- •The importance of cross-cultural differences in marketing communications within Russia and Ireland in tourism and hospitality industry
- •Iuliia Starokon
- •Candidate Declaration
- •Dedication Acknowledgements Abstract
- •Iuliia Starokon
- •3.1 Overview 31
- •List of Figures
- •1Introduction
- •1.1 Overview
- •1.2 Research background and Significance of the study
- •1.1Research Purpose
- •1.2Research Objectives
- •1.3Structure of the Study
- •1.5 Draft Structure of Literature Review
- •2Literature review
- •2.1Overview
- •2.2 Cross-cultural marketing and its role in marketing communication context
- •2.2.1 The reflection of national features in promotion content
- •2.2.2 Cultural awareness about differences and similarities in marketing
- •2.2The impact of culture on marketing communication process
- •2.3.1 The influence of marketing promotional message on culturally different customers
- •2.3.2 The effectiveness of marketing communication mix
- •2.3Culture and cultural dimensions of Hofstede in marketing communication context
- •2.4.1 Defining culture
- •2.4.2 Hofstede’s dimensions and their application to marketing communications
- •2.5 Worldwide practices in addressing cross –cultural differences in marketing communications
- •2.5.1 “From smallest to largest” and “from largest to smallest” approaches
- •2.5.2 Emotional appeals
- •2.6 Online marketing as an important element of Integrated Marketing Communications with relations to cultural differences
- •2.6.1 The use of online marketing communications within Russia and Ireland
- •2.6.2 The effectiveness of using social media and word-of-mouth
- •2.6 Conclusion
- •3Methodology and Research Design
- •3.1Overview
- •3.2Research Philosophy and Approach
- •3.3Research Strategy
- •3.4Collection Primary Data
- •3.5 Secondary data
- •3.5Access and Ethical Issues
- •3.6Approach to Data Analysis
- •3.8 Conclusion
- •4Presentation and Analysis of Findings
- •4.1 Overview
- •Findings and discussion
- •4.3 Theme 1: Cross-cultural marketing and its role in marketing communication context
- •4.3.1 Subtheme 1: The reflection of national features in promotion content
- •4.3.2 Subtheme 2: Cultural awareness about differences and similarities in marketing
- •4.4 Theme 2: The impact of culture on marketing communications
- •4.4.1 Subtheme 1: The influence and effectiveness of marketing promotional message on culturally different customers
- •Theme 3: Culture and cultural dimensions of Hofstede in marketing communication context
- •4.5.1 Subtheme 1: Hofstede’s dimensions and their application to marketing communications
- •4.6 Theme 4: Worldwide practices in addressing cross –cultural differences in marketing communications
- •4.6.1 Subtheme 1: “From smallest to largest” and “from largest to smallest” approaches
- •4.6.2 Subtheme 2: Emotional appeals
- •4.7 Theme 5: Online marketing as an important element of Integrated Marketing Communications with relations to cultural differences
- •4.7.1 Subtheme 1: The use of online marketing communications within Russia and Ireland
- •4.7.2 Subtheme 2: The effectiveness of using social media and word-of-mouth
- •58 Conclusion
1.1Research Purpose
The overall aim of this study is to find out whether cross-cultural differences within Russia and Ireland affect customers’ perception to Integrated Marketing Communications in the tourism and hospitality industry or not.
1.2Research Objectives
Specifically, within the context of marketing and cross-cultural issues, the objectives are to:
1. Identify what are IMC and how they are used in tourism and hospitality?
2. Find out why cross-cultural differences are worth to consider in IMC for restaurants, hotels and travel offers?
3. Whether there are considerable cultural differences within Russia and Ireland, which affect the perception and reaction of people to marketing communications?
In other words, are there any cultural aspects, which should be taken into account by international businesses when applying marketing activities in both countries?
1.3Structure of the Study
1.5 Draft Structure of Literature Review
2Literature review
2.1Overview
2.2 Cross-cultural marketing and its role in marketing communication context
It is argued that a key to successful communication from the marketing perspective consists in identifying customers’ needs and then offering a product of value, which matches customer characteristics (Kotler and Armostrong, 2005). In relation to this, cultural aspects have often been considered as an important, invisible influence at marketing communication progress. Indeed, cultural awareness helps to enhance communication about product/service across diverse cultures.
In terms of academic sense cross-cultural marketing is concentrated at diversities between communication streams and needs across representatives of different cultural groups (Guang and Trotter, 2012).
Having said this, cross-cultural marketing communications are aimed to meet at least basic facets of culture, such as spoken language, compliance with religious beliefs, norms and values across nations, education and lifestyle in the messages. Although, when a market is targeted these facets can be not very obvious, but in international marketing are still considered as “cultural obstacles”. The particular implication of cross-cultural marketing is centred in marketing promotional mix and brand effectiveness (Guang and Trotter, 2012).
Despite the fact that product standardizations have been increasingly spreading, at the same time, many ethnic groups pose necessity for adaptation. As cultures exist they can distort the perception of standardized marketing communications. This encourages marketers to be more informed with target customers (Lillis and Tian, 2010).
De Mooij and Hofstede (2010) have stated that cultural dimensions identified in scholar researches are the most relevant to marketing promotional mix, therefore it is proposed that marketing strategy which reflects local needs rather than standardization is more efficient as it shows that culture does matter. Ferraro (2002) noticed that sometimes communication among people of the same culture is distorted, therefore it is inevitable that marketing communications applied in countries different from the country of business might be misunderstood if not thoroughly shaped in accordance with local expectations.