Bantou empire marketing interview questions

Jean-Claude Usunier Julie Anne Lee

Marketing Across CulturesFourth Edition

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Marketing Across Cultures

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We work with leading authors to develop the strongest educational materials in marketing, bringing cutting-edge thinking and best learning practice to a global market.

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Marketing Across Cultures

Jean-Claude Usunier

Julie Anne Lee

4th edition

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Pearson Education Limited

Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England

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First published 1992 Second edition published 1996 Third edition published 2000 Fourth edition published 2005

© Prentice Hall Europe 1992, 1996 © Pearson Education Limited 2000, 2005

The rights of Jean-Claude Usunier and Julie Anne Lee to be identified as authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN 0 273 68529 5

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Usunier, Jean-Claude. Marketing across cultures / Jean-Claude Usunier, Julie Lee. – 4th ed.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-273-68529-5 (alk. paper)

1. Export marketing – Social aspects. 2. International business enterprises – Social aspects. 3. Intercultural communication. I. Lee, Julie, 1948– II. Title.

HF1416.U85 2005 658.8′4—dc22

2004057632

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 09 08 07 06 05

Typeset in 10/12pt Minion by 35 Printed by Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport

The publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.

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Introduction: Marketing in the global villages xv Acknowledgements xix

Part 1 The cultural variable in international marketing 1 Introduction to Part 1 2 1 The cultural process 4 2 Cultural dynamics 1: Time and space 21 3 Cultural dynamics 2: Interactions, mindsets and behaviours 50

Part 2 The integration of local consumption in a global marketing environment 83 Introduction to Part 2 84 4 Cross-cultural consumer behaviour 86 5 Local consumers and the globalization of consumption 118 6 The convergence of marketing environments worldwide 155 7 Cross-cultural market research 181

Part 3 Marketing decisions for the intercultural environment 215 Introduction to Part 3 216 8 Intercultural marketing strategy 218 9 Product policy 1: Physical, service and symbolic attributes 248

10 Product policy 2: Managing meaning 285 11 The critical role of price in relational exchange 316 12 International distribution and sales promotion 341

Part 4 Intercultural marketing communications 371 Introduction to Part 4 372 13 Language, culture and communication 374 14 Intercultural marketing communications 1: Advertising 409 15 Intercultural marketing communications 2: Personal selling,

networking and public relations 457 16 Intercultural marketing negotiations 1: People, trust and tasks 494 17 Intercultural marketing negotiations 2: Some elements of national

styles of business negotiation 534

Postscript 548 Author Index 550 Subject Index 567

Brief contents

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Contents

Introduction: Marketing in the global villages xv Acknowledgements xix

Part 1 The cultural variable in international marketing 1

Introduction to Part 1 2

1 The cultural process 4 1.1 Defining culture 4 1.2 Elements of culture 6 1.3 Culture and nationality 9 1.4 Culture and competence 13 1.5 Culture and social representations 15

Questions 16 Notes 17 References 17

Appendix 1: Teaching materials 19 A1.1 Critical incident: An old lady from Malaysia 19 A1.2 Critical incident: The parable 19 A1.3 Reading: Body rituals among the Naciremas 20

2 Cultural dynamics 1: Time and space 21 2.1 A model of action based on cultural assumptions 21 2.2 Time: Cross-cultural variability 23 2.3 Space 29 2.4 Cultural borrowing and change in societies 35 2.5 Cultural hostility 38

Questions 40 Notes 42 References 42

Appendix 2: Teaching materials 45 A2.1 Cross-cultural scenario: Inshallah 45 A2.2 Cross-cultural interaction: Engineering a decision 45 A2.3 Cross-cultural interaction: Opening a medical office in Saudi Arabia 46

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viii Contents

A2.4 Reading: Language and time patterns: The Bantu case 47 A2.5 Exercise: World picture test 48

3 Cultural dynamics 2: Interactions, mindsets and behaviours 50 3.1 Concept of the self and others 50 3.2 Interaction models 56 3.3 Culture-based attitudes towards action 64 3.4 How to relate thinking to action 68 3.5 Dealing with desires and feelings 70 3.6 Coping with rules 72 3.7 Cultural assumptions and actual behaviour 75

Questions 77 Notes 78 References 78

Appendix 3: Teaching materials 81 A3.1 Critical incident: An American in Vietnam 81 A3.2 Rationales for A2.1 (cross-cultural scenario) and sections A2.2 and

A2.3 (cross-cultural interactions) 81

Part 2 The integration of local consumption in a global marketing environment 83

Introduction to Part 2 84

4 Cross-cultural consumer behaviour 86 4.1 Culture and consumer behaviour 88 4.2 The influence of culture on selected aspects of consumer behaviour 93 4.3 Investigating the cross-cultural applicability of consumer behaviour

concepts 96 4.4 Ethnic consumption 100 4.5 Marketing as an exchange of meanings 102 4.6 Conclusion 105

Questions 105 Notes 105 References 106

Appendix 4: Teaching materials 111 A4.1 Exercise: ‘Ditcher’s consumption motives’ 111 A4.2 Exercise: Investigating the cross-cultural applicability of a consumer

complaint scale 112 A4.3 Case: Mobile phones in the European Union 112 A4.4 Exercise: Cross-cultural consumer behaviour and the standardization/

adaptation of service offers 115 A4.5 Exercise: Multidomestic versus Global 116

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5 Local consumers and the globalization of consumption 118 5.1 Free trade doctrine and the denial of cultural variety in consumers’ tastes 119 5.2 The global convergence of consumption patterns 121 5.3 The emergence of a global consumer culture 123 5.4 Local products and consumption experiences 126 5.5 Local consumer cultures and resistance to change 131 5.6 Emergent patterns of a mixed local/global consumer behaviour 135

Questions 138 Notes 139 References 140

Appendix 5: Teaching materials 145 A5.1 Case: Setting the stage – Disneyland Resort Paris 145 A5.2 Case: Papa Ingvar’s worries 150

6 The convergence of marketing environments worldwide 155 6.1 Local marketing environments 155 6.2 Marketing: Borrowed concepts and practices 159 6.3 Regional convergence 162 6.4 A diverse marketing environment: The European Union 163 6.5 A changing marketing environment: Eastern Europe 168 6.6 A challenging marketing environment: East Asia 171 6.7 Limitations to the worldwide convergence of marketing environments 173

Questions 174 Note 174 References 174

Appendix 6: Teaching materials 177 A6.1 Case: Muslim Cola: Cola wars or cola crusades? 177 A6.2 Case: Odol 179

7 Cross-cultural market research 181 7.1 Equivalence in cross-cultural research 182 7.2 Translation equivalence 185 7.3 Measure equivalence 189 7.4 Comparability of samples 192 7.5 Data-collection equivalence 194 7.6 Researching internationally 198 7.7 Conclusion 202

Questions 203 Notes 203 References 205

Appendix 7: Teaching materials 209 A7.1 Case: Mobile phones in the European Union 209 A7.2 Exercise: Hair shampoo questionnaire 209

Contents ix

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x Contents

Part 3 Marketing decisions for the intercultural environment 215

Introduction to Part 3 216

8 Intercultural marketing strategy 218 8.1 Cost arguments and global strategies 218 8.2 The globalization of competition 225 8.3 Globalization of international marketing strategies 227 8.4 Market segments 231 8.5 Conclusion 236

Questions 236 References 236

Appendix 8: Teaching materials 241 A8.1 Case: Bollywood 241 A8.2 Exercise: Dangerous Enchantment 245

9 Product policy 1: Physical, service and symbolic attributes 248 9.1 Adaptation or standardization of product attributes 249 9.2 Physical attributes 250 9.3 Service attributes 255 9.4 Symbolic attributes 261

Questions 266 Notes 266 References 268

Appendix 9: Teaching materials 272 A9.1 Case: Movies worldwide 272 A9.2 Case: Fastfood: Halal or Haram? 277

10 Product policy 2: Managing meaning 285 10.1 National images diffused by the product’s origin and by its brand name 286 10.2 Consumer product evaluation according to country of origin 288 10.3 National, international and global brands 294

Questions 304 Notes 305 References 307

Appendix 10: Teaching materials 312 A10.1 Exercise: Interpreting symbolic attributes 312 A10.2 Case: Soshi Sumsin Ltd 312 A10.3 Case: Derivados de Leche SA 314

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Contents xi

11 The critical role of price in relational exchange 316 11.1 Price as a signal conveying meaning 316 11.2 Bargaining 317 11.3 Price and consumer evaluations 319 11.4 International price tactics 324 11.5 Market situations, competition and price agreements 330 11.6 Managing prices in highly regulated environments 332

Questions 334 References 335

Appendix 11: Teaching materials 337 A11.1 Case: Saito Importing Company 337 A11.2 Case: Riva International 338 A11.3 Case: Taman SA 340 A11.4 Case: AIDS – Global ethics and the pricing of AIDS drugs 340

12 International distribution and sales promotion 341 12.1 The cultural dimensions of distribution channels: The case of

Japanese Keiretsus 341 12.2 Criteria for choosing foreign distribution channels 348 12.3 The role of distribution as a ‘cultural filter’ 350 12.4 Direct marketing worldwide 353 12.5 Sales promotion: Other customs, other manners 356

Questions 360 References 361

Appendix 12: Teaching materials 364 A12.1 Case: ComputerLand in Japan 364 A12.2 Case: The virtual beehive: The online marketing of US honey 365

Part 4 Intercultural marketing communications 371

Introduction to Part 4 372

13 Language, culture and communication 374 13.1 Verbal communication: The role of context 375 13.2 Non-verbal communication 380 13.3 Language shaping our world-views 383 13.4 Ethnocentrism, stereotypes and misunderstandings in intercultural

communication 388 13.5 How to improve communication effectiveness in international business 392

Questions 395 Notes 396 References 398

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Appendix 13: Teaching materials 400 A13.1 Exercise: Multicultural class 400 A13.2 Exercise: I ‘love’ cake 400 A13.3 Case: Longcloud – Languages in cyberspace 400 A13.4 Case: Supreme Canning 405 A13.5 Critical incident: Scandinavian Tools Company 406

14 Intercultural marketing communications 1: Advertising 409 14.1 Influence of culture on attitudes towards advertising 411 14.2 Culture and advertising strategy 413 14.3 Culture and advertising execution 416 14.4 Media worldwide: Technological advances and cultural convergence 425 14.5 The globalization of advertising 431

Questions 435 Notes 436 References 436

Appendix 14: Teaching materials 443 A14.1 Case: BrandUSA – Selling Uncle Sam like Uncle Ben’s 443 A14.2 Case: Excel and the Italian advertising campaign 447 A14.3 Exercise: Borovets – a Bulgarian ski resort 449 A14.4 Exercise: Slogans and colloquial speech 450 A14.5 Case: AIDS (2) – Designing a communication campaign for Mexico 451

15 Intercultural marketing communications 2: Personal selling, networking and public relations 457 15.1 Intercultural commerce 457 15.2 Networks in business markets 463 15.3 Buyer–seller interactions 465 15.4 Sales force management in a cross-cultural perspective 467 15.5 Public relations across cultures 472 15.6 Bribery: Facts 474 15.7 Bribery: Ethical aspects 477

Questions 483 Notes 484 References 484

Appendix 15: Teaching materials 487 A15.1 Case: When international buyers and sellers disagree 487 A15.2 Case: Setco of Spain 488 A15.3 Case: Union Carbide at Bhopal 489 A15.4 Case: The Brenzy nouveau has arrived! 491

16 Intercultural marketing negotiations 1: People, trust and tasks 494 16.1 The dynamics of trust in relational marketing 495 16.2 The influence of culture on marketing negotiations 498 16.3 Behavioural predispositions of the parties 500

xii Contents

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16.4 Underlying concepts of negotiation and negotiation strategies 504 16.5 Time-based misunderstandings in international marketing negotiations 510 16.6 Cultural misunderstandings during the negotiation process 513 16.7 Differences in outcome orientation: Oral versus written agreements as

a basis for trust between the parties 517

Questions 522 Notes 522 References 523

Appendix 16: Teaching materials 527 A16.1 Case: McFarlane Instruments 527 A16.2 Negotiation game: Kumbele Power Plant 528 A16.3 Case: Doing business in China – A failure in getting paid 532

17 Intercultural marketing negotiations 2: Some elements of national styles of business negotiation 534 17.1 Orientals 534 17.2 Western styles 537 17.3 Negotiation styles in other areas of the world 539 17.4 Some basic rules for international marketing negotiations 542

Questions 542 References 543

Appendix 17: Teaching materials 545 A17.1 Case: Tremonti SpA 545

Postscript 548 Author Index 550 Subject Index 567

Contents xiii

Supporting resources Visit www.pearsoned.co.uk/usunier to find valuable online resources

Companion Website for students n Links to relevant sites on the web n Additional case study materials

For instructors n Complete, downloadable Instructor’s Manual n PowerPoint slides that can be downloaded and used as OHTs

For more information please contact your local Pearson Education sales representative or visit www.pearsoned.co.uk/usunier

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Classical consumer marketing textbooks generally emphasize world markets and are often cross-border extensions of American marketing thought, blatantly ignoring people, languages and cultures and impli- citly arguing in favour of uniformity. Whereas large multinational companies, such as Mars, Pepsi-Cola, L’Oréal or Nestlé, in fact do not follow traditional textbook recipes: their practice is always much more adaptive to and respectful of local contexts. This text offers a different approach to global marketing, based on the recognition of diversity in world mar- kets and on local consumer knowledge and market- ing practices. We invite the reader to undertake an exercise in de-centring. We try to break out of our ‘Francocentric’ and ‘Aussie-centric’ boxes, in much the same way as Gorn (1997) invites us to break out of ‘North American boxes’. Understanding interna- tional diversity1 in consumer behaviour, advertising, sales and marketing management becomes the cen- tral teaching objective for an international marketing textbook.

This text adopts a cultural approach to interna- tional marketing, which has two main dimensions:

1. A cross-cultural approach, which begins by comparing national marketing systems and local commercial customs in various countries. It aims to emphasize what is country specific and what is universal. Such an approach is essential for the preparation and implementation of marketing strategies in different national contexts.

2. An intercultural approach, which is centred on the study of interaction between business people, buyers and sellers (and their companies) who have different national/cultural backgrounds. This intercultural view also extends to the interaction between products (their physical and symbolic attri-

butes, as well as the messages surrounding them) from a definite nation-culture and consumers from a different nation-culture. Thus, interaction is meant in a broad sense: not only between people, but also between people and messages, and people and products. In this book, commerce is emphasized as much as marketing. When the word commerce is used in this text, it refers to the complex dimensions of business relationships entwined with interpersonal relations.

The basic assumption behind this book is that culture penetrates our inner being subconsciously and at a deep level. World cultures share many common features. Nevertheless, when common elements are combined they all display a unique style, vis-à-vis kinship patterns, education systems, valuation of the individual and the group, emphasis on economic activities, friendship patterns, time-related organiza- tion patterns, the criteria for aesthetic appreciation, and so on. The examples that are used in this book are by their very nature eclectic. We have chosen exam- ples that seem to be the most striking and pertinent.

This book does not try to describe cultures exhaus- tively, or from an insider’s point of view. What we have attempted to provide for the reader is a method for dealing with intercultural situations in international marketing. The underlying postulate of this book is that international marketing relationships have to be built on solid foundations. Transaction costs in inter- national trade are high: only a stable and firmly estab- lished link between business people can enable them to overcome disagreements and conflicts of interest. In international marketing it is advisable to be very methodical and long-term oriented, to select a limited number of partners and opportunities, and to develop them to their fullest extent.

Introduction Marketing in the global villages

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opportunity, rather than a liability or a threat, and who find pleasure in discovering new ways of life and experiencing the challenge of cultural differences in world markets. Marketing Across Cultures is particu- larly useful and relevant in the case of multicultural, multilingual, and multinational classes, institutions and/or countries. This book is to be proposed as a primary textbook for those instructors who want to emphasize culture, sales, negotiations, and a cross- cultural approach to consumer behaviour and mar- ket research, and as a secondary text for other IM instructors who want to follow a more traditional approach to international marketing.

The fourth edition has been written for:

n senior undergraduate students who already have studied a marketing management course;

n postgraduate students (MBA in particular) for a cross-cultural/international marketing elective course;

n research students who have a in-depth interest in cultural and comparative aspects of International Business and Global Marketing; and

n senior executives for developing culturally-sensitive approaches to global marketing strategy.

For instructors

All cases mentioned in the book are freely acces- sible in their electronic version to instructors using the book. For accessing other cases on the Marketing Across Culture’s Site, contact npjcu@hotmail.com (please sign your mail with your institutional sig- nature, indicate the URL of your personal webpage on your institution’s site and attach your course outline).

Additional references per chapter and large bibliographies on some particular issues (country-of- origin, cross-cultural advertising, international busi- ness negotiations, and so on) are available to instructors on: www.hec.unil.ch/jusunier/teaching/references/ index.htm.

An instructor’s manual with suggested answers for end-of-chapter questions, teaching notes for cases, slides, and additional learning resources is available at www.pearsoned.co.uk/usunier.

Changes in the fourth edition

The book is now authored with a Euro-Australasian perspective that increases its global character and coverage. The fourth edition has been extensively rewritten in an effort to make the book as accessible as possible. We have also further taken into account the Internet revolution and its impact on interna- tional marketing, starting from an even broader per- spective that takes into account people, local contexts and their idiosyncrasies as they can be observed from a large number of webpages. The book now comes with additional web references for each chapter and section of the book. References are made directly in the text to websites that allow in-depth and updated access to cultural and business information. Hundreds of additional web references are now accessible about each particular topic at: www.hec.unil.ch/jusunier/ Marketing%20Across%20Cultures/Mkg_A_Cult_ index.htm. We invite instructors and students to visit this page, to use it jointly with the book, and to give us feedback, suggestions, and information which they think might be relevant for increasing the site’s rel- evance and exhaustiveness.

New cases have been added with web-based refer- ences. Some of them are now included in the end-of- chapter teaching materials sections. Such new cases as Muslim Cola (Chapter 6), Bollywood (Chapter 8), Movies Worldwide (Chapter 9), The Virtual Beehive (Chapter 12), Longcloud: Languages in Cyberspace (Chapter 13), BrandUSA: Selling Uncle Sam like Uncle Ben’s? (Chapter 14), are all materials that tackle quite recent and sensitive issues in international marketing. Due to space constraints, some cases are only men- tioned in the text with their assignment questions (such as ‘Global ethics and the pricing of AIDS drugs’ in Chapter 11). The text of these cases as well as many other cases can be found on the book website (with click-on references) at: www.hec.unil.ch/jusunier/ teaching/International%20Marketing%20Cases/cases. htm.

Target audience

This book is designed for instructors and students who consider global diversity as an asset and an

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Outline

Part 1, comprising the first three chapters, is devoted to the cultural variable. These chapters try to define it, to delineate the components of culture, and finally to emphasize its dynamic nature. Part 2 deals with the globalization of markets, which is the central issue in international marketing; Chapters 4 and 5 examine consumer behaviour, taking both a local and a global perspective, while Chapter 6 deals with local and regional marketing environments and Chapter 7 with cross-cultural market research. Part 3 presents the general impact of globalization on international marketing strategies (Chapter 8), with special em- phasis on a key issue for product policy, namely, the dilemma between adaptation and standardiza- tion (Chapter 9). Chapter 10 deals with the complex management of meanings related to brand names for international markets and to country of origin images. In Chapters 11 and 12, which concern price policies and the choice of distribution channels, emphasis has been deliberately placed on the culture-

based approaches to such decisions. That is why, for instance, we accentuate bargaining (with its cultural variations) in Chapter 11, and the Japanese keiretsu distribution system, in Chapter 12.

Part 4 presents marketing communications in an intercultural environment. It starts with a general overview (Chapter 13) of language, culture and com- munication issues, which are applied in the next two chapters to advertising issues, personal selling, public relations and bribery and ethical issues in interna- tional marketing. Chapters 16 and 17 are devoted to international marketing negotiations. Table I.1 pre- sents a summary of the basic contents of Chapters 4 to 17, linking culture to marketing issues.

This book is written from both a European and an Australasian viewpoint with many examples relating to these two areas of the world. As with all interna- tional marketing texts, this one is not universal. It may be percieved as being less pragmatically written and less issue-oriented than most. Statements may sometimes be classed as value judgements, since they are not always supported by empirical evidence, as is

Introduction: Marketing in the global villages xvii

Table I.1 The impact of cultural differences on selected aspects of marketing

Area of marketing Cultural differences influence . . . Chapter

Consumer behaviour Cross-cultural consumer attitudes and decision making 4 Local consumers and global consumption 5

Local marketing environments Local infrastructures and marketing knowledge 6

Market research Equivalence and methods in cross-national market surveys 7

Overall marketing strategy Global versus locally customized marketing strategies 8

Targeting market segments Cross-border vs. country clustering 8

Product policy Adaptation or standardization of product attributes 9

Brand image Brand and country-of-origin evaluations by consumers 10

Price policy Bargaining rituals/Price-quality evaluations/Price strategies towards consumers, competitors and suppliers 11

Distribution channels Channel style and service, producer–distributor relationships 12

Communication World-views (through language) and communication styles 13

Advertising Tailoring messages to local audiences’ cultural traits 14

Personal selling Selling styles, sales force management, networking and public relations, bribery and ethical issues in an international context 15

Marketing negotiations Negotiation strategies, processes and outcomes 16

National style of marketing Attitude, organization, scheduling, role of emotions and friendship, negotiation: communication and interaction style 17

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book, as well as Saskia Faulk for her great contribu- tion in writing new cases. We accept responsibility for any errors and shortcomings.

Note

1. Here, diversity is not meant in its American sense with a strong anti-discrimination stance (reported for instance by Litvin, 1997), but rather in its simplest meaning of ‘state or quality of being different or varied’, with no value judge- ment about whether ‘diversity’ is good or bad. In fact it is neither good nor bad, as shown by Lian and Oneal (1997) through a cross-national study linking cultural diversity to economic development for 98 countries over the 1960– 1985 period.

References

Gorn, Gerald J. (1997), ‘Breaking out of the North American box’, in Merrie Brucks and Debbie McInnis (eds), Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 24, Associ- ation for Consumer Research: Provo, UT, pp. 6–7.

Lian, Brad and John R. Oneal (1997), ‘Cultural diversity and economic development: a cross-national study of 98 countries, 1960–1985’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 61–77.

Litvin, Deborah R. (1997), ‘The discourse of diversity: from biology to management’, Organization, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 187–209.

the case in American textbooks. Therefore this book may sometimes seem unusual to native English- speaking readers. We regard this approach as part of the message of the book: it is a more contextual, and therefore less explicit.

Each chapter concludes with questions and is followed by an appendix comprising some or all of the following: cases, exercises and critical incidents. In addition, many interesting links, cases and exer- cises have been included on the book’s website (www.hec.unil.ch/jusunier/teaching/index.htm) and in the instructor’s manual. Since different national versions of this book have been published (Dutch, English, French and German), it may be used in cross-cultural training settings.

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the help of the academic institutions that have provided us with the opportun- ity to teach and research international marketing over the last ten years. We are also indebted to many colleagues for their ideas and assistance and for encouraging us to put more and more emphasis on the cultural dimension of international marketing. We would also like to thank senior editor Thomas Sigel for his support and Peter Hooper, Aylene Rogers and Colin Reed at Pearson Education who have been instrumental in the production of this

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We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:

University of North Carolina Press for extracts from A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays by Bronislaw Malinowski © University of North Carolina Press 1944, renewed 1972; Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts and Tokyo, Japan for an extract from Read Japanese Today by Leonard Walsh; Pearson Education Inc. for extracts from Marketing in the International Environment by Edward W. Cundiff & Marye Tharp © 1988 and Cultural Dimension of International Business by Gary P. Ferraro © 1998; Editions Economica for an extract from ‘Gestation cul- turelle du temps: Le cas Bantu’ by Usunier and Napoléon-Biguma published in Management Inter- culturel: Modes et Modèles by Gauthey & Xardel; HarperCollins Publishers and Victor Gollancz, a divi- sion of The Orion Publishing Group, for extracts from Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World by Margaret Mead © Margaret Mead 1949; Association Française du Marketing for extracts from the articles ‘Une conception du comportement du consommateur chinois’ by C-F. Yang published in Recherche et Applications en Marketing 1989 and ‘Quelques facteurs de success pour la politique de produits de l’enterprise exportatrice’ by O. Deher pub- lished in Recherche et Applications en Marketing 1986; IUMI for extracts from cases by Saskia Faulk and Jean- Claude Usunier; Thomson Learning for extracts from International Marketing by M.R. Czinkota and I.A. Ronkainen; Donald S. Tull for an extract from Research for Marketing Decisions by Green, Tull and Albaum; Advertising Age International for an extract from the article ‘Marketing Director provides Smithkline reasons to smile’ by Dagmar Mussey published in Advertising Age International © Crain Communications Inc. 1997; Harlequin Enterprises II BV for an extract from Dangerous Enchantment by Anne Mather © Anne Mather 1996; Raphael

Sagalyn Inc. for extracts from Going International by L. Copeland and L. Griggs; The Economist Newspaper Limited for an extract from the article ‘Leaders: Regulating the Internet’ published in The Economist 10th June 2000 © The Economist Newspaper Limited, London 2000; AZCA Inc. for an extract from an article written by John T. Sakai; Harvard Business School Publishing for extracts from the article ‘The silent language in overseas business’ by Edward T. Hall published in Harvard Business Review May–June 1960; Emerald Group Publishing Limited for an extract from the article ‘Advertising in Saudi Arabia regulation’ by M. Luqmani, U. Yavas and Z. Quraeshi published in International Marketing Review Vol. 6 No. 1 1988; and The McGraw-Hill Companies for extracts from International Marketing by Philip R. Cateora 1983.

Page 1 © Getty Images/Photodisc; page 83 © 2002, Courtney Kealy, Getty Images; page 215 © 2003 Claro Cortes IV, Reuters/Corbis; page 371 © 2003 Pers- Anders Pettersson, Getty Images.

Table 1 reprinted with permission from Innovation (Summer 2002), the Quarterly of the Industrial Designers Society of America; pp: 703, 707, 6000; f: 703, 787, 8501; e: idsa@idsa.org; w: www.idsa.org; Table 2 from TNS Global E-Commerce Report, 2001, Author – Arno Hummerston; Table 3.1 reprinted from Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 9, no. 1. Hofstede, Geert, ‘Motivation, Leadership and Organization: Do American theories apply abroad?’ pp. 42–63, Copy- right 1980b, with permission from Elsevier; Table 3.2 Derr, C. Brooklyn & André Laurent, ‘The internal and external career: A theoretical and cross-cultural perspective’, in Michael B. Arthur, Douglas T. Hall, Barbara S. Lawrence, Handbook of Career Theory, 1989, with permission from Cambridge University Press; Table 3.3 reprinted with permission from Hofstede, Geert, Culture’s Consequences, 2nd Edition, 2001. © Geert Hofstede; Table A4.1 Solomon, Michael. R.,

Acknowledgements

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Table A12.2 © National Honey Board, www.nhb.org; Table 13.2 from Nielsen.NetRatings, 2003, published by Nielsen/NetRatings Oxford, reproduced with per- mission; Table 14.1 from Branding new and improved wars in FAIR, Norman Solomon, October, 2002. Reprinted with permission; from ‘The art of naming operations’, in Parameters, pp. 81–98. Seiminski, Gregory C. (1995). Reprinted with permission.

In some instances we have been unable to trace the owners of copyright material and we would appreciate any information that would enable us to do so.

Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having And Being, 4th Edition, © 1999. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River. NJ; Table 7.1 Consumer Behaviour, 4th edn., Craig C. Samuel and Susan P. Douglas, 2001, © John Wiley & Sons Limited. Reprinted with permission; Table 7.3 © March 1978 by ESOMAR ® – The World Association of Research Professionals. This article first appeared in European Research, published by ESOMAR; Table 9.3 Lange, André and Newman- Baudais, Susan (2003), ‘World Film Market Trends’, Focus 2003, Marché du Film, European Audio- visual Observatory, May 2003, (www.obs.coe.int);

xx Acknowledgements

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The cultural variable in international marketing

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Introduction to Part 1

In an increasingly interdependent world where barriers to trade and to international exchanges constantly diminish, cultural differences remain the single most enduring feature that has to be taken into account for localizing marketing strategies. Part 1 of this book introduces key concepts in cultural studies that have great influence on the understanding of local markets and the design of international marketing strategies.

Chapter 1 starts by presenting the basic elements of culture and international marketing, providing both general definitions of culture and its main components such as language and social institutions. For the sake of simplicity, cultural bound- aries are often equated with nationality: the limitations of such an assumption are presented. Finally, the chapter reviews how culture affects the development of skills and how certain forms of social representation tend to emerge as a result of meaning being shared in the cultural community. The objective of Chapter 1 is to enable readers to depart from their own cultural conditioning; the end-of-chapter teaching materials are designed for this.

Chapter 2 is an introduction to cultural dynamics, that is, how basic cultural assumptions influence behaviour, and it gives special emphasis to two key dimen- sions, time and space. These cultural assumptions have an impact on marketing- related issues such as material culture, sense of ownership, preference for durability, and so on. The chapter starts by presenting a model of action based on our cultural assumptions, which sees the final action as a complex outcome of individual decision

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making framed by deep-seated assumptions about a number of fundamental issues such as how humans relate to nature. It proceeds to examine cross-cultural variability in the way time is conceived and experienced as well as how people in different cul- tures manage their relationship to space. Since a great deal of contact and exchange between cultures has taken place over the centuries, the process by which foreign items and customs are borrowed and reinserted in the local scene by various societies is examined. Another important aspect of the intercultural encounter is hostility towards unknown people; the last section of this chapter discusses how and why cultural hostility develops in the form of prejudices and negative stereotypes.

Chapter 3 complements the preceding chapter and continues to explain how basic cultural assumptions influence human behaviour and interactions. It examines, first, how people in a particular culture build their concepts of who they are and who others are; a basic input to the interaction models found in any culture. A number of fundamental issues are then examined, such as: what kinds of attitudes towards action are developed? How do people relate thinking to action? How do people deal with desires and feelings? What is the range of cultural variation for coping with rules? This chapter ends with an examination of how cultural assumptions shape actual behaviour. It shows that the influence of culture on behaviour is most often indirect, profound, and moderated by a number of other influences.

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International marketing automatically allocates a prominent place to the cultural variable, but not everything is culture based. It would be dangerous to equate the behaviour of individuals entirely with that of the cultural grouping to which they belong. Furthermore, the perception we have of other cultures often tends to be rather shallow or stereotyped, giving us only an imperfect picture of the operation of a cultural group. At this level, our interpretation can be defensive and our analysis overly simplistic.

In fact, the cultural variable is difficult to isolate and operationalize. One of the principal aims in inter- national marketing is to identify, categorize, evaluate and finally select market segments. Country or nation- states are often a primary segmentation basis, due to the ease of implementation. While nation-states are an enduring reality, not all national territories hold homogeneous ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. The cultural variable is more complex, and the way in which it influences behaviour is difficult to analyze.

The objective of this chapter is to lay the founda- tion for arguments that will be developed later in the book. This involves the definition of culture and its major elements, and an examination of its relationship with nationality (i.e. national character) and individual psychology (i.e. personality/individual character). It is important to understand these concepts, in order to assess the impact of our own culture on our actions. Subconsciously, we use culture as a guide for com- munication and interaction with others in our own community. Perhaps more consciously, it is also used for interaction with people belonging to other cultural communities. Throughout this chapter we have bor- rowed from the fields of anthropology (particularly

cultural anthropology), sociology, social psychology and cross-cultural psychology.

We strongly urge interested readers to use the notes and bibliographical references at the end of this and the following two chapters, and to refer to the original sources wherever possible. In addition, we use the notation WS# to refer to additional resources available on this book’s website at at the specific location www.pearsoned.co.uk/usunier.

1.1

Defining culture

In French the word culture was defined by Emile Littré in his nineteenth-century dictionary, as ‘cultivation, farming activity’. The abstract sense of the word prob- ably originated in Germany where the word Kultur was used as early as the eighteenth century to refer to civilization. In the Anglo-Saxon world the abstract notion of culture came into widespread use at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Many definitions have been formulated for culture and because it is a vague, abstract notion, there are many candidates for the ultimate definition. Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) even devoted an article to a review of no fewer than 164 definitions of culture. This did not prevent them from adding their own. Most of these definitions are the work of anthro- pologists, who studied ‘primitive’ societies (American Indians, Pacific Islanders, African natives, and so on). Despite this, their definitions also take into account our ‘civilized’ societies and ‘modern’ cultures. Below,

1

The cultural process

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we cite several definitions, each one adding to the cul- tural jigsaw puzzle, to determine the main aspects of this abstract and elusive concept. Further definitions are available at WS1.1.

Particular solutions to universal problems

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961, p. 10) emphasize the following basic points:

1. ‘. . . there is a limited number of common human problems for which all peoples at all times must find some solution.’

2. ‘While there is a variability in solutions of all the problems, it is neither limitless nor random but is definitely variable within a range of possible solutions.’

3. ‘. . . all alternatives of all solutions are present in all societies at all times, but are differentially preferred. Every society has, in addition to its dominant profile of value orientations, numerous variant or substitute profiles.’

How does culture link the individual to society?

Ralph Linton (1945, p. 21) emphasizes the link between culture and the individual with the following definition: ‘A culture is the configuration of learned behaviour and results of behaviour whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society.’ Linton also emphasizes the limits of cultural programming that society can impose on an individual (1945, pp. 14–15, emphasis added):

No matter how carefully the individual has been trained or how successful his conditioning has been, he remains a distinct organism with his own needs and with capacities for independent thought, feeling and action. Moreover he retains a considerable degree of individuality. . . . Actually, the role of the individual with respect to society is a double one. Under ordinary circumstances, the more perfect his conditioning and consequent integration into the social structure, the more effective his contribution to the smooth functioning of the whole and the surer his rewards. However, societies have to exist and function in an ever-changing world. The unparalleled ability of our species to adjust to changing conditions and to develop ever more effect- ive responses to familiar ones rests upon the residue of

individuality which survives in every one of us after society and culture have done their utmost. As a simple unit in the social organism, the individual perpetuates the status quo. As an individual he helps to change the status quo when the need arises.

What use is culture to the individual?