Intercultural marketing: a cultural dilemma

A lot of international companies are facing difficulties with using a right strategy of intercultural marketing (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 7). Companies cannot use the same marketing strategy for different countries due to cultural differences. Taking this into account, it is hard for companies to stick to their cultural values all the time. For instance, Ikea had some problems with this at the beginning of this month. The catalogue of this brand is produced by Ikea group, a different brand than Ikea itself, and is being published in forty three different countries all over the world, including Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian culture is quite different from the western culture and Ikea group Saudi Arabia, which publishes the catalogue in Saudi Arabia, decided to adapt to this conservative culture and to let go of the culture values of Ikea. Following the Saudi Arabian culture standards, they removed all women from the Saudi Arabian version of their catalogue, which has caused a lot of commotion in the western world. Ikea reacted with the following apology:  "As a producer of the catalog, we regret the current situation. We should have reacted to the exclusion of women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog since it does not align with the IKEA Group values." (Hsu, 2012). Adjusting the Ikea catalogue to Saudi Arabian cultural standards shows Ikea's way of intercultural marketing. But it can backfire when looking at the commotion it caused in the western world
So what is actually meant by culture? According to the anthropologic point of view, culture is the integrated system of socially acquired values, belief, and rules of conduct which delimit the range of accepted behaviours in any given society. Culture involves both subjective and objective elements like: opinions, behaviours, values, beliefs, food, clothes and architecture (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 4). In this case the great distance between the western (European) culture of Ikea and the Islamic culture of Saudi Arabia became very clear. In western societies women are seen as equal to men. Excluding women from the Ikea catalogue in Saudi Arabia shows that they are not on equal footing with the men. This is not in accordance to western norms and values. Culture is being used to explain differences like these (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 4). Once a company goes abroad, it will face a lot of cultural differences between the foreign country's values and their own, which can provide problems. 
Nonetheless, it seems to be unavoidable for companies to go abroad these days. In fact, globalization has influenced people all over the world (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 11). Globalization is a process by which people all over the world are becoming more unified into a single society and are more interacting with each other. There are two macro factors which underlie the trend toward globalization. First, there is the decline in barriers to the flow of goods, services and capital that has occurred since the end of World War II. And second, there is a technological change, particularly in communication, information processing, and transportation technologies. Economists have demonstrated that countries with the greatest increase in export are also the countries with the fastest economic growth (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 11). Once a company starts producing in another country, it has to change their strategy, which requires certain knowledge about the culture and lifestyle of the foreign population to avoid failure of a global product (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 11).   
Although on one hand globalization seems to be causing cultural distinctiveness to fade, on the other hand some cultural differences among nations, regions, and ethnic groups are becoming more pronounced (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 7). In fact, this is the case with Ikea. By erasing women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue, the differences between the culture of a western society, as Sweden, and a conservative culture, as the Saudi Arabian, are becoming clear. In fact, deleting the women is a perfect example of the clash between western and Islamic societies that occurs these days. Western societies are seeing this as an insult towards women and it might even cause new discussions about the fear of Islamification in the western world. Ikea should have never adjusted to the Saudi Arabian culture, since they could have known what commotion it would cause.  
This interaction between culture and marketing can be explained from three different perspectives: culture defines acceptable purchasing and product-use behaviour for both consumers and business, second culture influences each component of the marketing mix and marketing influences the culture. Gesteland has introduced four-paired cultural models that require special attention when carrying business in different cultures: deal-focused vs. relationship focused cultures, formal vs. informal business cultures, rigid time vs. fluid-time cultures and expressive vs. reserved cultures. Although this model is practicable and useful, anthropology warns for stereotyping others. When marketers perceive  cultural distinctiveness, they often do not realise how they differ and how they can strategically imply one of its variations (Guang Tian, et al. 2010. Chapter 7). 
It can be concluded that Ikea has chosen a wrong way of intercultural marketing. They should have identified similarities between the western and Saudi - Arabian culture and should have tried to focus on this, instead of taking such a radical solution to overcome the difference. For instance, they could have made a whole different catalogue, with no people in it at all. Then the whole discussion would not have taken place perhaps.  As said before it is not just the fact that it is insulting for women which caused a lot of commotion. Islamification is a very sensitive topic these days and most western people think it is wrong to adapt to Islamic cultures. Ikea could have known that this action would cause a lot of problems. Fortunately, they apologised and they will think twice before doing this again. So in the process of intercultural marketing, which is becoming more important due to the increase of globalization, cultural differences have to be taken into account, but it turned out that staying in line with your own cultural values as a company is even more important. 


References 

Hsu, T. (2012). IKEA's Saudi Arabia catalog erases women; company expresses regret. Consulted http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-ikea-women-saudi-catalog-1,0,579448.story

Guang Tian, R., Lillil, M.P., van Marrewijk, A.H. (2010). General business anthropology: Chapter 4 Cultural issues in the business world. United States: Notrh American Business Press.

Guang Tian, R., Lillil, M.P., van Marrewijk, A.H. (2010). General business anthropology: Chapter 7 Anthropology, cultural change and intervention: Notrh American Business Press.

Guang Tian, R., Lillil, M.P., van Marrewijk, A.H. (2010). General business anthropology: Chapter 11 globalization, international business, and anthropology: Notrh American Business Press.