Deep cultural
Deep cultural
under-currents
under-currents
structure life in subtle but highly
structure life in subtle but highly
consisten
consisten
t ways t
t ways t
hat are not
hat are not
consciou
consciou
sly
sly
formulated.
formulated.
Like
Like
the
the
invisible jet streams in the skies that
invisible jet streams in the skies that
determine the course of a storm,
determine the course of a storm,
these currents shape our lives; yet
these currents shape our lives; yet
their influence is only beginning to
their influence is only beginning to
be identified
be identified
.. Edward T. HallCulture is a learned, shared, compelling,
Culture is a learned, shared, compelling,
interrelated set of symbols whose meanings
interrelated set of symbols whose meanings
provide a set of orientations for
provide a set of orientations for members of amembers of a
society.
society. These These orientations, orientations, taken taken together,together,
provide solutions to problems that all
provide solutions to problems that all
societies must solve if they are to
societies must solve if they are to remainremain
viable.
viable.
–
– Terpstra and David (1985)Terpstra and David (1985)
Culture is the collective mental programming
Culture is the collective mental programming
of individuals in a society as a
of individuals in a society as a result of result of
common background, education, and life
common background, education, and life
experiences.
experiences.
–
– Hofstede (1980)Hofstede (1980)
Culture is the man-made part of the
Culture is the man-made part of the
environment.
environment.
WHAT IS CULTURE?
IMPACT OF CULTURE ON
IMPACT OF CULTURE ON
MARKETING DECISIONS
MARKETING DECISIONS
Customer Customer Customer Customer Culture Culture Culture Culture Lifestyle Lifestyle LifestyleLifestyle Behavior Patterns Behavior Patterns Behavior Patterns Behavior Patterns
Actions in Marketplace Actions in Marketplace Actions in Marketplace Actions in Marketplace Impact on Firm’s Impact on Firm’s Impact on Firm’s Impact on Firm’s
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
•
Material Culture:– Technology & Economics
•
Social Organization: – Institutions – Education – Politics•
Belief Systems•
Language•
AestheticsFUNCTIONS OF CULTURE
• Acquisition of food, clothing, and shelter. • Protection from human enemies and natural
disasters
• Regulation of sexuality.
• Child raising and instruction in socially approved and useful behavior.
• Division of labor among humans.
• Sharing and exchanging the product of human work.
FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE (Contd .)
• Providing social controls against deviant behavior.
• Providing incentives to motivate persons to want to do what they have to do.
• Distributing power and legitimizing the wielding of power to allow setting of priorities, making decisions, and coordinating actions that obtain social goals.
• Providing a sense of priorities (values) and an overall sense of worth (religion) to social life.
MAJOR CULTURAL FRAMEWORKS
• Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961)
• Hall and Hall (1990)
• Hofstede (1980)
KLUCKHOHN AND STRODTBECK (1961)
• Nature of People: Good, Bad, or a
Combination.
• Relationship Between People:
Individualism or Groupism.
• Primary Mode of Activity: Being or Doing?
• Conception of Space: Private or Public?
• Dominant Temporal Orientation: Past,
Present, or Future?
HALL AND HALL (1990)
• Context, or the amount of explicit information in communication.
• Space, or the ways of communicating through specific handling of personal space.
• Time, which is either monochronic (scheduling and completing one activity at a time) or
polychronic (not distinguishing between the
activities and completing them simultaneously). • Information flow, which is the structure and speed
of messages between individuals and organizations.
HIGH AND LOW CONTEXT CULTURES
FACTOR
HIGH
LOW
Lawyers
Less Important
More
Person’s Word
Is his/her bond
Get it in writing
Resp. for Error
Highest Level
Pushed to lowest level
Space
Breathe on each
Bubble of private
other.
space.
Time
Polychronic
Monochronic and
linear.
Negotiations
Lengthy
Proceed quickly.
Competitive Bid
Infrequent
Common
HALL’S SILENT LANGUAGES
• Language of Time
• Language of Space
• Language of Things
• Language of Friendship
• Language of Agreements
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES Arabian Latin American Spanish Italian English (UK) French
North America (US) Scandinavian Swiss German High Context IMPLICIT Japanese Low Context
High-Context Low-Context Crucial to Communications:
external environment, situation, non-verbal behavior
explicit information, blunt communicative style
Relationships:
long lasting, deep personal mutual involvement
short duration, heterogeneous populations
Communication:
economical, fast because of shared "code" explicit messages, low reliance on non verbal
Authority person:
responsible for actions of subordinates, loyalty at a premium
diffused through bureaucratic system, personal responsibility tough to pin down
Agreements:
spoken, flexible and changeable written, final and binding, litigious,more lawyers
Insiders vs. outsiders: very distinguishable difficult to identify, foreigners can adjust
CONTRASTING COMMUNICATION STYLES
• Indirect
• Implicit, Nonverbal
• Formal
• Goal Oriented
• Emotionally
controlled
• Self-effacing, modest
• Direct
• Explicit, verbal
• Informal
• Spontaneous
• Emotionally
expressive
• Self-promoting,
egocentric
Traditional Asian High Context Cultures
Australian Low Context Culture
• Individualism/Collectivism: Individualism implies a loosely knit social framework in which people
are supposed to take care of themselves and their immediate families only whereas collectivism is
characterized by a tight social framework in which people distinguish between in-groups and
out-groups; they expect their in-group (relatives, clans, organizations) to look after them, and in return they owe absolute loyalty to the in-group.
INDIVIDUALISM/COLLECTIVISM
COLLECTIVIST
People born into extended families or other in-groups which
continue to protect them in exchange for loyalty.
High-context communication. Employer-employee relationship
perceived in moral terms, like a family link.
Management is management of groups.
Relationship prevails over task.
INDIVIDUALIST
Everyone grows up to look after him/herself and his/her
nuclear family.
Low-context communication. Relationship between
employer-employee perceived as contract based on mutual advantage.
Management of individuals. Task prevails over relationship.
• Power Distance: is the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. It is reflected in the values of the less powerful
members of a society as well as those of the more powerful members.
EXAMPLE OF SMALL PDI
Stockholm, December 23, 1988. The Swedish King Carl Gustav this week experienced considerable delay while shopping for Christmas presents for his children, when
he wanted to pay by cheque but could not show his cheque card. The salesperson refused to accept the cheque without legitimation. Only when helpful
bystanders dug in their pockets for one-crown pieces showing the face of the king, the salesperson decided to
accept this legitimation, not however, without testing the check for authenticity and noting the name and address of the holder.
POWER DISTANCE
Small PDI
Inequalities among people should be minimized.
Parents treat children as equals, and vice versa.
Decentralization is popular.
Ideal boss: resourceful democrat. Privileges and status symbols are
frowned upon.
Large PDI
Inequalities both expected and desired.
Parents teach children obedience. Centralization is popular.
Ideal boss: benevolent autocrat or good father.
Privileges and status symbols are both expected and popular.
• Uncertainty Avoidance: indicates the extent to which a society feels threatened by
uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid these situations by providing greater career stability, establishing formal rules, not tolerating deviant ideas and behaviors, and believing in absolute truths and the
attainment of expertise. Strong uncertainty avoidance societies tend to be characterized by a higher level of anxiety and
aggressiveness.
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
Weak UAI
Uncertainty considered normal feature and each day is accepted as it comes.
Low stress and anxiety.
Comfortable in ambiguous situations and with unfamiliar risks.
What is different, is curious.
No more rules than is strictly necessary. Precision and punctuality have to be learned. Tolerance of deviant and innovative ideas.
Strong UAI
Uncertainty in life felt as a continuous threat to be fought.
High stress and anxiety.
Fear of ambiguous situations and unfamiliar risks.
What is different, is dangerous. Emotional need for rules, even if
unworkable.
Precision and punctuality come naturally.
• Masculinity/Femininity: In a masculine society, the dominant values are
assertiveness, the acquisition of money and things, and not caring for others. In a
feminine society, the values of quality of life, caring for the underdog, and nurturing take precedence over purely materialistic pursuits.
MASCULINITY/FEMININITY
Feminine
Caring for others and preservation as dominant values.
Both men and women allowed to be tender and concerned with
relationships.
Sympathy for the weak.
Managers use intuition and strive for consensus.
Stress on equality, solidarity, and quality of life.
Conflicts resolved by compromise and negotiation.
Masculine
Material success and progress as dominant values.
Men supposed to be assertive, ambitious, and tough.
Sympathy for the strong.
Managers expected to be decisive and aggressive.
Stress on equity, competition among colleagues, and performance.
LONG VS. SHORT-TERM
ORIENTATION
Short-Term
Respect for traditions, social and status obligations regardless of costs.
Social pressure to "keep up with the Joneses" even if over-spending.
Little money for investment. Quick results expected.
Concern with possessing the truth.
Long-Term
Adaptation of traditions to a modern context.
Respect for social and status obligations within limits. Thrift, being sparing with
resources.
Large savings, funds available for investment.
Perseverance towards slow results.
Weak Uncertainty Avoidance Feminine Weak Uncertainty Avoidance Masculine Strong Uncertainty Avoidance Feminine Strong Uncertainty Avoidance Masculine U n c e rt ai n ty A v o id an c eIn d e x 0 112 4 1 2 5 6 10 9 8 7 3 Example Countries*: 1. Norway 2. Malaysia 3. Jamaica 4. U.S.A. 5. Taiwan 6. Costa Rica 7. Australia 8. Mexico 9. Japan 10. Greece *For complete list, see text
Source: Geert
Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations,
Masculinity/Femininity and Uncertainty Avoidance
0 112 Small Power Distance Collectivist Large Power Distance Collectivist Small Power Distance Individualist Large Power Distance Individualist 4 1 2 3 5 6 In d iv id u a li s m In d ex Example Countries*: 1. Costa Rica 2. Korea and Mexico
3. Brazil & India 4. Israel and Ireland 5. Australia and U.S.A. 6. France and Italy *For complete list, see text.
Source: Geert
Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations,
McGraw-Hill: London: 1991, pp. 23, 51, 83 & 111.
FONS TROMPENAAR’S VALUE
ORIENTATIONS
• Universalism vs. Particularism: one rule for all occasions or flexibility and adjustment to circumstances.
• Communitarianism vs. Individualism
• Neutral vs. Emotional: are emotions acceptable in
business? Encourage vs. avoid open display of feelings.
• Specific vs. Diffuse: can relationships be strictly “business-specific?”
• Achievement vs. Ascription: achieved status is based on achievement and track-record whereas ascriptive status based on hierarchy, age, etc.
MANIFESTATIONS OF CULTURE AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DEPTH Values Rituals Heroes Symbols Practices
MANIFESTATIONS OF CULTURE
•
Symbols: Words, gestures, pictures, or
objects that carry a particular meaning
which is only recognized by those who
share that culture. New symbols are
•
Heroes are persons alive or dead, real or
imaginary, who possess characteristics
which are highly prized in a culture, and
who thus serve as models of behavior.
• Rituals are collective activities, which within a
culture are considered as socially essential.
Examples are ways of greeting and paying
respect to others, social and religious
ceremonies, etc.
• Symbols, heroes, and rituals can be subsumed
under "practices," they are visible to an
VALUES
The core of culture is formed by values, i.e.,
broad tendencies to prefer certain state of
affairs over others. Values are among the
first things children implicitly learn. By
age ten, most children have their value
system firmly in place. Because values are
acquired so early in our life, most of us
CULTURAL VARIABLES AND MARKETING
Cultural Variable Product Promotion Price Distribution Research
Material Culture Language Education Aesthetics Values/Attitudes Social Organization Political/Legal
