Cross-cultural marketing can be defined as the strategic process of marketing among consumers whose culture differs from that of the marketer's own culture in at least one of the fundamental cultural aspects. These include language, religion, social norms and values, education and living style. Cross-cultural marketing demands marketers to be aware of, and sensitive to, the cultural differences; to respect the right to culture by the consumers in various cultures and marketplaces, marketers should understand that they deserved the right to their cultures.
Both consumer behaviour and business practices are performed to a large extent by the culture within which they take place. Therefore, in order to match the marketing mix with consumer preferences, purchasing behaviour, and product-use patterns in a potential market, marketers must have a thorough understanding of the cultural environment of that market, i.e. marketing cross-culturally. However, this is by no means to suggest that all marketers should focus on cultural differences only to adjust marketing programs to make them accepted by the consumers in various markets. In contrast, successful marketers should also seek out cultural similarities in order to identify opportunities to implement a modified standardized marketing mix. To be able to skillfully manipulate these similarities and differences in the worldwide marketplaces is one of the most important marketing strategies for businesses in the 21st Century. .
In order market cross-culturally, marketers must determine the cultural viability of markets. Marketers should identify cultural factors that can be used to facilitate the marketing program in the target markets. These factors may or may not exist in the targeted markets; a successful marketer is able to make use of those already existent factors while create other non-existent factors.
"The classic anthropological theory suggests that while all human behaviors, including market behaviors, take place within a cultural context, human beings are able to influence and even change, through their behaviors, the cultural context within which their behaviors take place.
