Marketing Mix Across Cultures - Literature Analysis Essay

Explain the Method you used for finding,analysis and comparing literature.

The present business environment is characterized with globalization driving the business organizations to operate across the globe (Larimo and Kontkanen, 2008). Thus, the study would aim at analyzing and discussing the problem faced by the business organizations in terms of cultural differences across the nations, who want to get global and how they can efficiently manage the cultural differences by making significant changes in their marketing mix stagey. Thus, the problem that has been identified for the study can be presented as follows: “Standardization or Adaptation of Marketing Mix across the Culture”.

The topic that has been undertaken for the study has emerged as one of the most important challenge i.e. cultural challenge that is faced by the business organizations at present while operating globally. So, cultural challenge is observed as recurrent and very studies have been conducted in this area to analyze how business organizations tend to cope up and overcome the cultural challenge.

With increasing pace of globalization, the organizations are moving across the borders where they have to handle customers who are different on the basis of their culture, preference, religion and taste and so if the organizations can efficiently adapt to the changes in the culture, religion, taste and preferences of the customers in different nations then it can facilitate in achieving success. This is because it would prove to be beneficial on the part of the business organizations to implement their strategy of either adapting or standardizing their marketing mix to cater to the specific needs of the customers thereby making the brand and the company the most preferable brand among its customer segment.

The problem that has been highlighted in the study is the cultural challenge that business organizations tend to face while operating in different countries across the globe. So, the techniques i.e. standardization or adaptation in the marketing mix can prove to be beneficial in efficiently managing the challenge. Thus, the study would mainly strive towards analyzing the efficiency of standardization or adaptation technique in the marketing mix to address the cultural challenge that the organizations tend to face while operating culturally different nations across the globe.

Despite various challenges that are faced by business organizations operating in the global market, cultural challenge is recurrent. Cultural is defined differently by different authors and analysis of the definitions reveals that culture is complex and is a collective programming of the mind that tends to distinguish one group of members from another (Theodosiou et al., 2007). The definitions emphasizes upon various elements that include the manners, language, customs, material culture, technology, education, attitudes, social institutions, religion and aesthetics.

Analyzing the Identified Problem on Different Aspects

So, in context to cultural challenge the business organizations while operating globally have to deal with different cultures and thus it becomes important on their part efficiently identify the marketing solutions to deal with the differences and changes in the culture of different countries (Szymanski et al., 2006). Thus, there exist two options for the businesses to efficiently manage the problem. One is standardization and the other is adaptation. Moreover, it is a known fact from the review of the previous researched conducted, that business is different game since it has to deal with different rules while operating in different countries and so it becomes important for the business organizations to choose whether to standardize or to adapt their marketing mix on the basis of the culture of the company in which it is operating. So, this is the major problem that is faced by the business organizations at present and this motivated the researcher to undertake the study in order to analyze the factors that tend to influence the choice of the business to standardize ort adapt and the implications of the choice.

The researcher in order to conduct the study emphasized upon adopting an effective search strategy to find the available literature. The literature was searched for the study by making and effective use of the different keywords (El-Maraghi & Kielar, 2009). The keywords that were used for the search were as follows:

• Culture
• International marketing
• International marketing mix
• Marketing strategies
• Standardization
• Adaptation
• Consumer behavior
• Case study
• Country  of origin
• Glocalization
• Strategic management

The searches was conducted using the google search engine and while conducting the search for available literature, the synonyms within the same theme were linked with the help of the Boolean operator “OR” and different keywords were linked with each other for the study with the help of the Boolean operator “AND” (Schaafsma et al., 2007). The search also involved manual search strategy that proved to be beneficial in reviewing the retrieved studies and this was done by reviewing the title, the abstract and the reference list of the retrieved studies.

The limiting factors that were applied while conducting the search include the publication year and so only those studies were taken into consideration that were published within the range of 2006 to  2016.

With the help of the above search strategy, 25 articles were retrieved out of which 22 articles failed to meet the inclusion criteria i.e. either were articles that were published before 2006 or they did not emphasize upon adaptation and standardization strategy of the businesses.

Novel

Name	Author	Year	Criteria
Standardization/Adaptation of Marketing Solutions in Companies Operating in Foreign Market: An Integrated Approach	Monika Alimiene & Rita Kuvykaite	2008	It included keywords like internationalization, globalization, marketing solutions, standardization/adaptation of marketing solutions, glocalization.
Standardization and Adaptation of International Marketing Mix Activities: A Case Study	Ali Ekber Akgun, Halit Keskin and Hayat Ayar	2014	Includes keywords like international marketing mix, adaptation, standardization and strategic management
Adaptation Vs Standardization in International Marketing – The Country of Origin Effect	Dementris Vrontis and Alkis Thrassou	2007	It included keywords like international marketing, country  of origin, adaptation, standardization and consumer behavior

Akgün, A., Keskin, H. and Ayar, H. (2014). Standardization and Adaptation of International Marketing Mix Activities: A Case Study. International Strategic Management, [online] pp.609-618. Available at: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042814051295/1-s2.0-S1877042814051295-main.pdf?_tid=48e46c2e-13a5-11e7-ad5b-00000aacb362&acdnat=1490698807_b9261690cd4ce501b149c0f338d7ced1 [Accessed 28 Mar. 2017].    

The analysis of the literature presented in the above study, it is observed that study has emphasized upon providing a detailed description and analysis of the internationalization process on the part of the business organizations and on the basis of the internationalization process adopted by the business organizations, have analyzed their strategy of integrating the standardization and adaptation of the marketing solutions while conducting their operations in the global market. With the help of the support from previous literature, the study has emphasized upon highlighting the challenges that are faced by the business organizations while taking the business global market. Analyzing the literature presented in the study, it can be said that this peer reviewed article has tackled the problem of standardization or adaptation of the marketing solutions in the process of internationalization of the firms. However, the study has failed to illustrate the facts of how the business organizations tend to make the decision of standardization or adaptation with the help of an example organization. Moreover, the study has emphasized upon the fact that an organization should make an effective use of the mix of the both the strategies i.e. standardization and adaptation to deal with the cultural challenge across the nations.

Akgün, A., Keskin, H. and Ayar, H. (2014). Standardization and Adaptation of International Marketing Mix Activities: A Case Study. International Strategic Management, [online] pp.609-618. Available at: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042814051295/1-s2.0-S1877042814051295-main.pdf?_tid=48e46c2e-13a5-11e7-ad5b-00000aacb362&acdnat=1490698807_b9261690cd4ce501b149c0f338d7ced1 [Accessed 28 Mar. 2017].

The study of the literature presented in the above study revealed the fact that the article has not presented an in depth study of the available literature and has presented only two concepts i.e. definition of international marketing on the basis of the definitions provided by the different authors and has illustrated the concept of international marketing mix on the basis of the evidences put forward by the different authors. The main focus of the study has been based upon collecting the data with the help of the descriptive holistic case study to illustrate the standardization and adaptation international marketing activities of the firm. The focus of the study has been upon the Turkish furniture company that trades in around 65 countries. So, it can be said that the study failed to provide an in depth detail and illustration of the various theories and concepts related to the concept of standardization and adaptation in international marketing process and has also not made any significant attempt of illustrating the cultural barriers across the nations.

Important

Vrontis, D. and Thrassou, A. (2007). Adaptation vs. standardization in international marketing – the country-of-origin effect. Innovative Marketing,, [online] 3(4), pp.7-16. Available at: https://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/im/2007/im_en_2007_04_Vrontis.pdf [Accessed 28 Mar. 2017].    

Analysis of the literature of the above study, it has been observed that it has emphasized upon providing an in depth illustration of the literature on international marketing to present a confrontation between the two mainstream schools of thought in context to international marketing. The study strives towards making an investigation the practical level of standardization and adaptation on the part of the companies while operating in the international markets. The literature review of the study has been observed to be in the support of the fact that both the approaches i.e. the standardization and the adaptation approach tends to coexist and so the findings of the study has been observed to have been subsequently distilling the findings of the extended literature review in order to determine the degree and nature of the country of origin effect in the internationalization process.

Conclusion

 From the above analysis of the literature review presented in the three different articles relevant to the problem that has been identified for the study, it can be said that the studies have made significant contributions to the international marketing literature since they have efficiently emphasized upon examining the marketing mix activities on the part of the international firms. Moreover, it has been observed that most of the studies that helped the considered three articles to develop their literature review section has tried to examine the marketing activities with theoretic arguments and mainly focused upon standardization or adaptation of the marketing strategy (Leonidour et al., 2010). These studies involved in the articles has revealed the fact that where the international business organizations emphasize upon the fact that the elements of marketing mix like place, promotion and price are more adaptable, the elements of marketing mix like product is the most difficult element to adapt.

However, building upon the above aspects, the three articles that have been considered for the studying the problem that has been undertaken for study, emphasized upon the fact that the firms in order to perform efficiently in the international markets strive towards making an effective use of the mix of the adaptation and standardization approaches where decision need to be taken to standardize and adapt as per the culture, rule, religion and tastes and preferences of the customers to meet their specific local needs. So, it can be recommended that the study should be conducted to analyze the factors that drive the companies towards making their decisions in context to the choice of the adaption or standardization strategy while designing and developing their marketing mix elements for different countries across the globe.    

References

Akgün, A., Keskin, H. and Ayar, H. (2014). Standardization and Adaptation of International Marketing Mix Activities: A Case Study. International Strategic Management, [online] pp.609-618. Available at: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042814051295/1-s2.0-S1877042814051295-main.pdf?_tid=48e46c2e-13a5-11e7-ad5b-00000aacb362&acdnat=1490698807_b9261690cd4ce501b149c0f338d7ced1 [Accessed 28 Mar. 2017].

Alimien?, M. and Kuvykait?, R. (2008). Standardization/Adaptation of Marketing Solutions in Companies Operating in Foreign Markets: An Integrated Approach. Engineering Economics, [online] 1(56), pp.38-45. Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.533.2187&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 28 Mar. 2017].

El-Maraghi, R. H., & Kielar, A. Z. (2009). CT colonography versus optical colonoscopy for screening asymptomatic patients for colorectal cancer: a patient, intervention, comparison, outcome (PICO) analysis. Academic radiology, 16(5), 564-571.

Larimo, J., and Kontkanen, M., (2008), Standardization vs. adaptation of the marketing mix strategy in some exports, 34th EIBA Annual Conference, Tallinn, Estonia

Leonidour, L. C., Barnes, B. R., Spyropoulou, S., and Katsikeas, C. S. (2010), Assessing the contribution of leading mainstream marketing journals to the international marketing discipline, International Marketing Review, 27(5), pp.491-518.

References

Schaafsma, F., Hulshof, C., de Boer, A., & van Dijk, F. (2007). Effectiveness and efficiency of a literature search strategy to answer questions on the etiology of occupational diseases: a controlled trial. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 80(3), 239-247.

Szymanski, D.M., Bharadwaj, S.G., and Varadarajan, P.R., (2006), “Standardization versus Adaptation of International Marketing Strategy: An Empirical Investigation”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57 (October), pp.1-17.

Theodosiou & Leonidou, M. & Leonidou, L. (2007). “Standardization versus adaptation of international marketing strategy: an interactive assessment of the empirical research”. International Business Review, Vol.12, pp.141-77.

Vrontis, D. and Thrassou, A. (2007). Adaptation vs. standardization in international marketing – the country-of-origin effect. Innovative Marketing,, [online] 3(4), pp.7-16. Available at: https://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/im/2007/im_en_2007_04_Vrontis.pdf [Accessed 28 Mar. 2017].