Analysis of Cultural Differences and their Effects on Marketing Products in the United States of America and Germany with a Focus on Cultural Theories

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, grade: 1.7, University of Applied Sciences Essen, course: Analysis of Cultural Differences and their Effects on Marketing Products in the United States of America and Germany with a Focus on Cultural Theories of Hall and Hofstede, language: English, abstract: This thesis aims at analysing cultural differences and their effect on marketingproducts internationally. The United States of America and Germany are used toexemplify this issue. Today s science provides numerous approaches to makingcultural differences visible and tangible. All of these solutions and dimensionsgive companies, and people in general, a guide to becoming aware of and understanddifferences and how to cope with them appropriately.Trompenaars, a famous consultant for intercultural communication, uses the allegoryof a fish and its habitat, water, to explain the characteristics of culture: Afish only discovers its need for water when it is no longer in it. 2 Accordingly,culture can be seen as the substance that surrounds a human being and makes himunable to distinguish between different and normal. Therefore, this thesis uses thecultural theories of Edward T. Hall and Geert Hofstede, who both developed approachesto cultural differences by using either a four- or five-dimensions model.These cultural dimensions will be applied to the special circumstances and conditionswhich a marketer has to deal with in the United States and Germany andthus draws connections between those two different fields of science.As already mentioned in section 1.1, cultural differences play an important role intoday s international marketing. It is therefore important to examine if and howcultural differences, according to Hall and Hofstede, affect parts of the marketingmix for companies selling products in the United States as well as in Germany.The following questions can help to identify the necessary steps: What culturaldifferences, in both the United States and in Germany, could have an impact onmarketing the products of companies selling in those countries? What impact docultural differences have on parts of the marketing mix? Which adaptions should marketers make to their marketing mix due to the cultural differences? Is standardisationa successful method in both international markets? The answers shouldhelp the marketer make the right choice between adapting products to local circumstancesor selling and marketing the same product all around the world. Thisthesis will attempt to answer these questions by applying the above-mentionedcultural theories, and will provide suggestions for how companies from the USAor Germany should conceive parts of their marketing mix. It will further provideexamples of culture related marketing efforts.