International, Part III

1
International, Part III

• The Culturally Customized Web Site, Part I

2
Ch. 1 Culture The New Imperative in Web Site
Design

• Standardization vs. customizationissues
• Cost
• Preservation of international image
• Consistency with cultural expectations
• Comfort, security
• Resonance of values
• Reduced cognitive taskless conscious processing
  necessary

3
Research

• Level of customization vs.
• Attitude (liking)
• Purchase intention
• Both more favorable attitudes and higher purchase
  intentions for customized web sites in several
  countries
• Italy
• India
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• Spain

4
Web Site Classifications (Somewhat Arbitrary)

• Standardized
• Same content for whole world
• http//www.Tyco.com
• Semi-Localized
• Limited local informatione.g., contact info for
  foreign subsidiaries
• http//www.Gap.com
• Localized
• Country specific pages
• Translation into local languages as needed
• http//www.Dell.com

• Highly localized
• Country specific URLs
• Local formats (e.g., zip vs. postal code, time)
• Local content
• http//www.Amazon.com http//www.Amazon.co.uk
• Culturally customized
• Complete immersion
• Three levels
• Adaptation
• Symbolism
• Behavior
• None identified closest is http//www.Ikea.com

5
Ch. 2 The Rationale for Cultural Customization

• Web return on investment (ROI)
• Characteristics favoring customization
• Open
• Interactive ? dialogue, culturally sensitive
• Hyperlinks, self search ? need for motivation
• Customization opportunities from technology ?
  ability to meet diverse customer needs
• Increasing bandwidth ? opportunities for
  integrated experience based on customization
• Need to hold customers ? need for motivation

6
The Whole vs. Parts
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Relevant Cultural Issues Perception, Language

• Perceptionwhat is
• Noticed
• Processed
• Language
• Chinese found to learn faster visually due to
  pictoral alphabet
• Color perception
• Associations, preferences
• Naming

• Implications
• Spatial orientation (right-left, left-right,
  up-down) ? navigation modes
• Translation issues
• Idiomatic equivalence
• Vocabulary equivalence
• Conceptual equivalence

8
More Language Issues

• Dialects
• Text length ? formatting implications
• Language structure
• Use of acronyms
• Color categories

9
Cultural Issue Symbolism

• Association of concepts or images with meaning
  (e.g., flag with patriotism)
• Associations will tend to vary often based on
  language and experience or word sounds (Chinese)
• Country specific symbols

10
Cultural Issue Behavior

• National norms
• Expectations of how to do things
• Relationships between people

11
Ch. 3 A Cultural Values Framework for Web Design

• Cultures vs. countries ? may need to
  subdividee.g.,
• India, Ireland, Switzerland
• Culture vs. within-culture variatione.g.,
  lifestyle segmentation (VALS2)

12
Segmentation Within Countries

• Averages of countries are often not meaningful
• Implications of demographic factors will depend
  on country contexte.g., family income of 20,000
  would be very affluent in India
• Will be able to pay for a lot of local service
  and manufacturing
• Able to hire others

• Example Segmentation of Indian consumer
  families by income
• Rich (benefit maximizers--4840/yr)
• Consumers (cost-benefit optimizers--1,030-4,839)
• Climbers (cash-limited benefit seekers--495-1029)
  
• Aspirants (360-494)
• Destitutes (0-359)

13
More Within-Country Segmentation Examples

• China by age
• Generation I (45-59)
• Some received education
• Usually work or worked for State firms
• Generation II (30-44)
• Limited education opportunities
• Married, 1 little emperor
• Generation III (18-29)
• Better education
• Prospects for better, market economy

• Indian youthpsychographic
• Homebodiestraditional, low individuality
• Two-facedoutwardly traditional outwardly
  modern
• Wannabes--Materialistic mainstream
  show-offs part of crowd
• Rebelstraditional parents often first
  generation professionals understood by friends,
  not parents
• Cool guyswork hard-play hard confident,
  westernized