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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Results Of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness

Results of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness

Having a poor understanding of the influence of cross cultural differences in areas such as management, PR, advertising and negotiations can eventually lead to blunders that can have damaging consequences.

It is crucial for today's business personnel to understand the impact of cross cultural differences on business, trade and internal company organisation. The success or failure of a company, venture, merger or acquisition is essentially in the hands of people. If these people are not cross culturally aware then misunderstandings, offence and a break down in communication can occur.

The need for greater cross cultural awareness is heightened in our global economies. Cross cultural differences in matters such as language, etiquette, non-verbal communication, norms and values can, do and will lead to cross cultural blunders.

To illustrate this we have provided a few examples of cross cultural blunders that could have been avoided with appropriate cross cultural awareness training:

An American oil rig supervisor in Indonesia shouted at an employee to take a boat to shore. Since it is no-one berates an Indonesian in public, a mob of outraged workers chased the supervisor with axes.

Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia by emphasizing that it "whitens your teeth." They found out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth which they find attractive.

A company advertised eyeglasses in Thailand by featuring a variety of cute animals wearing glasses. The ad was a poor choice since animals are considered to be a form of low life and no self respecting Thai would wear anything worn by animals.

The soft drink Fresca was being promoted by a saleswoman in Mexico. She was surprised that her sales pitch was greeted with laughter, and later embarrassed when she learned that fresca is slang for "lesbian."

When President George Bush went to Japan with Lee Iacocca and other American business magnates, and directly made explicit and direct demands on Japanese leaders, they violated Japanese etiquette. To the Japanese (who use high context language) it is considered rude and a sign of ignorance or desperation to lower oneself to make direct demands. Some analysts believe it severely damaged the negotiations and confirmed to the Japanese that Americans are barbarians.

A soft drink was introduced into Arab countries with an attractive label that had stars on it--six-pointed stars. The Arabs interpreted this as pro-Israeli and refused to buy it. Another label was printed in ten languages, one of which was Hebrew--again the Arabs did not buy it.

U.S. and British negotiators found themselves at a standstill when the American company proposed that they "table" particular key points. In the U.S. "Tabling a motion" means to not discuss it, while the same phrase in Great Britain means to "bring it to the table for discussion."

In addition to interpersonal cross cultural gaffes, the translation of documents, brochures, advertisements and signs also offers us some comical cross cultural blunders:

Kellogg had to rename its Bran Buds cereal in Sweden when it discovered that the name roughly translated to "burned farmer."

When Pepsico advertised Pepsi in Taiwan with the ad "Come Alive With Pepsi" they had no idea that it would be translated into Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead."

American medical containers were distributed in Great Britain and caused quite a stir. The instructions to "Take off top and push in bottom," innocuous to Americans, had very strong sexual connotations to the British.

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into "Schweppes Toilet Water."

In a Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push the button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.

In a Yugoslavian hotel: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.

In a Bangkok dry cleaner's: Drop your trousers here for best results.

In an East African newspaper: A new swimming pool is rapidly taking shape since the contractors have thrown in the bulk of their workers.

Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan: Stop--Drive sideways.

At a Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.

In conclusion, poor cross cultural awareness has many consequences, some serious others comical. It is imperative that in the global economy cross cultural awareness is seen a necessary investment to avoid such blunders as we have seen above.

For more information on how Kwintessential can aid you in your cross cultural needs please visit http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/cross-cultural-awareness.html

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Successful Dot-Com Offers Strategies for Success

(ARA) - Lost amidst billions of dollars in squandered venture capital funding and endless reports from network anchors about the macabre state of e-commerce lies a seemingly overlooked fact: Not all of today's dot-coms use red ink in the accounting ledger.

As the e-commerce tree hourly shakes off companies with poorly laid business plans, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks continue to disrupt the national economy, the viable dot-coms remaining possess sound strategies for continued positive growth.

Despite continued poor economic forecasts, Elaine Rubin, executive director of Shop.org (www.Shop.org), predicts that online retail sales for this year will still top $65 billion, an increase from 1.7 percent to 2.5 percent of all retail sales. As the quantity of online sales grows, a handful of companies are defining the tenets of successful e-commerce business models.

One company, Vancouver, Wash.-based GiftTree.com (www.GiftTree.com) could write a successful case study for Harvard Business School on how to flourish in the New Economy. Started in 1996, the company experiences more than 200 percent annual growth and expects record returns this holiday season.

Founder and CEO Craig Bowen offers four successful strategies for aspiring dot-coms. He points to the failures of high-profile companies such as Pets.com and Furniture.com to illustrate the first cornerstone of e-commerce success: a sound business concept. While Pets.com and Furniture.com both raised significant venture capital and experienced spectacular short-term success, neither rested on a sound business concept. Why buy pet food on the Internet when it's just as easy to purchase it at the grocery store? Who's going to buy a couch or recliner online without sitting in it first?

Online gift giving, on the other hand, makes perfect sense.

"Gifts need to be purchased," says Bowen, "then taken home, wrapped and mailed. That takes a lot of time." In a time-starved society, clicking a mouse to send an elegant birthday or graduation gift is appealing when the alternative is skipping dinner to fight crowds at the mall and waiting in line at the post office.

After a sound business concept, a well-conceived economic policy is essential.

"We've been very frugal," says Bowen. "We didn't get caught up in the venture capital insanity. We've always applied traditional business thinking to our corporate strategies."

Bowen points to Etoys.com as an example of a company with a poor economic strategy. Etoys spent $25 million in television advertising last holiday season. Shortly thereafter, its shares plummeted from $61.50 a share to $1.44.

Now that e-commerce companies no longer enjoy a tidal wave of venture capital, the new paradigm is thrift and scrappiness. Bowen believes in letting GiftTree grow at a natural rate, and not overextending his company's advertising or development budgets.

The third key to success according to Bowen is customer service. When the competitor's store is literally a click away, customer satisfaction must be the highest priority. In Bowen's model, profits do not supercede customer satisfaction, but follow it.

"Our commitment to quality and service mean that we focus on customer service, not profits," says Bowen. "Other companies do risk management and accept a minimal level of customer service dissatisfaction. We feel that satisfied customers shouldn't be quantified in risk management terms -- especially in the gift industry."

To that end, GiftTree developed proprietary in-house software that increases the usefulness of its site. Features such as an online address book allow users to save time by storing important dates and addresses. A live chat feature allows visitors to chat online with a gift specialist. The company's computer system also alerts operators when a customer inserts a potentially erroneous zip code. Perhaps most importantly, GiftTree personally confirms the delivery of each order.

"The costs and complexities of delivery notification are enormous," says Bowen. "But steps like that are what allow us to excel in this industry. We always try to increase value. That's how any company makes it."

Lastly, successful e-tailers must continue to assuage user concerns about online security. A recent ABCNEWS.com poll found that 45 percent of Americans felt the Internet threatens their personal privacy. GiftTree offers an entire page on its Web site outlining its security and privacy policies, and Bowen says that GiftTree uses a firewall that provides hacker-proof protection for all consumer information.

Forrester Research estimates that world e-commerce will increase from $657 billion this year to more than $6.8 trillion by 2005. As those figures continue climbing, companies that employ the successful strategies of GiftTree will continue recording profits using black ink in the corporate ledger.