Think global, act local! A cross-cultural study of five Nutella websites on adaptation

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to analyse commercial websites of the same global brand from a cultural perspective looking for the presence of cultural patterns which might reflect marketers’ awareness for the need of cross-cultural adaptation. Through a qualitative content analysis of main pages of in total five Nutella websites addressing Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada and Australia, this paper targets to investigate how a global brand adapts to local cultures and more specifically which similarities/differences can be found on its websites and how these can be related to the culture of each country. In order to do so Hall’s and Hofstede’s taxonomies are used as the framework of analysis. The findings of this paper show that in addition to several cultural characteristics that influence web design other factors such as law regulations, marketing strategies and the popularity of a product play a role when designing a website for a specific host-culture. The diverse results make this study a contribution to the field of cross-cultural communication as well as of digital marketing. Finally, some possible limitations are recognized and suggestions for future research are also given.