Bridging Cultural Barriers to trade
The ability to cross cultural divide is an important factor that influences the success or failure of an exporter in foreign markets
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By Rajesh Narula
At some level or the other, every international marketing effort is faced by the daunting prospect of crossing the chasm that separates two cultures. Marketing case studies are replete with entertaining faux pas by even MNCs on this count. When Purdue Chicken advertised in a Latin American market with its campaign "it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," the message in translation came out as "it takes a tough man to make a chicken aroused"! Similarly, General Motors launched a car in Latin America called "Nova" which sounded like "nao va" meaning "does not go" in Spanish. Evidently, a car which does not go, does not sell, and sales plummeted. When a global corporation launched detergent powder in the Middle East, its poster campaign tried to educate the customers on the ease of using detergent powder with the help of three photographs. The first showed a dirty piece of cloth being held over a bucket of soapy water, the middle picture showed the cloth being dipped in the bucket of soapy water and the third picture on the extreme right showed a sparkling white cloth coming out of the bucket. Not surprisingly, the sales went south till the company realized that in the Middle East consumers read from right to left.
With the opening up of foreign markets, Indian exporters have a long way to go before they gather cultural understanding of countries other than the English speaking ones. Thus most these exporters prefer to operate in their comfort zones and studiously avoid many lucrative non-English speaking European, Latin American and Asian markets. This holds true even for leaders in the knowledge industries that are usually among the foremost to incorporate change. Yet, that luxury may no longer be available as markets in the English speaking countries are reaching saturation levels and are being targeted by predators such as China which is now aggressively promoting English among its population. While some macro-level measures are being taken by the Government to increase our presence in the new emerging markets, Indian exporters also have to make their own efforts to reduce the cultural gap with these countries and adapt their business culture to that of the target market.
Very often this requires little more than a willingness to give up annoying cultural habits, and change for the better. While the impact of culture on elements of the marketing mix such as product definition, pricing strategies, channels of distribution, and advertising and communication, can still be managed by most good B-School graduates, it is the individual eccentricities, insensitiveness, and rigid behaviour that prove to be the Achilles’ heel in export negotiations.
This is of critical importance in business dealings with countries such as France and Japan that have a rich cultural heritage and take pride in it. A cultural sensitivity and respect is important in business dealings with these markets and no business can happen without it. While an American businessman may still do business with a partner he does not like, if the product or service is good, French or Japanese businessman will not deal with a business associate he does not like, even if the product or service is very good.
An American company learnt it the hard way in one high profile case reported by the New York Times a few years ago. After a series of successful rounds of negotiations between the American organization and its Japanese counterparts, the Americans took a new manager in the closing round. After the initial introductions and exchange of visiting cards, the discussions progressed. In between, the new American manager absently picked up the card of a member of the Japanese team and started to dig a piece of food between his teeth with it! As any MBA worth his IB degree knows, this is akin to harakiri in negotiating with the Japanese. The multimillion dollar deal was lost due to the insensitivity of a thick skinned American.
While cultural sensitization to specific markets is a comprehensive area, I would like to highlight some typical idiosyncrasies that we Indians seem to guard zealously in the name of culture. These are the 5Ps and the 4Is.
Platter – Time and again I find, Indians who go abroad, refuse to be adventurous in their cuisine and prefer to stick to their traditional Indian dishes that they have been used to eating at home. Were it out of a passionate respect for the culture, like in the case of the French, it would at least be appreciable. Unfortunately, our obstinacy about dal, chawal or whatever one is used to eating, is simply an indication of a closed mind that is unwilling to accept change. Many projects in the knowledge sector are known to suffer because of such homesickness among young techies.
Punctuality – The Indian Standard Time has become a joke for the tardiness that has become characteristic of our work and social life. This is simply unacceptable to most productive societies of the world, and particularly the Germans, Swiss, etc.
Precision – A careless, devil-may-care attitude plagues our work ethos. From simple typographical errors in communication to a lackadaisical approach to customer responsiveness or service delivery, a significant amount of unproductive, incorrect, and imprecise behaviour is tolerated under our "chalta hai" attitude, and has become endemic to our culture. I have lost count of the times I have been told by Germans, Italians, Portuguese and all that "eet ees too slow here".
Poise – An erect body, eye contact, and firm handshake go a long way in building rapport and breaking the ice in European cultures. With unfailing regularity, however, I find Indians greeting foreign partners with a limp handshake and slouch, shift eyes, and a constantly bobbing head.
Parochialism – Narrow minded addiction to dogmas, beliefs and mores make us prone to sitting in judgment over other value systems or beliefs. We need to be more open and accepting of other social and cultural practices to understand their business ethos and build rapport.
Inability to say No – For various cultural, socio-economic and psychological reasons, we Indians find it difficult to admit that we can not deliver a product or service or transaction. This is more pronounced among small exporters who often bite off more than they can chew and are unwilling to admit it to their foreign business partners. Consequently, business relations get ruined when deadlines are not met, product quality is below par, quantities are not as per agreement, costs overrun etc. And little by little, India Inc. as a whole gains a negative reputation.
Improper feedback and control – It is one thing when things go wrong and a deadline or delivery schedule can not be met. It is quite another to keep the foreign partner in the dark and not let him know of the risk. Our desire to please and inability to admit our limitations keep exporters firefighting till the last moment and spring a surprise on the foreign buyer when things spin out of control eventually.
Ill mannered – Inquisitiveness into personal affairs, bringing up taboo subjects such as religion and politics, invading the private space and time of others, are considered de rigeur in our "culture". These are but some of the wide variety of innovations in which we can demonstrate uncouth behaviour. Others include disrespect for civic rules, jumping queues, loud talking, littering, etc. Indeed we are immensely gifted at annoying behaviour that does little to build business relations.
Insincerity – While insincerity is an individual personality trait and exists all over the world, the sheer numbers of our population make the experience more pronounced. Insincere behaviour is reflected in a range of attributes from false flattery to false promises and cheating. There are numerous cases of cheating, particularly from small exporters that make exporting from India collectively more difficult. Even tourists from India, in places as far as Greece, are treated with disdain and told "we don’t trust Indians".
These are some of the key problem areas that are most commonly found. Thanks to the diversity of our society, there is an immense scope for value subtractions in this paradigm based on regional cultures. I am reminded here of the American Professor who went as guest faculty in Hyderabad University. During the lecture he asked frequently, "Is it clear?", and the overawed students simply nodded in agreement - except that their nod of agreement was from side to side instead of up and down. Needless to say, after numerous attempts to make himself understood, the poor professor went back highly demoralized. Please don’t let that happen to our customers, at least for the sake of future generations.
(The author is a marketing consultant)
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Two-Days Training Programme for exporters in Jalandhar (June 20-21, 2007)
FIEO (Northern Region) is organizing a two days training programme for exporters in Jalandhar on June 20-21, 2007. The programme is being organized with the assistance of regional office of EEPC at Jalandhar and Regional Jt. DGFT, Ludhiana. The programme will cover:
Specialists from IIFT, trade-related Ministries and FIEO will constitute the faculty. For more details & participation, please contact:
Director (Northern Region), Federation of Indian Export Organisations at Tel: 011-26150118; 46042118; 46042222; 26150066; Fax:011-26148194 E-mail: fieo@nda.vsnl.net.in |
