Cultural Convergence - Cultural Sensitivity

 

Do you know what culture is?  Most people think it’s to do with the language you speak, the way you dress, your religion, manners and the way you eat.  Well it is – but that’s only really the beginning.

 

“Culture” is the main reason that international marketing campaigns fail.  Or to be truthful, a lack of understanding of culture is the main reason campaigns fail.  

 

You could say that “culture” is a mental framework which people in a target market use to navigate their world.  That framework is built from their education and their education comes from the way they’re taught in schools, the way their parents guide them and copying the behavior of other adults in their environment.  It’s also developed from a shared history and experience.

 

So the problem with “culture” is that it affects the way your target customers behave in everything they do – not just the way they speak or their manners.  So, for instance, this means the way they choose a mobile phone, the method they use to pay, the time of day they buy and the way they search are all directly affected by culture.

 

So when we say that our campaigns are “culturally sensitive,” we mean that we work very hard to figure out what the boundaries are and what the behavior will be from your target customers and respond to it in what we do. 

 

Back to the International SEO activities checklist »