From Human Acculturation to Brand Acculturation: Exploring the Brand Acculturation Concept and Patterns

Multicultural Education Volume 11, Issue 11, 2025 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 30 From Human Acculturation to Brand Acculturation: Exploring the Brand Acculturation Concept and Patterns Qasim Ali Shah, Asim Shabir Qazi, Hassan Abbas Soomro, Juned Ali Shah Article Info Abstract Article History Received: August 03 ,2025 The acculturation concept has been studiedconcerningthe human population. Literature of past research rarely talks about acculturation with global brands and there is an evident lack of concrete models and theories which provide guidelines on how a brand should go for acculturation. Based on the prominent research gap and following the brand anthropomorphic consideration, our unique study explores that the brands do acculturate much like humans do when they are introduced out of their home country's culture. Four brand acculturation strategies; integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization are extracted from our qualitative research and the resultis analogous to the human acculturation strategy patterns. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and the directions for future research are also proposed. Accepted: November 05 ,2025 Keywords : Brand acculturation, Global brands, Country, Culture DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17544619 Introduction “Acculturation is the dual process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members” (Berry, 2005 p.698). Acculturation is also narrated as “Attitudinal, value, behavioral and identity adjustments by the people when they interact with other cultures” (V. Oudenhoven et al., 2006) and it includes “assimilation with new culture”, “maintenance of old culture”, and the “resistance to both new and old culture” Penaloza(1994). Similarly, Berry (1997) provided the four levels of consumer acculturation “Integration, assimilation, separation & marginalization”. Integration: when individuals interact with host culture while maintaining their home culture. Assimilation:when individuals fully get attached to the host culture and ignore their home culture. Separation: when people maintain their home culture and ignore interaction with the host culture.Marginalization: avoiding both home and host cultures by creating an alternate. Mendoza (1981 and 1984) used the terms “cultural resistance”, “cultural shifts”, “cultural incorporation” and “cultural transmutation” for the same strategy patterns. Acculturation has been widely studied in terms of human acculturation (Berry, 1997; Mendoza, 1981), consumer acculturation (V. Oudenhoven et al., 2006; M. Benabdallah,20092013), and the markets and marketer acculturation (Penaloza&Gilly, 1999) but what is missing from the canvas, is the application of acculturation concepts and strategies to the global brands. There is an evident lack of concrete models and theories which provide guidelines on how; a brand should go for acculturation. Based on such a larger gap in the literature, we propose the concept of brand acculturationThe contextual idea of brand acculturation is anthropomorphism, and the past literature is silent on how a brand acculturates from its home country to the host country's culture. Our research tries to bridge this prominent gap by exploring the concept of brand acculturation which distinguishes our study from the previous research. The literature on global branding strategyand international marketing is widely available where the various authors have studied the importance of cultural factors and their influence on overall marketing strategy. According to Steenkamp (2019), the success and survival of a global brand depend on how well it integratesand is adaptable to the changing market environment. Brands are in a continuous struggle to win customer loyalty and maintain and increase the market share while competing with various other global and local brands. A brand according to B.Holt (2004) has more chances of success if it integrates the culture and other important market dynamics into its branding and advertising strategy. Global brands get insights about how to enhance purchase likelihood by incorporating the local cultural elements into their branding strategy He & Lu (2017) and according to their research findings, authors showed that there is a direct and significant positive effect of considering cultural elements on the purchase likelihood of global brands.However, according to He & Lu(2017), there is more need for empirical and systematic investigation to know how the elements of local culture might be used byglobal brands. Rehman and Cherrier (2010) also highlighted the importance of culture by arguing that “what happens to the consumer having a predefined own context of consumption moves to a new market setting where advertising, 31 fashion, food, and other social life aspects are different? The answer lies in the work of McCraken(1986)and Penaloza(1989) where they suggested that consumer needs to redefine themselves in the new cultural settings. This redefinition according to Penaloza (1989. p. 110) refers to “the acquisition of skills and knowledge relevant to engaging in consumer behavior in one culture by members of another culture”. Now let say what happens to a brand having a given set of characteristics (Identity, value, image, personality, and culture)goes to the other country where people have different perspectives of things around them; language, religion, lifestyle, race, age structure, values and belief system with overall different culture? The brand might also consider redefining itself in the new cultural settings. Various other authors have talked about the culture and its impact on branding strategies generally and specifically but the literature focusing specifically on cultural adjustment concepts and strategies concerning brand anthropomorphism is rarely available. Identifying this prominent gap in the literature, we propose to bridge it by exploring the concept of brand acculturation. The anthropomorphisms suggest that brands are also considered as human beings, but do they acculturate like humans when launched across borders? Do such brands adjust their brand elements, features, and characteristics like humans/consumers do when they are exposed to different cultural settings? And if yes, what are the patterns of brand acculturation? We begin with methodology, followed by data analysis, findings, and discussion. We conclude with the theoretical, practical implications and limitations of our research. 1. Research Methodology Brand acculturation as discussed earlier is a novel phenomenon and is proposed first time by our research. Hence the exploratory objectives of research compelled us to use a qualitative research methodology. To reveal the consumer‟s perspectives regarding global brands in their country, in-depth interviews were used in the first part of the study. In-depth interviews helpto deeply understand the phenomenon from a consumer‟s perspective (Hudson and Ozanne, 1988). In the second part, to observe some cases of global brands and their way of working in host v/s home country culture, a case studyon brands was performedfollowing K. Goffin et al.(2019), as with the emergence of new concepts, need for exploratory research is increasing and the case study method seems most appropriate in this situation. 1.1. Informants: Based on the author‟s affiliation with different universities in Pakistan, a convenient sampling technique was used to identify the participants. Convenience sampling is a non-probability method that is usually used in qualitative research when the objective is to get an approximation to a specific topic (Kinnear, Taylor, Johnson, & Armstrong, 1993). The data was collected from a sample of 24 graduate and post-graduate university studentswhose demographics are mentioned in table01. The students were selected as respondents for the interview based on their ability to understand the components of the question i-e their knowledge regarding local and foreign brands in their country and their exposure to the cultural artifacts. The respondents belong to two culturally rich and densely populated provinces of Pakistan i.e., Punjab and Sindh Province. Table 1: Participant’s demographics: 1.2. Data collection Data was collected through in-depth interviews from the 24 participants and a semi-directed interview guide was used. Each interview took on average around 30 minutes time duration. Respondents were briefed regarding the purpose of data collection and confidentiality of their responses and consent for recording the interview was also taken. The interview questions were asked in the local language of Pakistan, Urdu so that the participants can understand and deeply answer the asked question without a language barrier. 2. Analysis: All the interview data weretranscribed and translated into English before analysis. Authors coded around 60 pages of interview transcripts with around 7000 words, figure: 1 summarizes the most frequently used verbatim. Figure 1: Word cloud of most frequently used verbatim Gender Age (Years) Education Location Total Male Female Graduating Graduates Sindh Punjab 13 11 23-31 12 12 11 13 24 32 The word cloud reflects the visual representation of the most frequent words in the source text, and it is evident that the words like brands, cultures, and country were prominent, followed by country, international, foreign local, etc. The thematic content analysis technique was performed using NVivo 12 pro qualitative data analysis software as thematic analysis is the best search for describing the phenomena and the emerging themes, perspectives, and processes (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Authors used the deductive approach to develop themes based on the concept of human acculturation and its strategies Berry (2005) and the verbatim extracted from interview transcripts.Two authors of this manuscript analyzed the transcripts separately, after observing the most recurring codes in the text they reached four global themes, as mentioned in table 2. The most prominent themes were integration, separation, marginalization, and assimilation respectively. Table 2: Results of thematic analysis Codes Themes Mixing brand elements of both cultures, Different for different customers, changing branding as per local values, Partial adoption to new market, accommodating both homes as well as host cultures, Suitable to all customers of different cultures, valuing local customers while keeping the heritage intact, Combination of home and host, change some brand elements and keep some same, respect both cultures Integration Love for home culture only, patriotic to own country, against our culture, do not adopt, apart from local society, ignore values of the home host culture, Introduces home country culture in foreign markets Separation No cultural attachment,Newness in everything, no country identification, totally different from particular cultural values, Neither follow home nor follow host country culture, having own different identity in all markets, Introduces own brand culture globally Marginalization Fully adopt host culture values, forget original culture, only care for the host culture, become local by changing inner and outer personality, no identification of culture of origin, forget own values, becomes a foreigner. Assimilation The result of interview analysis and cases shows that there is evidence that brands do acculturate much like human acculturation.Our findings suggest that the most frequently used strategy is integration; where brands keep some of their anthropomorphic elements the same everywhere and change some elements based on the needs of the local culture. Integration was followed by the separation where brands do not adapt or change their anthropomorphic elements according to local culture; rather they keep their culture originally intact. The third most frequently used strategy was found as marginalization, where brands neither follow their home country culture nor they adopt to host country culture but rather they create their own alternate global culture and market it in different countries. The fourth strategy which is less frequently used by the brands is assimilation, where brands completely adapt to the local culture. According to participants and the case study of brands, it is very difficult for the brands to completely wear the dress of a host country culture because doing so will harm brands' originality and the feel of its globalness. Although in some cases, brands are found to have completely adapted to the local culture. 3. Discussion 3.1. Brand acculturation Based on the results of interviews and case study of brands, the term brand acculturation can be defined as “the ability of a brand to change its brand elements, features, and characteristics based on culture, values, beliefs, and norms of the host country”. To the best of our knowledge, no one has used the term “brand acculturation” previously.While asking the questions from the participants regarding why they think a brand should acculturate, a participant quoted as below: 33 “Basically, I believe that culture has huge influences on the purchase behavior of any customer either national or international. Culture not only changes our minds but the overall perspective of the brands. The values, norms, choices, and even the likes and dislikes of society impact the customer a lot. A good marketer is always aware of the culture. A brand should be according to the norms, values and the culture of a particular society. Doing this will not only change the customer behavior but will bring the brand to the top of the customer mind; if the product is according to our culture, we can be attracted to it more”. The brands are working now on the verge of global as well local consumer culture (Steenkamp, 2019). In the recent years because of the emergence of global technology; such strategies have taken much of attention in the marketplace. The global companies who do not take into account the local culture, face a number challenges and research has proved that the brand equity of these companies is weaker than that of the local companies (R Abratt, P Motlana, 2002). The reason behind it,is the local companies better understand the local consumer culture and the local market tastes.“Patanjali” a local Indian (FMCG) brand for example has grown drastically its brand equity and sales in the recent years and have given a very tough time to the global companies like Colgate Palmolive, Nestle and Unilever who have been operating in Indian markets since decades(S.Gupta& O. Wright, 2019). Brand acuulturation was also defined in the lense of culture and noramtive influence, as stated by one of our participants: “I think the culture plays a significant role in the brands’ selection and purchase decisions.Whenever we buy something, we keep in mind whether that would be acceptable in our society or not. If we wear a clothing brand, we will wear the one having acceptability in our society so that we may feel comfortable. Culture has importance in our purchases because it tells us how we live and how we wear”. This reflects that being the social beings, consumers also feel obliged to fulfil others‟ expecation and need their approval (Myers 2013). Moreover, our participants were also of the opinion that the brand acculturation is needed by the consumers in different product categories especially food, clothing, and other consumer items. Quoting the importance of culture in clothing selection a participant quoted that: “Culturesimpact our brand choice a lot. Take the example of “Khaadi” clothing brand that makes different dresses for Sindhi customers in Pakistan. Foreign clothing brands are rarely preferred over local ones here because their style is not compatible with our culture. We only buy products which are according to different cultures like Sindh, KPK. Baluchistan. We don’t prefer foreign cloth brands over ours”. Relevant to the description of the participant it is rightly quoted by Fournier (1998) that consumers develop relationships with anthropomorphic brands same as the arrange marriages, causal friendships, partnership with a long-term commitment, and even secrecy and enmity. If a brand truly represents a consumer‟s cultural values, consumers might develop a long-term commitment and partnership with such brands and in other cases enmity might also be developed. If a brand wants to generate market acceptability and long-term commitment of the customers, it should consider acculturation. “As Pakistan is an Asian country so when we buy anything, we relate it with our culture. I recently went to the market to buy something, I saw a person selling imported toys like teddy bears from the USA. When I asked my father to buy it for a kid at our home, he denied saying that in our Islamic culture, animal shapes and toys are not allowed because when we offer prayer, animal-shaped toys or pictures create a distraction and it’s not allowed in our religion. My father recited a” Hadith” and explainedthat these kinds of items are not allowed in our religion”. The above statement was quoted by a male participant, which shows the importance of cultural adoption for a brand. Culture is made of various elements including religion. The participant shared his experience by saying, when he tried to purchase even a toy for a kid in his family, culture influenced their decisions and they avoided buying a particular product from the USA. The behavior of the participant confirms the statement that culture is a prime determinant of consumer behavior, lifestyle, and attitude where consumers fulfill their needs by acquiring goods and services of their choice (Cleveland, 2007). Refereeing to the symbolicidentification of culture and use of brands, one of our female participant is mentioned : “In Indian culture, bride purchasesher wedding dress inred color because it is considered as the color of “suhagan” (married) and shewill never purchase awhite dress as it is considered a sign of a widow, whereas, a Christian bride will especially order a white gown for her wedding day because white is a sign of happy bride in their culture. In this way, culture has made our mindset and hence we perceive things accordingly and our purchase decisions are influenced by the culture. We dress and eat according to the cultural values so when it comes to the brand, we select those which offer products according to our culture. As J. (Pakistani clothing brand) offers eastern wear and I will select J. because I know it offers the products which suit my culture”. The people in Pakistan, India, China, and other collectivist cultures behave differently in various situations of life than those with individualistic cultures, mostly found in the western world. Consumer culture is not only the consumption of products and services, but it also goes beyond it as it summarizes the practices, identities, and symbolic meanings rooted within the daily lives of consumers. Such meanings are established by the individual 34 and shared perceptions and lived consumption experiences (L. Devy et al., 2019). This describes the reason why a brand should consider acculturation. Consumer interaction across borders has greater power to interact, comment, criticize or praise different marketing activities. If anything goes against the culture and value system of people, It create troubles for the brands B. Holt ( 2004) and this is the reason, marketers take a lot of care and show much concern to the particular consumer culture. One of the participants stated that: “Culture is a significant part of our market. We belong to a society where emotions are very important. Family terms, social aspects, relationships, friendships, and overall cultureis essential. Every person, belonging to whatever culture in Pakistan prefers such things and gets inspired. For example, there are two brand names, one is written in my language Urdu and the other in some foreign so, we prefer those things which are locally produced and communicated in our local language. So, culture surely influences our purchase”. This ensures that the acculturation of brand should be reflected by all of its marketing activities, which is not only limited to brand communication via advertisement but also product packaging and labels assigned to it. 4.1. Brand acculturation strategies: Based on our analysis and the theory of human acculturation (Berry, 2005), our research confirmed the following four acculturation strategies. Figure 1: Brand acculturation strategies The matrix shows four strategies of brand acculturation based upon two issues; brand identity and characteristics in home country, and brand identity, and characteristics in host country. The strategies are further discussed in section 4.1. Figure 2: Hierarchy of Brand Acculturation 35 Figure 2 depicts the hierarchy of brand acculturation. Two extremes are; complete acculturation (Assimilation) and no acculturation at all (Separation). In between, there are two more strategies integration and marginalization further discussed in section 4.1. 3.1.1. Integration: According to Berry (2005), out of four human acculturation strategies, integration is the one where people interact with the host country culture while maintaining their home country culture, which is the most popular and stress-free strategy. Similarly, Penaloza (1999) has termed this strategy as accommodation of marketer with home country culture and those of ethnic cultures and Mendoza (1981) described it as cultural incorporation. Our analysis and case examples, also highlights the integration strategy where a brand keeps some of its elements (Identity, values, personality, image, culture) same as of home country culture and alters some of its elements as per the cultural needs of host country. Several examples have been quoted by the participants under this strategy. Some of the best examples are Nestle, the company adopts the local consumer taste, targets families using local communication and branding strategies, participates in local events like (Eid and Ramazan) in Pakistan and follows all customs and traditions of local cultures worldwide. In Pakistan, Nestle even adopts national language (Urdu) in its brand names i.e., Nestle” Buniyad”, Cerelac, Nestle “Zeera” “Podina” and “Khas Karachi key Lie” yogurt. Nestle Pakistan‟s website also contains a picture of Pakistani families along with “Urdu” and “English” language. Nestle also adopted the local culture in India by launching “Maggi masala vegetable atta noodles” and “Maggi Bhunna Masala” to follow the healthy lifestyle in India. On the contrary, Nestle has different branding strategies which in the U.S.A, depicting American cultural values, beliefs, and norms. One of our participants explained the integration strategy followed by McDonald‟s by stating that: “McDonald's is one of the international brands having presence in many countries and has been continuously doing well as it never loses its originality while trying to provide a product that is preferred by local people like Hindus. For us Muslims, they have halal products”. People have different values, so the brand has to somehow adapt to local culture to capture market” McDonald's an American brand, hasa western brand personality, values, identity, and image. The brand is availableacross the world and has adapted to thelocal cultural values as per respective country. In china for instance, McDonald‟s opened the restaurant „Eatery” having Chinese building structure and style along with localized decoration using lanterns, abaci and bun streamers (He and Lu, 2014).This reflected a different image and identity of America‟s McDonald's in China. Similarly, in India and Pakistan, the brand has adopted local culture by maintaining the values, identity, and other aspects of these countries. In India for example, the brand uses local Indian names on its burgers and other items such as “Maharaja-Mc”, “Mc-Aloo” and “Mc-Tikki”. Participants also stated that: “International brands must go with their first country strategy, but they must follow the needs, wants, appearance and the culture of the host country, as followed by coca cola , however, Unilever has a different culture in India and Pakistan” Coca-Cola is a good example of an integration strategy. Coke's famous marketing campaign of “share a coke” is a true reflection of the company‟s cultural sensitivity. In Pakistan and India, share a coke campaign used local names and even language in its branding. Coke maintains American brand identity and personality and also adapts to local cultural values and norms. In China, for example, the complete website of coke is written in the Chinese language and even the company uses the Chinese language on its various brands. There are several other examples where the brand has followed the integration strategy. Some of the descriptions from the participant‟s quotes supporting integration strategy are mentioned below: All 24 participants talked about the integration strategy, where they showed how comfortable they feel having a blend of a global brand with local culture. The same has been argued by Berry(2005), stating that the integration is the most suitable and widely observed strategy concerninghuman acculturation. This strategy is stress-free and doesn‟t need much effort and investment by the company compared tothe assimilation or marginalization strategy. Similarly, Penaloza(1999) has used the term accommodation when she talked about the marketer's cultural adoption strategies. “Business accommodated Mexican consumers by (1) product and service assortments, (2) displays, (3) sales support services, (4) holiday celebrations, and (5) community services. Moreover, Mendoza (1981) used the term cultural incorporation in the place of integration strategy.Global brands are rapidly penetrating into the emerging markets like China, India, Brazil and Pakistan but the main issue that they are facing into these emerging markets is the cultural resistance and Özsomer(2012), suggested that; while maintaining their perceived globalness, it‟s important for the brands to adopt to local tastes and even a global brand has to sacrifice its brand consistency to capture larger market share in the emerging markets Roberts &Cayla(2009). According to (Chiu et al., 2011), combining the global brand image which is often associated with the Western cultural elements with local cultural elements is what they call a “cultural mixing” which represents two cultures in one object. Our research also confirmed various cases and situations where brands have been observed partiallyadapting to the local culture while keeping their originality intact. 36 3.1.2. Assimilation Assimilation refers to the acculturation strategy where people completely embed themselves into the host country's culture and get disconnected from their culture of origin (Berry, 1997 & Mendoza, 1989). This implies brand acculturation in a way that when the brand completely adapts to the local cultural values, norms, and beliefs and looks disconnected from the home country or its originality. Some of the descriptions from participant‟s quotes concerning assimilation strategy are mentioned below: “There are many foreign brands and now it is difficult to identify which one is foreign brand. There are many brands embedded into Pakistani culture, their promotional activities are also as per Pakistani culture. For example, MINISO is a brand which I had no idea earlier that it’s a foreign brand” 50% participants were able to recall some brands which are completely merged into the local cultures and they find it hard to identify them as foreign brands. The rest of the participants talked about the challenges of assimilation strategy and its lesser possibility for an international brand. According to Berry (2005), although rarely but this strategy has also been observed in various cases. When talking about the brands, we could only find a few examples where brands have changed most of their elements and strategy as per the local markets. Somewhere brands have achieved this by launching different products with even different brand names to target the local or ethnic customers. Some of the examples are mentioned below. Wall‟s Ice-Cream, a Unilever‟s world-famous ice-cream brand known as walls in countries of Asia and the UK. Whereas it is named as Holando in central America, Guidant Status in the USA and Israel, Frigo in Spain, Frisko in Denmark, Miko in France, Eskimo in Turkey, Streets in Australia, and New Zealand, Inmarko in Russia, and Algida Ice cream in European countries. The brand uses a different name and other elements based on the market dynamics of the country it operates in. Since it is the strategy of Unilever to buy the local icecream brands and continue with the names of local brands to make them easily identifiable in the local market. Opavia by a French food manufacturer Danone is a global packed food manufacturer. When Danone launched its famous global biscuit brand; Lu in the Czech Republic, despite extensive marketing efforts, the brand failed. When Danone changed its brand name from Lu to a local name Opavia, the company generated substantial sales. Danonewas able to accomplish this by virtue of completely changing its brand identity as per the host market. 3.1.3. Separation: Participants quoted that some of the brands are preferred as they are. Customers of such brands don‟t want these brands to adapt or change as per local markets, because doing so; the brand will lose its image of being a global luxurious brand. Some of the descriptions supporting separation strategy are mentioned below: “Most of the brands do not change much as per the country culture. Because brands are strongly developed when their elements are stable. If you consider, luxury brands, they hardly follow the local culture because following the local culture will take them out of the luxury brandcategory in my opinion. For example, Rolex watches and Tag Heuer watches, we purchase because of their home country identity. Similarly, Outfitter is a western brand operating in Pakistan but it supports western culture. Although we use outfitters but it’s not according to our culture. More than 90% participants mentioned about separation strategy, and it was second most prominent brand acculturation strategy. Participants mentioned that some of the brands in a particular category are only preferred because of their image of being a global brand. “There is one brand Levis; they always follow their branding and they don’t care about us. They follow the trends, but their branding is international”.They always prefer their languages, and they like their country. They use badges on their dresses and launch products according to their nature”. According to Berry (2005), separation is not an acculturation strategy; rather it‟s opposite to acculturation and under this pattern, brands do not acculturate at all. Separation refers to the acculturation strategy where people show resistance to the new cultural settings and remain associated with their original culture (Berry, 1997). Mendoza, (1981) used the term cultural resistance where he revered this acculturation pattern as “resistance either active or passive, against the acquisition of alternate cultural norms”. In his “ICMA” framework, S. Banerjee (2007) termed this strategy as “convince” where he argued that when a brand is strong, having strong cultural heritage, it doesn‟t need to adopt the local culture rather convince customers to purchase the brand. In our research, we also found several examples of brands where they are rigid and insensitive to the local culture. The brands under separation strategy keep their originality intact from all aspects anddo not change their values, identity, culture, personality, etc. in any country. Where ever they go, they bring the same branding and marketing stagey. Some of the examples are mentioned below: Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&CO) an American clothing brand. The brand personality of Levi‟s is the same for allits markets, even in culturally heterogeneous countries like India and Pakistan. Levi‟s has a standardized branding and marketing strategy all over the world according to its core values such as empathy, integrity, originality, and courage. The brand carries an American fashion style, culture, personality, and identity and does not consider the local cultural values in the countries where it operates. 37 Louis Vuitton, French luxury men, and women fashion brand has a consistent brand personality of an upper class, charming, elegant, and glamorous brand worldwide. The brand is available in many countries of the world through direct or indirect channels. The company uses standardized branding and marketing strategies. Louis Vuitton has global celebrity endorsers and uses mass media channels including social media to communicate with its millions of customers worldwide. The brand possesses an image of being French, luxurious, expensive, and elegant and it does not change in different countries. The brand seems to have a consistent personality, identity, image, values, and culture in all corners of the world. 3.1.4. Marginalization More than 70% participants talked about the situations where brands are perceived to have their own brand culture, independent of their country of origin or the host country. Some of the descriptions related to marginalization strategy quoted by participants are mentioned below: “The promotions of Cars and Vehicles are unique as they don’t hit any culture. Fortune for instance, only focuses on product robustness and sophistication, not on any country or culture and similarly if you take the example of IKEA which follows a global culture. It does not advertise itself differently in Pakistan or change products in Pakistan. It portrays its culture and lifestyle”. Some participants also mentioned about the marginalization strategy adopted by IKEA and Harley Davidson by stating that: “Harley Davidson never follows any country or culture. It has its own culture and fan following. Those who use Harley, adopt Harley culture. It is a niche marketing brand. It has a distinct group of people who are rugged and rough tough. They never change the culture. Harley Davidson has built its own brand culture. When we see their advertising and products and their macho-man style bikers, they are into their own culture. Marlboro is also trying to create its own culture. They target cowboys and adventurous customers. So, they have created a culture like that”. From the results of interviews and cases, it was found that the brands in the automobile industry are observed not to follow any particular country culture rather they create their own culture and lifestyle. Other than that, some luxury brands, energy drinks, bikes, and cigarette brands are also observed not to follow any country or regional culture but rather create their own culture and market it globally. The literature very frequently talks about the brands that have created their own brand culture (B.Holt 2003; Firat&Dholakia 2006, Kapferer, 2008, Schroeder, 2014). This confirms our findings that marginalization is one of the widely observed brand acculturation strategies, as reflected in figure 3 via case examples of companies following marginalization strategy. Literature uses the term marginalization, where people neither follow their home country culture nor they follow the host country culture but rather create a substitute for both cultures (Berry, 2005). According to Mendoza (1981), the fourth acculturation pattern is called “cultural transmutation” which refers to the formation of an alternative subculture instead of following home or host country cultures. This applies to the brands which create their own brand culture different from both the home and host country culture. Brands do create their own culture of consumption globally. Based on the cases and participants‟ descriptions some of the examples of marginalization are mentioned below: 38 Figure3: Case examples for each acculturation strategy Harley Davidson, “We are not a motorcycle company; we are a culture on wheels”. Harley Davidson is an American heavy bike company. The brand possesses a robust image and identity in the minds of customers worldwide. Harley has a rugged brand personality, and the brand carries its identity as a rebellious brand. Harley Davidson has created its own culture through brand communities. Harley consumers in these communities are grouped around the values, culture, lifestyle, activities, and ethos of the brand. Harley has a global standard brand strategy. The core brand value of Harley Davidson is personal freedom and the brotherhood of bikers regardless of national boundaries. If you own a Harley bike, you are a member of the “global family” (Zoe, 2017). Another example is Red Bull BmbH, an Austrian energy drink brand that uses a standardized branding strategy all over the world. The brand has the same personality, identity, values, and culture everywhere. Red bull has created its own sporty culture around the world called the “Red Bull culture” (L. Firings, 2015). The sporty brand participates in various sports and musical events and competitions locally and globally. “Red Bull creates its “brand culture” by associating the brand with a very diverse range of sports, music and other cultural activities” (L. Firings, 2015). The brand has around 21 variants with a similar logo, color, design, name and uses the slogan “Red bull gives you wings” in all cultures since 1987. 4. Conclusion Following the concept of human acculturation (Berry, 2005; Mendoza, 1981), market and marketer acculturationPenaloza(1999), the brand cultural fit S.Banerjee(2007), and consumer acculturation (V. Oudenhoven et al., 2006), our study bridges the gap by exploring brand acculturation and its strategies. To the best of our knowledge, no study has specifically applied the concept of acculturation to brands. Based on the interview results and fieldwork on brand examples, we conclude that much like humans go through the acculturation process when they migrate to another country with different cultural settings, the anthropomorphic brands also go through a similar process. From our qualitative study which was based on the semi directed interviews and case study on brands, we came up with the term brand acculturation which can be defined as “the ability of a brand to change its brand elements, features, and characteristics based on cultural values, beliefs, and norms of the host country”. The findings of our study also shows that the brands use four acculturation strategies; “integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization” based on several factors. Our results also confirm that, if a brand truly represents a consumer‟s cultural values, consumers might develop a long-term commitment and partnership with such brands, however, an enmity might also be developedin other cases. If a brand wants to generate market acceptability and long-term commitment of the customers, it should consider acculturation based on its nature of business and relevant category. 4.1. Research Implications: The study has various implications, both theoretical and managerial. Frist, it is an addition to the literature of culture specific strategies of global brands. Secondly, to best of our knowledge, no study has taken the concept of human acculturation and applied it on the global brands, our study is first to propose the concept of brand acculturation. Thirdly,the study contributes in filling the gap of availability of some profound brand