One can argue that multinational corporations have been in existence since the beginning of overseas trade, and they have then remained part of the business scene throughout history. They are concerned or involved with business operations in more than one country. For a long time, multinational organizations have been seen as the agents of socialization that is touching on people’s social welfare and culture. Though, some of these multinational corporations are viewed with suspicion, probably because of their lack of concern on the welfare of that particular society.
These people seem poised to expand their power and influence. Notably, as international barriers continue to be removed and people absorbed in the cultural influence that come as a result of these corporations. A good example of a multinational corporation is the Coca Cola Company. This company has been able to spread its operations globally, but it is important to note that culture influence most of its business activities. Culture is a part of the external influence that impacts a lot on the consumers’ behaviour.
In many cases, Coca Cola uses some relevant advertisement campaigns, which make the local people feel that the company part of their culture, which is setting of the advertisements, dress codes used in the adverts and the advert participants. In fact, the company has always met all these, thus flourising globally (Coca-Cola, 2011).In marketing, culture has been a major problem because of the opposing forces from various sections of the society. Often, it is difficult to understand the aspects of culture in totality. Without some relevant knowledge, a firm might violate the cultural norms of a country. The ignorance about the culture influences the administrative structure of the Coca Cola Company (Coca-Cola, 2011).
Therefore, it is important for the corporation to set up a department that specifically deal with the understanding of the people’s culture and incorporate them in the firm’s daily business operations (Kim, & Quinn, 2011). Moreover, another important aspect of culture that is worth studying at this stage is language. In fact, language is important when Coca-Cola plans its business operations. For example, the company does not use the same language on bottle packages for all markets. For instance, the language used in Asian market is different from that of the European market (Kim, & Quinn, 2011).
This is because in Asia most people use the Arabic language, while in Europe many people use the English language, and might fail to understand the inscriptions used on the Coca-Cola bottles. Similarly, culture that largely dictates what people of a given society consumes, eat or drink is also important for the company, especially on choosing a suitable market to do business. There are some societies, which do not believe in consuming drinks manufactured from other different market segments. Often, such communities rely on their own traditional drinks. Such communities might not form the best customer for the Coca-Cola products. This could be a clear sign that the communities do not welcome foreign investors in their market territory (Coca-Cola, 2011).
In other countries, the government maintains culture that every company, which intends to invest there, must have some percentage of shares for the local citizens. The shareholdings can be as high as 50 percent. This means that most of these countries dictate the product design, colour and means of advertisements. This is because colour is perceived differently by different communities.
For instance, in some culture, a particular colour can be perceived as a sign of prosperity and growth, while in the other it could be seen as a sign of bad omen (Schein, 2008).In sum, it is very clear what culture can do, in terms of influencing, the business operation, plan, strategy, and marketing. Therefore, it is important for the company to learn, understand and incorporate people’s culture in its daily activities, especially in the production of goods and services for sale.
