5 Factors To Consider When Marketing To Different Cultures

Marketing to different cultures can be frustrating. Sometimes the response you expect just doesn’t come. Instead of chalking your lose down to culture, why not re-examine all of the foreign demographic factors. Read more

Target Your Global Market With A Good Understanding Of Their Demographics

Small businesses have a great challenge if they are based in one country and selling to another country. Understanding the demographics of your foreign markets will make you more sales.

But it is often hard to really get into the demographics of your international markets. It can be hard to stretch yourself to fully understand cultural differences and the consequences in your sales and marketing strategies.

This is also complicated by single language markets made up of many, many different cultures. You not only have one set of specific demographic characteristics. You can literally have dozens.

The best place to start is to determine specific demographic information for each of your target markets, and to move on from there. The process actually gets easier the more cultures you adapt to. Your company will get faster at understanding how to adapt to each different culture.

An interesting example was how MTV adapted its music to each country. There are two main factors that came in to play.

• Music is culturally different in each culture.
• MTV targets a younger audience and youth do not have the same lives in different cultures.

MTV realized early on that they needed to adapt their music to the culture in each country. This is fairly easy to understand. Read more

Different Consumer Habits In Different Cultures

Photo: Benjamin Earwicker

Sometimes the different consumer habits people have in different countries can really surprise us.

Our first reaction can be total incomprehension:

- Wow! Those people are weird!
- How can anyone be like that?
- You mean someone actually likes that?

Curiosity might follow.

- Now I wonder why those people do that.
- Does everyone over there think that way?
- Why do they like that?

The answers are often fascinating. With the answers to these sort of questions you can really begin to understand different cultures. You might even be able imagine someone living such a different life. Then you might even imagine yourself living the same sort of life. Read more

Music In Cultural Differences

When you travel it is easy to notice a lot of differences in the places you travel through compared to what you are used to back at home. All of your senses are involved. Even music sounds different.

You may not notice it immediately. From the taxi, to the hotel, you may have heard a more international “pop” music. It might not be your favorite kind of music. But it might not sound “foreign”.

If you have the time to turn the television in your hotel room onto the local channels, that’s where it starts to sound different. And if you happen to turn the television on when the older local generation are watching for entertainment, any music will definitely give you a cultural shock. Read more