In the world we live in these days, globalization has blurred the distinctions among cultures. We as individuals are expected to at least educate ourselves on various cultures around the world. When we travel to another country with different culture, it is best to equip ourselves to its local culture to minimize cultural shock and prevent us to offend the locals.

In business industry, cultural awareness is also important. In fact, it can be said that cultural sensitivity can make or break the brand or product. In other words, a company’s business related decision or strategy when they are expanding or trying to penetrate the foreign market is said to be more effective when done with local cultures in mind. Therefore, every organisation needs to be aware of cultural differences in the global market in order to be able to later create their strategy to market a product or brand in different country. When a brand manages to do that, they guarantee themselves positive reception in the local market internationally.

In order to be able to understand better of the cultural differences, businesses have to do a proper research on the market they are going to pick as their target. Not only they have to research the cultural elements and values, but they also need to find out about the consumer behavior. The consumers in certain country may have different preferences over products or service offered compared to those in different country. Moreover, factors affecting consumer buying decision could also play a role in formulating the best strategy for the product or brand.

Additionally, how businesses portray themselves in different continent, like Western and Eastern may also be different, which is also one of the factors due to the cultural difference. If we want to take an example, look at McDonald’s menu variety in various country. In India, where the majority of people do not consume beef, they serve no beef burgers and specialize in chicken burgers instead, completed with local flavor spices. In Indonesia, there is a meal option with rice in addition to french fries. In Turkey, they serve traditional beverage as an option for the locals.

Nestle is also a company which emphasizes on careful branding and marketing globally. An example is their tea products. They provide Japanese, who consume a lot of tea, a product with the local taste, easily made. Another similar example is Kitkat. They use local materials which also cost less than Cacao’s price, which has to be imported.

Those are just a few of strategies used by a company to ensure its product and brand can be received well in the market with different culture. The company has made the decision to specialize their brand in various ways depending on the local culture and value. It also proved that their success is stemmed from their effort to understand what and which direction they should take to become successful in the targeted market. In this case, recognizing the local values and cultures.