Cultural Recognition in One-to-One Internet Advertising

Abstract

Even though the world is interconnected through a complex web of transnational networks and the freer flow of trade, the challenges of making local adjustments in marketing activities are more acute now then ever before. Internet is helping to eliminate the distance between nations and between consumers. However, it appears that the emphasis is still on treating customers worldwide as part of one homogenous segment. For example, English is still taken as the net Latin by many firms and predominates most of net communications. Marketers need to take the Internet seriously to reconsider the potential as well as the limitation it possesses in realizing the impact of cultural differences. Apart from language, which is an important element in culture, knowledge of traditions and customs of a specific culture and integration of this knowledge with advertising activities on the internet would differentiate the marketing activity from the similar ones that are being run as well as resulting in higher attention and better interpretation levels. This paper focuses on the use of the Internet for reaching micro segments that recognize cultural differences in the global market place. Doing so, it emphasizes the importance of realizing the differences in language, religion, and specific tastes in advertising activities on the Internet. The varying contributions of these elements to interpretations of messages are determined and policies to be implemented for higher attention rates are suggested. In addition, the challenges exist there of on the Internet, such as presence of inhomogeneous infrastructure facilities and specific consumer concerns are explored throughout the paper. The differences in consumer concerns are sough and the changing availability of Internet, telephony, computer, and legal issues are studied. Finally, the types of firms and industries that can utilize the provided policies for capturing cultural differences are examined. Internet is a very important tool both in terms of communicating messages to micro segments and also for targeting specifically these segments. However, strategies to be implemented in Internet advertisement should be given special emphasis in order to tailor them according to the varieties in cultures. Global Internet advertising mainly promises a potential for services businesses. Both the businesses themselves and the advertisement activities are open to adjustments. Cultural differences can easily be recognized in the activities of services marketing on the Internet due to their flexible natures.