Cultural Communication & Education » Target Audience

Better Communication Skills — Silence and Violence

Admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:04:36 +0000

Introduction

Leaders need to seek better communication skills not only for themselves and their leadership teams, but as part of the organization’s culture. Successful change management requires getting everyone moving in one new direction.

People will be talking with one another while you’re trying to drive change. As a leader, you want to make sure those conversations are out in the open so that objections can be addressed and people will grow confident in your leadership.

Better Communication Skills at the Organization Level

What do we mean when we talk about the communication skills of an organization? At the individual level, we know how to describe communication skills. We talk about someone’s style, their subject matter knowledge, their ability to adapt their message to their target audience, their preparation, etc.

In an organization, better communication skills are something we seek to build in the culture. To be specific, we’re seeking to create a cultural norm of frequent, open dialogue. When that’s the norm, people feel safe in raising concerns and objections, knowing that they will be heard.

They also recognize that they are obligated to participate in dialogue, whether in meetings or less formally among their peers. It’s part of their job, making sure they are contributing not only their labor but their expertise, insight and ideas whenever possible.

Leaders need to look out for the two biggest barriers to better communication skills in an organization: silence and violence.

Recognizing Silence

Very simply, silence means people are not participating in the dialogue. Said another way, important conversations are not happening because people are choosing not to engage in them.

Why is silence a problem?

Hopefully you’ve hired smart people. It only makes sense, then, that you want and need the insights of those smart people when you’re leading a change program. Smart people always have thoughts and opinions. When they go silent, you lose the benefit of knowing those thoughts and opinions.

Besides not having the input, when people are silent you don’t know where they stand. Do they understand what you are trying to accomplish? Are they committed to working with you and your team, or do they have reservations? Without clear understanding and commitment, how will you bring these people along with you?

Addressing Silence

First and foremost, make sure you’ve created an environment where it’s safe to speak out. Many people who turn to silence do so because they feel they may be ignored or worse yet criticized for speaking up.

Examine your behavior — what do you do when you are challenged? Do you fight back right away? Or do you give considered answers and act respectful when you disagree with the challenger? Check the same behaviors in your leadership team, and within the organization in general. You’ve got to make it safe for people to engage. Your behavior will set the tone.

If you’re sure it’s safe and you see individuals are still reluctant to add their input to the dialogue of the organization, coach them individually. Let them know how much their input is valued and needed, and thank them when they open up.

Recognizing Violence

In this context, violence can be described as the tendency of one or a few individuals to dominate conversations. When there is violence, there is no chance for open dialogue. The dominators, if there are more than one, may argue their points without effectively listening to one another. And those who are not dominating the conversation will end up going silent, out of frustration or boredom.

So in the end, violence begets silence. How do you address violence?

As a leader, maintain your own objectivity. You’re a participant in the conversations taking place, but you must also be an observer. Learn to step out of the discussion from time to time and assess what’s happening. If you observe individuals dominating to the point where others are checking out, you need to intervene.

The degree of intervention depends on just how “violent” the dialogue is getting. It can be as simple as reminding someone to ease up a little and open themselves up to push back from others. Or it can go all the way to having to call a time out and taking people aside to help them see that their passion is overwhelming others and suppressing good dialogue.

The Result of Silence and Violence

One of two things is going to happen when you don’t have open dialogue in which everyone is actively engaged.

You’ll stall. Some strong people will argue and debate ad infinitum, while others check out. And your change strategy goes no where.

You’ll move forward. Not everyone will be participating, but strong people will drive and dominate the dialogue and the resulting actions.

Stalling will be very clear to you, and you’ll need to intervene to create safety, get people engaged, help break logjams, etc.

Moving forward might not seem so bad, but beware. Depending on just how many people have gone silent, there may be a time bomb in your implementation plan. When things go wrong, as they do in any change initiative, there will be a number of people who will have effectively positioned themselves to wash their hands of all responsibility.

As we noted earlier, just because they go silent doesn’t mean they don’t have input and opinions. When the plan goes forward and they’ve been shouted down, or chose not to engage because they felt it wasn’t safe, they will be in a position to say “that wasn’t my idea”.

Even though such behavior should be unacceptable, it happens way too often. Prevent it by setting expectations around organizational communication, specifically creating a shared value for open, honest dialogue without repercussion or disrespect.

By: Tom O\’Dea

Marketing Through the Internet and the Internet Culture

Admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:49:53 +0000

Marketers promote their web site on their usual supports, which means that traditional marketing supports can also supplement online marketing. This is a virtual trap. As mentioned above, for products with less data, the Web cannot substitute mass promotion. Nevertheless, large consumer goods firms have the need for presence on the Web. The Anglo-Dutch group has created more than 40 web sites worldwide for its products involving Faberge Cosmetics, Bird’s Eye Frozen Food. Several decades ago the firms could reach almost 80% of their target audience with 30-second off peak television commercial. Nowadays to reach the same number, they would require 250 prime time slots. On the same grounds, big players in the consumer goods industry are troubling about the future of their primary media: TV versus the development of the Internet. In August 1998, in Ohio, at Procter and Gamble headquarters, an unusual two-day summit took place to discuss these problems.

Summarizing, the Internet marketing is an additional chance for marketers, and surely it changes the rules of the game, but does not danger traditional marketing. The Internet marketing is closely connected with the Internet culture that companies should know for a better sale. The knowledge of the netiquette is necessary for everyone who uses the Internet.

The given article analyzes the Internet culture, the netiquette. This paper demonstrates the importance of the Internet and the Internet culture that is necessary for effective communication via the Internet. The Internet is a medium of communication, the medium of the newly created network society. It summarizes several aspects of the Internet: the problem of social organization via the Internet, the culture of the Internet and via it as well, the influence of the Internet on the market and the marketing via the Internet, the politics and the Internet, the digital divide and the netiquette – code of behavior via the Internet. Having examined the importance of the Internet phenomenon and the possibilities and dangers it represents in marketing, it is clear that traditional marketing and Internet marketing should continue developing, though used as supplementary tools.

By: Olivia Hunt

The Growing Potential of Online Communities

Admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:26:23 +0000

The cutting edge in technology has enabled cross-cultural communications with online communities gaining prevalence among the masses. The mediums which have been exploited to attract the online users are forums, blogs, podcasts, message boards, wikis and vlogs. The social networking sites which have promoted the growth of online communities and have gained the utmost attention are Orkut, MySpace and Facebook apart from the other social media clubs like SEMPO and DFWIMA. This has obviously led to the advantage of marketing experts to reap revenues out of the online conversions by adopting a definite strategy on one hand while on the other hand the increasing level of interaction between the users for knowledge, information sharing and to seek entertainment. The segment inherently attached to these networking sites is the today’s generation youngsters who share opinions and their experiences by building up the online community. No doubt that the use of words in a spoken form has been translated into a written textual form and these texts have occupied space in the online communities.

Building an online community requires tools and one of the tools which has replaced the traditional tools of communities is the latest Web 2.0 application which is considered as the most vibrant and potent tool today to build an online community. While building up the online community, extremely fine methods are taken into account in order to increase the participation of these community members.

Also called as e-community or virtual community, the online community offers the following benefits:

· Reduced costs of conducting meetings and other costs such as print materials to be sent as letters.

· Enables faster reach across the wide sections of society.

· Enables a larger customer base and also generates leads in the form of new target audience on a daily basis.

· Manifests the database of the participants or members on an immediate and regular basis and accessibility of these centralized data to all the members.

One starts wondering why this kind of community has not been utilized by the NGOs who can work out innumerable solutions to reach the underprivileged and the downtrodden. When there are communities from educationists to the musicians and the music lovers across multiple societies, the growth should been much faster. The users on the online communities create and share videos, seek web boards to have multiplayer online games, but all these are just restricted to entertainment and knowledge sharing uptil now.

Had this been for the betterment of society by the online groups through creating fund-raisers, it would have worked wonders. There are some religious groups who have created the social communities for their own interests around the world but they have not explored or realized the effectiveness of the online communities.

No doubt, the online communities have put off the technical barriers which was there before 1990. When these communities were being built up, expertise was required and the interest also needed to be generated among the ethnic groups. Never did anybody imagine that online community will grow up to such an extent that even the not so geeks can make use of it. AOL and Yahoo were the sites which gave rise to the groups formed under the online community with much less technical know-how.

Most of the IT pro organizations have developed their communities to facilitate the wide gamut of knowledge sharing and enable success in business. The online users can also have an access to the latest newsletters, latest product updates, new technology by participating on a shared platform.

One can seek professional as well as personal growth by becoming a member of online community.

What more, you can talk, create, blog, listen to music and play by actively participating in these online communities. From strangers to friends every thing has been possible.

The marketers have realized the importance and are making all efforts to reap the rewards on a commercial basis. Yahoo who created a special portal for the fandom of brands suggests the growing potential of these communities. These online communities have also brought relationship marketing to the fore.

By: jaya sinha

Online Communities : Reaping the Inherent Potential

Admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:33:57 +0000

The cutting edge in technology has enabled cross-cultural communications with online communities gaining prevalence among the masses.

The mediums which have been exploited to attract the online users are forums, blogs, podcasts, message boards, wikis and vlogs.

The social networking sites which have promoted the growth of online communities and have gained the utmost attention are Orkut, MySpace and Facebook apart from the other social media clubs like SEMPO and DFWIMA.

This has obviously led to the advantage of marketing experts to reap revenues out of the online conversions by adopting a definite strategy on one hand while on the other hand the increasing level of interaction between the users for knowledge, information sharing and to seek entertainment.

The segment inherently attached to these networking sites is the today’s generation youngsters who share opinions and their experiences by building up the online community. No doubt that the use of words in a spoken form has been translated into a written textual form and these texts have occupied space in the online communities.

Building an online community requires tools and one of the tools which has replaced the traditional tools of communities is the latest Web 2.0 application which is considered as the most vibrant and potent tool today to build an online community. While building up the online community, extremely fine methods are taken into account in order to increase the participation of these community members.

Also called as e-community or virtual community, the online community offers the following benefits:

•   Reduced costs of conducting meetings and other costs such as print materials to be sent as letters.

•   Enables faster reach across the wide sections of society.

•   Enables a larger customer base and also generates leads in the form of new target audience on a daily basis.

•   Manifests the database of the participants or members on an immediate and regular basis and accessibility of these centralized data to all        the members.

One starts wondering why this kind of community has not been utilized by the NGOs who can work out innumerable solutions to reach the underprivileged and the downtrodden. When there are communities from educationists to the musicians and the music lovers across multiple societies, the growth should been much faster. The users on the online communities create and share videos, seek web boards to have multiplayer online games, but all these are just restricted to entertainment and knowledge sharing uptil now.

Had this been for the betterment of society by the online groups through creating fund-raisers, it would have worked wonders. There are some religious groups who have created the social communities for their own interests around the world but they have not explored or realized the effectiveness of the online communities.

No doubt, the online communities have put off the technical barriers which was there before 1990. When these communities were being built up, expertise was required and the interest also needed to be generated among the ethnic groups. Never did anybody imagine that online community will grow up to such an extent that even the not so geeks can make use of it.

AOL and Yahoo were the sites which gave rise to the groups formed under the online community with much less technical know-how.

Most of the IT pro organizations have developed their communities to facilitate the wide gamut of knowledge sharing and enable success in business. The online users can also have an access to the latest newsletters, latest product updates, new technology by participating on a shared platform.

One can seek professional as well as personal growth by becoming a member of online community.

What more, you can talk, create, blog, listen to music and play by actively participating in these online communities. From strangers to friends every thing has been possible.

The marketers have realized the importance and are making all efforts to reap the rewards on a commercial basis. Yahoo who created a special portal for the fandom of brands suggests the growing potential of these communities. These online communities have also brought relationship marketing to the fore.

By: jaya sinha

How to Create Culturally Appealing Ads

Admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:16:04 +0000

Culture is the beliefs, social norms and traits of a group. Culture affects everyone in everything they do. From personal relationships to the business culture at work, the way we conduct ourselves is defined. Culture helps us understand each other.

When you are creating your advertising strategy, you need to think about your target audience and the cultures that define them. Cross-cultural communication tries to lessen the negative impact of clashing cultural differences by assembling common frameworks for people of different cultures to interact in. In the business world, cross cultural communication is used in areas such as negotiations, human resources, Web site design, and of course, advertising.

Products are generally designed and marketed at a domestic audience. When companies want to take their business international, they generally take their advertising campaign with them. However, the advertising campaign used domestically will rarely work internationally. Different perceptions and values exist abroad, which leaves the original advertising campaign obsolete. Therefore, it is vital to any cross-cultural campaign to understand the cultures you are going to advertise to.

Here are a few things to consider when launching a cross-cultural advertising campaign.

Language. Okay, duh. You know that there could be language barriers or nuances that need to be worked out to get your message across. You should consult with a native speaker, if possible, to check that none of your language is offensive and means what you think it means.

Even the big guys make this kind of mistake. For instance, Ford marketed the Pinto in Brazil. Sales were falling rapidly and they did not know why until someone told them that Brazilians did not want to drive a car whose name means ‘tiny male genitals’ in their language.

In addition, the ideas behind the language used needs to be suited for many cultures. Mainly religious cultures disapprove of one game manufacturer’s slogan to “Challenge Everything.” Religious cultures do not challenge their religious leaders and their gods.

The way you communicate. How you present information can make cultures cringe or accept your message with open arms. For example, you can communicate explicitly or implicitly. Explicit advertising communication assumes the customer does not know any background information or anything related to the product. The United States uses explicit communication. Implicit advertising communication assumes the customer is well informed about the product and related topics, and that the customers will understand the message from what is implied. Japan uses implicit communication.

Colors, numbers and images. Just like colors can mean something to gangs, in different cultures, colors have meanings. For instance, in China, red is considered a lucky color. In Japan, black is considered unlucky. If you use color printing, or even if you do not by using the standard black and white motif, be careful where you use these colors.

Numbers can also be considered unlucky or lucky. In the United States, the number 13 is considered unlucky and is not usually used in advertising. In Japan, the numbers four and nine are considered unlucky because of their pronunciation.

Images or photos can also offend cultural norms. Women in bathing suits on billboards are common in the United States, but infuriate people in the Middle East.

Consider cultural values. If a culture values its religion, it is best not to poke fun at any religious leader or image. For example, if you want to advertise in Asia, it is not a good idea to poke fun at Buddha. If a culture relies on and values family, do not downplay family values or promote individuality.

By: Kaye Z. Marks