INTRODUCTION

Culture is the integrated sum total of learned behavioral traits that are shared by members of a
society. Culture has been defined in many different ways, reflecting the variety of cultural
phenomena that can be observed. Culture is the totality of our life style and our personality. At a
glance it can be said that, culture is that what we are i.e. our way of dressings, specking, eating,
thinking, learning, attitude, believes, values, norms etc, all included in our culture. Whereas
International marketing is the marketing activities of a company outside their country of origin.

Culture significantly can affect the international trade, because we cannot speak about business
without touching costumer behaviors, and customer behavior these are the people personality, this
are the life style of the people, and directly this are the culture, thereof, culture is all what we are,
culture is the reflection of our individualism, it sharpen our way of conduct and so does culture is
the main control of the business process as well as the customers behavior.

Culture has a great impact on international marketing. A marketer must have to study about the
local culture in-depth before offering a product to them. Because of every marketing promotion
has done to promote the product i.e. communicating product feature to the customers and influence
customers to buy it.

To have an effective communication one must send the message according to the receivers
culture, customs and learning process.

Culture is a wide topic, its elements include everything of a nations day to day living. The
following are the reasons why culture looks the most challenge in international marketing.

Language (Spoken/Written Language):

Same language can provide difference meaning in different culture. A marketer must have to know
the local language and tone to do marketing well. Otherwise he will fail to communicate his
product or service to the local communities. Translator can be used in this purpose but its costly
and may not be such effective.

Nonverbal communication:

Non-verbal Language: Not all language is verbal. Every country has a non-verbal language with
respect to the meaning of color, numbers, symbols and gestures. These are equally important as

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understanding language translations that may diminish the brand reputation and marketing effort.
For this reason a marketer in international market must have to convert his all thinking into the
culture of the local people. Sometime marketer fails to make this conversion successfully as a
result they fail to have local people attention and make huge loss.

Colors play an important role in every culture, In western cultures green is considered a more
positive color. American retailers have leveraged the environmental movement to sell eco-friendly
goods, often using green-themed packaging or ad campaigns to indicate a product's compliance
with "green" standards. This is not true in China and France, where studies have indicated that
green is not a good choice for packaging. Blue is often considered to be the "safest" global color,
as it can represent anything from immortality and freedom to cleanliness.

Numbers also have different meanings across different cultures, many hotels in the U.S. or UK
do not have a room 13 or a 13th floor. Similarly, Nippon Airways in Japan does not have the seat
numbers 4 or 9. If there are numbers with negative connotations abroad, presenting, packaging, or
pricing products with those numbers should be avoided.

Hand gestures are another way of communicating, but the meaning of a hand gesture can have
different meanings in different cultures, For example, former President George H. W. Bush used
a peace sign in waving to a crowd in a visit to Australia. Instead of his palm facing outwards, it
faced inwards. The meaning of this hand gesture in Australia was similar to the meaning of the
middle finger in Western culture. The O.K. gesture generally means that everything is good, well,
or O.K. However, in Latin America and France it is considered as an insulting sign as it is thought
to mean 'your anus. In Australia, it means zero and in Turkey, giaving someone the O.K. sign
implies that they are homosexual.

Not only verbally but sometimes people used nonverbal body language or other means of
communications like, Proxemics, Postures, Orientations, Oculesics Chronemics Haptics
Kinesics Paralinguistic Appearances, Olfactions. One particular body sign may carry different
opposite meaning to the people of different language. A marketer must have to know the local
meaning of body language or postures and gestures that being used by the general people of that
community. Otherwise serious mistake can be done and all market promotions may be worthless.

Religion and Value:

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Religion is another powerful element of culture having most powerful impact on consumer
behavior which controls buying process and product choice resultant on major impact on
marketing as well as international marketing. For example we can say that beef and pork both is
protein provider. But consumers are not same only for religious effect. Muslim cannot select pork
in his menu and a Hindu cannot select beef in his menu. A marketer must have to think about the
religion on the local community before offering a product to them.

Many religions of the world have important teachings around food, alcohol, and nudity. Religious
holidays and seasons are equally important and need to be considered when planning marketing
promotions. Many cultural values are derived from country religions and unique cultural
behaviors. For example the religious beliefs below play a large role in shaping country behaviors
and attitudes with respect to food and beverages.

Cultural Norms:

Norms are derived from values and defined as rules that dictate what is right or wrong, acceptable
or unacceptable. Thereof, this can definitely hinder the operation of the international market, for
instance there are well agreed business working time from one country to another of which reflect
their cultural norms , beliefs and value, for example the SDA Church when reaching on seventh
day of every week , it is the of resting , according to their beliefs and they are not allowed to do
any business or work except worshiping , the so applies to the protestant churches and people
belong to this beliefs, they took Sunday as the day of resting and worshiping as well the Muslim
they also give worshiping on Friday, thereof, all this can be hindrance factor to international
marketing .

Laws and Government Regulation:

Every country is going to have different laws and government regulations with respect to foreign
businesses operating within their borders. Listed below are examples of laws and regulations that
a business could potentially encounter as they enter into international markets.

Import Duties :( Fees and duties paid to do business in a country). Customs: (Problems with a
foreign customs office's documentation and requirements). Trade Barriers; (Restrictions on the
amount a foreign business can sell in a country). Advertising: (Restrictions on what can be
portrayed or claimed in advertising). Taxation: (Various value-added taxes, sales taxes, employee

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taxes, and tax rates). Intellectual Property: (Illegal infringement of patents, trademarks, or
copyrights) Money Transfer: (Restrictions on the transfer of money in and out of a country)
Foreign Investment: (Restrictions or regulations on foreign investments).

Values and Attitudes;

Values and attitudes vary between nations, and even vary within nations. So if you are planning to
take a product or service overseas make sure that you have a good grasp the locality before you
enter the market. This could mean altering promotional material or subtle branding messages.
There may also be an issue when managing local employees. For example, in France workers tend
to take vacations for the whole of August, whilst in the United States employees may only take a
couple of weeks vacation in an entire year. In 2004, China banned a Nike television commercial
showing U.S. basketball star LeBron James in a battle with animated cartoon kung fu masters and
two dragons, because it was argued that the ad insults Chinese national dignity. Values and
attitudes is the most challenge for the people who are doing international marketing because a
company may want to distribute certain product but there some nations stick with their values and
attitude and it is difficult for them to sell their products.

Education;

The level and nature of education in each international market will vary. This may impact the type
of message or even the medium that you employ. For example, in countries with low literacy
levels, advertisers would avoid communications which depended upon written copy, and would
favour radio advertising with an audio message or visual media such as billboards. The labelling
of products may also be an issue.

Technology and Material Culture

Technology is a term that includes many other elements. It includes questions such as there is
energy to power our products? Is there a transport infrastructure to distribute our goods to
consumers? Does the local port have large enough cranes to offload containers from ships? How
quickly does innovation diffuse? Also of key importance, do consumers actually buy material

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goods i.e. are they materialistic?. Some place they dont accept changes easily or technological
things because of their community interest or culture, example some rural areas its better to use
local medicine than technological one directed to physician or giving birth in a local way than
professional way to the hospital, and in material other places have sense of their fashion, styles
example some are like to use plastic cup for tea or porridge they cant use another material of cup
for tea or porridge because they have the culture of using plastic cups so it wont be easy for them
to accept the new thing easily, so culture can be very challenging in international marketing.

Politics;

Political influences both past and presence can potentially affect the international marketing (the
way a person or company does business). Some cultures have a very strong sense of nationalism
and government pride, and therefore are more comfortable and willing to purchase from companies
with some sort of government backing. Conducting international marketing with those differing
cultures can also impact negotiations if there are on-going political disputes between the involved
parties countries of origin. To avoid discussing any political matter that does not directly pertain
to the business at hand. As with many aspects of Terpstra and Sarathys Cultural Framework, the
underpinning social culture will drive the political and legal landscape. The political ideology on
which the society is based will impact upon your decision to market there. For example, the United
Kingdom has a largely market-driven, democratic society with laws based upon precedent and
legislation, whilst Iran has a political and legal system based upon the teachings and principles
Islam and a Sharia tradition.

Social Organizations;

This relates to how a national society is organized. For example, what is the role of women in a
society? How is the country governed centralized or devolved? The level influence of class or
casts upon a society needs to be considered. For example, India has an established caste system
and many Western countries still have an embedded class system. So social mobility could be
restricted where caste and class systems are in place. Whether or not there are strong trade unions
will impact upon management decisions if you employ local workers.

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Product specifications;

To understanding customer preferences is a tricky issue in I international marketing, even when it

comes to the serving size of your product. This issue is dependent on local cultural and also the
consumption level of consumers of the nation. For example grains/corn/ cereal isnt a preferred
choice for breakfast in Asian countries, so there isnt much motivation to produce it in large serving
(or boxes).It also not a smart move to push product against the local culture, but if you are
confident in your product, it is all right to be adventurous (and experiment with various serving
size).Therefore when testing new markets with new product, there will always be the risks of
suffering losses so one should always do their homework when it comes to culture influenced
preferences.

Consumer Habits;

Culture and personality combine to shape consumer behavior in every particular nation in the
world. Its a challenge because when you want to market product to a foreign country and does
not determine whether it is individualistic society (free-thinking culture) or a collective society
(the peer group has most influencing on buying decision).Also if not consider other societal and
psychological factors that influence buying decision in the country your targeting to sell your
goods or services to it leads difficult on doing market in the foreign country.

Taste (Eating Habits);

It is very difficult to do marketing for some companies because of some countries culture of eating
habits. For example if you market beef consumption in India it has been off limit because their
eating habits mostly are vegetarian So because of that leads many international fast food chains
such as MacDonalds, Wendys and Kentucky fried chicken had to offering menu selections with
rice dishes in order to break into the Asian market. So this is why culture are the mostly challenge
in international marketing especially in eating habits.

Regional Values;

Also this is challenge through culture in the international marketing; because a country to which
you can do market to sell a product has extreme regional differences that must be accountable for

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when marketing. Perfect example of this is Canada; they have large French speaking population
in some region that are culturally much different than the English speaking communities found
throughout the rest of the country, so it gives the marketers to take risk on advertising the product
because of the two regional values.

Age and demography;

This it comes a challenge to international marketing because if a company do not pay attention to
the age specification example if you dont realize or understanding the demographics on a
potential country that you might sell your product it gives you a contradiction on what type of
product are mostly buying by specific age. Example the company is probably going to want to
market laptops to senior citizen in a third world country where there is a very little internet and
where a large percentage of the citizens are computer illiterate.

Thereof, international marketing needs to take into account the local culture of the country in
which you wish to market, and the understanding of ones county culture is essential for the success
of the international marketing.

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References

Terpstra, v. and Sarathy, R. (2000), International Marketing, 8th Edition, Dryden Press.

Hall, E.T. and Hall, M.R. (1986), Hidden Differences: doing business with the Japanese, Anchor
Press.

Farese L. S at el (1997), 2nd edition, Marketing Essentials by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill USA

Hall, E.T. and Hall, M.R. (1986) Hidden Differences: doing business with the Japanese, Anchor
Press.

J Paul Peter and James H Donnelly, Jr. (2004), 7th edition, Marketing Management Knowledge
and skills by McGraw-Hill companies, Inc USA

Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, 10th edition, Principles of Marketing Pearson Education Inc
India.

Terpstra, v. and Sarathy, R. (2000) International Marketing, 8th Edition, Dryden Press.