The Role of Culture and National Identity in International Marketing

Introduction

The article selected for this reflective essay is “The Role of Culture and National Identity in International Marketing: A Synthesis with Reference “A Review and Future Research Directions” by Yipeng Liu and Isabelle Scheduling from their 2021 Journal of International Marketing. The article elaborates on the central role of cultural and national identities as vital issues for marketing and cautions about the need to consider how these affect international marketing strategies.

Explanation:

Research Question

The article aims to answer the following research questions:

1. What is a place of culture and national identity within international marketing?
2. However, the big question is around the way international marketers can blend in the culture and national identity in their strategies.
3. Cuz, there what future research lines would be identified to make the identity of culture and nation more understandable in international marketing research?

Methodology

The authors used the systematic literature review as the tool for investigating the potential impact of cultural dimension and national identity on marketing in the international environment. The review summarizes research papers that have undergone peer review and have been published from the year 2000-2020, selected through a strict selection process.

Finding

The authors identified three key themes related to the role of culture and national identity in international marketing:

1. The influence of culture on consumer behavior: the fact that culture is something that has a direct impact on how people develop their attitudes, beliefs, values, and buying behaviors is interesting. This presents an excellent challenge for top management in creating effective global marketing strategies.
2. Ethnic Identity and Brand Image: Consumer ethnic identity leads to the way consumers perceive and qualify the brands, while they shape emotional relationships between brands and the. Cultural adaptation and standardization strategies: International marketers can alter their marketing strategies and adopt either the cultural approach or use the standardized approach across different markets wherever an issue arises with cultural similarities or differences.

Advantages

This article presents the most recent findings of all necessary research in the field of culture and national identity as international marketing spiritual factors, which prove to be very vital during the thought process of International marketing. These differences emphasize the activity of international marketers in the process of strategy development, presumably considering those factors. Research potential of technology in acculturation and political and economic factors in national identity are other topics for future study.

Therefore, this article not only offers some useful background information for marketing professionals who are eager to work abroad but also advises on the incorporation of culture and national identity into marketing methods. To support their proposition, for example, the authors propose that international marketers carry out in-depth market research to learn about the cultural context and ethos of the target market and then compose marketing messages that are aligned with those criteria.

Limitations

It merely encompasses the studies published in peer-reviewed journals and will not include those that are published in other forms of literature, such as books and conference proceedings. Also, the authors found that the majority of the research involved was on specific cultural dimensions or sectors, and this decreased the applicability of the findings to the general population. Future studies can overcome the mentioned constraints by considering more cultural sources/dimensions and by working out multi-sectoral research to gain a more thorough insight into the way in which culture and national identity affect international marketing.

In conclusion, Liu and Schuiling’s article has thus identified the importance of cultural and national identities for international marketing, showing that international marketers had to take these factors into consideration during their’ strategy development. This article critically analyses both scientific and informational data on the subject for further investigation and future utilization by international marketing scholars, with its value added to the international marketing literature. What was incredibly attention-grabbing for me in the context of this article is the way the authors highlighted the significance of cultural competitiveness (CQ) in an international marketing domain. Cultural intelligence is defined as the capability to interact, behave, and handle change, specifically within various cultural environments. The authors are of the opinion that international marketers who have a high level of CQ are the better ones to develop marketing strategies that are appropriate to the cultures of the different countries as well as the primary national identity and, thus, these marketers can lead to the high levels of success in the international market.

This is a significant issue because it calls international marketers to not only understand the cultural peculiarities and cultural settings of their intended communities but also to develop flexibility and acquire the necessary skills to work effectively in other cultural settings. Such a task is a thin line that bends on continuous professional growth or learning as well as acceptance of your errors. The first goal of the Journal is to submit empirical and conceptual research that is viewed to be of higher standards and thus contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of international marketing affairs. It willingly receives papers from all academic disciplines with a focus on marketing, management, economics, anthropology, and sociology, to name but a few. International Journal of Marketing, in its turn, features particular types of research papers, including empirical research, conceptual papers, reviews of the literature, and methodological issues. These articles adopt a wide range of lenses and cover diverse issues, including the cross-cultural nature of consumer behavior, effective entry strategies for international markets, suitable organizational structure and control when dealing with multinational platforms, and the influence of technological advancement on international marketing practice.

The globality and variety of authorship, without doubt, stand out as the things that help the Journal. Not only does it create an open forum where scholars from all over the world can contribute, but also it ensures international exchange of thoughts, experiences, and challenges in international marketing that are of benefit to many organizations around the globe. The Board of Editors, which links leading academics and practitioners around the world, therefore provides the basis for the research work to go through a rigorous peer review process to guarantee high standards of quality. This Journal is among the leading in its field and is often named by researchers due to their studies, educators to help them compile teaching materials, and practitioners to keep them updated with the latest knowledge. These articles deal, among other things, with the levels of complexity of marketing in other countries’ cultures, and thanks to this, the level of knowledge and, finally, the practical strategies companies can use in the global market are developed.

REFERENCES

(PDF) International Entrepreneurship: Research Priorities for the … (2021). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247833978_International_entrepreneurship_Research_priorities_for_the_future

Carvalho, S. W., Luna, D., & Goldsmith, E. (2019). The role of national identity in consumption: An integrative framework. Journal of Business Research, 103, 310-318.

Cleveland, M., Papadopoulos, N., & Laroche, M. (2022). Global consumer culture and national identity as drivers of materialism: an international study of convergence and divergence. International Marketing Review, 39(2), 207-241.

Vecchi, A., Silva, E. S., & Jimenez Angel, L. M. (2021). Nation branding, cultural identity, and political polarization–an exploratory framework. International Marketing Review, 38(1), 70-98.