Marketing is a term usually reserved for the process of marketing a product, service, or idea to the final consumer in a certain market. However, the purpose of this paper will be to show how culture's elements and specifically language can impact the marketing process of an organization. We will go through the definition of culture, the relation between the culture and the international marketing, the elements of culture, and finally language and its influence on marketing. .
Introduction.
Marketing has always been recognized as an economic activity involving the exchange of goods and services. Only in recent years, however, have social cultural influences been identified as determinants of marketing behavior, revealing marketing as a cultural as well as economic phenomenon. Because our understanding of marketing is culture bound we must acquire knowledge of diverse cultural environments in order to achieve successful international marketing.
We now know that it is not enough to say that consumption is a function of income. Consumption is a function of many other cultural influences as well.
A review of consumer durables ownership in EU countries with similar income levels shows the importance of non-income factors in determining consumption behavior. For automatic washing machines the range is from 72% in Sweden to 96% in Italy; for dishwashers, from 11%in the Netherlands to 34% in Germany; for clothes dryers, from 5% in Spain to 39% in Belgium; for microwave ovens, from 6% in Italy to 37% in Sweden; for vacuum cleaners, from 56%in Italy to 96%in Netherlands. It is remarkable that the same countries (Italy, Netherlands, Sweden) can be at the high penetration level for some appliances and at the low penetration level for others. Only cultural difference can account for these variations.
What is Culture?.
I think that each person at some stage at his or her lives wonders what culture is all about.