Get International Clients Newsletter

Your International Business Development Idea Publisher
“To know another’s language and not his culture
is a very good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self”- Winston Brembeck

In This Issue:

Regular Weekly Columns:

• Recent Get International Clients Blog Topics
• Foreign Trivia
• Example Of Websites With Global Business
• Q & A
• Are You Missing International Business Opportunities?

This Weeks Feature Article:

The Different Definitions and Meanings Of Color
In Cross Cultural Communication

Recent Get International Clients Blog Topics

• Website Design – How To Hire The Right Website Designer For Your International Audience
• Resource Guide – Translation Widget
• The 7 Traditional Paths To International Business Development
• Small Business Action Strategy For First Time International Business Development
• Website Design – How To Speed Up Your Website For All Of Your Visitors

Read more on www.getinternationalclients.com

Foreign Trivia

Britain’s tallest cathedral is 123m tall. Where is it ?

Send your answers to cindy@cindyking.biz with “Foreign Trivia” in the subject line.

Answer to last week’s trivia question: Of these universities, which is the newest: Salamanca, Paris’ Sorbonne, Oxford, Bologna? The Sorborne. It was founded in 1257. Bologna in 1088. Oxford in 1167. Salamanca in 1218

Feature Article

The Different Definitions and Meanings Of Color
In Cross Cultural Communication

The use of color plays a role in cross cultural communication.Cultural References To ColorFirst of all, some languages have a wider choice of words to describe certain colors. And these words may actually refer to very different shades or variations of a color.Some cultures pay more attention to the variations of certain colors. Here are some examples:

• Eskimos have many different words to describe snow and its color.
• In India the different variations of the color brown are described with precision.

Colors Associated With Emotions

Colors can be used to express emotions in most cultures. And these colors change and are associated with different colors depending on the culture.

Envy – can be associated with yellow or green

Color Symbolizations

Here are some meanings and uses of colors in different countries

Black

• Germany – Death, grief, hopelessness and formality
• Mexico – Mourning and respect
• United States – Death, sophistication and formality
• United Kingdom – Death and formality

White

• Purity in western cultures
• Death, rebirth and serenity in India
• Victory and purity in Africa
• Death, mourning and purity in ChinaVirginity in the United States

See other colors and their associations in the Multicultural Marketing 101 Guide.

Color Combinations

Certain color combinations have meanings. Here are a few examples:

• Black on red – symbolizes happiness in China
• Red on white – symbolizes celebration in Japan

Color Associations

Colors can be associated with people and different things.

Red – in Japanese red is associated with being:

• sincere of heart or “red heart”
• a perfect stranger or “red stranger”
• stark naked or “red naked”

Blue – in Japanese blue is associated with:

• “a blue-eyed outsider” is a white Caucasian
• “blue breath” is an anxious sigh
• “a blue things shop” is a vegetable shop
• “a blue tower” is a brothel

Black – in German black is associated with:

• “to drive black” is to drive without a license
• “a black seer” is someone who has a television but doesn’t pay the TV license and it also refers to a pessimist.
• “a black sender” refers to a private broadcasting station

Find out if there is a strong cultural association with certain colors in your target country.

The best way to verify the right use of colors is to have your website and cross cultural communication materials reviewed by an appropriate person in your target country.

Most of the time you will not need any further help with color associations. When in doubt ask for professional cultural marketing advice.

Example Of Websites With Global Business

It can be daunting when starting out. How do you go about creating a good global website and then culturally customized websites?

There are many steps a company takes to become totally international.

To give you an idea of what is recognized as a global website, have a look at another company website:

www.Volvo.com Volvo is rated 3rd on the best global websites in 2008 by John Yunker. Volvo has a very interesting set up.This main website leads to their 8 different corporate entities. This is very clearly indicated on their main website.Most visitors will move on to Volvo’s Car division, so that is where I went and landed on www.volvocars.com. I found this a very smooth transition, although it does take one extra step to get where I wanted to go.

VolvoCars uses a template format often used by the leading global websites. This template lists countries divided into geographic regions in English.

It is interesting to see a separate full “International” website. As someone living abroad, I appreciate this very much.

This International website is listed under a “Global” category where there are two other websites: “International Fleet Sales” and “Diplomat, Military and Expat Sales”.

This is also very interesting. Volvo has localized websites by countries and it also has customized websites for their main business categories.

Without a doubt it is very easy to see why Volvo is in third position as the best global websites this year.

John Yunker researches and publishes a list of the best globalized websites.

Q And A

Question: How do you target global markets?

Answer: This question can be misleading? And I don’t have your company background.

First of all you need to establish your current position. See the article on Get International Clients on the 5 Traditional Marketing Steps To Become An International Business.

Read this article to find out where your company falls.

As you are a GIC reader, I will assume that you currently have products selling to a domestic market and you do not have many international clients.

Your next logical step is to move from Domestic Marketing into Export Marketing.

In Export Marketing you will be selling your domestic products to clients abroad.

And the step after Export Marketing is International Marketing.

In International Marketing you will adapt your products, or create new products for one or two countries.

It is not easy to jump from Domestic Marketing right into

International Marketing. This takes significant international market research and time to find the right product.

Start with Export Marketing, use this as a phase to learn about your foreign markets and move towards International Marketing.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure your website is friendly to all of your visitors, both domestic and international visitors.

Read more on how to internationalize your website and have a look at The First International Action Plan here

Read more on Get International Clients.

If you have a question on how to get more international clients, leave your question at cindy@cindyking.biz .

Are You Missing International Business Opportunities?

King Business Tools makes International Communication Affordable even for Small Businesses

Stop missing opportunities! King Business Tools’ Monthly International Content Creation Packages integrates Internet and Traditional Marketing Strategies for international lead generation. We provide companies like yours with an affordable way to create a business presence in foreign markets fast. Or are you unsure of the opportunities you are missing? Do you need ideas? If you need help in defining how to focus your international business expansion, sign up for a 39 point international analysis of your current internet presence and get an hours live phone session with the King Business Tools Idea Factory.The International Business Idea Factory run by King Business Tools covers expertise in North American and European business expansion. Get started today — contact me at: cindy@cindyking.biz or +33 6 98 91 86 11 Contact me now to learn more about how I can help you Generate More International Leads For You Today.Cindy King is based just south of Paris, she runs King Business Tools, a French Company, to provide European and North American companies.

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