Global Online Marketing Article 3: Culture ResearchIn 2006 ABC launched a new web-based tool. The ABC Culture Research Center OnLine is used for stand alone or blended learning - that is, in combination with in-company training workshops. It is a country-specific, interactive multimedia Internet application for international managers, business travelers, expatriates, and others who regularly deal with different cultures. A multi country module facilitates self-paced learning through direct feedback on the user's scores and preferences. Users can match their own personal Intercultural Awareness Profile against the country profile of their choice. Business cases, anecdotes, personalized feedback, and recommendations are all part of the basic module and differ by country for each individual's scores. Apart from business topics such as meetings, management, marketing, and negotiations, users also acquire knowledge about important issues relating to a culture's history, social norms, and religion. The ABC Culture Research Center presently provides specific in-depth feedback for 12 countries, namely the US, UK, Japan - Japanese Translation Services, Germany - German Translation Services, France - French Translation Services, Netherlands - Dutch translation Services, Korea, Taiwan - Chinese, Singapore, Ireland, Israel, and China - Chinese Translation Services. Country profiles from some further 80 countries are also accessible online. It forms part of the training kit for our workshops at CRC. All workshop participants receive an access password before the workshop commences, allowing them to complete the preparatory work. Thus they work through the first modules in preparation, for the workshop. The ABC Culture Research Center OnLine consists of a number of interactive modules:
Stage 1 After testing this application to market their own country-specific products through the Internet in six countries (US, France, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan), CRC reviewed some interesting feedback. The Americans and British asked for more critical incidents and self-tests; the Japanese requested that the system be made more specific to Japanese needs, finding it too Europe-centric; the French asked for more rigor in the way we presented the models of culture and its dimensions. We took all this advice seriously and adapted our ABC Culture Research Center OnLine to accommodate the feedback. Stage 2 After the launch of the updated ABC Culture Research Center OnLine, the same participants were asked to give CRC further feedback. Criticism on content changed toward criticism on process. The French liked the order: After completing the questionnaire the system gave feedback on the generic model of culture and the seven dimensions, following which you could test yourself through some cases (particular to your country of interest) in applied areas of negotiations, meetings, marketing, management, etc. The Americans had an objection about the flow of information. They suggested that the tool should start by showing some very concrete cases and critical incidents; only thereafter would the participants be willing to go for the "harder" stuff. The Japanese would rather leave the choice to the customer while the Germans would prefer to leave out the choice. The Dutch complained about increasing development costs... Our consultants at CRC were now facing a crucial dilemma: would they prefer to go for one global system with similar content or customize the application to local cultural needs? The technical people confirmed that technically speaking, the sky was the limit and lots of solutions were possible. In view of the above information, how would you have advised CRC to develop the ABC Culture Research Center to the next level?
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