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Cultural awareness is absolutely essential to trading abroad. Cultures vary, of course, between nations, peoples and continents. The greater your awareness is of the target culture (i.e. where you are trying to sell your product or service) the greater will be your chances of success.
Culture and cultural values vary according to all kinds of different value structures: attitudes differ towards religion, the environment, family values, even towards colours and symbols and their meanings.
All these differences can impact on the way you design and market your product or service. Without cultural awareness, it is difficult to succeed and the further abroad you go, the more difficult it becomes.
To address these difficulties you need:
firstly, to gain a better understanding of your own
culture, and then learn how your own culture differs from that of the target culture.
Professor Stephen Hagen,
University of Warwick, UK
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