It is the responsibility of the global firm to ascertain the level of importance of various aspects of culture. Companies’ operations need to recognize and adjust to the cultural environment. In this week’s Lesson, you will find eight elements of culture. For this assignment, there are four elements of culture that are most important when marketing products and services internationally: language, religion, manners and customs, and aesthetics. Indicate why each is important and provide examples in your response.
Before marketing products and services in the international market, the company needs to focus on the country’s culture in which products are going to be sold. However, to get the more competitive advantage companies need to know about country culture with the beliefs, customs, traditions, values and shared norms so that the company can get the success. However, following; there is focus on the four elements of the culture in the context to do marketing of products and services in Saudi Arabia, which is an Islamic country; the contrast is done with the American culture.
Language
While discussing the cultural aspect of the marketing context; it is analyzed that language reflects the nature and values of every society. For example, to promote the company or products or services in Saudi Arabia the companies need to focus on the language and sub-cultural languages; as there are two or three languages in every country; in Saudi Arabia, there are Hijazi Spoken, Arabic, Najdi Standard Arabic, etc. therefore. If an American company wants to start a business or wants to promote the company or products or services in Saudi Arabia, then there should be a focus on make advertisement in Arabic so that there may not be communication problems (Reynolds, 2017).
Religion
Religion is the most important aspect of doing marketing of products and services in any country; every country has own culture; as in American culture; there are no restrictions on women; however, in Saudi Arabia women have some restrictions examples, on wearing dresses. The international marketer in this way, needs to focus on the differences in religion before starting the business. Marketing of products and services need to plan according to the religions. In the case of marketing, promotion and branding, there are some religious groupings in Saudi Arabia; as people in Saudi Arabia do not like pork from the pig. There are some Islamic or religious holidays in the country; the consumption patterns are different, therefore; before doing marketing of products and services in Saudi Arabia; the market segments and culture need to effectively concern (Reynolds, 2017).
Manners and customs
The manners and customs of every culture and country are different; however, therefore, for the marketing of the products and services, there is a need to focus on the values and attitudes of every nation. Example of Saudi Arabia can be taken as they are rich in cultural traditions and focuses on the deep Islamic roots. Saudi Arabia businessmen believe in punctuality, and they are highly family oriented. As compared to the Americans, Saudi does more warm welcome to visitors, and their customs and etiquettes involve strong handshake with the right hand. Therefore, companies need to follow the traditions and culture of every country so that there could be the promotion of brand products and services (Hunt & Hodkin, 2012).
Aesthetics
Aesthetics refers to ideas in a culture in which there could be the difference in the beauty and good taste of the countries. However, in order to a business promote in Saudi Arabia and to promote products or services in the Saudi Arabia there is need to focus on the drama and dancing of Arabic society, as the music, art in Saudi culture is different, the music in Saudi Arabia is slow and peaceful as compared with Western music. Reading the aesthetic sense; the posters that are placed in the marketing should be appropriate as there should not be vulgar posters. An American company can be different in the Aesthetic sense; as in Saudi Arabia the sign, colors, packaging of the product need to be different, and there should be different media messages based on the cultural acceptance (Hunt & Hodkin, 2012).
References
Hunt, K. A., & Hodkin, W. (2012). The Criticality of Cultural Awareness in Global Marketing: Some Case Examples. Journal of Business Case Studies (Online), 8(1), 1-10.
Reynolds, K. (2017). How cultural differences impact international business in 2017. Retrieved from http://www.hult.edu/blog/cultural-differences-impact-international-business/
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