For most people, ‘local people like to buy from local people’ applies. Ideally, organizations would therefore be wise to adapt their online cross-border activities to the local culture. However, this involves much more than translating the website from Dutch, adapting the assortment, payment systems, currencies and logistics. Local online players who have really tailored their offer to the needs of the home market (such as Wehkamp and Marktplaats) always have a big advantage over international players due to their implicit knowledge of the home market culture.
Successful cross-border activities must therefore be
A well-tuned to the culture and needs of consumers in the local markets. Otherwise they will not stand a chance alongside the home players. McDonalds and list to data Ikea are examples of companies that adapt their websites and (online) activities well to the local culture . I will give a few examples of a number of cultural aspects below and show how these influence sales processes.
Symbols fuckyou like symbolIn every country there are different symbols. The same symbols can mean something different in every country. An example is the ‘thumbs up’ like of Facebook. In some countries in Africa and the Middle East this is comparable to the middle finger gesture. Companies that do business there and use a Facebook page with the thumbs up symbol also regularly receive complaints about this. Imagine an African company has a website for the European market with the following symbol to ‘like’ a product, you would also be confused.
Colors also have a specific emotion in each culture
Red means happiness in China, in Japan it means anger or danger, in Egypt it is associated with death and for Americans with danger or stopping. If you choose the wrong color scheme your assortment can be associated with the wrong things.
Heroes
Using celebrities to endorse your product works well in countries with a masculine culture, where celebrities have real status. In the Netherlands, we don’t really have any real heroes. The rule is more like ‘just act normal, then you’re already crazy.
Anyone who sees this McDonalds commercial in Germany may recognize Heidi Klum as a top model. But caseno email listthat the second girl is Barbara Meijer, who won Germany’s next top model in 2008, is really unknown outside Germany. The flirting that the boy does with both women is also not something technology as the enabler of customization that is common in the Netherlands.
In the masculine Anglo-Saxon countries you stumble over celebrities endorsing products, where there is usually competition and wanting to be the best. Look for example at the recent Nike .