CULTURE & INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Understanding Culture for Success of International Marketing



Understanding Culture for Success of International Marketing

Today, the world has become a global village with many businesses expanding their operations to foreign countries. One of the key aspects of expanding business and entering new markets is too understand the culture of that country and its people, and market one's goods and service's accordingly. This is known as international marketing (Cayla & Arnould, 2008). Discussed below are examples of two brands, which have been both successful and unsuccessful in their international marketing endeavours.

Success of Coca-Cola Brand in Different Countries

Established over 125 years ago the Coca-Cola brand remains timeless and globally recognized. With a presence in over 200 countries and a 50% share in global non-alcoholic beverages market, it was one of the first American companies to generate a large proportion of its revenues through its international sales (D'Altorio, 2009). The brand has been successful in receiving enormous exposure through tying with high profile events such as FIFA World Cup and more. Coupled with its strong marketing campaigns that centre on youth empowerment, happiness and sustainability strongly resonate with its consumers. On average, the daily consumption of Coca-Cola is over 1.7 billion servings around the world (Interbrand, 2011).

Cooper (2010) comments that Coca-Cola through structuring its corporate culture to incorporate 'glocal', a combination of global and local elements, has been its strongest reason for executing its global marketing campaigns successfully. The brand's usage of universal values such as family bonding, happiness and general spirit of unity, has led its advertisements to be perceived as successful in different set of countries. These elements tend to possess a universal language and hence, have become a strong part of Coca-Cola brand structure, leading to borderless marketing of the product. Coca-Cola's Happiness Campaign is one such example, ...