Essay About Cultural Change And Foreign Country

Cultural Change in International Markets
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Competitive pressures caused by globalization, deregulation, and discontinuous
technological changes seem to have forced many organizations into considering radical
change as a way of surviving and growing. A big part of this radical change has to do
with accepting and handling cultural differences among other nations. Organizations
pursue change to enhance their competitive positions and to grow.
Cultural Change
Culture changes over time, despite the fact that one of the more important
attributes of culture is that it is conservative and resistant to change. When marketing a
new innovation to a foreign country, the marketer must possess a thorough knowledge of
that country’s culture in order to be successful there, as new innovations can be fail or
even cause offence if not marketed or designed in a manner appropriate to that particular
culture.
There are six rules of thumb when doing business across cultures:
Be prepared. Whether traveling or selling from home, you should never approach
a foreign market with first researching the area. Some of the things to learn
would include social and business etiquette, history, current affairs, the culture’s
values, geography, religion, political structure, and practical matter such as
currency and hours of business.
Slow down. In America “Time is money.” Americans always seem to be in a
rush and can seem unfriendly or arrogant. In other countries, patience is the key.
Establish trust. Having crisp business relationships will get the salesperson
nowhere. Product quality, pricing, and clear contracts are not as important as the
personal relationship and trust that are developed over time.
Understand the language. Languages differ in parts of the world one must have a
vocabulary that is sensitive to nuance and connotation. An interpreter could also
be helpful if needed.
Respect the culture. Manner are important. The traveling person is a guest and
must respect the hosts’ rules.
Understand components of culture. There are two types: surface culture (fads,
styles, foods, etc.) and deep culture (attitudes, beliefs, values).
Importance of cultural understanding
One of the reasons a marketer may be unsuccessful internationally is when they
mistakenly see some cultures as being similar when they are in fact quite different. There
are a number of ways in which this can occur.
One of the ways this can occur is when countries’ cultures are considered similar
on the basis they speak the same language. However, in instances where this occurs,
often a lot of words have a very different meaning in one country than another, a good
example being the difference here in Ireland with the U.S. Consider the question “Was
there any craic?” here, meaning was it fun or a good time, while the same question in the
states would be interpreted as was there any drugs as in “crack”. The same
question but two very different meanings!
Another mistake is where different cultures are lumped together as one. In