Get International Clients Newsletter

Your International Business Development Idea Publisher
“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.” - Jacques Barzun U.S. educator, author.

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:

Online Marketing With 5 Different Cultural Behavior Values High Context Versus Low Context Behavior
Part 5 of 5

Recent Get International Clients Blog Topics

• What Website Do You Need To Open For International Business
• Cross Cultural Communication Web Tools – Customer Service
• Cross Cultural Communication Web Tools – Company Hierarchy
• Cross Cultural Communication Web Tools – Soft Sale
• Cross Cultural Communication Web Tools – Polite Is An Indirect Approach

Read more on www.getinternationalclients.com

Foreign Trivia

What did Croatia recently ban tourists from bringing into their country at the beginning of this tourist season?

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

Answer to last week’s trivia question: Unasur was in the news recently. Why? What is Unasur? Unasur refers to the recent Latin American initiatives on regional integration. The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) was born in Brasilia on May 23.

Feature Article

Online Marketing With 5 Different Cultural Behavior Values

High Context Versus Low Context Behavior

Part 5 of 5

This is the last of 5 weeks on the five different ways to approach cultural marketing.The five different cultural behaviors will give you better insights into how you can integrate cross cultural marketing into your internet marketing practices to get more international sales.Here is a brief reminder of all of the different values:

The 5 Different Cultural Behavior Values

Different cultures can be measured along 5 different scales:

• High Individualism versus High Collectivism Behavior
• High versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance Behavior
• High versus Low Power Distance Behavior
• High Masculinity versus High Femininity Behavior
• High versus Low Context Behavior

These different behavior scales can be used by international web marketers.

Inspiration To Market To Different Cultures

Marketing towards these behavioral needs gives internet marketers some ideas of the tools to play with and tweak to get better responses from different countries and cultures.

This is especially helpful, if you are marketing to another country at the opposite end of one or more of these scales to your country.

Only Inspiration

It is important to understand that these scales do not give you a cookie cutter strategy. Don’t stop all of your good marketing practices and start all over again with these tools.

Use these cultural tools in addition to your good web marketing practices. Use these guidelines to show you what you should try to emphasize on your website and in your web marketing. Test them. Find the right mix with all of the 5 different behavioral results.

If you think your cross cultural marketing is not speaking to your foreign market, or if you would like to improve your cross cultural communication, have a quick look at each of these behavioral traits to see the differences between you and your foreign market.

This week we will look at what is referred to as High Context versus Low Context behavior.

High Context Versus Low Context Behavior

On one end of the scale there are countries where the cultures tend towards internalizing information and embedding in context. These countries are at the high context end of the scale.

On the other end of the scale there are countries where people tend towards communication in a straightforward manner, giving details freely and clearly without any ambiguity. These countries are at the low context end of the scale.

High Context Behavior

Here are some countries considered to be at the high end of the context scale:

• Japan
• China
• Korea
• Malaysia
• Indonesia
• Thailand
• Taiwan
• Philippines
• Turkey
• Greece
• France

Low Context Behavior

Here are some countries considered to be at the low end of the context scale:

• Australia
• Austria
• Canada
• Germany
• USA
• UK
• New Zealand
• Switzerland
• Denmark
• Netherlands
• Scandinavia

Emphasize The Right Online Marketing Tools

Remember, each country has a unique cultural blend of all five of the different cultural behaviors.

Study each one of these individual cultural behaviors and identify the right mixture of things to emphasize in the country you are targeting.

It is interesting to look at the differences in your cultural behaviors when developing your international internet marketing plan.

Examples Of Tools To Use

Remember it is not only a question of having this tool on your website. It is how you emphasize these tools on your website that counts.

High Context Behavior

Here is a list of tools you could use for countries at the high end of the context scale:

• A soft sell approach
• Politeness involves indirect communication
• “Flowery” language
• Graphics are important
• Choice of colors are important

Low Context Behavior

Here is a list of tools you could use for countries at the low end of the context scale:

• A hard sell approach
• Comparative language – the leader, the best, the top…
• Company position in the economy
• Warranty

Cultural Behavioral Research Helps Online Marketing

Use the research done in cultural behavioral values to improve your cross cultural web marketing.

It is often difficult to get out of our own cultural behaviors to see the different cultural behaviors in other cultures. The easiest way to do this is to browse around a variety of websites in your target culture. Don’t try to understand things, just sit back and see what impressions you pick up.

The cultural differences will come through. You can often get a good idea of what to try on your own website afterwards.

Remember to track results and test any changes you make.

Next week we will stay on the subject of cross cultural communication and will look at the importance of perception.

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.adobe.com
Adobe is listed at 13th on John Yunker’s list of best global websites for 2008.The first impressions on navigating through this website are similar to the IBM website which we looked at last week.The main website lands on the American domestic website. The tab to change to a different country is located in the same place. And the page to choose select your country is very similar to the one on the IBM website.There is a difference. Here you have a choice of regions and countries in the drop down menu. The countries and languages are all listed in English on this first page. It is the American home page.

Once you go through to other country pages, the list is in the appropriate foreign language. The similarities to the IBM website are striking. And yet the template graphics are much more appealing on the Adobe websites..

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

Q And A

Question: What advice can you give me to prepare for my first cross cultural negotiation?

Answer: Like all negotiations, go prepared.

It is important you go into your negotiation with the right mindset, opening your own cultural responses up to meet another culture.

Do not be so focused on the cross cultural aspect and forget your basic preparation.

It is even more important to know exactly where you stand in your negotiation process. Identify the aim of your negotiation, the extent to which you can negotiated and prepare yourself fully.

Winging it rarely works in cross cultural negotiations. You must stay focused. Your basic preparation is essential.

With regards to the cross cultural aspect, a few key questions to the right person prior to your meeting is all you need before the meeting.

You will also be interested in reading what to do during your meeting:

• Your Guideline For Successful First Time Cross Cultural Negotiations In Any Culture

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 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.

How to subscribe to this newsletter

If you are receiving a forwarded copy of this newsletter and would like to subscribe, click here.

This newsletter and all content and information contained herein are the property of King Business Tools Sarl and may not be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the publisher.