Culture And Genre In American And Canadian Direct Marketing Letter

Canada is the top country in the world for an American business to expand because of its very similar culture to the United States. Geert Hofsted a prominent psychologist has studied the Canadian way of life and has set up a ranking system that proves why Canada is so ideal for American businesses to operate. Hofstede’s ranking system is based on analyzing 5 dimensions that target key aspects of a country’s society. These dimensions are power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, career success and planning for the long term horizon.

What does a review of the current press reveal about the attitudes of Canadians in terms of global business and international trade?

There are many differences in values between United States and China. Of those many differences, the two most crucial are the importance of relationships and styles of communication. According to the Houston Chronicle, Chinese like to develop and establish relationships with their business partners, while Americans value transactions first. Chinese prefer face-to-face interactions since trust is “premium” in their business culture. Chinese even send gifts, ask about your personal life as an

(Martinez-Carter).’ When doing business internationally, it is important to consider how businesses operate within their culture. In western societies such as our own, businesses tend to be deal-focused where people are more task-oriented. “Independence and personal initiative characterize U.S. communication style because the U.S. work culture is very outcome-oriented (Martinez-Carter).” Saudi Arabia, on the contrary, follows a relationship-focus culture, where people put dealings with friends ahead of business dealings. In Saudi Arabia they are part of a “family-centered society where trust of others is highly correlated with the degree of familiarity with them (Daniels 48).” It is uncommon for businesses here to take a long time to decide if they will partake in a business transaction. “Patience is important when conducting business in Saudi Arabia since decisions are made slowly and in a bureaucratic manner (McLaughlin).”

In a business perspective, the oriental and western cultures remain a huge difference. Low-context societies such as American egalitarian culture, they emphasize on logic and facts, verbal messages are more direct and concise, individualism and extremely tolerant to changes. However, high-context societies such as Chinese hierarchy culture, they prefer non-verbal methods to express meaningful communications, group-oriented, and pay more attention to interpersonal relationships during business interactions. For example, a successful business interaction will count on interpersonal relationships among businesses and government. On the other hand, business dealings can be completely transactional with Americans, without building relationships to do so.

Americans have a very straight forward and practical approach towards business. They believe in driving hard bargains and negotiating, while the Chinese put more focus on respect, friendship saving face in their business conduct. Mr. Smith was a typical American businessman who in spite of knowing that

The screen fades in, the actor is portrayed in black and white with solemn expression on his face, his eyes pointed towards the ground as he speaks. Suddenly his “wife” walks up behind him and rubs his back, she suggests that he has a problem as a pharmaceutical name pops onto the screen. Promotion of pharmaceuticals to consumers is referred to as direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. In the United States, pharmaceutical suppliers are now the leading communicator of health information to the mass public. Whereas the FDA does oversee the distribution of such media, the question of consumer competency raises concern. Those who support these advertisements suggest the information is beneficial to the consumer. Such advertising does provide crucial

For this purpose, the marketing manager Guillen wants to see the difference between consumer markets of Canada and that of United States in order to design a marketing strategy according to it to boost the sales as well as profit of this category.

Social behaviour and business etiquettes between Chinese and Americans are very different and often will offend each other. The cultural dimensions of Hofstede and Trompenaars will be applied to evaluate the cultural difference between Chinese and Americans in later part of the discussion. These theories allow managers or relevant users to identify and rectify the problems that might have arisen due to a cultural clash.

Canada has unique cultural values, beliefs, and business practices that is different from other international markets. Firms must research a country’s values, beliefs, and business practices prior to entry and prior to developing a marketing plan. For example, Canadian’s are well known for their accents and love of hockey. If Henry Inc. ran a commercial which dictated Americans making fun of Canadian’s accents and love of hockey more than likely the ad with receive a negative response and offend numerous Canadians. Henry Inc. would receive backlash about the ad and lose consumer confidence. In this section, I will discuss culture, values, beliefs, and business practices.

They viewed the politeness phenomena in communication as a common expression and they thought the reason behind the polite behaviors is actually “face and rationality” (1978: 63). To illustrate the point, they developed the conception of Model Person (MP) . By “rationality” , it means “the availability to our MP of a precisely definable mode of reasoning from ends to the means that will achieve those ends” (ibid) . And by “face” ,it means that the MP “ is endowed with two particular wants -- the want to be unimpeded and the want to be approved of in certain respects” (ibid). According to them, there are two types connected with the FST. One is termed as the “negative face”-- “the want to be unimpeded”. The other is the “positive face”-- “the want to be approved of in certain respects”. Everyone wants to be a gentleman and everyone has his understanding about the self-esteem, so sometimes she/he have to do a face-saving compromise. For the two wants above, people take action to interact with the others and try their best to avoid making the hearer get into trouble. Similarly business English letters often start with “Dear Sirs”, or “Dear Sir” and end with “Yours faithfully” or “Sincerely yours”, and the inside address containing the name of addressee with “Messrs”,

It’s been understood that “communication in business involves a complex set of unwritten rules governing speech, written correspondence and body language that varies in different parts of the world” (Ingram, 2014). Communication is the essential component of business, “from the entry-level manager to the seasoned venture capitalist, can benefit from paying attention to communication etiquette in business” (Ingram, 2014). Both verbal and nonverbal communication in the business world allows for a more fluid transmission of information and policy. It

A friend is someone you can always count on when times are tough. Having friends is easy but being a true friend is not always easy. To be a true friend firstly you need to keep yours promises. Do not make a promise that you not going to keep. Because if you do not keep your promises, your friends will definitely start to loss confident in you. If you promise your friend to go with her to the store, if you just cannot go, give your friend a gift and tell him or her sorry. Secondly be dependable. Being dependable is one of the most important aspects of being a true friend. If you are a true friend who is dependable, your friend call on you most especially in hard times. Thirdly be honest. Honesty is the fairness and straightforwardness of

The attitude and opinion of a person, status-consciousness from the position he/she is in and his place in society influences his/her ability to communicate properly. In an international environment, it is necessary to use the right choice of words, action, symbols and etiquette. If not managed properly, this would lead to psychological distancing which would hamper effective communication.

Communication is the main essence of knowledge and understanding. The emphasis on cross cultural communication has increased due to the ever growing global environment, of which, this case is a perfect example. Canadian Bank of Nova Scotia increased their share in Inverlat, the Mexican Bank to 54% and took control of the management. Soon after that, BNS started the restructuring process of Inverlat and sent a team of Canadian managers to Mexico.