International

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Culture and Disease

Exhibit 4.3 shows the consequence of consumption patterns across the countries listed.

The Germans have some of the highest consumption levels of flowers, candy, and wine, but the lowest birthrate among the six European countries.

Perhaps the Japanese diet’s emphasis on fish yields them the longest life expectancy.

The diabetes mellitus death rates have declined in five of the countries.

Japan shows a high incidence of stomach cancer.

Exhibit 4.3 Consequences of Consumption

Country	Birthrates (per 1,000)	Life Expectancy	Ischemic Heart Disease	Diabetes Mellitus	Lung Cancer	Stomach Cancer
France	13.1	82.2	58.6	18.3	52.2	7.8
Germany	8.6	81.2	161.3	30.8	56.7	12.6
Italy	8.9	82.6	120.2	35.2	60.6	16.8
Netherlands	10.7	81.3	57.8	16.4	64.8	8.5
Spain	9.5	82.6	77.6	22.4	48.0	12.5
United Kingdom	12.8	81.2	121.0	9.7	56.4	7.7
Japan	7.9	83.3	62.1	11.7	56.5	39.4
United States	12.7	78.9	120.1	22.3	51.6	3.7

Source: EuroMonitor 2015.

Death Rate per 100,000

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The Traditional Definition of Culture

The sum of the values, rituals, symbols, beliefs, and thought processes that are learned and shared by a group of people, then transmitted from generation to generation

Resides in the individual’s mind

Recognizes that large collectives of people can be like-minded

Exhibit 4.4 Origins, Elements, and Consequences of Culture

Origins of Culture: Geography

Includes climate, topography, flora, fauna, and microbiology

Influences history, technology, and economics

Social institutions

Boy-to-girl birth ratio

Ways of thinking

Origins of Culture: History

The impact of specific events in history can be seen reflected in technology, social institutions, cultural values, and even consumer behavior.

Much of American trade policy has depended on the happenstance of tobacco being the original source of the Virginia colony’s economic survival in the 1600s.

The Declaration of Independence, and thereby Americans’ values and institutions, was fundamentally influenced by the coincident 1776 publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

The military conflicts in the Middle East in 2003 bred new cola brands as alternatives to Coca-Cola—Mecca Cola, Muslim Up, Arab Cola, and ColaTurka.

Origins of Culture: The Political Economy

For most of the 20th century, four approaches to governance competed for world dominance:

Colonialism

Casualty of World War II

Fascism

Fell in 1945

Communism

Crumbled in the 1990s

Democracy/free enterprise

Origins of Culture: Technology

The effect of birth control techniques

Women have careers.

Half the marketing majors in the United States are women.

10 percent of the crews on U.S. Navy ships are women.

Men spend more time with kids.

Exhibit 4.5 Comparison of Healthcare Systems

Source: Michelle Andrews, “Health, The Cost of Care,” National Geographic Magazine, December 2009. Oliver Uberti/National Geographic Stock. Reprinted with permission.

Origins of Culture: Social Institutions

Includes family, religion, school, the media, government, and corporations

Aspects that are interpreted differently within each culture:

The positions of men and women in society

The family

Social classes

Group behavior

Age groups

How societies define decency and civility

Social Institutions: Family

The technology of birth control has tremendously affected families and reduced family sizes around the world.

Family forms and functions also vary substantially around the world, even around the country.

The ratio of male to female children is affected by culture (as well as latitude).

All these differences lead directly to differences in how children think and behave.

Social Institutions: Religion

The impact of religion on the value systems of a society and the effect of value systems on marketing must not be underestimated.

In most cultures, the first social institution infants are exposed to outside the home takes the form of a church, mosque, shrine, or synagogue.

The influence of religion is often quite strong, so marketers with little or no understanding of a religion may readily offend deeply.

Religious Pilgrims

Every Muslim is enjoined to make the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, once in his or her lifetime if physically able. Millions of faithful Muslims come from all over the world annually to participate in what is one of the largest ritual meetings on Earth.

Each day at sunrise and sunset, pilgrims crowd the Ghats (steps to the holy river/Mother Ganga/the River Ganges) to immerse themselves in the water and perform puja. The 55-day festival attracts some 60–80 million pilgrims.

Social Institutions: School

The literacy rate of a country is a potent force in economic development.

According to the World Bank, no country has been successful economically with less than 50 percent literacy.

When countries have invested in education, the economic rewards have been substantial.

Communicating with a literate market is much easier than communicating with one in which the marketer must depend on symbols and pictures.

Children reading books rented from a street vendor

In the United States, kids attend school 180 days per year; in China, they attend 251 days—that’s six days a week. There’s a great thirst for the written word in China.

Social Institutions: The Media

The relative performance of educational systems (Exhibit 4.6) is seen as a leading indicator of economic competitiveness.

Media time (TV and increasingly the Internet and mobile phones) has replaced family time.

American kids spend only 180 days per year in school.

Chinese, Japanese, and German kids spend around 220 days per year in school.

Exhibit 4.6 OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Selected Scores and Rankings for 15-Year-Olds, 2013

Source: OECD, PISA, http://www. economist.com/node/21529014, 2015.

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Social Institutions: Government

Most often governments try to influence the thinking and behaviors of adult citizens for the citizens’ “own good.”

In some countries, the government owns the media and regularly uses propaganda to form “favorable” public opinions.

Other countries prefer no separation of church and state.

Governments also affect ways of thinking indirectly, through their support of religious organizations and schools.

Governments influence thinking and behavior through the passage, promulgation, promotion, and enforcement of a variety of laws affecting consumption and marketing behaviors.

Social Institutions: Corporations

Most innovations are introduced to societies by companies, many times by multinational companies.

Multinational companies efficiently distribute new products and services based on new ideas from around the word. As a result:

Cultures change.

New ways of thinking are stimulated.

Elements of Culture

The five elements of culture

Values

Rituals

Symbols

Beliefs

Thought processes

Cultural Values

Hofstede, who studied over 90,000 people in 66 countries, found that the cultures differed along four primary dimensions.

Individualism/Collective Index (IDV), which focuses on self-orientation

Power Distance Index (PDI), which focuses on authority orientation

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), which focuses on risk orientation

Masculinity/Femininity Index (MAS), which focuses on assertiveness and achievement

Individualism/Collective Index

Refers to the preference for behavior that promotes one’s self-interest

High IDV cultures reflect an “I” mentality and tend to reward and accept individual initiative

Low IDV cultures reflect a “we” mentality and generally subjugate the individual to the group

Power Distance Index

Measures the tolerance of social inequality, that is, power inequality between superiors and subordinates within a social system.

High PDI cultures tend to be hierarchical, with members citing social roles, manipulation, and inheritance as sources of power and social status.

Low PDI cultures tend to value equality and cite knowledge and achievement as sources of power.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index

Measures the tolerance of uncertainty and ambiguity among members of a society

High UAI cultures are highly intolerant of ambiguity, experience anxiety and stress, are concerned with security and rule following, and accord a high level of authority to rules as a means of avoiding risk.

Low UAI cultures are associated with a low level of anxiety and stress, a tolerance of deviance and dissent, and a willingness to take risks.

Cultural Values and Consumer Behavior

A variety of studies (Exhibit 4.7) have shown cultural values can predict such consumer behaviors as

word-of-mouth communications

impulsive buying

responses of both surprise and disgust

the propensity to complain

responses to service failures

movie preferences

the influence of perceptions of product creativity

Exhibit 4.7 Hofstede’s Indexes, Language, and Linguistic Distance

Source: Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, and Michael Minkov, Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 3rd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011); Joel West and John L. Graham, “A Linguistics-Based Measure of Cultural Distance and Its Relationship to Managerial Values,” Management International Review 44, no.3 (2004), pp. 239–60.

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Rituals

Patterns of behavior and interaction that are learned and repeated

Marriage ceremonies

Funerals

Graduation rituals

Dinner at a restaurant

Visit to a department store

Grooming before heading off to work

Coordinate everyday interactions and special occasions

Let people know what to expect

Symbols

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall tells us that culture is communication.

Learning to interpret correctly the symbols that surround us is a key part of socialization.

Aesthetics includes arts, folklore, music, drama, dance, dress, and cosmetics.

Customers everywhere respond to images, myths, and metaphors that help them define their personal and national identities and relationships within a context of culture and product benefits.

Exhibit 4.8 lists the metaphors Martin Gannon identified to represent cultures around the world.

Language

For some around the world, language is itself thought of as a social institution, often with political importance.

Linguistic distance determines differences in values across countries and the amount of trade between countries and demonstrates a direct influence of language on cultural values, expectations, and even conceptions of time.

Bilingualism: Customers process advertisements differently if heard in their native versus second language.

Biculturalism: Customers can switch identities and perception frames.

Exhibit 4.8 Metaphorical Journeys through 23 Nations

The Thai Kingdom	The Traditional British House
The Japanese Garden	The Malaysian Balik Kampung
India: The Dance of Shiva	The Nigerian Marketplace
Bedouin Jewelry and Saudi Arabia	The Israeli Kibbutzim and Moshavim
The Turkish Coffeehouse	The Italian Opera
The Brazilian Samba	Belgian Lace
The Polish Village Church	The Mexican Fiesta
Kimchi and Korea	The Russian Ballet
The German Symphony	The Spanish Bullfight
The Swedish Stuga	The Portuguese Bullfight
Irish Conversations	The Chinese Family Altar
American Football

Source: From Martin J. Gannon, and Rajnandini K. Pillai Understanding Global Cultures, Metaphorical Journeys through 31 Nations, 5th ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012). Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc. via Copyright Clearance Center.

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Beliefs

Beliefs, which mainly stem from religious training, vary from culture to culture.

The western aversion to the number 13

Japanese concern about Year of the Fire Horse

The Chinese practice of Feng Shui

Myths, beliefs, superstitions, or other cultural beliefs are an important part of the cultural fabric of a society and influence all manner of behavior.

Russian Orthodox priests blessing a Niva assembly line

Part of a joint venture between General Motors and AvtoVaz, the Niva is the best-selling SUV in Russia, making a profit for GM.

Thought Processes

Culture seems to matter more in snap judgments than in longer deliberations.

Studies demonstrate a deeper impact of culture on sensory perceptions themselves, particularly aromas.

Newer products and services and more extensive programs involving the entire cycle, from product development through promotion to final selling, require greater consideration of cultural factors.

Cultural Sensitivity and Tolerance

Successful foreign marketing begins with cultural sensitivity

Being attuned to the nuances of culture

A new culture can be viewed objectively, evaluated, and appreciated

Being culturally sensitive will reduce conflict and improve communications and thereby increase success in collaborative relationships.

The Paradox in Cultural Change

Culture is dynamic in nature.

It is a living process.

Culture is conservative and resists change.

Culture is the accumulation of a series of the best solutions to problems faced in common by members of a given society.

Why do societies change?

War

Natural disaster

Cultural Borrowing

Cultural borrowing is a responsible effort to learn from others’ cultural ways in the quest for better solutions to a society’s particular problems.

Regardless of how or where solutions are found, once a particular pattern of action is judged acceptable by society, it becomes the approved way and is passed on and taught as part of the group’s cultural heritage.

Culture is learned; societies pass on to succeeding generations solutions to problems, constantly building on and expanding the culture so that a wide range of behavior is possible.

Similarities: An Illusion

A common language does not guarantee a similar interpretation of words or phrases.

Americans and British have a harder time understanding each other because of their apparent and assumed cultural similarities.

The growing economic unification of Europe has fostered a tendency to speak of the “European consumer.”

Marketers must assess each country thoroughly in terms of the proposed products or services and never rely on an often-used axiom that if it sells in one country, it will surely sell in another.

Resistance to Change

Consumers in different cultures display differing resistance.

Observations indicate that those innovations most readily accepted are those holding the greatest interest within the society and those least disruptive.

Historically, most cultural borrowing and the resulting change has occurred without a deliberate plan, but increasingly, changes are occurring in societies as a result of purposeful attempts by some acceptable institution to bring about change, that is, planned change.

Mom in Mumbai

Culture does change—dress and even names of major cities! Mumbai was formerly called Bombay. However, according to a local resident, everyone still calls it Bombay despite the official alteration.

Planned and Unplanned Cultural Change

The first step in bringing about planned change in a society is to determine which cultural factors conflict with an innovation, thus creating resistance to its acceptance.

The next step is an effort to change those factors from obstacles to acceptance into stimulants for change.

Introducing Innovation

Marketers have two options when introducing an innovation to a culture.

They can wait for changes to occur.

Hopeful waiting for eventual cultural changes that prove their innovations of value to the culture

They can spur change.

Introducing an idea or product and deliberately setting about to overcome resistance and to cause change that accelerates the rate of acceptance

Cultural Congruence

Not all marketing efforts require change to be accepted.

Cultural congruence involves marketing products similar to ones already on the market in a manner as congruent as possible with existing cultural norms, thereby minimizing resistance.

Summary

Marketers have only limited control over the cultural environment.

New environments influenced by elements unfamiliar and sometimes unrecognizable to the marketer complicate the task of planning marketing strategies.

Of all the tools the foreign marketer must have, those that help generate empathy for another culture are, perhaps, the most valuable.