Effective Communication - Coursework Example

ACROSS CULTURE COMMUNICATION Introduction Across culture communication is a social approach towards understanding how individuals from different social backgrounds communicate with each other. The cultural perspective of communication becomes evident through the non-verbal messages that accompany verbal communication. The paper makes an evaluation of the approaches which could be utilised in conducting a research on the cultural factors affecting perceptions of consumers on foreign products. In marketing, consideration of cultural values is essential in seeking to ensure that multinational corporations pass across their massages effectively, to individuals from different backgrounds. Culture plays a fundamental role in assisting individuals in the decision making process within the market place. When conducting advertisements and other marketing approaches, it is essential for the individuals to consider cultural values of their addressees, to ensure the target individuals accept the message positively (Kaynak and Herbig 2014). While this might not be considered significant, the decision making process by consumers always remains based on cultural values, and the marketing strategies might become ineffective since they fail to communicate because of existing cultural barriers to effective communication. The problem Effective communication remains an essential tool in marketing as it enables individuals and organisations to reach their target audience and clients. Advertising is a form of communication, and any communication commonly faces barriers of different stature. While the verbal message might be presented clearly and concisely, the non-verbal message portrayed in advertisements could have detrimental effects on a whole advertisement (Izberk-Bilgin 2012). Enhancing the effectiveness of an advertisement, involves consideration of cultural values and meanings to certain non-verbal communication forms. The problem of overcoming these cultural perceptions and stereotypes in global marketing remains surmountable, and requires a profound understanding of the underlying values of people (Mooij 2011). This involves studying the various parameters that influence the decision making process of consumers, in relation to existing stereotypes and presentation of advertisements of international brands. Since differences in cultural values will always exist within societies, integrating different elements of different cultures is essential in advertisement. Exploring the appeal that individuals get from considering religions and cultural elements when purchasing products, becomes necessary. This would effectively result in a comprehensive understanding of various parameters that are critical to the decision making by consumers with strong religious beliefs (De Mooij 2013). There is an existing relationship between the cultural values, resulting ideologies and the consumption of different products by people for different cultures. Exploring the existing relationship between these concepts could provide a marketer with extensive knowledge of the underlying factors to development of such attributes (Kaynak and Herbig 2014). Organisations would then adopt methods which could be considered friendly and not hostile within such communities. Exploration into the ideologies could enable an organisation develop a marketing strategy which seeks to inform the society of the existing discrepancies in ideologies. Conducting a research There is need to conduct research seeking to evaluate the role of cultural values in determining consumer behaviour. While consumers behave differently towards products from different regions, understanding the facts underlying these behaviours could be essential in the development of effective marketing approaches (Robson 2011). Globalisation has been faced with fundamental challenges emanating from the existing cultural discrepancies, which further cause varying perceptions for products from different regions. Such research would seek to demystify the exiting stereotypes and present factual information supported with evidence, to prove otherwise. There are numerous communication issues which are raised during cross culture communication aimed at understanding the target market population. The perceptions which the individuals hold regarding foreign products and companies become fundamental elements affecting the consumer behaviour within such regions. The use of research can be able to present the different aspects which affect the communication conducted for marketing purposes to international consumers. Cultural factors affect the way consumers behave towards foreign and local products being sold within the same market. Many of the perceptions are based on assumptions which people make and effective communication marketing requires understanding of the factual aspects of the perceptions. The research must be based on the philosophical approach of positivism in order to be able to collect the facts regarding different aspects of the cultures and their impact upon the consumer behaviours exhibited within the particular market region (De Mooij 2013). Such approach to conducting a social research ensures that facts are presented within the findings and any speculations are completely eliminated. The utilisation of facts is essential in seeking to ensure that any conclusions drawn are factual and devoid of stereotypical speculative statements. The evidence gathered would be able to ensure that globalisation of marketing activities is undertaken through an comprehension of the social values of the target market (Mooij 2011). Realism would be an essential element as the findings of the research should be able to be applied in conducting actual advertising activities. The utilisation of factual data gathering methods should enhance the deductive reasoning element when drawing conclusions that could be generalised within other regions. Researchers must remain focused on application of induction as an approach for reaching logical conclusions, drawn from the facts gathered using positivism elements of collecting information (Zhang, Beatty, and Walsh 2008). Since the research cannot be conducted within an entire region, induction and logical reasoning of the researchers is critical when the findings are being generalised. The aspects of generalisation of facts will enable the findings to be applicable within different settings. The general propositions must be established from factual information in seeking to enhance the applicability o the research findings in other similar settings. Research methods Collecting data that is focused on finding the reasons for certain occurrences within the society requires the utilisation of qualitative research. This form of research will provide answers regarding the established hypothesis which are based in common phenomenon, presumed to have a certain effect on the consumption of products by people (Creswell 2013). For example, a research seeking to establish the role of religious perceptions among Muslims in purchasing products from Christian countries would have to adopt a qualitative approach. This kind of study enables a researcher to discover many issues that could cause the phenomena under investigation (Shaughnessy, Zechmeister, and Zechmeister 2014). Since very little research has been conducted, the data gathered would be wide, and the research can be utilised in leading other researchers to gather more specific information. The application of qualitative research could identify some of the reasons that social elements like culture have like significant effect upon consumers’ purchasing decision making process. Interested researchers could later utilise the findings and focus on a single reason that they could consider as having significant influence on consumer decisions. Such a research could take a quantitative approach and the effects could be measured to establish the impact. This form of research would be conducted through surveys that would be able to present factual information. Survey from of a research enables determination of thoughts, feeling and opinions of the subjects under investigation (Tracy 2013). The fundamental advantage of the application of these methods is the capacity to be specific, while tackling global and widespread goals. These kinds of researches are commonly utilised in satisfying pragmatic needs for marketing directors and advertising agents. There are significant differences in the theoretical orientations regarding what could be the causes of miscommunication in international marketing. Qualitative research methods can be utilised to bring out the different perceptions held by people from different cultural background regarding various global products. The utilisation of qualitative approaches will provide the research with information which can be analysed and provide an insight to the various perceptions which might exist. It is essential for the marketers involved in the development of advertisements to understand the meanings of different colours which the companies utilise in their advertisements. The existing negative perceptions regarding Islam could have detrimental effects on the consumer behaviours towards products manufactured in certain countries. American brands like McDonalds for example, could have a negative reception because of the existing political perceptions between the Arab world and the western world. Qualitative methods do not limit a researcher to specific elements of the society and they allow the exploration of different elements which might occur from the research. These approaches are open to various elements which might arise and were not included within the research theoretical framework. Qualitative methods would form a basis upon which quantitative research could be conducted to further understand specific concepts and perceptions. The role of different religious elements in the consumer behaviour could be explored to understand the effects of religious beliefs upon the consumer. This would result in the adoption of techniques that seek to appeal to the religious elements. Negative religious beliefs are overcome though understanding of the values and true elements of a particular religion. Many of the prevalent stereotypes are based on assumptions culminating in discrimination of products based on existing religious stereotypes. Longitudinal studies could be utilised within this setting as they can be able to study the population over different periods of time. This could be best when seeking to establish the changes that have occurred since some organisations invented particular advertisements. The fundamental advantages for undertaking this method are their capacity to investigate naturally occurring events, like culture driven consumer decision making (Patton 2002). Such events cannot be tested experimentally and must be observed from the natural setting. While longitudinal study presents highly relevant information, the principle disadvantage of the study is the element of participants leaving the study mid-way, for various reasons. This is largely contributed by studies that are conducted over an extensive time. In most cases however, the attrition of participants remains random and the results can still be generalised to a wide population. Research action plan The research process will include three major processes through which the researcher must be able to gather necessary information regarding the phenomena being investigated. 1. Planning During this period the researcher will prepare a research proposal detailing the research questions, data collection tools and also establishing the data analysis methods that will be utilised. In order to certify validity and reliability of the questionnaires, they must be drafted, revised and pretested during the planning phase (Creswell 2009). This will also include the sampling and selection of participants into the research based on the consideration of various parameters which the researcher establishes. Once all the data collection materials and the participants have been determined, the researcher will move to the subsequent phase of the research process. 2. Data collection This is a critical phase of the research and it is practical. The research will meet the participants and utilise the different data collection tools to gather information from the participants. The research can utilise questionnaires and interview to gather factual information from participants regarding the variables under investigation. 3. Data analysis This is the last element when conducting survey and is critical towards ensuring the results are valid and present relevant information. The reliability of the results is established during thus stage. One fundamental weakness of survey remains the assumption that the participant provided true answers, since the researcher presumes all responses to be true. A test-retest reliability measure is utilised in seeking to ascertain the truth of provided response (Shaughnessy, Zechmeister, and Zechmeister 2014). This involves presenting same questionnaire to the same sample at two different times. Discrepancies in the answers result in the presumption of untrue information. References Creswell, John W. 2009. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Creswell, John. 2013. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. 3rd ed. London: Sage Publications. De Mooij, Marieke. 2013. Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Izberk-Bilgin, Elif. 2012. “Infidel Brands: Unveiling Alternative Meanings of Global Brands at the Nexus of Globalization, Consumer Culture, and Islamism.” Journal of Consumer Research 39 (4): 663–687. Kaynak, Erdener, and Paul Herbig. 2014. Handbook of Cross-Cultural Marketing. London: Routledge. Mooij, Marieke de. 2011. Consumer Behavior and Culture: Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Patton, Michael Quinn. 2002. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. London: Sage Publications. Robson, Colin. 2011. Real World Research: A Resource for Users of Social Research Methods in Applied Settings. Chichester: Willey. Shaughnessy, John, Eugene Zechmeister, and Jeanne Zechmeister. 2014. Research Methods in Psychology. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Tracy, Sarah J. 2013. Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Zhang, Jingyun, Sharon E. Beatty, and Gianfranco Walsh. 2008. “Review and Future Directions of Cross-Cultural Consumer Services Research.” Journal of Business Research 61 (3): 211–224.  Read More