What is Cultural Customization?

Nowadays, marketers culturally customize their content so that they reach international markets successfully. Cultural customization is an essential marketing technique that consists of studying consumers’ cultures as a way to create relevant content. “Cultural customization is a fundamental step for reaching a global audience with your website…” (Fausd, 2011). This process is important to internet marketing strategy because it helps markets reach international markets effectively. Cultural customization has a positive effect on online consumers’ attitude, which will help increase the website’s conversion rates.

Markets in today’s world now have to go beyond just translating a webpage, and have to consider the values, expectations, and any other cultural factors that make up their target audience. Website translation is an older technique that involves translating a website to be fit for other languages. “The era of translated content to compete in the global digital media market is over. Evidence suggests digital media needs to depict cultural values, symbols, icons…” Culturally customized websites not only takes into account the translation of language but for the location and cultural traits of their target audiences.

Our cultural backgrounds play a part in how we perceive things. “Our culture affects the way we see the physical world and the meanings we attribute to objects in our environment” (Fausd, 2011). For example, when we encounter people of the same culture, we make better judgments as to their personality, age, social status, etc. Our perception of the world comes from the cultural traits we have within us.

When it comes to internet marketing, something simple as the color you choose can factor in on the effectiveness of your content. “It influences consumer perceptions and preferences, purchase and consumption behavior, and helps companies (re) position or differentiate from the competition” (Aslam, 2005). Color can affect consumer behavior in a good or negative way, so choosing the right color helps as a marketing strategy. “Web design which achieves successful marketing results is sensitive to the cultural, instinctual and iconic meanings of colour in relation to the product being promoted and considers the cultural backgrounds and gender of the targeted clientele” (Posadas, n.d.). When an internet marketer knows what colors are acceptable of their targeted audience, they can create relevant content. According to Cultural Color (n.d.), red represents danger in western cultures, good fortune in eastern cultures, and mourning in South Africa’s cultures. The marketer would have to change his content colors when trying to sell to other cultures. Even the shade of the color selected have different cultural meanings, so color most definitely need to be taken into account for when marketing.

When trying to market for a target audience, cultural customization must be taken into consideration. This process will allow the marketer’s content to resonate with all the aspects of their target audience. “In fact, cultural customization can make your website ‘sticky’ which means more engaging to your online users” (Singh, April 22). When targeting a consumer base, whether local, regional, or international, a marketer must use different tactics because different cultures are involved. Every consumer base has their perception of things because of their cultural backgrounds. Cultural customization is needed in order to equip your website with the appropriate colors, images, and language of your target audience. Whenever you need to make your content more user-friendly for any consumer base, cultural customization is key.

References

Aslam, M. (2005). Are you selling the right colour? A cross-cultural review of colour as a

marketing cue. In I. Papasolomou (Eds.), Developments and Trends in Corporate and Marketing Communications: Plotting the Mindscape of the 21st Century: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communications (pp. 1-14). Cyprus: InterCollege, Marketing Department, School of Business Administration.

Cultural Color. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.empower-yourself-with-color

psychology.com/cultural-color.html

Fausd, J. (2011, August 10). Creating Culturally Customized Content for Website Translation.

Retrieved from https://www.globalizationpartners.com/2011/08/10/creating-culturally-customized-content-for-website-translation/

Posadas, S. (n.d.). The Meaning of Colours. Retrieved July 18, 2019, from

http://sibagraphics.com/utilities/the-meaning-of-colours/

Singh, N. (April 22). Cultural Customization Of Digital Media: An Imperative. Retrieved from

http://www.brandquarterly.com/cultural-customization-of-digital-media-an-imperative

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