Examples for the elements of culture which affect international marketing.

1. Course Instructor: Sneha Sharma
Elements of Culture

2. Elements of Culture
Material
culture
Language
(Spoken &
Unspoken)
Aesthetics Education
Religion Attitudes
and values
Social
organizatio
n

3. A few Examples..

4. Language
 English, Spanish, German, and many other
similar languages
 Read from upper left-hand corner of a page
and then moving across the page to the right
and down.
 Arabic readers begin at the upper right-hand
corner and read to the left, working their way
down.
 Chinese, traditionally begin in the upper right-

5. The Coca-Cola Case in China
 Coca-Cola name in China was first read as
“Kekoukela”,
 meaning “Bite the Wax Tadpole” or “Female
Horse Stuffed with Wax”, depending on the
dialect.
Coke then researched 40,000 characters
to find a phonetic equivalent
“kokoukole”, translating into “Happiness
in the Mouth”

6. The Nike Air Case
 Nike offended Muslims in June, 1997 when
the “flaming air” logo for its Nike Air sneakers
looked too similar to the Arabic form of God‟s
name, “Allah”.
 Nike pulled more than 38,000 pairs of
sneakers from the market.

7. The Volkswagen Jetta Case
 Volkswagen named the sedan version of
Golf the Jetta.
The letter “J” doesn‟t exist in the Italian
alphabet, so Jetta is pronounced
“Ietta”,
which means Misfortune…

8. The Orange Case
 During its 1994 launch campaign, the telecom
company Orange had to change its ads in
Northern Ireland.
“The future‟s bright…the future‟s Orange.”
 That campaign is an advertising legend.
However, in the North the term Orange suggests
the Orange Order.
The implied message that the future is
bright, the future is
Protestant, loyalist… didn’t sit well
with the Catholic Irish population.

9. Colors
 In Egypt, the country's national color of
green is considered unacceptable for
packaging, because religious leaders once
wore it.
 In Japan, black and white are colors of
mourning and should not be used on a
product's package.
 Purple is unacceptable in Hispanic nations

10. TOSHIBA in China
Toshiba once had a commercial jingle
in China that went
„„Toshiba, Toshiba.‟‟
In Mandarin Chinese, Toshiba sounds a
lot like „„let‟s steal it‟‟ (tou-chu-ba).

11. Localized Brand Names
Hewlett-Packard, for
instance, adopted Hui-Pu as its
Chinese brand name. Hui means
„„kindness‟‟ and Pu means
„„universal.‟‟

12. ORACLE in China
 In 2002, Oracle, following a brainstorming
session with its Chinese executives,
adopted the name JiaGuWen
The literal translation means the recording of
data and information—a nice fit with Oracle‟s
core business.

13. Allied Domecq in Asia
 Allied Domecq wanted to revamp
Kahlua, a Mexican coffee liqueur
brand, as the brand of choice among
young Asians.
- Allied Domecq sponsored a dance program
on MTV Networks Asia called „„Party Zone
Mixing with Kahlua.‟‟
 „„Young adults throughout Asia look to MTV as a
trendsetter and representative of their lifestyle.

14. Gestures

15. Impact of Culture on Buyer
Behavior

16. THE END
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