Howard Adam Levy, principal of Red Rooster Group, delivered a presentation sponsored by the New York City Business Consultants Academy on effective marketing and design strategies for intercultural communication. Read on for some of the highlights from his presentation.
His presentation on design considerations in intercultural communication touched upon the following key points:
1. Benefits of Understanding Cultural Meanings of Symbols
By understanding the different cultural meanings of symbols, negative reactions and misinterpretations can be avoided. Taking time to discern these meanings also shows respect for cultures different from our own, and ensures that the message conveyed to the audience is appropriate and is the message that was originally intended.
2. Color Symbolism and Animal Symbolism in Different Cultures
Color is one of the first elements to consider in designing an effective marketing campaign, and it also plays a pivotal role in the beliefs and customs of various cultures. It is critical to be cognizant of the symbolic meanings of colors for various cultures, because these meanings can differ drastically from their Western associations. Animals have also traditionally held a strong symbolic role in many cultures and are a fundamental part of many belief systems, rites and rituals. However, again, it is important to keep in mind that beliefs regarding an animal in one culture often differ from the beliefs of another culture, and sometimes can even be stark opposites.
3. The Effect of Language on Perception
The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis theorizes that a person’s language determines and limits what he or she experiences. Not all concepts can be expressed in some languages, creating a language barrier that can affect, for example, one’s perception of color. The Shona language in Zimbabwe and the Boas language in Liberia have no words to distinguish red from orange, so people of these cultures often fail to recognize a difference between the two colors.
4. Perception of Images in Different Cultures
Research has found that East Asian perception is more holistic and that people from Eastern cultures are more likely to attend to the context of an image, while Westerners are more likely to attend to, perceive and remember the attributes of salient objects in an image. Therefore, culture can affect the layout and design of an advertisement or brochure. If the consumers are from East Asian countries, they are more likely to recall the advertisement as a whole, whereas consumers from Western countries are more likely to remember a few distinct, often centralized, images within an advertisement.
5. Communication Styles Across Cultures
Edward T. Hall theorized that cultural communication style can be divided into two distinct categories based upon the background and surrounding circumstances in which communication takes place. People in high context cultures, such as Thailand, know and can understand one another well enough to be able to communicate effectively without always relying on words and other explicit forms of communication. In low context cultures, such as the U.S., because of the many cultural differences among people that exist, it is hard to rely on forms of communications that are not explicit and thus they often rely on the literal interpretation of words.
