Impact of Cultural Awareness On Customer Relations

Dealing with Culture

Culture is a problematic issue for many marketers since it is inherently nebulous and often difficult to understand. One may violate the cultural norms of another country without being informed of this, and people from different cultures may feel uncomfortable in each other’s presence without knowing exactly why (for example, two speakers may unconsciously continue to attempt to adjust to reach an incompatible preferred interpersonal distance).

Warning about Stereotyping

When observing a culture, one must be careful not to over-generalize about traits that one sees. Research in social psychology has suggested a strong tendency for people to perceive an ‘outgroup’ as more homogenous than an ‘ingroup’, even when they knew what members had been assigned to each group purely by chance. When there is often a grain of truth to some of the perceived differences, the temptation to over-generalize is often strong. Note that there are often significant individual differences within cultures.

Cultural Lessons

We considered several cultural lessons in class; the important thing here is the big picture. For example, within the Muslim tradition, a dog is considered a dirty animal, so portraying it as ‘man’s best friend’ in an advertisement is counter-productive. Packaging, seen as a reflection of the quality of the ‘real’ product, is more important in Asia than in the U.S., where there is a tendency to focus on the contents which ‘really count’. Many cultures observe significantly greater levels of formality than that typical in the U.S., and Japanese negotiator tend to observe long silent pauses as a speaker’s point is considered.

Cultural Characteristics as a Continuum

There is a tendency to stereotype cultures as being one way or another (e.g., individualistic rather than collectivistic). Note, however, that countries fall on a continuum of cultural traits. Hofstede’s research shows a wide range between the most individualistic and collectivistic countries, for example; some fall in the middle.

Hofstede’s Dimensions

Gert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher, was able to interview many IBM executives in various countries, and found that cultural differences tended to centre around four key dimensions:

Individualism vs. collectivism: To what extent do people believe in individual responsibility and reward rather than having these measures aimed at the larger group? Contrary to the stereotype, Japan ranks in the middle of this dimension, while Indonesia and West Africa rank toward the collectivistic side. The U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands rate toward individualism.

Power distance: To what extent is there a strong separation of individuals based on rank? Power distance tends to be particularly high in Arab countries and some Latin American ones, while it is more modest in Northern Europe and the U.S.

Masculinity vs. femininity involves a more nebulous concept. Masculine values involve competition and a conquering nature by means of such as large construction projects, while feminine values involve harmony and environmental protection. Japan is one of the more masculine countries, while the Netherlands rank relatively low. The U.S. is close to the middle, slightly toward the masculine side. (The fact that these values are thought of as masculine or feminine does not mean that they are consistently held by members of each respective gender – there are very large within-group differences. There is, however, often a large correlation of these cultural values with the status of women.)

Uncertainty avoidance involves the extent to which a structured situation with clear rules is preferred to a more ambiguous one. In general, countries with lower uncertainty avoidance tend to be more tolerant of risk. Japan ranks very high. Few countries are very low in any absolute sense, but relatively speaking, Britain and Hong Kong are lower, and the U.S. is in the lower range of the distribution.

Although Hofstede’s original work did not address this, a fifth dimension of long-term vs. short-term orientation has been proposed. In the U.S., managers like to see quick results, while Japanese managers are known for taking a long-term view, often accepting long periods before profitability is obtained.

High vs. Low Context Cultures

In some cultures, ‘what you see is what you get’: the speaker is expected to make his or her points clear and limit ambiguity. This is the case in South Africa. If you have something on your mind, you are expected to say it directly, subject to some reasonable standards of diplomacy. In Japan, in contrast, facial expressions and what is not said may be an important clue to understanding a speaker’s opinion. Thus, it may be exceedingly difficult for Japanese speakers to understand another’s written communication. The nature of languages may worsen this phenomenon: while the German language is very precise, Chinese lacks many grammatical features, and the meaning of words may be somewhat less precise. English ranks somewhere in the middle of this continuum.

Ethnocentrism and the Self-Reference Criterion

The self-reference criterion refers to the tendency of individuals, often unconsciously, to use the standards of one’s own culture to evaluate others. For example, Americans may perceive more traditional societies to be ‘backward’ and ‘unmotivated’ because they fail to adopt new technologies or social customs, seeking instead to preserve traditional values. In the 1960s, a supposedly well-read American psychology professor referred to India’s culture as ‘sick’ because, despite severe food shortages, the Hindu religion did not allow the eating of cows. The psychologist expressed disgust that the cows were allowed to roam free in villages, although it turns out that they provided valuable functions by offering milk and fertilizing fields. Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one’s culture to be superior to others. The important thing here is to consider how these biases may come in the way in dealing with members of other cultures.

It should be noted that there is a tendency of outsiders to a culture to overstate the similarity of members of that culture to each other. In the United States they are well-aware that there is a great deal of heterogeneity within their culture; however, they often underestimate the diversity within other cultures. For example, in Latin America, there are great differences between people who live in coastal and mountainous areas; there are also great differences between social classes.

Language Issues

Language is an important element of culture. It should be realised that regional differences may be subtle. For example, a word may mean one thing in one Latin American country, but something different in another. It should also be kept in mind that much information is carried in non-verbal communication. In some cultures, we nod to signify ‘yes’ and shake our heads to signify ‘no’. In other culture, the practice may be reversed.

Within the context of language:

• There are often large variations in regional dialects of a given language. The differences between South African, U.S., Australian, and British English are modest compared to differences between dialects of Spanish and German.
• Idioms involve figures of speech that may not be used, literally translated, in other languages. For example, “now now” and “just now” are South Africanisms causing a lot of confusion for other English speakers. A word such as ‘robot’ is a traffic light in South Africa, but an electronic creature in most other countries.
• Neologisms involve terms that have recently come into language as technology/society evolved. With the proliferation of computer technology, for example, the idea of an add-on became widely known. It may take longer for such terms to diffuse into other regions of the world. In parts of the World where English is studied in schools, the emphasis is often on grammar and traditional language rather than on current terminology, so neologisms have a wide potential not to be understood.
• Slang exists within most languages. Again, regional variations are common and not all people in a region where slang is used will necessarily understand this. There are often significant generation gaps in the use of slang.

Psychological Factors

It includes these Factors: