International
Marketing Communication – Cultural Influences
If you would get an offer to study at any University in the world, without
tuition fee worries, which University would catch your eye? Would you choose
the most expensive education facility or would you make your decision based on
other facts?
The world we live in has its beauty as well as its
flows. The beauty of the nature, the beauty of the countries, the people who
live there and their culture. Each person can be recognized by their face, DNA,
fingerprints; their way they look or dress, and in most cases the language they
speak will revile the region or the country they are coming from. The way we
eat, think, our values and believes are part of us. These personalities are in
fact the culture we belong to, or should I say that belongs to us?
Marketing is defined as a social and managerial
process designed to meet the needs and requirements through the processes of
creating and exchanging products and values. It is the art and science of
identifying, creating and delivering value to meet the needs of a target
market, making a profit: delivery of satisfaction at a price (Giancarlo
Pallavicini, 1959). Culture has a great impact on international marketing. A
marketer has the responsibility to thoroughly analyse the local culture before
offering a product to them. What every marketing promotion has done is to
promote the product i.e. communicating product feature to the customers and
influence customers to buy it.
The World Heritage List includes 981 properties
forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage
Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. These include 759
cultural, 193 natural and 29 mixed properties in 160 States Parties. As of
September 2012, 190 States Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention.
(UNESCO, 2012).
Our culture influences our everyday engagements and
culture in general has a great impact on international marketing. The products
and services that are on the market need to be sold to encourage the
company/organisation to thrive and continue in satisfying their consumers, the
source of their success. Choosing the suitable marketing strategy for doing so,
the culture of the target group and the priorities of the people need to be
taken into consideration.
Can the cultural differences
and believes have an impact on the final academic results in life; not only in
succeeding financially in society, depending of the country that has provided
the beauty of education?
For many years, people have
debated about the influences that the cultures have on the marketing
communication and the final actions in the businesses. The education has a different value depending
on the country and its culture that is offered in. The value of the education
can be divided: the (luxurious) financial investments that a student gives a “safeguard”
on the future life standards, which will be to paid off with interest and there
is also the high value of knowledge and information that in some countries is
more appreciated than the level of your class in the society that a diploma eventually
will provide.
In the countries that have a
lower economic status the marketing communication regarding the academic
development and the possibilities this results are much lower than in the
countries with a higher economic status of its citizen. For example the prices
in US are extremely higher than in the “low-grade” countries, because the education
in US is a large investment as the universities are aware that a great part of the interested ones are proficient
in affording their children this status in the society.
The higher price you pay the better results you will receive!?
Do we believe
that the higher price a certain product or service has, the better results we
will gain for purchasing the same?
As a former citizen of Bosnia
and Herzegovina I am aware of the confidence that the people have, that have
been created referring the international products, presentations and the way of
living in the West. Many people believe that a product or a medicine made in
Germany for example has a much bigger value than a medicine from a country in
Asia. This even though we are aware of the fact that in a world that is
increasingly globalized and interconnected, “developing” countries like China
are now poised to become bigger players, and collaboration—across borders,
across silos, or co-creating with consumers—is more crucial than ever.
The same assumption of the
people of B&H concerns the value of education in their country. Because of
the high unemployment rate at this moment, which has kept on rising since the end
of the war in 1995, and despite the high enrolments each year, where in the
winter semester of the 2008/2009 academic year there were 105 358 students enrolled
in 39 higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the people have
lost their faith that this education will lead to success. In this case, the
people of Bosnia and Herzegovina believe that an international education will open
the new and broader doors to a recovering future.
Is it possible to afford yourself to live “The American Dream”, while
living in a country that is still recovering from a horrible war, just by following
an education offered by the American University in that country, for the price
as it is offered in the US?
Even though it is hard for us,
the EU citizens, to believe that an American education is on a much higher
level than the education we are privileged to participate in at a university in
our own country or here in Finland, people in B&H believe otherwise. We
need to take into consideration that B&H is not one of the EU countries which
barricades the potential students in making the decision where and if to study
abroad. Taking the above mentioned facts into consideration we just need to imagine
what the reaction of the people would be if an opportunity was given to them by
an International University within the national borders. This is what exactly happened
in 2007 and this ‘generous’ offer was presented by the American University.
Is that
expensive “product” actually worth our money?
Once we understand that the
value of the global education should not be displayed in numbers, we will begin
to see the answer to the problem which is the high pricing of the future and
its foundation: “The knowledge”. If we continue to believe that the higher
tuition fee means better future and higher society rate, we'll never understand
the logic of life, the fact that every person in this world deserves to gain
the knowledge that is obtainable. The international marketing plays a huge role
in our everyday lives and the business approaches that the global companies
practice. There are ways to discover and present the most successful
entrepreneurships, the one with an extraordinary history, the most tasteful
kitchen etc. Why shouldn’t we be that country that fights to be the country with
the highest and most valued academic rate?
Experiences have shown that
the right approach to gain the customers attention and to close that first deal
is important but is worthless without a firm strategy, the step two. Referring
to the example mentioned earlier where American University decides to share its
knowledge in B&H; the results have shown that this approach didn’t present
successful results. Even though enrolments were realized, the high tuition fees
were paid (5.500 euro/year), the annual number of students decreased rapidly,
especially after the first graduation period. The promises were not fulfilled,
the opportunities disappeared, and the ‘product’ with a six digits price tag
was suddenly worthless.
What can we do to solve this matter that is involving the population of the
whole world?
As already mentioned
universities in the countries with a lower economic status use a marketing
strategy to attract their future students by encourage them to get educated and
by doing this “help your country develop with you”. If the opportunity of affordable education,
depending on the living standard of the population, can be shared in the future
than we can honestly say that we have played fair. I usually think of public
service announcements as a form of education.
Presumably there is a harmful ignorance out there somewhere that can be
corrected. But these contrasts bring
into stark relief the fact that public service announcements are not only in combat
with unawareness, they are fighting corporations. The battle isn’t just between misinformation
and information, it’s between for-profit and non-profit organizations.
Putting out our target group
aside, we can take McDonalds, a global brand, as an example. Here it is clear
that the culture influences lead to eventual profit. Where other countries
would put the accent on the Happy Meal and the play-dolls that will be offered
for the young ones, in Germany the hungry consumers have the possibility to
wash their fast-food meal down by ordering a large, cold beer as part of their
menu. This is a great example how much
power a countries culture has in combination with a product that tastes exactly
the same in each country, city, village and each gas station all over the
world.
Another example is the
detergent and advertisement of this product in several Arabic countries. As you
can see on the picture above, Barak Obama is walking proudly, wearing the
Thobe. The point of this advertisement is that the product is so good, brings
the true white in the clothes that even Obama would love to ware this outfit.
We must not forget that to
gain the most effective communication one must send the message according to
the receiver’s culture, customs and learning process. People have failed to
notice, that in US the unemployment rate is growing as well. The prices of
education in this country are not decreasing; nonetheless the education sector
marketers have found the language that will be understandable to the interested
and potential students; the scholarships. One of the types of scholarships
refers to the athletic talents and presentation. On the other hand we have the
education in Finland, where the government has made it possible for students,
no matter the age, to enjoy the beauty of education. Are we allowed to say that
Finnish degree is less valued than the American one?
Nelson Mandela once said: “Education
is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. So why
don’t we use the global population, the potential army, to do so and finally give
the current one some break.
References
M.S. Rosenberg, D.L. Westling & J. McLeskey. 2010.
The Impact of Culture on Education. Retrieved on 03.04.2014
http://www.education.com/reference/article/impact-culture-education/
Papers SSM. “Impact
of Culture on International Marketing”, Retrieved on 01.04.2014 form http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1267863
Plonski, Patric. 2012. What If We Sent 1 Million Books to The Gambia? Retrieved on 37.03.2014
from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-plonski/books-for-africa-gambia_b_2040978.html
Schnalke, Marcel (2012). The influence of culture on marketing communications between South
African and German businesses. Retrived on 25.03.2014 from http://ir.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/788
Ortea, J., Valdés, Á. & García-Gómez, J.C. (1996).
Revisión de las especies atlánticas de la familia Chromodorididae (Mollusca:
Nudibranchia) del grupo cromático azul. Avicennia suplemento 1: 1-165
page(s): 152
Pallavicini, Giancarlo (Italian Economist). 1959.
Bank and Market Research. Universal Biographical
Encyclopedia, 2007 edition, vol. 14. Retrieved
on 30.03.2014 from http://speedydeletion.wikia.com/wiki/Giancarlo_Pallavicini
UNESCO-United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation. 2012. World Heritage
List. Retrieved on 27.4.2014 from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/
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