Culture at the ethnic-group level and sales promotion
Another key contribution of the study is that despite
differences in cultural values between ethnic groups,
generally there is no significant difference in their
preferences for sales promotion types. With only two
exceptions, this result is found to be consistent at an ethnicgroup
level across all products and for each product type. The
absence of cultural effects is also evident when analysis is
undertaken at an individual level. Clearly, differences in
cultural values do not necessarily give rise to differences in
preferences and choices.
The management implications of this finding are twofold.
First, although differences in cultural values may exist, these
do not necessarily impact consumer responses to sales
promotions at an ethnic level. This suggests that managers
can use standardised sales promotions, even when targeting
different ethnic groups – an approach that is likely to be
simpler and cheaper than localised and heavily differentiated
strategies. Second, the finding draws attention to the fact that
cultural distinctions may be more relevant in some areas of
marketing than others. Previous studies, for example, show
that the distinction between collectivism and individualism
accounts for differences in consumer complaining behaviour
(Watkins and Liu, 1996) but is not a factor in assessing
advertising appeals (Cutler et al., 1997). Thus, it would be a
mistake to assume that differences in cultural values will
necessarily affect all aspects of marketing – in some cases they
will not.