The attitudes and reactions of people, social critics, and governments all affect the political environment. Consumers in the same country usually share a common political.
environment, but the political environment can also have a dramatic effect on opportunities at a local or international level (pg. 189).
Strong sentiments of nationalism "an emphasis on a country's interests before everything else "affect how macro-marketing systems work. They can affect how marketing managers work as well. Nationalistic feelings can reduce sales "or even block all marketing activity "in some international markets (pg. 189). A good example is Japan and how difficult the Japanese government has made it for other countries to import their goods to Japan but flood everyone else's markets with their own good.
Important dimensions of the political environment are likely to be similar among nations that have banded together to have common regional economic boundaries. The move toward economic unification of Europe and free trade among the nations of North America are outstanding examples of this sort of regional grouping (pg. 190).
Culture is the whole set of beliefs, attitudes, and ways of doing things of a reasonably homogeneous set of people (pg. 102). We can think of the American culture, the French culture, or the Latin American culture. People within these cultural groupings tend to be more similar in outlook and behavior. Planning strategies that consider cultural differences in international markets can be even harder "and such cultures usually vary more. Each foreign market may need to be treated as a separate market with its own submarkets (pg. 103). A classic example of two separate cultures coexisting in the same country would be Israel. Everyone knows the constant conflict between the people in Israel that follow Judaism and those follow Muslim religions. Marketing of products to these two different groups must be handled differently in some cases.