Language Barriers

In Marketing

Ranvir Patil
Communication Gap
• There are so many dimensions to a
marketing campaign and things get
even more complicated when you start
to consider international customers.
You have to be careful about using any
sort of cultural reference, because
people on the other side of the Earth
might not “get it” or they may even be
Communication Gap
• There are certainly language
barriers involved as well, and this
is why it is oftentimes a good idea
to have as many people on your
staff as possible who speak
languages other than English. If
they can read, write, and speak a
foreign language, you may have
Cultural Conflict
• There are also certain cultural
norms that go beyond language.
Business dealings in Tokyo are
significantly different than those in
New York, Milan, or Shanghai. You
need to be aware of these
differences whenever you are
dealing with someone from a
different part of the world. What’s
more, even if you are dealing with
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• What is non-verbal
communication?
• Definition  “nonverbal communication
involves those nonverbal stimuli in a
communication setting that are
generated by both the source [speaker]
and his or her use of the environment
and that have potential message value
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Cultural Differences in Non-verbal
Communication
• Body Movement
• Posture
• Gestures
• Facial Expressions
• Eye Contact and Gaze
• Touch
•
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Body Movements
• We send information on attitude toward
person (facing or leaning towards another),
emotional statue (tapping fingers, jiggling
coins), and desire to control the
environment (moving towards or away from
a person).
• More than 700,000 possible motions we can
make — so impossible to categorize them
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Posture
• Consider the following actions and note cultural
differences:
• Bowing (not done or criticized in US; shows
rank in Japan)
• Slouching (rude in most Northern European
areas)
• Hands in pocket (disrespectful in Turkey)
• Sitting with legs crossed (offensive in Ghana,
Turkey)
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Gestures
• Its impossible to catalog all of
them. But need to recognize: 1)
incredible possibility and variety and
2) that an acceptable in one’s own
culture may be offensive in another.  In
addition, amount of gesturing varies
from culture to culture.
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Gestures
• Even simple things like using hands to point
and count differ.
• Pointing : US with index finger; Germany
with little finger; Japanese with entire hand
(in fact most Asians consider pointing with
index finger to be rude)
• Counting:  Thumb = 1 in Germany, 5 in
Japan, middle finger for 1 in Indonesia.
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Facial Expressions
• While some say that facial expressions
are identical, meaning attached to them
differs.  Majority opinion is that these
do have similar meanings world-wide
with respect to smiling, crying, or
showing anger, sorrow, or disgust. 
However, the intensity varies from
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Facial Expressions
• Many Asian cultures suppress facial expression
as much as possible.
• Many Mediterranean (Latino / Arabic) cultures
exaggerate grief or sadness while most
American men hide grief or sorrow.
• Some see “animated” expressions as a sign of a
lack of control.
• Too much smiling is viewed in as a sign of
shallowness.
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Eye Contact and Gaze
• In USA, eye contact indicates: degree of
attention or interest, influences attitude
change or persuasion, regulates interaction,
communicates emotion, defines power and
status, and has a central role in managing
impressions of others.
• Western cultures — see direct eye to eye
contact as positive (advise children to look
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Eye Contact and Gaze
• Arabic cultures make prolonged eye-
contact. — believe it shows interest and
helps them understand truthfulness of the
other person.  (A person who doesn’t
reciprocate is seen as untrustworthy).
• Japan, Africa, Latin American, Caribbean
— avoid eye contact to show respect.
• Many Chinese consider winking to be
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Touch
• Touch is culturally determined!  But each
culture has a clear concept of what parts of
the body one may not touch.  Basic message
of touch is to affect or control  — protect,
support, disapprove (i.e. hug, kiss, hit,
kick).
• Traditional Korean (and many other Asian
countries) don’t touch strangers., especially
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Touch
• USA — handshake is common (even for
strangers), hugs, kisses for those of
opposite gender or of family (usually) on
an increasingly  more intimate basis.
Note differences between African-
Americans and Anglos in USA.  Most
African Americans touch on greeting but
are annoyed if touched on the head (good
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Touch
• Many Asians don’t touch the head (Head
houses the soul and a touch puts it in
jeopardy).
• In many Asians countries when you use one
of your fingers to scrape your face looking
at somebody the corresponding verbal
expression may be said to be "Shame on
you!”
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Touch
• Islamic and Hindu:  typically don’t touch
with the left hand.  To do so is a social
insult.  Left hand is for toilet functions. 
Mannerly in India to break your bread
only with your right hand (sometimes
difficult for non-Indians)
• Islamic cultures generally don’t approve
of any touching between genders (even
hand shakes).  But consider such
Ve r b a l & N o n – Ve r b a l
Communication
• Smell
• USA — fear of offensive natural smells (billion
dollar industry to mask objectionable odors
with what is perceived to be pleasant ) — again
connected with “attractiveness” concept.
• Many other cultures consider natural body
odors as normal (Arabic).
• Asian cultures (Filipino, Malay, Indonesian,
Thai, Indian) stress frequent bathing — and
often criticize USA of not bathing often
Differences between our
cultures
Asian United States
• Indirect • Direct
Implicit, Explicit, verbal
nonverbal Informal
Formal Spontaneous
Goal oriented Emotionally
Emotionally expressive
controlled Self-promoting,
Marketing Blunders
• Scandinavian
vacuum
manufacturer
Electrolux used
the following in
an American
campaign:
Nothing sucks
Marketing Blunders
• In Spanish
Coors beer
translated the
slogan "turn it
loose" in such a
way that it was
understood as
slang for
Marketing Blunders
• Parker Pen intended to use
the slogan "it won't stain
your pocket and embarrass
you," to emphasize how its
pens wouldn't leak,
translating it as no manchará
tu bolsillo, ni te embarazará.
But embarazar usually
means "to be pregnant"
rather than "to embarrass."
So the slogan was
MarketingMitsubishi
Blunders
GM renamed its
Buick LaCrosse in had to
Canada because the rename its Pajero
name for the car is automobile because
slang for the word is a vulgar
"masturbation" in term for a
Quebec. masturbating man.
Marketing Blunders
• Pepsi's "Come
alive with the
Pepsi
Generation"
translated into
"Pepsi brings
your ancestors
back from the
Marketing Blunders
• Ford's Fiera doesn't do
well with Spanish-
speaking Latin-
Americans, since "fiera"
means "ugly old
woman".
• Ford's Pinto didn't do
well in Brazil. Pinto is
Brazilian slang for "male
genitals". Ford renamed
Marketing Blunders