1.     The effect of religion

Since the foundation of religions, they not only determine what to eat and what to do, but also decide the way people look at world. However, the rules among these religions are quite different, for instance, Islam forbid their followers to eat pork, whereas Christian believers have food festivity on Carnival. Although the differences of religious culture can explain certain behaviors, it is still difficult for marketer to confirm its influence. The influence of religion on marketing reflects consumption patterns, like specific kind of food, celebration of fixed vacations. On one side, Religion can encourage the new product’s development, but on the other side it also can put huge pressure on them. In the middle of 20 century 90’s, when Mcdonald’s tried to enter Indian market, they found that few restaurants survived in catering business because Indians do not take beef. In order to solve this problem, Mcdonald has to substitute beef with mutton which is accepted by religion. They invented Indian version Big Mac called ‘Maharaja Mac’. After the incident exposed that Mcdonald add beef extract into oil, they soon apologized to public sincerely, and made commitment that similar event will never happen again, they will respect Indian culture with thorough change. Finally, through a series of marketing communications, Mcdonald zoomed in the distance with Indian customers. They have built up Mcdonald brand image, and got the acknowledgement in local markets. We can conclude by experience of Mcdonald that even the religion is not an essential factor for the success of marketing strategy, but at least it plays a role we cannot ever neglect.

2.     Theeffect of language

Another important cultural identity in marketing is language. People complete large quantities of communication by language. And smart markers understand as well that they will gain more obvious competition advantage in the early stage of their business if they can speak local language, compared with competitors who cannot. Language is also regarded as the mirror of culture, it is the door to enter culture of target market. Most English learners in China would remember the first challenge they met. They have to use the way ‘you, I and he’ to introduce people instead of Chinese expression ‘I, you and he’. It is believed P&G still keep the mistake in the memory they made when they were trying to go into the business in Europe. They suffered terribly because they were short of the understanding of difference of market segments. At that time, P&G tried to market its ‘Puff’ brand toilet paper in Germany market, but unexpectedly they failed. Later they realized that ‘Puff’ stands for spoken language of brothel in some areas in German. As well, the experience in England is rather tough since ‘Puff’ is often used to describe gays. There are a dozen of similar examples, some are comic, while some are miserable. However, following the earth is getting smaller and smaller, an apparent fact is that we are becoming much closer than we thought.