In contrast, it is suggested that successful marketers should also seek out cultural similarities, in order to identify opportunities to implement a modified standardized marketing mix. To be able to skillfully manipulate these similarities and differences in the worldwide marketplaces is one of the most important marketing strategies for businesses in the 21st Century. As discussed above, marketing cross-culturally requires that marketers determine the cultural viability of markets. To determine the cultural viability of market means that the marketers should positively identify cultural factors that can be used to facilitate the marketing program in the targeted markets. The classic anthropological theory suggests that while all human behaviors, including market behaviors, take place within a cultural context, human beings are able to influence and even change, through their behaviors, the cultural context within which their behaviors take place.
Marketers can act as agents of changes within a culture.
The interactions between marketing and culture can be examined from three perspectives. First, culture defines acceptable purchasing and product-use behavior for both consumers and business. Let us take business gift as an example, in cultures where a business gift is expected but not presented, it is an insult of to the host. In countries where gifts generate an obligation, such as in Japan, it may be beneficial to engage in the practice. Yet, in other cultures, offering a business gift could be misinterpreted as inappropriate, thus offending the recipients.