1. Intercultural communication is important for international marketing success but can pose challenges if cultural differences are not understood and addressed. 2. Marketing supervisors play a key role in developing cultural awareness and ensuring effective intercultural communication within international marketing teams and with local customers. 3. Common issues that can arise include language barriers, differences in interaction and non-verbal communication styles, and lack of understanding of cultural values, norms and business practices.

1. 1. Introduction
Communication is nothing but it is just the exchange of meanings between the individuals
with the use of the common symbols. In case of international marketing there is high need of
communication competence because through it in social situations in the international market,
command and selecting of the different languages to interact with the local people help to
understand the consumer perspectives and in this case marketing supervisor need to
understand the international marketing. Bennett et al., (1986. pp.117-134) states that there are
few factors that mostly influence the cultural environment such as the word of language we
select when speak is our culture, our state of mind, our social status, our norms and moral
concepts. Likewise any culture in the world, create its own identity and social status and if
that is ignored or not considered while thinking to enter in the international market, will
definitely lead to the failure of the business. Brislin et al (1986) introduces in his research that
every language is a cultural reflection in the world and communication is very effective due
to the use of the local language. It generates the self-awareness and finds the identity. This
report is also based on the same analysis that why intercultural communication is important
and what are the existing issues and how they can be made beneficial for the firms that are
entering or already established in the international market.
The basic element of the communication process those are important while communicating
such as message, message sender, medium and the receiver of the message. It is not necessary
that this can only happen in the same culture or environment but it can happen between the
people from the different culture or may be to the people from the different regions. For
example, two people from United Kingdom communicating in the native language describes
their social status and their identity through the communicating way as they belong to the
same culture and same country as described by Schneider (1997). In other case, if one
belongs to the China and other belongs to United Kingdom then it will be very difficult to
communicate with each other unless they know the common language so it is very difficult to
communicate. The sender of the message is someone having personal, professional, social
and informational desire (AXTELL et al, 1998) to communicate to others. This world is now
very small place than earlier age. At this time there are few words like global village, global
markets and globalization which are the new buzzwords in the existing environment of the
international market. In this report the main aim is to analyse the Intercultural communication
in marketing.

2. 2. Intercultural Communication Scenario
There is one question always in the mind of the people as why the companies always tries to
expand its business activities to the international market and out of them only few get huge
success but number of them none? The answer to this question is that companies often go for
international market because of the motive of financial strength and entrance of the business
in to the new market for more potential customers and most of them fails because of the
miscommunication to the cross cultural environment as stated by Mole John (2003). This
report aims to in depth analysis of the intercultural issues and their enhancement for the
benefits of the international market. Every business wants to increase its turnover through the
international market and hopes for the higher profits from the market. Once it has been found
that the company can be bigger and the international expansion will be beneficial it enters in
the international market but forgets about the intercultural communication that is needed to
for the growth and establishment of the company. The sales potential is also important to
analyse for the company’s products and services in the international market.
There are few things which company need to analyse and figure out by the marketing
supervisor like legal, technical requirements and environmental regulations while need to
enter in the new international market to promote its products and another thing to analyse
after it is the logistics and distribution of the products and services. But more than these
factors the most vital factor that company ignored in the reparation phase is the cultural
environment of the international market. Beamer et al (2001) Failure to consider this factor
while entering in the international market is the falling of the business soon after
establishment. Intercultural is a vita factor that mostly influences the consumer behaviour and
ultimately affects the company’s growth and stability in the international market or in the
cross cultural environment. This is not an issue only for the firms that are entering in the
international market or those have the lack of the international experience but it happens to
the big fully established firms that already expanded its business to international market. For
example, as explained by Wiseman et al (2003) that the international experience of BMW &
Rover as well as Daimler & Chrysler that entered in the international market but lack of cross
cultural communication, these could not stand in the international market against the local
competitors.

3. 3. Target audience (let us make it more specific , marketing supervisors, please find at
least 4 sources to give the definition of supervisor and two source of marketing). In
addition, describe the function of supervisors in international marketing.
International marketing is a requirement of the today’s increasing demand of the products and
services and also increase in the competition of economic development, financial strength
and larger customer base. For international market it is needed to explore the things globally
by the marketing supervisor in terms of intercultural communication and cross cultural
environment because it plays a vital role in the improvement and establishment of the firm in
the international market as described by Wiseman et al (2003, pp. 191-204). For all this the
targeted audiences belongs to the category of different culture from the different countries
with the different languages. Schneider, et al (1997) states that basically the big enterprises,
medium and small enterprises or companies comes under the targeted audience category
because in the international market only the firms can establish its own office or franchise or
might possible to go for acquisitions and merger if necessary.
Positions allocated to this classification supervise the development, implementation, and
evaluation of marketing, promotional, and outreach programs which promote the sales and
usage of state services, products, programs, facilities, activities and special events; supervise
strategic marketing research and analysis; develop and implement annual marketing plans for
the assigned programs; develop (Eleri R et al, 2010, pp. 450-459) or supervise the
development of promotional items, activities, events, and publications to publicize the
assigned program’s services or products; develop or supervise the development of records
and reports to analyze the trends and success of various promotional campaigns and
activities; and develop marketing program budgets, policies, and procedures. Positions use a
variety of marketing tools such as, publications, radio, TV, Internet and other electronic
media production (Philip Kotler, 2006). Positions at this level spend the majority of their
time performing professional marketing duties and supervising Administrative Support staff
or a mix of Administrative Support staff and professional Marketing Specialist positions.
Work is performed under general supervision.
This position develops, implements, monitors and supervises a marketing program for the
Sales Program within the Purchasing Services Department (Kirton, G et al, 2005) , which
includes two sub-organizations: the Materials Distribution Services (MDS); develops an

4. annual written comprehensive marketing plan, which includes market research, baseline data
analysis, internal customer development, and external customer relations; develops, tests and
implements methods to communicate regularly with customers regarding the products and
services available, including the internet (Robert W et al, 1985, pp. 49-55); develops a
program for customer relations and supervises the staff within the customer service section of
MDS; and revises, edits, publishes and distributes the MDS product catalogue.

5. 4. Which problems may encountered in Intercultural Marketing
The difficulty lies in more fundamental issues than product, price, promotion and place. With
the transition from domestic-focussed operations to a true worldwide view, other factors are
essential for success. Marketing supervisor need to focus on more to build the culture among
the team to make things better to communicate with the local peoples. It is vital for Western
marketers to understand the expectations of their counterparts around the world. Even at the
threshold of the millennium, inability to master the basic cultural factors still leads to failure.
Marketing supervisor finds the issues in cultural patterns as cultural patterns (Hagen, S.,
2005) are a part of our lives and behaviour. These cultural patterns enable to the humans to
interact to each other easily with the other humans who also have the similar image of reality
and similar environment. That’s why it can be said that culture is considered as the artificial
human creation. This cultural theory of artificial interaction is supported by the scientific
evidences in the modern and also in the past ages. It is observed that the small numbers of
individuals are responsible for the cultural change or can say as cultural diversity (Kirton, G.
& Greene, A-M, 2005) because of the genetic differences. Same happens in case of the
international market as few people in the firms that is established in the overseas country if
have the few people in the organization with different culture and language will affect the
entire culture of the organization. There are number of issues existing in the intercultural
communication practice as follows:
4.1 Communication-related issues
Communication among the humans is necessity and if that is not done properly intercultural
communication gets affected. The people who are involved in the international marketing
business are having the problem of communication specially when they are from the other
region or belong to different diverse culture. Different cultural backgrounds, languages,
interacting skills and non-verbal communications are some of the basic issues in
communication among the people who are involve in the overseas marketing and business.
1. Language: The important part of communication system is language. Different culture and
regions have different languages and their communication methods are also based on the
existing language. When an organization establish its business to other cultural area where
the speaking language is different then it cause issue in communicating (Ellingsworth, H.W.
1983) with the local peoples there. For example, if a Chine company establish its another
office in USA and shifts its employees there then the Chinese employees will not be able to

6. communicate easily in English. Thus, intercultural communication because of lack of
understanding of the other local language causes big issues for survival of the organization
there.
2. Interaction: Some people don’t feel easy to interact with other cultural people easily and
thus unable to adopt the change in culture, language. It is very difficult to get involve with the
other cultural people because of the habits of not interacting with the people. For interaction
many factors are involved such religion, living style, communication methods (Schwartz, S,
1994, pp. 85-122). And the traditions too which restrict people to easily interact to each to
each other. Easily adoption of the habits and life style of the diverse culture is not easy and
thus causes the significant issues in the organization. For example, Pedersen, et al, (1997)
have also reported observations of difference in behaviours of users and the evaluators when
they belong to different cultures. They have observed such behaviours to be specific to the
culture from which they belong. Interaction not only causes issues among the team members
of the organization but also causes issue to the growth of the organization in the international
market and bad impacts on the potential customers which reduces the sales of the
organization and impacts on brand too badly.
3. Non verbal communication: As much as there are differences in various cultures, there
are commonalities too in terms of the nature of processing information cognitively. Ribbens
and Thompson (2000) have stated that people from western hemispheric cultures are inclined
to cognate information primarily in terms of pictures, sounds and feelings. In the case of
people from the east based cultures, in addition to the above, smell and taste also matters. It is
important issue as some people don’t easily understand the non-verbal communication
(Guirdham, M 2005) the feelings and the thinking of the people belong to diverse culture.
The biggest issue happens in the organizations where there are diverse culture people.
Communications in international business are considered more often at the verbal level than
in terms of body language and the signs and symbols that cultures use instinctively to convey
messages and attitudes. Yet some claim that more than 90% of the social content of a
message is contained in non-verbal cues. Clearly, if this is so, we neglect this aspect of
communication at our peril.
4.2 Culture-related issues
Hofstede identified four dimensions that he labelled individualism, masculinity, power
distance, and uncertainty avoidance. His individualism-collectivism dimension describes

7. cultures from loosely structured to tightly integrate. The masculinity femininity dimension
describes how a culture’s dominant values are assertive or nurturing. Power distance refers to
the distribution of influence within a culture. And uncertainty avoidance reflects a culture’s
tolerance of ambiguity and acceptance of risk. Hofstede and Bond (1984) identified a fifth
dimension, a Confucian dynamism labelled long term orientation versus short-term
orientation to life. The Confucian dynamism dimension describes cultures that range from
short-term values with respect for tradition and reciprocity in social relations to long-term
values with persistence and ordering relationships by status
Stereotypes in culture are important. For example, Kim Y (1995) examines that if social
research has established that 90 percent of some group have a trait, if we think that a member
of that group has that trait, we will be correct 90 percent of the time. In that case we would be
better using the sociotype than saying ‘I know nothing about that person’. ‘It seems
reasonable to argue that members of particular social groups often prefer to perceive their ingroup attributes in a more positive rather than negative light, especially in comparison to
other groups. The more they view their salient in-group values and norms as desirable and
rewarding, the more they tend to see their own membership identity as desirable and
rewarding. (Ting-Toomey, 1999:147-8)Moreover, individuals often tend to assume that
fellow in-group members are more similar to them than out-group members. The essential
characteristics of the self and in-group relationship appear to be loyalty and preference.’

8. 5. How can these issues are addressed
5.1 Enhanced culture awareness
There are some issues existing because of which more organizations are unable to
communicate (Thorpe, M et al, 1993) with the different culture people and unable to adopt
the cross cultural communication environment which results in the failure of the organization
at very early stage. For this there is need to have the strong awareness of the intercultural
communication so that organizations (Landis, D., & Bhagat, Rabi, 1996) can strongly have
the customers perceptions and the chances of failure because of the cultural competitiveness
can be reduced. It is when difficulties pop up, and when cultural blunders blow up, that we
usually want to know the secret for successful intercultural communication (Marx, E. 2001).
There is one thing among the business is mindset which is very important to understand the
cross cultural environment and intercultural communication because if the organization’s
mindset is to adopt the intercultural communication it will be easy to move ahead in the
international market. The right international mind-set eliminates many of the risks in
miscommunication (Paige, et al, 1996, pp.35-60). It has been found that while analysing the
different situations for the international market establishment, there is need of estimating the
importance of the cross cultural environment and intercultural communication. There are
many differences between the cultures of different countries and that needs a lot of attention
to understand the difference of the cultures (Pedersen, et al., 1997, pp.149-160). With the
right mindset that is most important, the people or organizations can improve the cross
cultural communication skills beyond the measure. So it is important to have the right
mindset about the other culture otherwise the bad mindset for the other culture will limit the
international cultural skills.
There are few people, who find themselves to easy adoption of the intercultural
communication because of their good mindset (Schwartz, S, 1994, pp. 85-122). The good
mindset is definitely an option for easy to cultivate the good cross cultural practices and helps
in engaging with the others cultures. It is not always that the good mindset is a natural thing
but a good cross cultural mindset comes because of the mixture of the experience and the
personal commitment to make the changes that are needed based on the present requirement.
For the international business strategies it is firmly important to set the mind for a good
intercultural (Fowler, S., & Mumford, Monica G, 1995, pp-179-186) communication. The
people need to have the awareness of the different culture and the languages with the good

9. mindset towards that culture. In international marketing it is necessary to communicate
successfully with the target group so that that target group can be the customer base of the
firm and can buy the product and services of the firm. Awareness about the local
requirement, their religion, their lifestyle and their behaviour for any international market
environment is necessary to build the strong relationship and slowly – slowly learn their
culture and also in the organization there is need to hire the people from the existing culture
and communities (Wright, Albert R, 1995, pp.127-139) so that the communication can be
done effectively. Since culture and communication are inseparable, international marketing
needs to also consider culture in its attempt to communicate effectively and successfully with
its target group in a specific target market. If it is not done so then it will be very difficult to
communicate with the prospective customers.
5.2 Training:
There are many training institutes which allow learning to the people who are from other
culture and speak other languages than the local languages with the help of different approach
and models For this it is consider of different approaches to developing intercultural
competence such as Models & examples, ‘training’ vs. ‘education’ (Fowler, S., & Mumford,
Monica G, 1995) and application of a multidimensional model to suit particular companies’
current needs.
There is need to apply the orientation approach for the training as in
organizations it is very important to give practical insight. For this there are few models need
to follow such as the self-awareness model, the area training model, the cultural awareness
model and the multidimensional model.
These models and approach make them aware about the mental skills, learning skills,
communication skills and the behavioural skills of the people and the local culture. Positive
actions (Ellingsworth, H.W, 1983, pp. 195-204) are also important by the human there in
other cultural environment as if the person belong to Chinese culture but he lives in the
American culture then the person need not to worry about the American culture and language
but positively face that which helps in encouraging and improving the American culture
easily. In the same way, the firm who are willing to go global need to positively face the
problems by accepting their culture and involving the organizations activities (Kim Y.Y.,
1995, pp. 170-194). According to Bennett (J-M., 1986) there are some approaches which
apply such as an ‘orientation’

10. Approach which emphasize on cognitive goals, ‘training’ approach that emphasize on
affective and behavioural goals and ‘education’ approach which emphasize on cognitive,
affective and behavioural goals (Ellingsworth, H.W. 1983).. Mostly the trainers start with
basic understanding of the Intercultural communication with the use of the training
approaches such as Culture-general where it describe about the general cultural diversity and
to involve with that easily, Awareness-raising learning experience & info, Participants’ own
culture and In-depth target culture. In depth
target culture is an important aspect of the
training for the employees of the organizations or to the every human. Nicole McBride
(2010) states in his earlier research that in depth target cultural training gives the real insight
of the other cultural diversity and make the intercultural communication easier for the
international marketing while targeting to the specific cultural group. Therefore, in-depth
target culture definitely helps to understand the target based culture for interacting with the
customers and the societies in a better way.

11. 6. Conclusion
Intercultural communication in case of the international marketing is surely a very powerful
tool which is used to maximise the revenue of the firm and increase in the base of the
potential customers. Understanding the human requirements of the different culture is very
important to survive there and to compete with the other competitors or can say with the local
competitors. It happens because of the minimizing the obstacles of intercultural issues and
being pro-active as well as starting the new horizons that allows the different cultural
viewpoints by working together and successfully.
In international marketing, it is needed to communicate with the different aspects of
information and in different countries and culture. In the modern world the increasement in
globalization it intercultural seem to be important to create and growth of the business. The
information and communications revolution has speed up the globalization process and its
positive effects on the marketing and to the business as well. Not only the big enterprises
who have entered in to the globalization (Fowler, S., & Mumford, Monica G, 1995) but also
the medium and small size enterprises or companies all are confronted with the diverse
culture as these enterprises or companies moves to the international market through
expanding its business. Not all the companies or enterprises that enter in to global arena are
well prepared with the diverse culture environment in the existing market because of some
inefficient approach or lacking in the intercultural communication.
There are number of firms or enterprises which are indeed got fail even though having the
superior products and services that cater to the need of the customers but because of lack of
the intercultural competence with others. The cross culture communication is very important
to avoid the disregard of the cultural competence in the business transaction and may lead to
the mistakes because of the cultural misunderstanding that happens because of the
miscommunication. The lack of the cross cultural knowledge and miscommunication number
of firm or companies get fail in the business process when it comes to the globalization.
There have been enhancements in the ways so that the intercultural practice could be
beneficial for the international marketing.

12. References
1. MOLE, John.: Mind Your Manners (2003) Managing Business Cultures in the New
Global Europe. London: Nicholas Braeley Publishing, Third edition.
2. AXTELL, E. Roger: Gestures (1998). The DO’s and TABOOs of Body Language
Around the World. Wiley Publishing, Revised and expanded edition.
3. Beamer, L & Varner, I. (2001) Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace,
Published by McGraw-Hill
4. Bennett, Janet Marie (1986) ‘Modes of Cross-Cultural Training: Conceptualizing
Cross-Cultural Training as Education’ International Journal of Intercultural Relations,
Vol 10, pp117-134
5. Brislin Richard W. 1986 ‘A Culture General Assimilator: Preparation for Various
Types of Sojourns’ in IJIR, Vol 10, pp 215-234.
6. Brislin, Richard W., (1995) ‘The Culture-General Assimilator, in Fowler, S., &
7. Mumford, Monica, Intercultural Sourcebook:Cross-cultural Training Methods, Vol.1
Intercultural Press, Yarmouth, pp 169-177.
8. Garden Swartz, L.& Rowe, A (1994), The Managing Diversity Survival Guide
McGraw-Hill, Boston
9. Gudykunst, William B., Guzley, Ruth M., & Hammell, Mitchell, (1996) ‘Designing
Intercultural Training’ in Landis & Bhagat (ed.), , pp61-80
10. Guirdham, M (2005) Communicating across cultures at work, Palgrave Macmillan,
2nd ed.
11. Hagen, S. (2005) Language and culture in British Business, Communication, Needs
and Strategies. CILT
12. Kirton, G. & Greene, A-M (2005) The Dynamics of Managing Diversity: A Critical
Approach Elsevier
13. Kushner, K., & Landis, D., (1996) ‘The Intercultural Sensitizer’ in Landis, D., &
Bhagat, Rabi S., (eds.) Handbook of Intercultural Training, Sage
14. Marx, E. (2001) breaking through Culture Shock: What you need to succeed in
international business, Nicholas Brealey.
15. Paige, R., Michael, & Martin, Judith, N (1996) ‘Ethics in Intercultural Training’, in
Landis, D., & Bhagat, Rabi, Handbook of Intercultural Training, pp35-60
16. Pedersen, P, ‘Doing the right thing: a question of ethics’ in Cushner, K & Brislin, R.,
(1997) Improving Intercultural Interactions, Vol 2, Sage pp149-164.

13. 17. Schneider, S. & Barsoux, J-L (1997) Managing across cultures, Prentice Hall.
18. Schwartz, S (1994) ‘Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of
values’ in Kim, Triandis, Kagitcibasi, Choi & Yoon (eds.) Individualism &
Collectivism: Theory, Method and Applications. Sage, pp85-122.
19. Thorpe, M., Edwards, R., & Hanson (1993) Culture and Processes of Adult Learning,
Open University Press
20. Fowler, S., & Mumford, Monica G.(1995), Intercultural Sourcebook: Cross-cultural
Training Methods Intercultural Press:Yarmouth, pp 179-186.
21. Wright, Albert R. (1995) The critical incident as a training tool, in Fowler &
Mumford, pp127-139
22. Ellingsworth, H.W. (1983). "Adaptive intercultural communication", in: Gudykunst,
William B (ed.), Intercultural communication theory, 195-204
23. Kim Y.Y.(1995), "Cross-Cultural adaption: An integrative theory.", in: R.L. Wiseman
(Ed.)Intercultural Communication Theory, 170 - 194,
24. Spitzberg, B. H. (2000). "A Model of Intercultural Communication Competence", in:
L. A. Samovar & R. E. Porter (Ed.) "Intercultural Communication - A Reader", 375387, Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing.
25. Wiseman, Richard L. (2003), "Intercultural Communication Competence", in:
Gudykunst, William B (ed.), Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication, 191208, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
26. Eleri R. Rosier, Robert E. Morgan, John W. Cadogan (2010) Industrial Marketing
Management, Volume 39, Issue 3,Pages 450-459
27. Philip Kotler, Philip.; Kevin Lane Keller (2006). Marketing Management, 12th ed..
Pearson Prentice Hall
28. Robert W, Ruekert and Orville (1985), The organization of Marketing Activities
(49).pp 49-55
29. Nicole McBride (2010), The Role of the Target Language in Cultural Studies: Two
Surveys in UK Universities, 16(3).
30. Ribbens, G., & Thompson, R. (2000). Body language in a week. London: Hodder &
Stoughton.
31. Geert Hofstede, Michael H. Bond (1984), Hofstede's Culture Dimensions- An
Independent Validation Using Rokeach's Value Survey,vol. 15 no. 4 417-433