Cultural Sensitivity and Multi-Cultural Issues in International Marketing

In creating a marketing plan for an Eastern Asian culture such as Japan, marketing teams must understand the cultural differences between Japan and the United States. Cultural values and ethics, as well as communication styles, greatly affect the success of marketing plans, as what reaches customers in the United States may fail to reach customers in Japan. The marketing plan provided addresses cross-cultural issues and how to address these in order to effectively reach Company A’s target market in Japan.

Cross-Cultural Issues

In 1975, Edward Hall’s book “Beyond Culture” on high-context and low-context cultures described two very different types of societies (Hermeking, 2005). High-context cultures are collectivist societies which are relational, intuitive, and contemplative, and place a high value on interpersonal relationships and community connections. Japan is an example of a high-context culture. Low-context cultures, including the United States, are individualist in nature and value personal success and power over family and community relationships. High- and low-context cultures are ruled by different sets of values and ethics. In marketing to a Japanese audience, Company A will need to make significant changes in advertising in order to effectively reach this new audience.

Other high-context multi-media concepts include the use of text, sound, and video together. A high degree of web interaction is generally successful with Japanese consumers with hyperlinks, clickable items, visual imagery, and pop-up icons leading to accessing further web content (Hermeking, 2005). Many United States consumers do not like the busy nature of these features, so Company A will need to change the perspective on what does and does not attract customers in terms of web design and marketing.

Variance in cultural values is the main cause of these differences. Lee et al. (2002) explain that the Internet can have functional, emotional, and social value. Functional value encompasses the practical benefits of the internet such as communication and searching for information. Emotional value relates to meeting psychological needs such as fun or distraction through the Internet. Social value is the benefit a user gains from connecting to others through use of the Internet. Japanese Internet users value functionality over social and emotional needs (Lee et al., 2002), so Company A needs to evaluate the ease of use, convenience, and value of the information provided when devising a marketing strategy.

Visual aesthetics should also be considered in Company A’s marketing strategies for Japan. Visual scenes in advertising implicitly represent cultural values and characteristics (Hermeking, 2005), and even small differences in background and text colors, presentation of people, and product display should be adapted to fit within specific cultural dimensions. Japanese consumers respond well to bright colors, flashy images, or illustrations. This varies highly from serious advertising styles in many other cultures. Company A should consider using bright and noticeable visual imagery and colors in order to not be ignored in the flashy Japanese consumer market.

Cross-Cultural Communication

In addition to understanding Japanese values, Company A needs to assess how communication varies between the United States and Japan. The usage patterns of the Internet are quite different among different countries. Japanese citizens are much more likely than United States citizens to use mobile Internet, such as on cell phones or tablets, to participate in many activities other than verbal communication such as email, business transactions, games, and social media interaction (Lee et al., 2002).

Japanese culture is far more introverted than United States culture. In a review of websites, Hermeking (2005) found that Japanese audiences respond more positively to soft-sell appeal while the majority of United States web marketing uses hard-sell techniques. Subtle, indirect, and quiet persuasion are far more likely to influence customers than high-pressure or pushy techniques which may cause the consumer to feel attacked or offended. This is likely because Japanese culture is, in general, more polite and less forceful than U.S. culture. Similarly, verbal headlines and slogans differed significantly between cultures, especially in terms of linguistics, tone of address, and the use of plural pronouns such as “we” rather than “you.” This correlates the ideas of marketing to a high-context culture.

Ethical Differences in Marketing Strategies

The cultural values and ethics of a country are formed mainly through socialization, education, and religion. Other factors that affect the ethics of a country include laws, organizational culture, and professional environments (Pitta, Fung, & Isberg, 1999).

One major difference in the behavioral and ethical cultures of the United States and Japan is the importance placed on politeness and privacy. The Japanese culture places a high level of importance on personal space and privacy, displayed through an elevation of politeness in communication and the emphasis on physical space when speaking to another person (Pitta et al., 1999). This reflects basic business ethics. In the United States, business ethics mainly revolve around truthfulness in advertising such as not hiding information, falsely portraying a product, or selling defective goods. While Japanese business ethics also focus on these areas, additional ethics regarding privacy are listed in order to ensure the protection of consumer information and respond sincerely to concerns regarding privacy (Japanese Direct Marketing Association, 1984). Additionally, the Japanese culture of politeness is addressed in the ethical focus on avoiding consumer complaints and dealing with any complaints in a quick and thorough manner.

In addition to ensuring complete accuracy of the information on the internet and print advertisements, Company A should proactively have in place a system of responding to any consumer questions and complaints. Customer service and communication should be a priority in this area with specific attention paid to Japanese communication styles as previously mentioned in this marketing assessment. In particular, consumer information should not be given to third parties or placed on solicitor telephone lists as these methods of marketing are considered more of a breach of privacy in Japan than in the United States.

Conclusion

The above information shows clearly that Company A must make some significant changes in marketing and advertising techniques in order to successfully reach East Asian consumers such as those in Japan. Linguistics, tone, visual aspects, and approach must all be geared towards a high-context culture, as Japanese consumers respond much differently to advertising than United States consumers. Hard-sell techniques should be completely avoided and replaced with more subtly persuasive sales strategies. Websites should use bright colors and interesting images. Marketing materials should address functionality clearly and simply, but also use multi-media elements to link viewers to other Company A information or web pages. Most importantly, sales techniques should always respect the privacy of Japanese consumers, as this is a high value in the culture.

References

Hermeking, M. (2005). Culture and Internet Consumption: Contributions from Cross‐Cultural Marketing and Advertising Research. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 11(1), 192-216.

Lee, Y., Kim, J., Lee, I., & Kim, H. (2002). A Cross-Cultural Study on the Value Structure of Mobile Internet Usage: Comparison Between Korea and Japan. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 3(4), 227-239.

Japan Direct Marketing Association. (1984). The Direct Marketing Code of Ethics. Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://www.jadma.org/e/guideline/01.html

Pitta, D., Fung, H., & Isberg, S. (1999). Ethical Issues Across Cultures: Managing the Differing Perspectives of China and the USA. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 16(3), 240-256.