Doing Business with Other Nationalities
by Stuart Livesey
Have you ever wondered about how people from other ethnic backgrounds percieve you, your small business and your marketing? Do they see you in the same way that you, and others from your ethnic background see yourself?
Oddly enough it’s something that is really beginning to get a lot of attention out in the world of marketing but it was something that Toni wrote about in another place some years ago when we were living in Tasmania. Back then she was talking about marketing and compared two shop windows that we saw quite regularly.
One was your typical Australian shop window; it was neatly set out and the eye was drawn to specific items. It wasn’t overcrowded, it was almost colour co-ordinated and it was an invitation to stop and window-shop in visual comfort.
The other shop window belonged to a shop that catered for the local Chinese community. It sold all sorts of Chinese food and ingredients and other things that would appeal to the Chinese community too. It was a jumble; there appeared to be no order to the window at all, there was confusion, colour and ‘noise’ everywhere you looked. It was almost an assault on the eye.
Well guess what? That’s what appeals to many Chinese. Order and subtle marketing are just not going to keep people from that ethnic background interested for very long and only now are people beginning to realise that.
A Tale of Two Cultures is a relatively long but very interesting look at the difference between Western and Chinese culture when it comes to marketing. It may make you think about your business and how others see it.
And here is something else to think about. The person who wrote that article lumped all western countries into the one group when comparing them to China … but is that the way things really are? Do Australians see things differently and respond to stimuli differently than Americans? Does one size in marketing really fit all western cultures?
I wonder.
