Having disembarked from a point where the link between the subject and intercultural communications was tenuous, this thesis brought into focus issues of cultural
homogenisation, the persistence of national cultural values and the influence of culture in brand identity development, which related to both the subjective and objective levels of culture. The 6 different websites chosen for the analysis were chosen according to criteria that aimed specifically to bring into focus brands where there was evidence of some of the contrasting dynamics that are central to the phenomenon of globalisation in order to examine how this may relate to the development of culture internationally and the role national cultures play in the area of marketing and brand development and in the area of generating a supranational culture that accompanies the phenomenon of globalization. In this case the sample was extracted specifically from brands available on the Finnish beer brand market, however this sample constitutes a sample from an industrialized country that is part of an international trading bloc (the European Union) and therefore is capable of providing insights into the phenomenon internationally. Both politically and
economically, the 20th century was dominated by the nation state composed of well defined national territories that operated autonomously on the world stage and where territorial and economic congruence was underlined by the enshrinement of national cultures within nation states that provided the citizenry of countries with the cultural tools for cohesive national development, such as a dominant national language and dominant cultural values derived from the specific traditions and historical developments that shaped the nation and where cultural capital was monopolized by entities such as national broadcasters and national newspapers. However, with the advent of globalization, the pre-eminent position of the nation states are no longer as secure and the powers of individual nations are increasingly superseded by the powers of international organizations (the EU, the IMF, economically powerful international corporations), which have direct repercussions for the cohesive units that are constituted by national and ethnic cultures and the development of cultural identity. As this thesis shows, the national no longer enjoys hegemony over shaping the cultural values of its citizens as
international brands and an international economic system increasingly penetrates national boundaries. Self-sufficiency and isolationist economic and social development
has given way to international competition and an integrated worldwide financial and economic system, which can override, threaten or provide opportunities for the national as is illustrated in the examination of these websites.
Regarding Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and how they relate to national culture, the analysis outlined how these orientations manifest themselves in such a way that is specific to certain nationalities, and how these different orientations define national identities and values when combined. For instance by examining the role of the sauna or of the Finnish wilderness in relation to Hofstede’s dimensions, a greater understanding of the specific orientation of Finland regarding a certain dimension could be obtained.
Therefore, when relating Hofstede’s dimensions of culture to national cultures, it‟s important to recognize the specific characteristics or traits that define the orientations of the countries. This means that the way in which the cultural orientation manifests itself is firmly within the context of that country and therefore the orientation is not simply positive or negative, but has a specific way of correlating with the dimension that can then be identified as positive or negative in terms of how it relates to a given dimension.
Although some of the brands were clearly identifiable as belonging to a specific national or ethnic cultural group due to their incorporation of ethnosymbolic references, the apparently more cosmopolitan brands were found to correspond with their national cultural value orientations also. Although the more tangible features of objective culture, the ethnosymbolism that pervaded the Finnish sites, was missing from the websites of N1 and D1, there was evidence that these websites remain the product of their native culture in terms of the underlying values and attitudes that are present in the websites. So although the brands may purport to have an international cosmopolitan identity, the analysis of their websites indicates that the values espoused by the brand identity as expressed in the websites are in line with the orientations of their respective countries towards Hofstede’s dimensions, indicating a latent ethno-centrism and an abiding attachment to their national origins, and thus their brand development, identity and outlook is influenced by their national origins at the level of subjective culture. Although it has to be pointed out that there was clear evidence of tailoring the brand‟s initiatives to suit specific cultural norms. So therefore the somewhat surprising finding was made that although brand identities may project an identity that is supranational in nature, as they
consciously present an image that is cosmopolitan and international in nature, they may in fact manifest traits of their national cultural origins in other ways. Therefore, according to the findings here, there was no international, homogenized, global identity that could be detected according to the analysis based on Hofstede’s dimensions. Each of the brands in question ultimately seemed to reflect the cultural orientations of their countries of origins across all 4 dimensions. However, the analysis according to Triandis’ profiles did reveal that the multinational brands are much closer to the profile of the modern man than the national brands. As it is the multinational brands that are the protagonists in terms of the acquisition of breweries and brands, it could be argued that the profile of the modern man is proliferating and replacing the profile of the traditional man, but also providing an internationally identifiable set of values or attitudes that supersedes national differences and therefore the profile of the modern man provides the commonalities that facilitate for example the advertising campaigns of D1 and N1 internationally. If the processes of globalization are generating a universal identity, then it would seem that what is universal to this identity are the features of the profile of the modern man, that can be related to in all countries penetrated by the forces of international capitalism and globalization.
Therefore when a country is highly integrated into the global economic system, the consuming public of the country will be familiar with the values of modern man irrespective of national cultural differences that persist. Therefore the profile of the modern man is supplanting the profile of the traditional man, however it is not
necessarily the case at this point in time that it is supplanting national cultural identities and their specific cultural orientations. What would seem to be the case is that national cultural identities abide, however the profile of the modern man does provide certain universal characteristics that are acquired by cultural communities as a result of globalization and becoming part of an international system of consumption and production. This may provide an interesting point of observation for intercultural
communications going forward, because once certain commonalities or universalities can be identified that arise as a result of globalization it may facilitate the identification of cultural specific traits that abide, while also identifying what is becoming increasing universal across cultural boundaries. It is misleading therefore to suggest that a national identity is replaced by a global identity. It would seem however that globalization has
provided an international identity characterized by the traits of modern man that has been grafted onto existing national cultural communities and societies that have experienced the forces of modernization, and the ensuing consumerism that accompanies
modernization. Norman Davies observed a similar dichotomy in relation to culture and civilization. According to Davies (Davies, 1996:821), „civilization‟ (Christianity, the traditions of the ancient world) was grafted onto „culture‟ (customs of the daily life of the people) in a top down fashion whereby legal, educational and cultural (in the sense of objective culture) institutions were grafted onto cultural communities characterized by features of subjective culture, such as idiom, idiosyncratic practices and folklore. The rise of nationalism and the nationalisation of the populace extolled the subjective culture of national communities, which is evident in the national brands that were examined here.
However, as „civilization‟ was grafted onto cultural communities previously, there now appears to be a new form of „civilization‟ being grafted onto the cultural framework. The analysis specifically of D1 and N1 suggest that as the power of the national dwindles and is superseded by the power of global capitalism, the profile of the modern man is
similarly being grafted onto the subjective cultural communities that predated formal nationalism and the well from which nationalist movements derived their cultural capital, and were subsequently extolled by the nation states. As the national gives way to the global, there are echoes of another historical epoch that are reflected in this analysis, the epoch of European Imperialism. As the European powers vied for colonial possessions, in the modern era of global capitalism entities such as D1 and N1 vie for market share worldwide in a process whereby the global penetrates and subsumes the national, and whereas the French fought the British with bayonets and warships, the global
multinational fights with scientific and technological innovation and development, complemented by the power pull of their brands as propagated by marketing. Lenin who described imperialism as the highest form of capitalism crystallized this argument that relates the process of globalization to the process of imperialism. As imperialism was accompanied by the ‘mission civilatrice’ that sought to „europeanize‟ the colonies in the image of the mother countries (Davies, 1997:848), so to do the agents of globalization seek to „globalize‟ the international consumer. The profile of the modern man embodies the modern consumer. The modern consumer (increasingly cosmopolitan and
deterritorialized as opposed to national and rooted), whether they are living in Helsinki or Hong Kong are amenable to the consumption of D1 and N1 in spite of the cultural
nuances that may distinguish them due to the fact that they can relate to the profile of modern man due to the fact that Finland and Hong Kong now find themselves ultimately within the sphere of the global capitalist system and therefore they are embedded in the cultural matrix of globalization that is embodied in the profile of the modern man. Where the sauna and the mökki provided cultural reference points for the Finn, D1 and N1 now provide cultural reference points for the modern man across the globe. Given the breadth of the topic of globalisation, this research cannot be considered to be definitive. Instead it has been designed as a contribution to the ongoing debate about globalisation and
particularly in how it relates to the field of intercultural communication.