Chapter 4

Social and Cultural

Environments
PowerPoint
by
Kristopher Blanchard
North Central University

2005 Prentice Hall

4-1

Task of Global Marketers

Study and understand the country
cultures in which they will be doing
business
Incorporate this understanding into the
marketing planning process

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Introduction
It is not just speaking a common language. It
is sharing a culture and understanding
friendships in the same way
Juan Villanonga Former Chairman of
Telefonica

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Society, Culture, and

Global Consumer Culture
Culture Ways of living, built up by a
group of human beings, that are transmitted
from one generation to another
Culture is acted out in social institutions
Culture has both conscious and unconscious
values, ideas and attitudes
Culture is both material and nonmaterial
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Society, Culture, and

Global Consumer Culture
Culture is the collective programming of the
mind that distinguishes the members of one
category of people from those of another.
- Geert Hofstede

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Society, Culture, and

Global Consumer Culture
Global consumer cultures are emerging
Persons who share meaningful sets of
consumption-related symbols
Pop culture; coffee culture; fast-food culture

Primary the product of an interconnected

world

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Attitudes, Beliefs and Values

Attitudes - learned tendency to respond in a
consistent way to a given object or entity
Belief - an organized pattern of knowledge that an
individual holds to be true about the world
Value - enduring belief or feeling that a specific
mode of conduct is personally or socially
preferable to another mode of conduct

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Religion
Religion is one important
source of societys
beliefs, attitudes, and
values. The worlds
major religions
include: Buddhism,
Hinduism, Islam,
Judaism, and
Christianity.
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Religion

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Aesthetics
The sense of what is
beautiful and what is
not beautiful
What represents good
taste as opposed to
tastelessness or even
obscenity

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Visual embodied in
the color or shape of a
product, label, or
package
Styles various
degrees of complexity,
for example are
perceived differently
around the world
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Dietary Preferences
Would you eat..
Reindeer (Finland)
Rabbit (France)
Rice, soup, and grilled fish for breakfast
(Japan)
Kimchi - Korea
Blood sausage (Germany)

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Language and Communication

Linguistic Category

Language Example

Syntax

English has relatively fixed word order;

Russian has relatively free word order

Semantics

Japanese words convey nuances of feeling

for which other languages lack exact
correlations; yes and no can be
interpreted differently than in other
languages.

Phonology

Japanese does not distinguish between the

sounds l and r; English and Russian both
have l and r sounds.

Morphology

Russian is a highly inflected language, with

six different case endings for nouns and
adjectives; English ahs fewer inflections.

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Language and Communication

Verbal Cues
Nonverbal cues or body language

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Marketings Impact on Culture

Universal aspects of the cultural
environment represent opportunities to
standardize elements of a marketing
program
Improved communications have contributed
to a convergence of tastes and preferences
in a number of product categories

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Marketings Impact on Culture

Movement has 70,000
members in 35
countries
Slow food is about
the idea that things
should not taste the
same everywhere.

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High- and Low-Context Cultures

High Context
Information resides in
context
Emphasis on background,
basic values
Less emphasis on legal
paperwork
Focus on personal
reputation

Saudi Arabia, Japan

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Low Context
Messages are explicit and
specific
Words carry all information
Reliance on legal
paperwork
Focus on non-personal
documentation of
credibility

Switzerland, US, Germany

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High- and Low-Context Cultures

Factor/Dimension

High Context

Low Context

Lawyers

Less Important

Very Important

A persons word

Is his/her bond

Not reliable get it in

writing

Responsibility for
Organizational
error

Taken by highest level

Pushed to the lowest level

Space

People breathe on each Private space maintained

other

Time

Polychronic

Monochronic

Competitive
Bidding

Infrequent

Common

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Hofstedes Cultural Typology

Power Distance
Individualism / Collectivism
Masculinity
Uncertainty Avoidance
Long-term Orientation

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Self-Reference Criterion and

Perception
Unconscious reference to ones own cultural
values; creates cultural myopia
How to Reduce Cultural Myopia:
Define the problem or goal in terms of home country
cultural traits
Define the problem in terms of host-country cultural
traits; make no value judgments
Isolate the SRC influence and examine it
Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and
solve
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Diffusion Theory
The Adoption Process
Characteristics of Innovations
Categories of Adopters

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Marketing Implications
The topics in this chapter must be
considered when formulating a global
marketing plan
Environmental Sensitivity reflects the
extent to which products must be adapted to
the culture-specific needs of different
national markets

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Environmental Sensitivity

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Looking Ahead to Chapter 5

The Political, Legal, and Regulatory
Environments of Global Marketing

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Social Institutions
Family
Education
Religion
Government
Business
These institutions function to reinforce
cultural norms
Return
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Material and Nonmaterial

Physical components
of culture
Objects
Artifacts
Clothing
Tools
Pictures
Homes

Subjective or abstract
culture
Religion
Perceptions
Attitudes
Beliefs
Values

Return
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Aesthetics and Color

What do you associate
with Red?

Active, hot, vibrant

Weddings in some
Asian cultures
Poorly received in
African countries

With white?

Purity, cleanliness
Death in parts of Asia

Return
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Phonology in action
Colgate is a Spanish command that means
go hang yourself
Technology implications for Text messages
8282 means hurry up (Korea)
7170 means close friend (Korea)
4 5683 968 means I Love You (Korea)

Return
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The Adoption Process

The mental stages through which an individual passes
from the time of his or her first knowledge of an
innovation to the time of product adoption or purchase

Awareness
Interest
Evaluation
Trial
Adoption

Return
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Characteristics of Innovations
Innovation is something new, five factors
that affect the rate at which innovations are
adopted include

Relative advantage
Compatibility
Complexity
Divisibility
Communicability
Return

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Categories of Adopters
Classifications of individuals within a
market on the basis of their innovativeness.
Five categories
Innovators
Early Adopters
Early majority
Late majority
Laggards
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Categories of Adopters

Return
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