Abstract:

In the globalization debate the argument is that countries will converge with respect to cultural values. This paper demonstrates that the more countries converge with respect to income, the more they diverge with respect to the manifestation of their cultural values. In the future, income differences will not explain differences in consumer behaviour between markets in the global market place. Tools are needed to map cultural values to differentiate marketing strategies. This paper presents the application of Hofstede’s 5-D model to marketing and advertising and describes how needs, motives, product usage, attitudes and communication behaviour can be analysed and clustered with respect to cultural similarities and differences. ac