Cultural Environment of Global Markets

Cultural Environment of Global Markets

Commonly accepted definitions of culture focus on the sum of values, rituals, symbols, beliefs and thought processes that are learned and shared by a group of people, besides of those being transmitted from generation to generation. The culture is in the mind of the individual who is part of a social group, city, region, or country.

Cateora, Gilly and Graham (2009) quote:

Culture can be defined as a society’s accepted basis for responding to external and internal events.  To understand fully a society’s actions and its points of view, you must have an appreciation for the influence of historical events and the geographical uniqueness to which a culture has had to adapt” (p. 52).

To follow the aspects of the culture of a country, we must first know its history, as this will help us identify the factors that led to the emergence of the country as we know it. By doing so, we can justify the behavior and attitudes towards government and business, political trends, the relationship among the people, their perception of foreign countries, and the consumption habits of the consumers in that specific market. Therefore, it is important that a company, studies in depth the historical background of the host country, to be able to formulate an effective approach and be successful during any commercial transactions made therein. Subsequently, one must take into account that history is very subjective, so it must be analyzed by recognizing all different angles, given the fact that each version is more than likely to include SRCs or Self Reference Criterias, which refer to preconceived notions or partialities of the author.

In addition to the history of a country, Lee Hyun-Sook (2009) suggests that, the study of geography is important when evaluating the marketing strategy and its environment. Becoming familiar with the physical properties of the terrain, climate, population, industries, and the available resources in each...