OPINION Intercultural Conflicts of International Marketing Activities - From the Perspective of Chinese Companies Culture plays very crucial and important role in international marketing strategy. Every nation, community has different acceptable norm for marketing. Religion, language, life style, beliefs make marketing different for every culture. Marketing same item to two different countries may be difficult. Therefore marketing experts should consider the cultural differences while developing strategies. As an example to the cultural difference is; fruit serving size in supermarkets. If an investor wants to sell fruits sliced and shirked to portions for only individuals in Turkey, it may not work as in USA. This may be due to family eating culture differences. In Turkey, people are more family oriented so they eat together, servings of the fruit are bigger and demand is heavier on whole fruits rather than sliced and packed ones. In that sense marketer should weight the investment on more whole fruit than sliced ones. In terms of considering cultural differences, Coca Cola does great job during holy month of Ramadan. On the commercials they show that as Coca Cola has been part of the fast breaking (iftar) table for long time. This made people feel that this foreign company has been part of the culture and embraced by community as theirs. Global companies should develop strategies accordingly regarding culture and the norms of the targeted society. A product label saying that “recycle or green product” may not be too important in developing countries. On the other hand this label may increase sales on developed countries where community is more concern about environment. Language similarity and familiarity of the used language with daily life is very important. If the right words are picked to market a product it may boost the sales. Such that if a marketing slogan or motto is merged with known proverb of the culture, it will built reputation easier. Otherwise implementing new motto and using a slogan with words different from daily life is risky. When picking up these words for slogan or motto, marketers should watch out the consequences of the unknown or misunderstanding words. Foreign company which tries to break into a new market also promotes change. The concept of change may be little blurry for the targeted society. This is because not all cultures are willing to change their traditional ways of thinking and living. When company tries to promote change of consumption, they shouldn’t cross the line of cultural change. Which means that the society shouldn’t feel anxious about their culture is changing. The message should be that ‘this is a new product and it is good’. If the balance is not done carefully, it may backfire from society and company may face consequences. Any company who is willing to open up to foreign markets globally, they should carefully watch cultural differences and norms of society with balanced strat.

1. OPINION
Intercultural Conflicts of International Marketing Activities -
From the Perspective of Chinese Companies
Culture plays very crucial and important role in international
marketing strategy. Every nation, community has different
acceptable norm for marketing.
Religion, language, life style, beliefs make marketing different
for every culture. Marketing same item to two different
countries may be difficult. Therefore marketing experts should
consider the cultural differences while developing strategies.
As an example to the cultural difference is; fruit serving size in
supermarkets. If an investor wants to sell fruits sliced and
shirked to portions for only individuals in Turkey, it may not
work as in USA. This may be due to family eating culture
differences. In Turkey, people are more family oriented so they
eat together, servings of the fruit are bigger and demand is
heavier on whole fruits rather than sliced and packed ones. In
that sense marketer should weight the investment on more
whole fruit than sliced ones.
In terms of considering cultural differences, Coca Cola does
great job during holy month of Ramadan. On the commercials
they show that as Coca Cola has been part of the fast breaking
(iftar) table for long time. This made people feel that this
foreign company has been part of the culture and embraced by
community as theirs.
Global companies should develop strategies accordingly
regarding culture and the norms of the targeted society. A
product label saying that “recycle or green product” may not be
too important in developing countries. On the other hand this
label may increase sales on developed countries where

2. community is more concern about environment.
Language similarity and familiarity of the used language with
daily life is very important. If the right words are picked to
market a product it may boost the sales. Such that if a marketing
slogan or motto is merged with known proverb of the culture, it
will built reputation easier. Otherwise implementing new motto
and using a slogan with words different from daily life is risky.
When picking up these words for slogan or motto, marketers
should watch out the consequences of the unknown or
misunderstanding words.
Foreign company which tries to break into a new market also
promotes change. The concept of change may be little blurry for
the targeted society. This is because not all cultures are willing
to change their traditional ways of thinking and living. When
company tries to promote change of consumption, they
shouldn’t cross the line of cultural change. Which means that
the society shouldn’t feel anxious about their culture is
changing. The message should be that ‘this is a new product and
it is good’. If the balance is not done carefully, it may backfire
from society and company may face consequences.
Any company who is willing to open up to foreign markets
globally, they should carefully watch cultural differences and
norms of society with balanced strategy, so it may open the
doors of success. Adopting new ways of marketing to foreign
markets will strengthen the companies’ flexibility.
OPINION
An Export-Marketing Model for Pharmaceutical Firms
Internationalization is a way to expand the company with
international marketing over the borders. As the article states
company should use opportunities in target markets based on
realistic evaluation of internal strengths and weaknesses with
analysis of macro an microenvironments in order to gain
presence in other countries.

3. Pharmaceutical export demands more close attention compare to
other exported goods. In health care products the item is
selected by professionals and consumed by society, which
means that there is someone else as a marketer of the item.
Besides getting accepting from the professionals, the investor
company should coop well with the regulations in order to
achieve success, this is because hosting country want to make
sure investor is caring the health of country and providing
accurate solutions.
Best marketing strategy for health care products depends on the
examination of the health care system and putting human health
and life upfront on strategy. This way while company will give
the impression of a “caring people” image to society on the
other hand altering them accordingly to target market will ease
to manage the strict regulations. To open up a new market
Rahman models four steps can be followed thoroughly. This
way prior to internationalization to a new market, the mindset
of the corporation will be ready for the adventure.
According to the research, the best internationalization for
pharmaceutical items for Iran is combination of four different
models and altering the whitelock model. This is true for many
other countries as well. The models of one successful prototype
may not be applied in all investments especially in health care
business.
Any company who is trying to cross their country borders, first
they have to build their mind set accordingly. This could be
longer analysis process or partnering with other companies
within the market. Beside the financial calculation, the risk of
internationalization must be considered in many other factors
including regulations, culture and beliefs.
In Iran case the prework is the similar to other target markets,

4. what makes the internationalization towards Iran is the
diplomatic sanctions and the specific area of health care.
Sometimes in those societies, a western company can be seen as
an invader rather than an investor. In this sense company should
do their homework very carefully before jumping in market.
In my opinion, internationalization is a risky but required factor
for companies. On one hand market area is expanded and the
brand may become global, on the other hand the risk of failure
may show weakness to competitors.
Developing Effective Marketing Strategies for the
Japanese Market: A Review of the Literature
OPINION
As every foreign economy Japanese economy is resistant to
foreign companies input to their domestic market. Some
companies have many attend to find opportunity into this newly
opened up area especially after 1990s.
Japanese market can be seen as a door to Asian markets as well
as an area to do research and development. Compare to other
markets, Japanese consumers are relatively wealthier. On the
other hand this market will enable the companies’ globally
strategic goals and support the expansion. But as every
expansion and new area there were success and failures in this
field.
One of the assumption that companies had was, all Asian market
were same, but actually Japanese market required some
localized adaptations. These adaptations could be such that
strategically and logistically partnering with locals and
marketing with the flavor of the culture. Many companies
oversee these adaptations processes and resulted in failure. This

5. failure can be such that ordered items shipped late, or catalogs
were in foreign currency, or there were no Japanese manuals for
items. Also such companies like Nestle adapted local taste for
consumers, and as cake mixing company adjust their recipe for
rice cookers for their success.
While many foreign companies are rushing to enter Japanese
market, to help this call, government eased on regulations. One
example is Office depot had its first store in 1997 and by end of
2001 they opened fifty more store around the country. With
many of foreign investors coming to Japan, the chemistry of
Japanese market has been changed as well.
According to research, with the global companies are rooted in
county more, and regulations are becoming easy, the innovation
with technology improved as working conditions. Also these big
investment companies are merging with local ones and gives
opportunity to grow local ones as well. Better conditions of
work environment provide areas of innovation and broader
thoughts.
Opening to Japanese market mandates same risks and
requirements for many other countries, and companies should
alter their products and the way they market according to habit
of local buyers.
In my opinion as every foreign country, Japanese market has
risk also. As stated in article there are good examples of fail
and success stories from previous companies. If they happened
to be examined carefully and planned accordingly, Japanese
market seems very promising for future and it still has room for
new incomers. The success lays on the way of staying and
thinking globally and marketing locally.
OPINION
Translation is a journety between two different things. During

6. this journey some road accidents may happen. Such that from
Chinese to English publications may give different meaning if
the words are not chosen correctly during translation.
In the article, they emphasise on carrying message of the article
headline to the graph headline. The headline must be an
atttactive and attention grabbing for the reader. This will be the
first step to engage reader. Secondly is the keep reader not
bored from simple texts. To entertain them graps which are
colorful and visually pleasing is the key. These graphs must
include headlines which can have with an array of rhetorical
devices such as allusions, metaphors, and parodies. Also these
graph headlines should be related with the headline of the
article.
Nowadays people are more tended to have visual compliance
rather than simple plain text. Therefore to improve sales,
editors, page designers with marketers must take this trend into
account. Useing a appropiate headline with realted graph
headline may improve the apperance and carry the message to
reader much better way. As stated in article this haas ben
proved by Economist magazine layout.
However, as seen in Chinese magazines there are less grahs and
more plain graph headlines. This cultural norm of Chinese
publishing limits the audience for magazine. To change this
concept of news all the sudden may backfire as well. I think
gradual change in layout with related graph headlines will have
better outcomes.
Since the world is becoming more global, new generation is
more aware of the new trend of magazines, therefore their

7. mindset is more ready to accept new way of graph headlines,
which these headlines could have classical idioms and terms to
create irony. Actually using classical terms may broden the
spectrum of the change in graph headlines and get more
accceptance from Chinese community.
Visual apperance of items in market is very important for sales,
this argument is walid for magazine sales as well. Representing
data with graph gives the main idea in a shorter and carries
message in an entertaining way. So, the link between main idea,
headline and graph headline must be knotted well so reader can
enjoy and sales can increase.