Cross-Cultural Marketing

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Cross-Cultural Marketing

• Rafael Capurro
• Hochschule der Medien (HdM)
• Sommersemester 2006
• Source Marc Hermeking Culture and Internet
  Consumption1
• http//jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/hermeking.htm
  l

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Introduction

• Culture-free products like ICT
• Culture-bound products like food
• (difficult/non difficult to standardize)
• -gt The latter notion needs to be revised because
  tecnical systems are subject to cultural
  influences.

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1. Cultural Differences in the Consumtion of the
Internet

• The Internet as a product of ICT is a marketable
  good.
• The Internet is a new channel of communication
  through which marketing communication can be
  spread.

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1. Cultural differences

• Consumption research is an essential precondition
  for appropriate product design.
• Try to uncover how much, by whom, where, at what
  time, for what purpose, and according to whose
  preferences the Internet is used and how it is
  used

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1. Cultural differences

• The Worldwide Disparity
• 2000 most Internet users in USA (147 Mio),
  followed by Europe (91 Mio) and Asia Pacific
  Basin (75 Mio).
• 2005 USA (48), Canada Australia (46),
  Germany (36)-gt Digital Divide.
• Cultures with low Uncertainty Avoidance are more
  open to the Internet as new medium of
  communication.

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1. Cultural differences

• The correlation with low Uncertainty Avoidance
  was weakened by high rates of literacy and
  international trade but not by a high economic
  development.
• Individualism as a (positive) correlation for
  Internet use.

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1. Cultural differences

• Role of Cultural Communication Styles
• Individualistic cultures (egalitarian, democratic
  nature of the Internet)
• High/low-context communication (Hall) shared
  vs. transmitted information
• High Individualism -gt low-context (explicit,
  direct, formal, written) (Swiss, Germans,
  Scandinavians, Anglo-Americans, English)
• Collectivism -gt high-context (implicit, informal,
  symbolic, pictures) (Japanese, Arabs, Latin
  American, Italian-Spanish, French)

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1. Cultural Differences

• High-context cultures Indirect and
  transformational advertising messages creating
  emotions through pictures and entertainment
  (France, Japan)
• Low-context cultures direct and rational
  advertising messages providing product
  information (Germany, USA)

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2. Implied Cultural Concepts

• Cateoras model of the international marketing
  environment
• uncontrollables (legislation, politics,
  economy, topographic facts, infrastructure,
  standards of technology)
• controllables (marketing strategies and
  instruments)
• But this model is based on the concept of
  national culture (as Hofstedes)

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2. Implied

• Hofstedes model is based on five cultural
  dimensions (80 countries)
• Hierarchy
• Group orientation (Individualism)
• Gender Roles (Masculinity)
• Trust
• Risk-taking (Uncertainty Avoidance)

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2. Implied

• Halls model (only a few countries are
  mentioned)
• High- vs. Low Context (shared vs. Transmitted
  information)
• Explicit vs. Indirect communication style
  (formal/informal, written/symbolic)

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3. Cultural Influences on Website Design

• Site Quality (usability)
• Establishment of trust
• Creation of positive effect during website use
• -gt more trust correlates to culturally-familiar
  communication style

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3. Cultural influences

• Culture-related design criteria
• Correlation between content appeal and layout
• Layout written text -gt information/rational i.e.
  low-context communication
• Layout visual picture -gt entertainment/emotional,
  i.e. high-context communication

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3. Cultural influences

• Structural design criteria
• Content appeal
• Layout
• Length of pages
• Multimedia presentation
• Interactivity
• Structure of content
• Total volume of website
• Degree of navigation support

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4. Some general findings

• Websites of global companies tend to be
• strongly standardized
• dominated by rational content appeals
• text-heavy layout presenting small pictures only
• Low multimedia presentation
• High interactivity
• Large website volume
• Deeply structured content
• Intensive navigation support

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4. Some general

• Amazon Homepages
• High-context France www.amazon.fr
• Low-context Germany www.amazon.de

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4. Some general
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4. Some general
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4. Some general

• In the Old Economy, websites of companies
  representig industrial goods and primarily
  adressing business users (B2B) tend to be
  standardized to a similar degree.
• ABB UK and ABB France

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4. Some general
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4. Some general
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4. Some general

• The general nature of these websites corresponds
  to
• Low-context (explicit) communication
• Monochronic (linear) time orientation

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4. Some general

• Websites that address consumers (B2C) reveal
  different tendencies
• High-interest (durble) products modest
  standardization
• High-context (indirect) cultures exhibit a higher
  degree of cultural adaptation, more colored
  backgrounds, larger pictures, animated
  illustrations

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4. Some general

• Multimodality tends to be higher in high-context
  (symbolic) cultures
• Navigation support tends to be less intensive in
  high-context (symbolic) cultures (frequent use of
  icons)
• -gt for instance Sony USA (low-context) vs. Sony
  Japan (high-context)

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4. Some general
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4. Some general
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4. Some general

• Websites representing global brands of
  non-durable, low-interest products reveal a
  higher degree of cultural adaptation.
• -gt Coca Cola USA / Coca Cola Italy
• See Okazaki (2005) Analysis of 206 homages of US
  companies in four European countries
  (durable/non-durable products)

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4. Some general
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4. Some general
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4. Some general

• Local websites of global consumer brands
  occasionally seem to be more standardized
  worldwide.
• See
• websites of French food brand (tend to represent
  high-context (implicit) style
• Websites of German car brand (tend to represent
  low-context (explicit) style (Mercedes-Benz in
  Italy, Lancia in Germany)

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4. Some general
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4. Some general
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4. Some general

• The country-of-origin effect is difficult to
  achieve successfully it works only in case the
  images of the product are positively related in
  the targeted countries (otherwise trust is
  created by culture-specific adaptations)

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4. Some results

• Verbal headlines or slogans differ quite the same
  respect
• Other linguistic aspects (like the use of we,
  logical styles, forms of rational expression)
  could provide for additional cues for cultural
  adaptation.

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4. Some results

• Degree of website adaptation with respect to the
  represented product
• B2B low-context (explicit, written) ABB
  (industrial goods)
• B2C high(er) adaptation durables (Sony),
  non-durables (Coca-Cola)

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4. Some results

• Too many websites are still characterized by a
  dominant low-context (rational, text-heavy) style
• A countrys low rate of Internet consumption
  could be considered as a general indicator for
  low quota of culturally appropriate websites.