To adjust and adapt a marketing program to foreign markets, marketers must be able to interpret effectively the influence and impact of th...
To adjust and adapt a marketing program to foreign markets, marketers must be able to interpret effectively the influence and impact of the uncontrollable environmental elements on the marketing plan for each foreign market in which they hope to do business. In a broad sense, the uncontrollable elements constitute the culture; the difficulty facing the marketer in adjusting to the culture (i.e., uncontrollable elements of the market place) lies in recognizing their impact. In a domestic market the reaction too much of the uncontrollable (cultural) impact on the marketer’s activities is automatic: the various cultural influences that fill our lives are simply an apart of our history. We react in a manner acceptable to our society without thinking about it because we are culturally responsive to our environment. The experiences we have gained throughout life have become second nature and serve as the basis for our behavior.
The task of cultural adjustment is, perhaps, the most challenging and important one confronting international marketers; they must adjust their marketing efforts to cultures to which they are not attuned. In dealing with unfamiliar markets, marketers must be aware of the frames of reference they are using in making their decisions or evaluating the potential of a market because judgments are derived from experience, which is the result of the acculturative process. Once a frame of reference is established, it becomes an important factor in determining or modifying a marketer’s reaction to situation-social and even nonsocial – especially if experience or knowledge of accustomed behavior is lacking. When a marketer operates in other cultures, marketing attempts may fail because of unconscious responses based on forms of reference acceptable in one’s own culture but unacceptable in different surroundings. Unless special efforts are made to determine local cultural meanings for every market, the marketer is likely to overlook the significance of certain behaviors or activities and proceed with plans that result in a negative or unwanted response.
