GIC Newsletter 9th June 2008
Get International Clients Newsletter
In This Issue: 
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:
Recent Get International Clients Blog Topics
-
Go Viral With Video Marketing – Special Sound And Motion Effects
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Why Video Marketing Needs To Be Part Of Your Cross Cultural Marketing Strategy
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Use A Multicultural Internet Marketing Strategy To Develop Your International Business
Read more on www.getinternationalclients.com
Foreign Trivia
Foreign Trivia What did the European Central Bank celebrate earlier this month?
Send your answers to cindy@cindyking.biz with “Foreign Trivia” in the subject line.
Answer to last week’s trivia question: If you are in Estonia, which currency do you need to have to use? Under Estonian law the crown is the only legal tender in Estonia. Now a test carried out by the newspaper Postimees has shown that tourists in the Estonian capital of Tallinn have no problems paying in euros.
Feature Article
Online Marketing With 5 Different Cultural Behavior Values
Power Distance
Part 3 of 5
This is the third out of 5 weeks we are spending looking at five different ways to approach cultural marketing.
This will give you better insights into how you can integrate cross cultural marketing into your internet marketing practices to get more international sales.As we previously, cultural researchers refer to different behavioral values in different cultures. Geert Hofstede researched this a few decades ago.And these different behavioral values are outlined in many reference books. They are also outlined in the book The Culturally Customized Web Site by Nitish Singh and Arun Pereira. I wrote a review of this book recently on www.CindyKing.biz.
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 internet marketers.
Inspiration To Market To Different Cultures
Marketing towards these behavioral needs gives internet marketers 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.
And Remember, This Is Only Inspiration
It is important to understand that these scales cannot give you a cookie cutter strategy. This does not mean you must through all of your good marketing practices to the wind and start all over again.
They are useful to show you what you should try emphasizing in your online marketing.
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.
Last week we looked at Uncertainty Avoidance in cultural behavior.
This week we will look at what is referred to as Power Distance.
Power Distance
On one end of the scale there are countries where the cultures tend towards a belief in authority and hierarchy.
On the other end of the scale there are countries where people tend towards a society of distributing power.
High Power Distance
Here are some countries considered to be high on the Power Distance scale:
- Malaysia
- Panama
- Guatemala
- Philippines
- Venezuela
- Mexico
- China
- Arab World
- Indonesia
- Ecuador
Low Power Distance
Here are some countries considered to be low on the Power Distance scale:
- Austria
- Israel
- Denmark
- New Zealand
- Ireland
- Norway
- Sweden
- Finland
- Switzerland
- Costa Rica
Emphasize The Right Online Marketing Tools
Each country has a unique cultural blend of all five of the different cultural behaviors.
Study each one of these individual cultural behaviors to 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 Online For High Power Distance
Here is a list of tools you could use for countries high on the scale of Power Distance.
Remember it is not only having this tool on your website it is also how it is emphasized that counts.
- Show company hierarchy
- List appropriate titles for all employees
- Have pictures of the CEO
- Highlight the management vision statement
- Mention awards and certifications
- Reference valued customers and their satisfaction
Countries With Low Power Distance Scores
There are no special tools to emphasize for countries that score low on the Power Distance scale.
Look at their scores on the other four behaviors to find the right tools to emphasize.
Cultural Behavioral Research Helps Online Marketing
The research done in cultural behavioral values has helped traditional international marketing in the past. Internet marketers can also use this research to help develop their international markets.
There are often ways and formats of communicating online towards each behavioral value.
Easy testing and tracking gives internet marketing more scope to refine different cultural approaches and improve international results.
Spend a little time surfing on websites from countries with different placements on the individualism and collectivism scale. Even if you do not speak the language you can often get a feel for the style of communication.
Next week we will look at the third behavioral trait: Masculinity versus Femininity Behavior
Example Of Websites With Global Business
The 3M global website comes 18th on John Yunker’s list of best global websites for 2008. It has an interesting layout, which we have not really come across in the other global websites we have looked at.There is a list of 8 major countries with direct links to localized websites. And then underneath there is an invitation to select your country which leads to a world map divided into regions and then countries and languages. This second page leads to many more localized websites.It is interesting to note that the first 8 major countries appear to use a different website template than the other countries listed under the page with all of the regions and the world map.
John Yunker researches and publishes a list of the best globalized websites.
Q And A
Q And AQuestion: What are the first steps in creating an international marketing blog?
Answer: This is an interesting question that came in last week.
There are two things you have to determine right from the start.
You need to identify which kind of international business your company is able to do at present. See my article:
You then need to clearly identify which type of marketing you will be using. Again see another article of mine:
Once you know where you are, you then need to research your target market’s needs.
You will need to determine whether you are writing one blog to target one broad international audience.
Or whether you will be using cross cultural marketing skills to target one specific country and culture at a time.
A blog is a great business marketing tool in many countries. But it may not work well in the country you are targeting. You will need to verify this first through traditional market research and cross cultural behavioral analysis.
Once you have the answers to these questions, you will know how to proceed in creating your international marketing blog.
This month we are covering all 5 of the different cross cultural behaviors in this Get International Clients weekly newsletter. Be sure to stay tuned.
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?
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cindy@cindyking.biz or +33 6 98 91 86 11 How to subscribe to this newsletter
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