Does culture really impact the marketing strategies?

Culture has a huge impact on the marketing strategies of a product. As culture affects a consumers’ lifestyle, so brands do focus on the cultural values of their consumer in order to make them believe that they really know their consumer well.

The importance of culture in the world of marketing is huge. The world market is made up of smaller markets. These smaller markets have their own culture and languages. For instance, the culture of America is very different from that of India. So a brand that markets itself in both the nations needs to differ their marketing strategies according to the culture of the countries. As few things that are acceptable in America won’t be acceptable in India. The kind of fashion or food preferred by the American consumers might not be appreciated by Indians. These things do affect the performance of a business performing globally. For example, when McDonalds introduced itself in India, they came up with the idea of Mc Aloo Tikki, as there was a huge base of Indian customers who are vegetarians.

Similarly, when IKEA wanted to enter the US market, they made a few changes in their business cycle, philosophy, products and prices in order to gain acceptance. But why did such big brands need to do this?  It was to add cultural appeal to its brand to connect with the audience on an emotional note. Unless your brand appeals to the culture, talks to it, the culture and the market would not respond.

Culture differences exist on the customer side too. Consumer needs differ from culture to culture.

Culture and lifestyle information about a country can be categorized and broken down into the following factors:

• Material Culture: This category includes the technological goods used by the majority of the population, personal transport and the availability of resources such as electricity, natural gas, telephone, Internet and wireless communication.
• Languages: The languages spoken in a country have a direct impact on marketing, brand names, the collection of information through surveys and interviews, advertising and the conduct of business relationships
• Education: The rate of literacy in a region indicates the quality skilled work force.
• Religion: Religion is a major cultural influencer that affects many aspects of life, including the role of women in society, rules about food and beverage consumption, clothing habits and holiday activities.
• Ethics and Values: The ethics and values that the citizens of a nation possess impacts the way marketers advertise their products.

SOURCE: https://notesmatic.com/2017/01/importance-of-culture-in-marketing/#:~:text=Culture%20affects%20consumers’%20lifestyles.&text=So%2C%20a%20brand%20that%20does,know%20their%20consumers’%20needs%20better.

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