Cultural Change in International Markets

Competitive pressures caused by globalization, deregulation, and discontinuous

technological changes seem to have forced many organizations into considering radical

change as a way of surviving and growing. A big part of this radical change has to do

with accepting and handling cultural differences among other nations. Organizations

pursue change to enhance their competitive positions and to grow.

Cultural Change

Culture changes over time, despite the fact that one of the more important

attributes of culture is that it is conservative and resistant to change. When marketing a

new innovation to a foreign country, the marketer must possess a thorough knowledge of

that country's culture in order to be successful there, as new innovations can be fail or

even cause offence if not marketed or designed in a manner appropriate to that particular

culture.

There are six rules of thumb when doing business across cultures:

1. Be prepared. Whether traveling or selling from home, you should never approach

a foreign market with first researching the area. Some of the things to learn

would include social and business etiquette, history, current affairs, the culture's

values, geography, religion, political structure, and practical matter such as

currency and hours of business.

2. Slow down. In America "Time is money." Americans always seem to be in a

rush and can seem unfriendly or arrogant. In other countries, patience is the key.

3. Establish trust. Having crisp business relationships will get the salesperson

nowhere. Product quality, pricing, and clear contracts are not as important as the

personal relationship and trust that are developed over time.

4. Understand the language. Languages differ in parts of the world one must have a

vocabulary that is sensitive to nuance and connotation. An interpreter could also

be helpful if needed.

5. Respect the culture. Manner are important. The traveling person is a guest and

must respect the hosts' rules.

6. Understand components of culture. There are two types: surface culture (fads,

styles, foods, etc.) and deep culture (attitudes, beliefs, values).

Importance of cultural understanding

One of the reasons a marketer may be unsuccessful internationally is when they

mistakenly see some cultures as being similar when they are in fact quite different. There

are a number of ways in which this can occur.

One of the ways this can occur is when countries' cultures are considered similar

on the basis they speak the same language. However, in instances where this occurs,

often a lot of words have a very different meaning in one country than another, a good

example being the difference here in Ireland with the U.S. Consider the question "Was

there any craic?" here, meaning was it fun or a good time, while the same question in the

states would be interpreted as was there any drugs as in "crack". The same

question but two very different meanings!

Another mistake is where different cultures are lumped together as one. In

western society it is commonly thought that most Asian groups such as the

Japanese, Chinese and Koreans for example have similar cultures when in

fact they are quite different. Failure to recognize the differences could have serious

consequences for a marketer. Even within a country, a marketer must be aware of the

existence of subcultures. There is no better example than the U.S. with people of all

ethnic backgrounds.

Ethnocentricity

People who are familiar with only one cultural pattern may believe they have an

awareness of cultural differences elsewhere, when in reality they do not. Unless they

have had occasion to make comparisons with other cultures, they are probably not even

aware of the important features of their own. They are probably also oblivious to the fact

that many societies consider their culture superior to all other (ethnocentricity) and that

their attempts to introduce the "German way" or the "American way" may be met with

resistance.

Failure to understand a culture is a huge mistake when marketing internationally,

but this is by no means the only obstacle to overcome. Culture tends to be

resistant to change, although the level of resistance to a new innovation varies.

This can be due in a large part to the fact that most cultures tend to be

ethnocentric. What this means is that the country holds their own culture in a far higher

esteem than any foreign culture and usually views other cultures as inferior, strange, or

even barbaric. This can often result in innovations being rejected if accepting them would

require changing a part of their culture, either cultural values, customs, or beliefs.

There are many reasons a culture may be resistant, but that said resistance can be

overcome but the marketer needs to understand the process of acceptance. There has been

research into this in order to speed up acceptance and bring about change, vital to a

marketer who is often working within a timeframe and cannot just wait for the change to

happen. Cultural change can be brought about in a number of ways; cultural

borrowing, unplanned cultural change, and planned cultural change.

Cultural Borrowing

Culture is learned and passed from generation to generation. When a country

encounters a problem it often looks to other countries to see how they coped with the

same problem. They then borrow the solution and adapt it to their own needs. When this

new action is judged acceptable by society, it is approved and becomes a part of the

culture that will be passed to the next generation. So while cultures are in their own right

unique, they are often made up of parts of other cultures.

Unplanned Cultural Change

As the name explains, unplanned cultural change is where change is brought

about in a culture without being planned by uncontrollable factors such as war or

revolution. A good example of this would be the role of women in the workplace

changing with the industrialization of Europe or the changing of the Japanese diet as a

result of World War II.

Planned Cultural Change

With planned cultural change, the process of change is hastened by the

marketer. This is achieved by removing the cultural factors that are an obstacle to a new

innovation. Not all innovations require change; some can be marketed in a manner

similar to existing products. However if cultural change is needed for acceptance,

marketers will try to bring about that change themselves by converting the cultural

factors that are obstacles to acceptance into stimulants for change.

The social system and structure can change within a country upon acceptance of a

new innovation. The majority of the time there are no undesirable consequences but they

can occur and the marketer must be aware of this, as there can be serious repercussions

for them and their company if there are adverse reactions to the new innovation

regardless of the fact it may have been accidental.

Knowledge about other cultures and how they affect the way people do business

may show business-people working in a culture different from their own that their

solutions are not always the appropriate ones for a given task. Understanding this is the

first step in learning how to use cultural differences to gain a strategic advantage.

Mishandling or ignoring cultural differences can cause numerous problems, such as lost

sales, the departure of competent employees, and low morale that contributes to low

productivity. How can international businesspeople learn to live with other cultures?

The first step is to realize that there are cultures different from their own. Then they must

go and learn the characteristics of those cultures so that they can adapt to them.

Traveling to this country and staying a while or undergoing an extensive, training

program would be helpful to cover the main characteristics of the culture, including the

language.