Until today, I never realized how different one culture is from the next, and how much it impacts daily lives. In my class, International Fashion Marketing, we had a very engaging conversation about how to promote your brand in another country besides your own. My professor talked about how certain things may offend one culture whereas another culture might praise that thing. For example, in the United States, we generally associate the color white with peace, purity, innocence, weddings, etc, but in China, the color white represents death and funerals. In America, we wear black to funerals, but in China, they wear white. Interesting right? Another example is numbers. In China, the number 4 is very unlucky and represents misfortune and death whereas in America, the number 4 has no relevance. However, the number 7 is a lucky number for the typical American.

Because of this, certain brands and companies change what they sell or how they advertise their products in order to please the consumer. McDonalds in America is much much different than a McDonalds in India or Paraguay, for example. India’s McDonalds’ serve veggie burgers instead of beef burgers, and in Paraguay, McDonalds’ appear more like a restaurant than a typical fast-food place. Also, in countries like India and Iran, magazine pictures showing nudity are usually covered up by black bars whereas in America or Europe, it is completely fine.

It is just so crazy to think about how different each country behaves. Personally, I had no idea that McDonalds is different in other countries; I never really thought about that before. When visiting another country, you better watch what you say! You may offend someone and you won’t even know it!

If you guys know about any other cultural things in relation to this, comment below…I would love to hear!

Fino alla volta prossima!

Gabriela