Cross Cultural Consulting: How to Avoid Culture Gone Wrong
Understanding the need for cross cultural consulting is critical for success in the game of global
business.
Many companies fail to sail smoothly into international markets. The reason most often for the failure to
launch is a lack of cultural competency. It is paramount for a company to undergo cross cultural
consulting before they head into a new international market. Cross cultural consulting will help
them to develop a sense of their new customers and the cultural climate they would like to infiltrate.
What resonates with one culture doesn't always resonate with the next. Even worse, what was effective in
one culture may be ineffective, or even disastrous, in another.
Marketing with cultural competency can only be achieved through cross cultural consulting. Targeting an
international market takes finesse and cultural savvy. Several layers of the culture must be considered.
Cross cultural consulting will assist your company with launching into a new international market and
giving your company a voice that will be heard and well-received.
Cross cultural consulting will provide your company's message with a needed international voice that
speaks to appropriate markets. Cross cultural consulting will provide common ground between your company
or ad agency with worldwide audiences.
Bloopers and blunders are loads of fun except when the joke is on the tagline you've spent months
developing. Although they seem hilarious, their consequences can be dire to success.
Here are a few examples of where not having cross cultural consulting and operating from cultural
ignorance can lead to negative, albeit humorous, consequences.
Culture Gone Wrong
- The Swedish furniture giant IKEA somehow agreed upon the name "FARTFULL" for one of its new desks.
Enough said...
- Honda introduced their new car "Fitta" into Nordic countries in 2001. If they had taken the time
to undergo some cross cultural consulting, they may have discovered that "fitta" was an old word used
in vulgar language to refer to a woman's genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.
- American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and
strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means "killer" and was not popular on the hazardous roads
in the country.
In the global marketplace, knowledge and skills not only mean power, it can also mean survival.
Understanding the need for cross cultural consulting is critical for success in the game of global
business.
To learn more about cross culture consulting, visit us at
JunctionInternational.com.
