Culture Matters: Consumer Acceptance U.S. Films in Foreign Markets

Reflection 01
Culture Matters: Consumer Acceptance U.S. Films in Foreign Markets

Executive Summary
Culture has a profound influence on all aspects of human behavior. Its impact may be subtle or pronounced, direct or indirect, enduring or temporary. In this article, the authors examine the extent to which the cultural environment in which a film is released affects its success. The reason why they selected film for research is that films remain a creation of the culture in which they are developed. Films inevitably reflect the writer’s view, the director’s vision, and the actor’s interpretation of the script, all of which are influenced by the cultural context.
This article enabled to test hypotheses based on data drawn from the Variety.com website on the top 50 films in eight foreign countries for six consecutive years. Hypotheses focus on the three key dimensions of culture: beliefs and value systems, material and goods, and language. Craig, Greene, and Douglas test hypotheses with a hierarchical regression model specifying the impact of both film-level and country-level independent variables on box office receipts. The independent variables consisted of two groups, film characteristics and country characteristics.
According to hypotheses, the results are: firstly, closely related to cultural distance is the extent to which the country has embraced elements of American culture. Secondly, related to cultural distance, was whether the film was released in an English-speaking country. When films were released in other English-speaking countries, they performed better than when they were released in non-English-speaking countries. Lastly, more genres allows for a more precise match between the film and its genre, while grouping the countries may mask individual country differences.
The article explains that culture matters in important ways that are salient for products with significant cultural content. However, films are not only products which have substantial cultural content. Entertainment, food, clothing, and home furnishings are equally replete with cultural content. Although cultural context has largely been neglected to date, the results of this study suggest that it is an important factor to consider both in understanding and in explaining the success of culturally embedded products.
Thoughts from personal perspectives
Other Cultures Are Not Like Yours
No matter whom you are or where you live, no matter what nation or culture you come from, you will need to recognize one very important truth when you do business with colleagues in other countries, other people—although they may dress like you, speak your language, or even work for the same company—are not “just like you.”
Nowadays, you may do business with people that have very different histories, languages, and ways of doing business. They may have a different ways of negotiating, and different perceptions of when a deal has truly been made. They may also have different expectations of what it means to follow through on commitments and agreement. When you do business with companies in other countries, you are not just staying in different hotel, eating a different meal, and meeting in different offices. You are entering someone else’s world, and you need to understand their culture. It helps to make conversations, helps to learn more from the experience, and is a sign of respect for your cooperators.
Differences in Values, Beliefs and Policies
Values and beliefs are important factors in consumer behavior. They dictate a particular customer attitude toward a product and how and why people select that product. For example, Chinese believe in hard work and discipline, their lives typically center on work while American culture centers on leisure activities and individualism, which affects buying habits. Chinese, because of the one-child policy, typically choose products of high quality and durability, while Americans are more price-conscious and often buy on the spur of the moment.
Acculturation
Acculturation is a process of adapting to a culture that we like or value. For example, a Chinese person living in the United States is likely to adopt some of the traditions, values of American culture and American buying habits as well. In fact, even the Chinese living in China may change their buying habits as a result of watching American movies and exposure to American culture that way.
World Brands
Some brands are portrayed exactly the same in every culture and it simply does not affect their sales. Their products' stand is so strong that they do not need to adjust to sell. Examples of such brands are Coca-Cola, Sony and IBM, which are known and present in virtually every country in the world.