Sawat-dee Khrab, I am Ronald McDonald from Thailand!Edward T. Hall introduced the terms High-context and Low-context cultures in his book, Beyond Cultures (1976). High-context cultures places emphasis on delivery of the information to the receiver and the settings, while a low-context culture focuses on the transmitted message in order to make sense of the context. For students who do not pay attention in class, this just means that high-context cultures focus on the packaging of a present, while low-context cultures focus on it's contents. No Manik, put your hands down.
(High Context Cultures)
Japan
Arab Countries
Greece
Spain
Italy
England
France
North America
Sweden
Germany
(Low Context Cultures)
Japan
Arab Countries
Greece
Spain
Italy
England
France
North America
Sweden
Germany
(Low Context Cultures)
The above shows a list of countries, ranging from High to Low context. They have been linked to their respective McDonald's website. Next, we shall focus on the 2 ends of the continuum, namely Japan and Germany, and let us look at how intercultural communications helped shaped these websites.
Main Welcome Page
Main welcome page of McDonald's Japan
Main welcome page of McDonald's Germany
From the outlook of both the main welcome pages, it is obvious that Japan makes heavy use of images to orientate it's visitors, while Germany chooses to jump straight to the point, and use words. Also note the plain backdrop of the German website, compared with the Japanese one.
Menu Page
Menu page for kid's Happy Meal, Japan
Menu page for kid's Happy Meal, Germany
Again, it is evident, even in a page meant for kids, that the German website has chosen to use words and information. For example, menu item 1 has '100% fillet' labeled next to the burger, while menu item 3 says something about 'C Multivitamins'. In contrast, the Japanese website has cutsie images showing the toys accompanying the Happy Meals. We're not even told what kind of toy the German kids will get with their happy meals.
Poking around the rest of the website reveals more evidence on the practice of intercultural communications in the planning of these websites, but I stop here. Satisfaction comes not from having all the answers, but from watching other people find them. What other differences do you notice from the Japanese and German websites? Or can you think of other multinational companies who make use of Intercultural Communications in the planning and preparation of their websites?
Main Welcome Page
Main welcome page of McDonald's Japan
Main welcome page of McDonald's GermanyFrom the outlook of both the main welcome pages, it is obvious that Japan makes heavy use of images to orientate it's visitors, while Germany chooses to jump straight to the point, and use words. Also note the plain backdrop of the German website, compared with the Japanese one.
Menu Page
Menu page for kid's Happy Meal, Japan
Menu page for kid's Happy Meal, GermanyAgain, it is evident, even in a page meant for kids, that the German website has chosen to use words and information. For example, menu item 1 has '100% fillet' labeled next to the burger, while menu item 3 says something about 'C Multivitamins'. In contrast, the Japanese website has cutsie images showing the toys accompanying the Happy Meals. We're not even told what kind of toy the German kids will get with their happy meals.
Poking around the rest of the website reveals more evidence on the practice of intercultural communications in the planning of these websites, but I stop here. Satisfaction comes not from having all the answers, but from watching other people find them. What other differences do you notice from the Japanese and German websites? Or can you think of other multinational companies who make use of Intercultural Communications in the planning and preparation of their websites?
As i've mentioned, this entry is was a joy to read. Firstly, the cultural context analysis at both ends were very interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt was made even clearer now that i've seen the advertisements here. Well, i'll like to add on about Macdonald's rivals, KFC. I've seen some of the commercials and i have to agree, after detailed observation of a few clips, that the Asian Culture (esp japan and korea) are more expressive in their actions rather than the europeans.
The white go all jibber jabber about sending the message across to us which in fact, in my opinion, is more effective because of how it can draw one to understand it better. Asian commercials requires one to be more involved or well-versed with their unique culture to understand the meaning behind it.
Question i have is, will the West or East ever influence each other in sending a message?
thank you for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteto answer your question, in my opinion, the answer is yes. let me share a story with you.
IBM requested parts from a trial project, with the specification “We will accept three defective parts per ten thousand.” The Japanese manufactured the parts, and sent them with a note: “We, the Japanese people, had a hard time understanding North American business practices. But the three defective parts per 10,000 have been separately manufactured and have been included in the consignment. Hope this pleases you.”
hope you find this insightful!
Interesting observation. This theory of high and low context can be likened to our social psychology's concept of soft and hard sell. Soft sell emphasizes the visual image of the product, while hard sell concerns itself with the content.
ReplyDeleteI think that knowing what consumers want is the first step to a good marketing strategy. Being versatile would be an advantage in a multi-cultural/diverse context. However, a company needs to have a strong branding in order to be successful in communicating using different styles. Otherwise, its identity will be diffused. MacDonald's has no problem with that.
I can't help but digress; the sandwiches in McDonald's (England) look so darn good.
Another interesting read Zed! Your posts never fail to teach me something new.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, it all boils down to culture/social constructs that shape society's inhabitants. An effective commercial here in Singapore would not be as appealing to people of another culture! At the end of the day, advertising/marketing is all about knowing your audience.
Regards,
Shawn Lee Wei Bin
It's correct that the contrast between the Macs-Japan and Macs-Germany websites could be due to cultural influences. Japan has always been famous for everything cute and visual from Hello Kitty and Tamagotchi to anime and 'cosplay', and even cartoon characters derived from flattened bread. The Japanese take pride in prettying up their bento boxes, and there are even competitions for such. I visited the Macs-Singapore website and I'm not surprised to see banners screaming of home delivery services and 24-hr outlets. The supper culture in Singapore makes such services indispensable. It's definitely invaluable for an international company to adopt the local culture of whichever country they are in, not only to boost revenue but also to ensure acceptance and not censure. Think back to how the China people boycotted Carrefour outlets in China due to France's alleged boycott of the Beijing Olympics. What was Carrefour's remedy? To have all the employees wear red to show support and solidarity for their host country China. Face it, the old adage is so true: when in Rome do as the Romans do.
ReplyDelete'when in Rome do as the Romans do'. this is a classic example of Adapting to Group Pressures in Group Communications.
ReplyDeleteconforming to written and unwritten norms will help you gain Idiosyncrasy Credit, as shown by the act of Carrefour having their employees wear red uniforms.
maybe you should be taking this module too!
hey zed,
ReplyDeletepardon my ignorance but who are you?!
anyway, i find your posts an insightful pleasure to read. you should write a textbook!
Hi Zed,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, apologies for the long due comment owed.
In the current world of consumer centric markets, it is only normal that the organization adapts its marketing tools to the demographics of the country that they are selling in.
Germans, I suppose from their strong engineering background, read very much into details of everything they see.
As for Japanese, they are very much into aesthetics (think Sony), therefore the strong graphics representation.
This would be probably associating with the need for cognition. Germans in this case would belong to people with high need for cognition, with Japanese belonging to the low side.
Just my 2cents worth ;)
wow this is a really good entry about the different cultural context, quite amazed that you took the effort to go search though the different countries' macs webpages. and i wouldnt have expected that what was taught in class to be like so obvious as shown by the different styles of the websites. was just wondering in a high context culture does it mean that they provide less information (due to more emphasis on delivery of the information to the receiver) than those provided from a low context culture?
ReplyDeleteHi Eng Hao,
ReplyDeleteto answer your question, let us look at the example of the 2 websites i have used. looking at the German Happy meal webpage, it tells us facts like the vitamin and mineral found in their meals. in contrast, the Japanese Happy meal website uses more pictures to deliver what they wish to say.
at the end of the day, i wouldn't say that one website provides 'less' information that the other. it all comes down to what is the message being delivered, and the methods and strategies used by the advertiser to deliver it.
i hope that answered your question!
I find intercultural communication pretty fascinating. And that spectrum of high-to-low context.. i guess it pays dividends to be aware of the environment/culture when deciding to do business in a place. How the people think, what their usual practices are, preferred sytles of communication, and what makes them tick.
ReplyDeleteI think communication and psychology are both very interesting subjects.. I guess these subjects themselves, are pretty high-context fields of study. Don't you think? (=
Tony Han, i agree with you. Great minds do think alike.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is why i'm attempting a Double Major in Communications and Psychology. One must know what to say(Communications), and when as well as how to say it(Psychology)!
Wow i never knew macdonalds had such a good website. i guess i was wrong when i thought i knew all about macdonalds. crawling out of my well, i see that macs has used the millions of cultures to their advertising advantage. This is important to any company who was to make it big! i feel that u need to know who u are talking to before encoding any message to suit the needs or wants of that person!
ReplyDelete-know your enemy know yourself, dontknow your enemy kill yourself-
ah yes, taking into account the culture of each country for the website and advertisements. but whenever i think of mcdonald's now, the advertisement played during the beijing olympics come to mind, with the atheletes happily carrying trays of the junk food around. regardless of that being played in a high/low context culture, i personally viewed that ad in quite a bad light as it simply portrayed a misleading image.
ReplyDeleteHi zed, I find the Macdonald's website very interesting. What Macdonald does is that instead of introducing a standard culture for all the countries that they are in, for example Gelare` Carls Junior. They absorb the culture of each individual country and introduce their fast food culture together with it. What I meant is that the western fast food culture now protrays an image that has a connection with the local context. As for singapore, we do see special promotions during festive seasons.
ReplyDeleteI will have to respect Macdonalds for allowing certain local culture being integrated into their menu making us feel that Macdonalds is "Singaporean".
Maccers, in my opinion, has the best marketing team in the world. I suppose its due to the fact that all the MacDonald's in the world are actually franchises. So in some way, the marketing team for each country's MacDonald's will actually cater to their own local needs. Like tailoring to fit. That's even the same case for IKEA. Think Chinese New Year decorations, Muslim food etc. In IKEAs in other countries, of course, the needs are much different. Hence all the colourful cultural differences in the brand campaign.
ReplyDeletewell this has been an interesting read. though i do not know any of ur contextual terms as i'm not in the field of study, i can only state my observations between the two countries' ads for Macs.
ReplyDeleteThe japanese are all abt cutesy. they like all things kawaii, and it seems to be even part of their culture. Hence, it plainly shows. not just for macs, but for almost every other kind of ads/books/manuals. they prefer to be taught and receive messages in a more visual form.
whereas its plain (pun unintended) to see that the germans (or any other western countries for that matter) are more straightforward with their conveying of messages. ALMOST like a "wham! bam! thank you ma'am!" -- straight to the point and cutting all the leaves that comes with the flowers (now u cant say that i never ever give u flowers can u? cos i just did).
we're neither japanese nor german, so with regards to info and knowledge absorption, i think we can safely tackle both.
but imho, i safely prefer the visual step-by-step pictures i get in my manuals and reference books. if it comes integrated with highlighted facts along with it at the bottom of the pics, that will do great, thank you.
we dont want to be wasting our time trying to fix a jigsaw puzzle with just pictures and not getting what they mean, right?
Shaun- 'we don't want to be wasting our time trying to fix a jigsaw puzzle with just pictures and not getting what they mean, right?'
ReplyDeletethat is a very insightful thing to say. i think another phrase for it is 'getting the big picture'.
you may not be attending this module, but i guess what you have applied here is the communications concept that the message is just as important as the delivery method!
I agree that culture does play a great role in influencing the psychological make up of people.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, media has also played a role in influencing our mindset, especially for fast food advertisements featuring the convenience, "nutritional factors" and new products of various fast food chains.
The catchy songs used in the advertisements can even capture children attention..Kids nowadays learn their alphabets with A=apple dippers, B=burger and of course, M=Macdonald's (:
Good application of theories!