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theprotocollady@garzaprotocol.com
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National Days
March 3 - Bulgaria
March 6 - Ghana
March 12 - Mauritius
March 17 - Ireland
March 20 - Tunisia
March 21 - Namibia
March 23 - Pakistan
March 25 - Greece
March 26 - Bangladesh
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Book Corner
Blunders In International Business
by: David A. Ricks
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March is one of my favorite months. Spring is just around the corner and it's time for new beginnings. Even the television networks launch new series, and post-Superbowl, there are many new commercials. Film, television, and sports are all areas that use lots of marketing, and international marketing is an area where protocol and cross-cultural issues come into play and where blunders can have significant impact. When used well, marketing can win over audiences and lead to profits, but when done badly it can cost you clients and may even result in boycotts or riots. The most common international marketing mistakes are a result of bad translations, the improper use of flags, ignoring symbolism (colors, numbers), or a general lack of sensitivity to another culture.
Consider some classic examples: During the 1994 World Cup, Heineken had the flags of all of the qualifying teams imprinted under the bottle caps of their leading brand of beer. The flag of Saudi Arabia was one of these. Considering that Muslims don't drink alcohol, you can see why this was not a good idea. Add to that the fact that the Saudi flag includes a verse from the Koran and you have a real problem. Muslims around the world reacted angrily, and Heineken had to recall all of the bottles. McDonald's had a similar situation when it used country flags, including Saudi Arabia's, on a paper tray liner. Some of you may remember the nudist airline well at least that's what their slogan claimed "vuela en cueros." The now defunct Braniff Airlines was trying to promote its leather seats in coach class, "Fly in leather" and didn't realize that when translated in Spanish "en cueros" is slang for being naked. The Swedish-based vacuum manufacturer Electrolux had some problems with its US campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
Basketball star Lebron James is hugely popular in China, but one of Nike's first attempts to harness that popularity hit a roadblock when this ad was pulled from state-run television in 2004, on the basis that it was insulting to national dignity. Now James is partnering with Dunkin Donuts in China, as that company seeks to open up 100 new stores featuring US style donuts, and also new flavors catering to local tastes, like dried pork and seaweed.
Even when companies make mistakes, with research and effort you can prevail. I recommend you start off right and save your company money and goodwill by doing this on the front end. I've had clients ask me to look at proposed new logos, review taglines, and advise on colors. So when you are preparing your marketing plan consider your international audience and develop a global strategy. Here's an example of a company that got it right. Click here.
Sonia Garza-Monarchi
Garza Protocol Associates, LLC.
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What is Culture Shock?
By the year 2020, it's estimated that 40% of your co-workers will come from other countries. Thanks to today's global economy and travel most of us have more opportunities than ever before to interact with people from all corners of the world. This can sometimes lead to conflicts and misunderstandings. Repeated collisions between people of different cultures can result in what is called culture shock. In some cases people can feel anxiety, anger, frustration, helplessness, and fear when they don't understand how or why things don't work as they think they should.
It can be an expensive proposition to assign an employee to an international position only to have to bring him home when he cannot adapt to the environment or manage a global team.
This is why it is important to prepare yourself and your employees before going abroad or interacting with a global team.
Even if you will simply be part of a business or government delegation it's important to have some training. Ideally get someone to come in and do a briefing but if nothing else research the country or culture you will be working with. There are many resources available including a series of books called Culture Shock! which are written for many countries.
Need someone to do a briefing for your team before sending them abroad? Have another protocol dilemma? We're here to help!
The Protocol Lady
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Case Study: Retirement Savings & Cross-Cultural Awareness
I recently read about a cross-cultural human resource challenge identified by Rice University. They did a very good job analyzing and addressing the situation. As the number of Latino employees at Rice University increased in recent years, the benefits administration realized that this group was lagging behind the general employee population in two areas: retirement savings and wellness. Rice's Human Resources promptly set out to discover why this was and how to remedy the situation. Rice identified the need to target its Latino employees in 2003 after noticing lower participation rates and less awareness of financial planning. Rice then worked to develop programs to prevent cultural and language barriers.
"Our efforts started internally, offering benefits and other HR information both orally and written n Spanish," said Elaine Britt, director of benefits and compensation. For example, Rice's benefits team quickly realized that the Latino population generally prefers oral communication for discussing personal issues like money and health. "They prefer to from a relationship with an individual, and once they trust that person, they then trust their word," said Britt.
The benefits team then partnered with outside vendors to implement program materials in Spanish that focus on biannual retirement planning seminars and one-on-one , on-campus sessions with financial advisers. Other targeted campaigns include Spanish-language posters and fliers; emails to supervisors; communication through word of mouth and supervisor endorsement of the sessions; in person talks to targeted groups; and working with management to authorize time off from work duties for employs to attend programs. Thanks to these efforts, Rice's Latino employee population is better educated on the nuances of saving, and savings rates have increased among Latino employees. In fact, Rice's Latino population is now exceeding the non-Latino population in participation in the university's voluntary 403(b) program.
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Garza Protocol Associates, LLC helps clients build profitable relationships, coordinates productive international visits, and manages successful events and trade missions, while avoiding costly cross-cultural misunderstandings.  |
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