INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AND CULTURES

International Marketing and Cultures

Introduction

There are high-context and low-context cultures. Low-context cultures, such as Nordic countries and most of North America, rely on words and verbal communication to convey meaning. High-context cultures -- such as those in the Middle Eastern and Asia, and draw meaning from their environment. Cross-cultural research points out vital differences. Asians, for instance, tend to be sensitive to imagery, mood and symbolism. Blatant product comparisons outlawed in parts of Asia. Latin Americans prefer imagery and are less receptive to hard sell. German audiences prefer linear arguments and facts. Globally attuned companies are responding with their own breed of niche marketing. Nortel Networks has a long history of tracking the country and language of origin of its online visitors. (Hofstede, 2003).

"We've identified a strategy of being able to make sure that we're cognizant of the cultures and being able to be flexible with the content and the languages," says Tim Chandler, director of e-business development for Nortel”. (Ingram, 2001).

Cultural context

In the absence of face-to-face contact, the need to address cultural differences amplified. While these may dictate one Web strategy over another, technical constraints confine implementation. "High-context" Asian customers will welcome sophisticated imagery and streaming audio and video. Overseas infrastructures are still too immature to handle the bandwidth. Direct, explicit messages are appropriate to low-context cultures, whereas implicit, indirect and ambiguous messages are appropriate to high-context cultures. In addition, in low-context communication, the receiver does not have enough information, and must be told practically everything, whereas in high-context communication, the receiver is already contextualized and does not require preliminaries or introductions (Hofstede, 2003). High-context cultures are more common in the East than in the West and in countries that have a strong sense of tradition and history and change little over time. ...