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Marketing Overseas: A Cultural Challenge

This is the second article in our two-part series on culturally appropriate business strategies.

Recognizing cultural differences, no matter how subtle they might be, is critical to setting an appropriate strategy for a target market or country. And the people who implement the strategy need to know and understand those differences.

How to Lose Sales and Alienate People

What sounds irresistible in one language might not make much sense in translation. It could even sound downright silly or worse, offensive. Years ago, when General Motors promoted the Nova (a popular car model) in Latin America, no one seemed to realize that nova in Spanish sounds like no va, meaning no go, which is just about what could have happened to their car sales.

It's not just how the name sounds in other languages, direct translations can also cause mirth and despair. A leading U.S. soft drink company unwittingly advertised in Chinese that their product "Brings your ancestors back from the grave," and a U.S. chicken processor's slogan was enhanced in Spanish to "It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate." There is probably a Web site collection somewhere with these cross-cultural clangers, but I suspect it wouldn't give company heads much to laugh about.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Companies planning to penetrate foreign markets need to see whether their products fit the potential consumers — before the launch.

"Achieving the proper fit at the local, regional and global levels depends largely on whether a company's competencies and value propositions can be translated at each level or adapted to function in a new environment," notes a Knowledge@Wharton feature on globalization challenges for appliance manufacturers. "Scale and scope may not be as important as flexibility in meeting the demands of the unique landscape of each market or territory." In Japanese homes, for example, space is at a premium and doors "paper-thin." So a refrigerator company seeking to capture the Japanese market is not going to get very far with the 500-liter rumbler that is popular in Israel. And, still in Japan, Mattel's Barbie had to undergo some serious plastic surgery and an eye-color change to win Japanese children's approval (and their parents' yen).

Getting Personal

"The reason most given [for the failure of many international joint ventures] is cultural myopia — not the lack of technical and professional expertise, or superior products and services," according to Culturalsavvy.com. No matter how many great software programs a company might have invested in to convert currency values, deal with customs and regulatory requirements, localize language and cultural preferences, and adapt content and promotional materials, the successful implementation of a cross-cultural marketing strategy depends on the staff's level of cultural awareness.

One of our favorite travelers is Trendlines' Managing Director, D. Todd Dollinger. American-born and Israel-based, Dollinger often travels abroad for clients. He comments, "Perhaps the most striking — and most frequent — misunderstanding between Israelis and Americans is the fact that so many Israelis leave meetings thinking that they 'got the order,' when, in fact, their American counterpart sought only to indicate polite interest and the potential for future cooperation."

Presence, Presence, Presence

The message is clear: to go global you have to get local. That means a (clued-in) presence in the country, whether strategic partner, regional office, one-person marketing whirlwind, or relocating yourself and your loved ones to the target country. At a Knowledge@Wharton conference, "Globalization and Technology-Intensive Businesses: The View from Israel," the consensus was that the limitless nature of innovation means "every company will have to think globally in order to survive. And that, in itself, presents a set of cultural, as well as business, problems." Conference participant Arad Naveh advised, "in countries where your company does business, it is important to have employees locate there and know the culture." Hiring regional staff that is plugged into the local market should ensure that your marketing and sales campaigns are culturally appropriate.

Widening the Net

Whether clothing manufacturers or software developers, no company planning to go international can afford to shy away from the marketing opportunities represented by the Internet. However, there is a catch, and it's cultural. "Understanding the needs of customers in foreign markets" constitutes the main barrier for companies expanding their e-business globally, according to InternetWeek.

The buzzword "globalization" has a new companion, "glocalization." Leading search engine Yahoo! is possibly the best-known example of a company that has made this phenomenon work, successfully retaining its global brand while ensuring that each base has a strong local flavor. In a Fast Company feature on Yahoo!'s forays into "glocalization," Don DePalma, of the global Internet consultancy Idiom Inc., warns "If you don't appeal to people's cultural motivators — ethnicity, language, point of view, values — they'll simply click elsewhere. And if you inadvertently offend them, they'll do so even faster."

In the Industry Standard, Jonathan Weber notes, "The Net might be a global medium but localization — adapting to the language and the business and the cultural norms of a particular country — is critical." Weber uses the example of lastminute.com, a successful British online travel agency that decided to set up operations in other European countries. But what rides in Manchester could fall in Munich. Aware that the wry British humor would not survive the North Sea crossing, lastminute.com made sure the site content and brochures were rewritten to suit German sensibilities.

Dollinger suggests employing simple cross-cultural reality checks for interpreting comments. "Ask yourself: 'What's his agenda? Why did he say that?' Try not to simply hear what you want to hear. Try to hear what they are really saying."

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The odd Benetton case aside, a company's marketing and sales strategy must respect and reflect the target country's cultural norms. This may seem like more stating of the obvious, but it isn't always as clear-cut as censoring the use of near-naked models on packages destined for Dubai.