Cultural Identity and Business Communication

1188 Words5 Pages
Whenever the meaning of culture is mentioned, the first thing that people might immediate think of 'different countries have different cultures'. However, culture is not only reflected in 'nationality'. It actually is an extensive and abundant issue in various domains. Hofstede (as cited in McIntyre, Meloche & Lang, 1993, p.34) asserted that the identity of culture could be either individually or collectively. Jameson (2007) claims that the components of individual cultural identity could include six parts: vocation, class, geography, philosophy, language and biological traits. This essay will describe three of these components - geography, class and biological traits - and how companies utilize them to decide what kind of products or services to create for consumers. When companies decide to create a new product, the first thing that they should do is understand the current market and thereby identify consumers' needs and wants. Then companies will provide products to satisfy them (Elliott, Rindle-Thiele & Waller, 2010, p. 5). The cultural environment is a part of the marketing environment. Therefore, it could be a factor of making decision about what kind of products or services to create for companies. Firstly, one of the important factors for companies making decisions about creating new products or services is geographical factor such as nationality, region, density or climate. Different countries have their own customs and culture, so consumers from different states would have different needs and wants. Martin (2011) beliefs that people live in the same region have same needs and wants and it is different from those people who live in different region (p.16). In other words, the same products or services may not necessarily well-known in all states or regions, so companies need to provide different products base on different geographic
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