Language Barriers In Global Advertising Cultural Studies Essay

Strategic advertising and marketing of recent years are not now same for each continent and country, but it started to change. Today, it is common to enhance a uniform strategy to be employed globally. Therefore, this enhancement recommends that the periodically issue of cultural changes have been obviously broken. The good side of international advertising is the creation of a integrated brand that can be known at everywhere, regardless the language it might be used. Some instances of those global brands are;

Culture is a broad topic which includes everything from socially spread behavior, arts, beliefs, tradition, education and thought. It is obvious that there are going to be vital cultural differences regarding the different historical base of country. There are three main topics for culture that have normally been cited to wrong interpretations and social mistakes. Indeed if we list them: religion, sex and language spoken. Religion, is a subject most people would exactly not try to debate with a foreigner. Some changes in mind according to worship and the traditions related in it can spark some controversy. Furthermore, the persist pressure to rise the population of the value is a factor to religion being a general subject that invites social mistake and misjudge. Therefore, it is so hard to demand an international advertising promotion on a religious product without leading to protests or rumors. Cultural changes regarding gender are recognized to nearly all societies. (Gilly 1988, p.76) by the thought of advertising, it is essential to connect sex to language because language make human reality solid.

1.2 Language: Root cultural barrier

Despite there are broadly spoken languages in the world like Spanish, English and Chinese, the challenge of language as a cultural obstacle is still. Being the main vehicle of expression, language becomes the root cultural barrier that differs people from one field to another. Since language is important in advertising, it is noted that the specific use of words make or cut the efficiency of a promotion.

1.3 Tackling the language barrier

When designing a worldwide advertising campaign, the most important thing that international companies should remember is to decide whether they will create a standardized campaign or make varied advertisements for select countries. Language is always a key element in discussing standardization. There are cases where all the execution elements of a worldwide campaign are the same except for the language. But this is not a common scenario because most advertisers agree that the message becomes more effective when put in the vernacular instead of one standardized language. Furthermore, they also use standardization in almost all key elements more than their non-Western counterparts. (p.64) With the results of this particular study, one can say that the trend today leans toward standardizing language less since all the top agencies originate from the West.

2. MEDIA LIMITATIONS

Commercial media is another effective effect on international advertisement.  Media might reduce the effects of advertising set of plan and might push the firms to underline the other aspects of promotional mixture. A firm’s ability to create is basically challenged while a television advertisement is restricted to ten showing one year without two exposal nearer than ten days.

Advertisers affect what sort of story is interpreted. More effective, advertisements themselves form people’s opinions of the world. They are a spreading source of unreality, encouraging lack of security and movement of buyers.

There are of course number of issues with the intense media.

But some of the media are much better than others, judged by the criteria of accuracy, quality and independence of special interests. Most media critics seem to believe that it is possible to promote and develop enlightened, responsive, truly educative mass media. Efforts at reform can be worthwhile, but have intrinsic limits.

The issues are not with media in common, but with media, namely those media that are produced by relatively few people compared to the number who receive them. Most large newspapers, radio and television stations suitable for this description.

Mass media by their nature give power to a few and offer little scope for participation by the vast majority.

2.1 The power of the mass media is corrupting.

The sole unexpected thing is how responsible some of the broad media are. Given the corruptions of power, revolution of the broad media, beside useful, should not be the target. Instead, the purpose should be to occupy widely media by communication systems that are more open to participation.

If we focus on the usual approaches we can outline that most analyses of the media presume that there are just two options, both, state control or a free market. The problem with control by the government is that control is from a centre based.

The media of military regimes and bureaucratic socialist states are infamous with their censorship. The supporters of the “free market” dispute that state-owned media, or narrow regulations, are noxious even in liberal democracies.

The issue with “free market” media is that they give only a so restricted freedom, namely freedom for wide media firms and other dynamic corporate interests. Everyone is “free” to own a publishing company or television station.

The primary issue seen as adopting a global strategy is:

It is really hard for firms, especially in deeply centralized businesses, to manage all the activities of various of broadly scattered international applications.

2) The organization has to continue existing communication between headquarters and the auxiliaries.

3) When held to an intense, worldwide technique ends in a lack of reaction quality and flexibility in particular market aimed.

4) Regional leaders who are passed of self independence on their country operations might be down and cause a lack of organizational courage.(Hills, Gerald E, 1997)

3 CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

In the international area, understanding and identifying cultural distinct may make a huge change between successful business negotiations and mortifying rejections. International business communication plays a main role in this, while understanding how to communicate through what they are talking about as view is a big advantage.

Every culture has their own way of saying things, what may not be offending to you may be offending to them. International business communication is all about knowing the important thing that lies behind peoples words in the international arena.

International business communication is communicating across cultures and the first thing we have to keep in mind is the basic understanding that one size does not fit all. Keeping in mind that the cultural traditions or habits we have does not mean that everyone else around the world does. As it is said, When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Culture is the different ways in which people act, or consider towards themselves, families, and other people in the community. It involves traditions related with social, political, family, and religious values. Differences must be identified and recognized to bridge the gaps between cultures and for real communication to take place.

Some of the effective international business communication guidelines that may help you swing that deal are:

Non-verbal and Verbal behavior

Each language have their own linguistic choices, and those choice help us giving clues about the specific cultures the way to act, manners, and considering. The English people use modesty and understatement, and are sometimes deliberately unclear to avoid confrontation and so kind. Oratory, expressiveness, and flowery of words are most general among Italians and the Spanish, Germans and also are so reasonable in manner. Knowing what people mean when they say yes is very important; it may mean yes, I understand but not yes, I agree.

Gestures

Gestures consists sensitivity and mindfulness, as gestures that are not violating to you might be so violating to the other, as in the case of indicating someone to come, some would hold out their hand with the palm up and then move the fingers gesturing the person to come. In Asian culture however, this kind of gesture is considered offensive. To gesture someone to come in Asian culture should be done with the palm facing down and then rolling the fingers.

3.1 Relationship between Culture and Advertising

Advertising is thought to act as a mirror reflecting culture by transferring current cultural meanings (McCracken 1986). By rephrasing, advertisements are taken in consideration as a model of social communication that influence the cultural values of a society (Khairullah 1995). Meantime, advertising makes and builds new type of cultural values and meanings by affecting group identities and reinforcing stereotypes. Therefore advertising is not sole affected by cultural values moreover behaves as an agent affecting cultural values. Since a marketing concept, advertisers have been more fascinated in the influences of culture on buyers’ reaction to advertising.

People prefer to live in their cultural restrictions; for instance, people have their own cultural values and norms, which affect the way they consider, feel and behave. People in the same ethnic groups have same tendency to share the language, traditions and values,. These shared values like culture influence people’s cognitive (beliefs and motives), affective (emotion and attitude) and behavioural (purchase and consumption) processes.

Regarding this idea of “advertising as a mirror,” cultural values and standards are implanted in ads in such a way that consumers can “see themselves” and identify with the characters in the ads and feel affinity with the brands (Hong, Muderrissoglu and Zinkhan 1987). Therefore, cultural distinctiveness in the world influences how ethnic buyers consider and acknowledge advertising messages.

PART -B-

4 HIGH CONTEXT AND LOW CONTEXT COMMUNICATION

Nowadays business relations, world is small. Since so many companies turn to worldwide markets, workers are finding themselves in foreign locales, dealing as never before. Nevertheless, the main thing to efficient communication for countries is an understanding of each other’s culture, tradition, as a working knowledge of how each society passes meaning.

It is first used by author Edward Hall, the expressions “high context” and “low context” are categorises explaining inherent cultural distinctiveness between communities. High-context and low-context communication aims implying to how much speakers depend on things other than words to pass meaning. In every culture, members are supplied with particular “filters” that let them to concentrate sole on what community has considered significantly. Mainly, cultures that refer low-context communication will have to pay more attention to the literal meanings of words than to the context surrounding them.

International advertising has gone a quite long way with combining different ties and breaking distinct borders over the world. The awareness of a product if they are placed in an area far from home, suddenly point efficiency and value. By the thought of occuring a global village with the exceeded products the world has to suggest, worldwide advertising has well worked with media in making this real. Nevertheless, cultural obstacles are still in place across the world. An opinion of a woman in Turkey cannot be same as a woman in the United Kingdom or the one from Kenya. By language as the main tool for explaining these opinions, worldwide advertising has a hard way of contending with those cultural differences due to many physical differences in language and its different interpretations.

Therefore, a study has reached the conclusion that beside standardization was put to affect, sole execution and strategy are nearly all the time standardized. Language, what is thought a separate aspect, still balances the line. This outline, that it is a main belief that languages are still a hurdle that can obstruct the efficiency of a message. The numerous interpretations that can be gathered will reduce the single push that the product needs to advertise. Nevertheless, there are styles in advertising that can receive a message without the words used. Language can either be a obstruction and a tool, it is how one is going to use it what is going to decide its aim. As worldwide advertising points to promote a good that can keep busy people’s minds and affect consumer behaviors, international advertisement campaigns have to be straight forward and easy to help message of the product philosophy is not going to be lost in translation, so to speak.

Understanding the cultures and their differences is primary thing in Inter cultural communication.

There are various factors in communication like time, social framework and non-verbal communication. Communication itself is an exchange of information between senders and receivers, and thus, people easily refer it as a simple matter. However, communication is very complex and high-technological context to understand and to use. This complex context becomes more difficult when culture is involved. Different cultures have different ways to communicate, and by understanding how these cultures communicate, effective inter-cultural communication can be achieved.