The document discusses the importance of intercultural communication in international marketing. It states that as globalization increases, understanding different cultures and communicating effectively across cultures is vital for business success abroad. However, many companies fail due to a lack of intercultural competence and misunderstandings that arise from cultural differences. The document emphasizes that awareness of cultural variations, an open mindset, and positive engagement with other cultures can help enhance intercultural communication and improve business outcomes for companies operating in international markets.

1. Intercultural Communication in international market
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2. Summary
In international marketing, it is needed to communicate with the different aspects of
information and in different countries and culture. In the modern world the increasement in
globalization it intercultural seem to be important to create and growth of the business. The
information and communications revolution has speed up the globalization process and its
positive effects on the marketing and to the business as well. Not only the big enterprises
who have entered in to the globalization but also the medium and small size enterprises or
companies all are confronted with the diverse culture as these enterprises or companies
moves to the international market through expanding its business. Not all the companies or
enterprises that enter in to global arena are well prepared with the diverse culture
environment in the existing market because of some inefficient approach or lacking in the
intercultural communication.
There are number of firms or enterprises which are indeed got fail even though having the
superior products and services that cater to the need of the customers but because of lack of
the intercultural competence with others. The cross culture communication is very important
to avoid the disregard of the cultural competence in the business transaction and may lead to
the mistakes because of the cultural misunderstanding that happens because of the
miscommunication. The lack of the cross cultural knowledge and miscommunication number
of firm or companies get fail in the business process when it comes to the globalization.
There have been enhancements in the ways so that the intercultural practice could be
beneficial for the international marketing.

3. Introduction
There is one question always in the mind of the people as why the companies always tries to
expand its business activities to the international market and out of them only few get huge
success but number of them none? The answer to this question is that companies often go for
international market because of the motive of financial strength and entrance of the business
in to the new market for more potential customers and most of them fails because of the
miscommunication to the cross cultural environment. (Mole John, 2003) This report aims to
in depth analysis of the intercultural issues and their enhancement for the benefits of the
international market. Every business wants to increase its turnover through the international
market and hopes for the higher profits from the market. Once it has been found that the
company can be bigger and the international expansion will be beneficial it enters in the
international market but forgets about the intercultural communication that is needed to for
the growth and establishment of the company. The sales potential is also important to analyse
for the company’s products and services in the international market.
There are few things which company need to analyse and figure out like legal, technical
requirements and environmental regulations while need to enter in the new international
market to promote its products and another thing to analyse after it is the logistics and
distribution of the products and services. But more than these factors the most vital factor that
company ignored in the reparation phase is the cultural environment of the international
market. Failure to consider this factor while entering in the international market is the falling
of the business soon after establishment. Intercultural (Beamer, L & Varner, I 2001) is a vita
factor that mostly influences the consumer behaviour and ultimately affects the company’s
growth and stability in the international market or in the cross cultural environment. This is
not an issue only for the firms that are entering in the international market or those have the
lack of the international experience but it happens to the big fully established firms that
already expanded its business to international market. For example, the international
experience of BMW & Rover as well as Daimler & Chrysler that entered in the international
market but lack of cross cultural communication, these could not stand in the international
market against the local competitors.
Communication is nothing but it is just the exchange of meanings between the individuals
with the use of the common symbols. In case of international marketing there is high need of
communication competence because through it in social situations in the international market,

4. command and selecting of the different languages to interact with the local people help to
understand the consumer perspectives. (Bennett, Janet Marie, 1986. Pp.117-134) There are
few factors that mostly influence the cultural environment such as the word of language we
select when speak is our culture, our state of mind, our social status, our norms and moral
concepts. Likewise any culture in the world, create its own identity and social status and if
that is ignored or not considered while thinking to enter in the international market, will
definitely lead to the failure of the business. Every language is a cultural reflection in the
world and communication (Brislin Richard W. 1986, pp. 215-234) is very effective due to the
use of the local language. It generates the self-awareness and finds the identity. This report is
also based on the same analysis that why intercultural communication is important and what
are the existing issues and how they can be made beneficial for the firms that are entering or
already established in the international market.

5. Intercultural Communication practice
The basic element of the communication process those are important while communicating
such as message, message sender, medium and the receiver of the message. It is not necessary
that this can only happen in the same culture or environment but it can happen between the
people from the different culture or may be to the people from the different regions. For
example, two people from United Kingdom communicating in the native language
(Schneider, S. & Barsoux, 1997) describes their social status and their identity through the
communicating way as they belong to the same culture and same country. In other case, if
one belongs to the China and other belongs to United Kingdom then it will be very difficult
to communicate with each other unless they know the common language so it is very difficult
to communicate. The sender of the message is someone having personal, professional, social
and informational desire (AXTELL et al, 1998) to communicate to others. This world is now
very small place than earlier age. At this time there are few words like global village, global
markets and globalization which are the new buzzwords in the existing environment of the
international market. There are number of people who are going from one country to another
and also number of firms that are setting up its businesses and reaching to the global
customers in the overseas countries.
In this scenario, the intercultural practice becomes more important to understand the view of
the consumer and take action accordingly. The key changes that it triggered are the need to
communicate effectively with the people that belong to the different culture and speak
different languages. The important factor is that this world is increasing in the bilingual and
knowing the second language (Brislin, Richard W, 1995, pp. 169-177) is considered as the
necessity in the society either in the native place or in the foreign country. The growing
number of companies globally in the international market and having the diverse culture
workforce it is mandatory for the companies to understand the cross cultural environment and
also start the intercultural communication for the better result and outcome. People with
knowledge of a foreign language find themselves at a distinct advantage. (Garden Swartz,
L.& Rowe, A. 1994) This has promoted that the secondary language is important to grow and
gives the distinctive advantages. Same, it can be said that for the international market the
importance of the cross cultural environment and the intercultural communication both are on
the priority list.

6. One can grow in the international market if there is no knowledge of the intercultural
communication. Any person who belongs to the other country need to understand the other
international language otherwise there will be an issue of communicating in the international
environment. Increasingly (Gudykunst, William B, 1996, pp.61-80) there is the realization
that merely concentrating on structures and forms of the language is not enough to help
people genuinely communicate in today’s world. Intercultural awareness and learning is a
must. Ignorance of the cultural knowledge and communication skills in different languages
may causes offence in the development of the business and growing of the customer base.
These days, the business expansion only depends on the cultural analysis and intercultural
communication practices.
Going global is now necessary to reach to the number of millions of customers and therefore
the generating revenue from the expansion of the business and growing number of customers.
But the main challenge to reach to the millions of the customers in the international market is
the intercultural communications (Guirdham, M, 2005).
Numbers of well established
organizations have been stung with the intercultural communication issues as while moving
to the international market. Prior Companies can go global in many ways or for many
reasons.

7. The Significance of Intercultural and Communication
Intercultural communication can’t be ignored while moving in to the international market.
The vital factor in the international market is intercultural communication understanding
because this is the only thing by which the big or small firm can reach to the international
customers. All the cultural patterns (Hagen, S., 2005) are a part of our lives and behaviour.
These cultural patterns enable to the humans to interact to each other easily with the other
humans who also have the similar image of reality and similar environment. That’s why it
can be said that culture is considered as the artificial human creation. This cultural theory of
artificial interaction is supported by the scientific evidences in the modern and also in the past
ages. It is observed that the small numbers of individuals are responsible for the cultural
change or can say as cultural diversity (Kirton, G. & Greene, A-M, 2005) because of the
genetic differences. Same happens in case of the international market as few people in the
firms that is established in the overseas country if have the few people in the organization
with different culture and language will affect the entire culture of the organization.
These few people of different culture will help in connecting with the customers and
understanding their perceptions about the organization and their need. Thus, it is sure that if
the intercultural communication was not in the organization it was difficult to understand the
requirement and their perceptions towards the organization and to take actions accordingly.
The important thing is to note that international market primarily depends on the intercultural
communication (Kushner, K., & Landis, D.,1996) because the business is settled there to
increase the customer database and to promote its brand and products & services which can’t
be possible unless the local culture is not known to the people in the organization. Therefore,
the importance of the intercultural communication is not hidden. The growth of the firm in
the international market is not possible without understanding the intercultural
communication and cross cultural environment. However, group interaction created not only
culture, but also communication which led to language development.
Thus, if individuals of a group wish to interact with each other, it becomes necessary for them
to be able to communicate with one another. For without communication, there can be no
human interaction. And without human interaction (Lago, Colin and Barty, Alison , 2001)
there can be no culture because culture is the sum total of human interaction. For example,
suppose a company from Japan want to establish another service office in India and it mostly
provides the health care services. In this case as India is mostly a Hindi language dominant

8. and the culture is very religious and dominated to the rural areas. This means that the Japan
Company needs to understand the Indian culture and its language to communicate effectively.
If the Japan Company really wants to expand the business in rural areas for better customer
base it is mandatory to learn the intercultural communication skill to interact with them. This
is the most important thing and thus can say that intercultural communication in case of
international market plays a vital role. Therefore, in the today’s world it is necessary to first
analyse the culture of the region where the company want to enter as in international market.

9. Enhanced awareness of issues
Intercultural communication seems more important than others things while moving in the
international market. There are some issues existing because of which more organizations are
unable to communicate (Thorpe, M et al, 1993) with the different culture people and unable
to adopt the cross cultural communication environment which results in the failure of the
organization at very early stage. For this there is need to have the strong awareness of the
intercultural communication so that organizations (Landis, D., & Bhagat, Rabi, 1996) can
strongly have the customers perceptions and the chances of failure because of the cultural
competitiveness can be reduced. No one usually takes the time to go back and analyze the
reason why successful intercultural communication happens. It is easy to go unnoticed. It is
when difficulties pop up, and when cultural blunders blow up, that we usually want to know
the secret for successful intercultural communication (Marx, E. 2001). There are few skills
and strategies need to improve the awareness for the intercultural communication which will
beneficial to the organizations. Some people or can say firms can easily understand the
culture competitiveness than others and become successful in their business expansion.
There is one thing among the business is mindset which is very important to understand the
cross cultural environment and intercultural communication because if the organization’s
mindset is to adopt the intercultural communication it will be easy to move ahead in the
international market. The right international mind-set eliminates many of the risks in
miscommunication (Paige, R., Michael, & Martin, Judith, N, 1996, pp.35-60). It has been
found that while analysing the different situations for the international market establishment,
there is need of estimating the importance of the cross cultural environment and intercultural
communication. There are number people in the big organizations who always underestimate
the importance of their own mindset which is necessary for the successful cross cultural
communication. There are many differences between the cultures of different countries and
that needs a lot of attention to understand the difference of the cultures (Pedersen, P, 1997,
pp.149-160). With the right mindset that is most important, the people or organizations can
improve the cross cultural communication skills beyond the measure. So it is important to
have the right mindset about the other culture otherwise the bad mindset for the other culture
will limit the international cultural skills.
There are few people, who find themselves to easy adoption of the intercultural
communication because of their good mindset (Schwartz, S, 1994, pp. 85-122). The good

10. mindset is definitely an option for easy to cultivate the good cross cultural practices and helps
in engaging with the others cultures. It is not always that the good mindset is a natural thing
but a good cross cultural mindset comes because of the mixture of the experience and the
personal commitment to make the changes that are needed based on the present requirement.
For the international business strategies it is firmly important to set the mind for a good
intercultural (Fowler, S., & Mumford, Monica G, 1995, pp-179-186) communication. The
people need to have the awareness of the different culture and the languages with the good
mindset towards that culture. In international marketing it is necessary to communicate
successfully with the target group so that that target group can be the customer base of the
firm and can buy the product and services of the firm. Awareness about the local
requirement, their religion, their lifestyle and their behaviour for any international market
environment is necessary to build the strong relationship and slowly – slowly learn their
culture and also in the organization there is need to hire the people from the existing culture
and communities (Wright, Albert R, 1995, pp.127-139) so that the communication can be
done effectively. Since culture and communication are inseparable, international marketing
needs to also consider culture in its attempt to communicate effectively and successfully with
its target group in a specific target market. If it is not done so then it will be very difficult to
communicate with the prospective customers.
There are many training institutes which allow learning to the people who are from other
culture and speak other languages than the local languages. They make them aware about the
mental skills, learning skills, communication skills and the behavioural skills of the people
and the local culture. Positive actions (Ellingsworth, H.W, 1983, pp. 195-204)are also
important by the human there in other cultural environment as if the person belong to Chinese
culture but he lives in the American culture then the person need not to worry about the
American culture and language but positively face that which helps in encouraging and
improving the American culture easily. In the same way, the firm who are willing to go
global need to positively face the problems by accepting their culture and involving the
organizations activities (Kim Y.Y., 1995, pp. 170-194), in their culture. It will not only
increase the awareness about their culture and language but also increase the relationship
with them that will significantly help to improvement of the intercultural communication as
the international marketing perspectives. When communicating with people from another
culture, however, we must determine how they impose structure on the process of
communication if we are to interpret and predict their behaviour accurately. It is very clear

11. that in case of the international marketing, it is necessary to consider the intercultural
communication for better result and growth in the market.
There are few things which are really important for the organizations to have awareness in
the international market (Spitzberg, B. H. 2000, pp. 385-387)so that intercultural
communication can be improved. The important things are as follows that connects to the
customers in the global market.
Expansion: International market entry is done by the expanding its business and by
understanding the cross cultural environment and intercultural communication through the
establishment of the firm as local entity according to their requirement and existing
environment.
Joint Ventures: Cross cultural compunction and intercultural communication can be improved
through the joint ventures in the international market. With these expansion and joint
ventures, the culture of other country can be transferred to native country and native country
to there. Intercultural communication impacts a business every step of the way on the road to
going global. This is true at both a macro and micro-level. Thus, it can be said that there is
need to have awareness about the intercultural communication practice in the international
market.

12. Target Audience
International marketing is a requirement of the today’s increasing demand of the products and
services and also increase in the competition of economic development, financial strength
and larger customer base. For international market it is needed to explore the things globally
in terms of intercultural communication and cross cultural environment because it plays a
vital role in the improvement and establishment (Wiseman, Richard L, 2003, pp. 191-204) of
the firm in the international market. For all this the targeted audiences belongs to the
category of different culture from the different countries with the different languages.
Basically the big enterprises, medium and small enterprises or companies comes under the
targeted audience category because in the international market only the firms can establish its
own office or franchise or might possible to go for acquisitions and merger if necessary.
The entire world with diverse culture and diverse languages is the targeted audiences in the
international market. The employees working in the organizations, local franchisees and joint
ventures also come as the targeted audiences because intercultural communication is only
possible when the firm settle its business to another country where the working people in the
firm, joint ventures and in local franchisees belong to the different culture and different
languages. Intercultural communication helps in growing better and to reach with the
customers globally easily and also to understand the requirement of the local customers with
different culture. The people living in the specific country or in the specific cultural
environment are the main target in the international market that many companies look for. In
any case if the company wants to go to global market it is necessary to study the potential
customers in the diverse culture with diverse languages.
Conclusion
Intercultural communication in case of the international marketing is surely a very powerful
tool which is used to maximise the revenue of the firm and increase in the base of the
potential customers. Understanding the human requirements of the different culture is very
important to survive there and to compete with the other competitors or can say with the local
competitors. It happens because of the minimizing the obstacles of intercultural issues and
being pro-active as well as starting the new horizons that allows the different cultural
viewpoints by working together and successfully.

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