Saudi Arabia, when adaptation rhymes with contradiction

Thèmes abordés

Saudi Arabia, rhymes , contradiction

Résumé du document

The globalization of the economy, with increased cross-border alliances, ventures and global relocation's, as well as the arrival of e-commerce, has brought major changes in the field of international customer relations and intercultural diversity management. This has led to an increased appreciation by companies that managing cultural differences correctly can be a key factor in getting things done effectively across borders. With increased contact of employees and customers from diverse cultural backgrounds, there is a growing demand for businesses to understand and manage the diverse values, perceptions, business worldviews and behavior of corporations, staff, and its customers. In another culture than their own actors of economic life are helpless. There is of course the language factor.

For example, the shop signs are unreadable for the Western visitor in Asia. But there is also social values, customs, relationship to time, space, non-verbal communication, modes of cognitive integration… Everything seems to follow another path, find other expressions, receive a different meaning and as emphasized Wilden (1981). This makes it difficult companies to communicate efficiently with other cultures than their own.

Extraits

[...] The instructions clearly came from the headquarters. Finally Ikea admitted its mistake: We are deeply sorry for what happened. It is not the local franchisee that has requested the retouch of the discussed pictures. The mistake happened during the work process occurring before presenting the draft catalog for IKEA Saudi Arabia. We take full responsibility for the mistakes made. This message is very interesting. First it says that Ikea recognizes a first lie: the franchise has no responsibility in the catalogue modifications. [...]

[...] However, in terms of communication, Ikea could have taken example on another Swedish international group: H&M. H&M's who had made a successful intercultural adaptation French H&M advertising and Saudi H&M advertising H&M reacted to that criticism by assuming its choice: The marketing campaigns are essentially the same in all our markets. For some markets, which are stricter on the amount on naked skin that you can show, we decided to add some accessories on the images. It is not the first time we do that, it's not dramatic. [...]

[...] It could have been interesting for the firm to pre-test its Saudi version of the catalogue with its Saudi franchise first. In fact, the Saudi franchise of Ikea knows the market better and is more aware of the cultural aspect of the society. By seeing the modified version of the catalogue before its launch, the franchise could have given its insights first and could have avoided such a bad mediation for the whole company Sources Books Hall, T.E. (1979). Beyond Culture. [...]

[...] The second one is a fundamental contradiction. In an effort to adapt to the Saudi cultural context, Ikea pushed too much. The company used selfcensorship regarding this family scene by considering it indecent. Though in pajamas, the body of the woman was fully covered. Being between the inner life "indecent" and social life "decent" must have weighed in the decision Ikea took, and in the doubt, it was decided to completely erase the mother from the picture. Hall & Hall (1979) has been able to identify two categories of culture which have an impact on business operations and organizational performances. [...]

[...] There is of course the language factor. For example, the shop signs are unreadable for the Western visitor in Asia. But there is also social values, customs, relationship to time, space, non-verbal communication, modes of cognitive integration Everything seems to follow another path, find other expressions, receive a different meaning and as emphasized Wilden (1981). This makes it difficult companies to communicate efficiently with other cultures than their own. Getting to know all the subtleties of a culture that is not yours is hard, but as a global company you must be able to communicate efficiently with your worldwide customers, namely in the field of advertising. [...]