Low and High Context Cultures a Video Summary

I'm my last 2 posts I summarized these topics in writing. However I just found this informative little video explaining low and high context cultures and thought it may help you better understand. So For you viewing pleasure:

Low Context Culture

Low context cultures tend to be the opposite of their high context counter parts. If your target market is that of a low context culture they will tend to:

- Be logical, linear and action oriented 

- Prefer individual initiative, self assertion and personal achievement

- Place less emphasis of tradition, ceremony and social rules 

- Emphasizes on words, straight forwardness and openness 

- be impatient, informal and literal

Examples of low context cultures:

Australian                           North American 

English                               German 

Irish                                   New Zealand 

Scandinavian

Are you apart of one of the cultures mentioned in the last two posts? From your own personal experience do you agree with the generalizations of low and high context cultures? Why or why not?


Source: 
Business Communication: Process and Product, 6th Cdn. Edition

High Context Cultures

When creating your culturally customized website knowing if your target market is a part of a high or low-context culture is crucial to the development of your website. Knowing this will determine the content of your website. If your target market is of a high context culture they will:

-          Be rational, intuitive and competitive

-          Prefer group values, duties and decisions

-          Prefer greater formality in dress, speech and social interaction

-          Rely on non-verbal cues and the total picture to communicate

Examples of high context cultures include:

African                  Arab

Chinese                Greek

Japanese             Korean

Italian 

Source: 
Business Communication: Process and Product, 6th Cdn. Edition

Keeping It Simple.....Simply Hilarious

When creating Slogans for products and companies it is very important to avoid using slang, vague expression, and to use easily translated words. Now a day’s most browsers allow the user to translate any website into the language of their choosing. The internet and television has allowed for easier and larger scale marketing across cultures. However measures to ensure smooth transition were not implemented right away. This led to rather funny and awkwardly translated slogans. Here are some of my personal favourites:


 When KFC opened their first Beijing restaurant in 1987 they translated their slogan “Finger-lickin good” in Chinese to “We’ll Eat Your Fingers Off”.

Coors Light breweries obviously didn't hire a local translator when they had their slogan at the time “Turn it loose!” translated to “Suffer from Diarrhoea” in Spanish.

I guess in 2006 some major companies still weren't picking up on the importance of careful translation. That was the year Clairol decided to market their popular “mist stick” in Germany. By not changing the name they were now selling the “manure stick” to the Germans. Bet they couldn't wait to wrap their hair around that.

                                               

 Everyone has to remember the "Got Milk" ads. Well as long as you’re not new to North America you will. However you may never forget them if you are from or lived in South America at the time. Especially since there the commercials translated to ask the question “are you lactating?”


In 1970 the Ford Company just didn't understand why the "Pinto" wasn't selling in Brazil. That was untill they finally learned that "Pinto" was a term in Brazilian slang that meant "male genitalia".

There are numerous examples such as the ones above. Do you have a favourite you heard of that's not listed here? Cause I would love to hear about it.


Source: http://www.oddee.com/item_97732.aspx

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Mmmmm Everyone's Lovin' It

 A perfect example of a company that has devoted money and time to culturally customizing their websites is McDonalds. McDonalds operates in 119 countries around the world on six continents with a total of 33,000 restaurants. 1,400 of those restaurants are in Canada. Take a moment to compare some of McDonald’s high context culture websites to some of their low context culture websites by clicking on the countries below. There is a very noticeable difference. You will also find that the points noted in my earlier blog “Tech Talk: A Text Book Summary” stating what should be evident on each type are reflected on the sites.

           High Context Cultures                         Low Context Cultures

                  Italy                                   Germany
                Japan                                    Canada                 
                Spain                                   Australia




Did you notice a difference in the high context culture websites compared to the lows? If so what was the difference that you found most evident?
                                        

Gestures Across Cultures

I feel the following video entitled “gestures across cultures” relates to the cultural customization of websites through iconography. Icons use symbols that represent different things and have diverse meaning across cultures. Quite often you will see different gestures being used as symbols for icons. For example you may visit a website that asks a question of you and when you respond correctly and icon which depicts a hand making the ok symbol or giving the thumbs up may appear. This video will explain just how careful one should be when using different hand gestures in different parts of the world. It will also give some insight as to the origins of these gestures. Hand jestures and their possible offensive nature are just one reason why images should be tested with local residences before going live with your new culturally customized website. 

 Well, I hope you enjoyed it as I found it pretty interesting. Do you know of any gestures that have non offensive meaning but may get you in trouble when used in other parts of the world?

Perception

People from different cultures see things differently. The easiest way to change how someone perceives your website is to change the colors you use. Below is a chart that shows how people from different places perceive the same colors.

COLOR	USA	China	India	Egypt	Japan
Red	Danger Love Stop	Good fortune Luck Joy	Luck Fury Masculine	Death	Anger Danger
Orange	Confident Dependable Corporate	Fortune Luck Joy	Sacred (the Color Saffron)	Virtue Faith Truth	Future Youth Energy
Yellow	Coward Joy Hope	Wealth Earth Royal	Celebration	Mourning	Grace Nobility
Green	Spring Money New	Health Prosperity Harmony	Romance New Harvest	Happiness Prosperity	Eternal life
Blue	Confident Dependability Corporate	Heavenly Clouds	Mourning Disgust Chilling	Virtue Faith Truth	Villainy
Purple	Royalty Imagination	Royalty	Unhappiness	Virtue	Wealth
Black	Funeral Death Evil	Heaven Neutral High Quality	Evil	Death Evil
White	Purity Peace Holy	Mourning	Fun Serenity Harmony	Joy	Purity Holiness

Source: http://blog.globalizationpartners.com/culturally-customized-website.aspx

Lost in Translation

As I mentioned in a previous post “learning the local lingo” is a step in building a successful culturally customized website.  It’s actually a very important one. You want to make sure that you don’t just do a straight translation from one language to another.  This is how meaning becomes lost in translation. However there are so many sites that offer that very service such as:

http://www.athropolis.com/translate.htm/

http://frengly.com/

http://translate.reference.com/

If you would like to see this theory at work just simply choose one of the above sites. Then type in an English phase then translate it in another language. Then take the product of that translation and translate that into another language. Repeat this a couple times than translate the product back to English. Did you end up with the original phrase? If you ended up with a different phrase as I am sure most of you have, what was your original phase and what was the final translation?

Getting Paid

The demand for culturally customized websites (CCW) is steadily increasing. Some businesses are now built on the their knowledge of the process and their capability to make an efficient, and effective CCW. Books giving detailed descriptions on how to do so are also generating hefty profits  One book that is currently available is “The Culturally Customized website” written by Nitish Singh and Arun Pereira . For more information on the book CLICK HERE. It is also available for purchase on Amazon. If you would like a more information on the advantages of cultural customization follow the link above then follow the link that says "What is Cultural Customisation?". The site provides a detailed power point presentation on just that. If you were or are a business owner from the information provided would you devote time and money towards the cultural customization of your website?

Tech Talk: A Text Book Summary

As I stated in my previous post I am going to summarise the Tech Talk discussion in our text on “Going Global with a Culturally Customized Website”. I feel it would be best to get it out of the way as it will tie into all my future posts. The following are important things one must consider when building a culturally customized website as stated in Business Communications: Process and Product (sixth edition):

·         Learn the Local Lingo: why?  For example different countries have developed different web jargon i.e. homepage in in French is “page d’accueil” which is actually translated welcome page. Just as in Spanish the homepage is referred to as the initial page “pagina inicial” so:

o   Do not simply translate English words page by page

o   And hirer a proficient translator or work with  a local developer

·         Check Icons: different countries also have different iconography for example North Americans recognize the mailbox icon whereas in Europe it is the envelope. To avoid confusion:

o   Test images with local residence

·         Relax Restrictions on Consistency: the main site for McDonalds includes the golden arches, Ronald McDonald and a red background. However the Japanese site has softer colours to appeal to the Asian culture. This is because McDonalds understands  a cookie cutter site will not appeal to all cultures so:

o   Allow flexibility to meet local tastes.

·        Keep the Message Simple:

o    Use simple easily translated words even if the site is in English.

o   Avoid using slang, jargon, abbreviations, or vague expressions.

·         Customize Web content for High-Context Cultures (i.e. Japan & China):

o   Include words reflecting politeness and use indirect expressions

o   Include animated images (cartoon characters)

o   Use  a soft sell approach appealing to harmony

·         Customize Web Content for Low-Context Cultures (i.e. North America & Germany):

o   Use product comparisons to highlight product advantages

o   Include aggressive promotions and discounts

o   Display return policies, guarantees and purchase conditions.

Source: 
Business Communication: Process and Product, 6th Cdn. Edition

"Touch Woody"?

Hello my fellow students.  As I am sure you are all aware,  many of us did not get to that table in the far corner of our classroom in time to choose our first or second pick of topic choices for our blog assignment. As I reluctantly started working on mine not sure where to go with it, my initial plan for my first post to you was to boringly summarize my topic from our texts perspective (which at some point I may still do),  then the light bulb lit up.  I realized there is probably an unlimited supply of funny multicultural marketing mishaps, just waiting to be rediscovered for your reading pleasure. 

To start an interesting fact, the Internet was first commercialized in 1995. In 1996 a new PC geared towards Internet use was being promoted by a company called Matsushita Electric, whom you probably never heard of. Panasonic however you have. Well Panasonic developed a Japanese web browser with woody woodpecker as a virtual guide. The intentions were to make the software more user friendly. A huge marketing plan was devised and an internal launch was set for the day before its release. Unfortunately for its creators their hard work would never reach the general public. At the internal launch an American staff member told a Japanese staff member what Americans would actually hear when reading the words “touch woody” and “pecker", And so the harmless and misunderstood Slogan “Touch Woody – The Internet Pecker” and the product launch were delayed indefinitely.

This story is a perfect example of the importance of “learning the local lingo”. Which should be done before developing a website or any other application for that matter, especially when the material is on display for the world to see. Do you know of any funny cross cultural blunders?