Cultural Awareness

Perhaps the greatest benefit of spending time abroad is how it increases your sense of cultural awareness.

You live for a period of time in another country and become aware that the behavior, reactions, expectations, and norms of the people are different.  You discover minor yet impactful differences.

You shake hands differently.  Smiling and eye contact communicate in unexpected ways.  What you think is friendly they think is forward.  What you think is considerate they find insincere.

Nobody is right, nobody is wrong.  It’s too complex for there to be a single, right answer.

After you visit a few countries, you have an Epiphany.  What’s profound is not the differences you discover in one country.  Rather, it’s an awareness of how culture – in general – impacts people’s behavior.

The cultural norms we live within shape us.  You realize that if you’d grown up in another country, you would behave differently.  Your personality is not innate.   Part of you would change.

Culture is a powerful force we can only begin to understand when we step outside the one that’s impacting us directly.  It’s a powerful life lesson.

 

Cultural Wisdom

A salesperson comes to your office to do a presentation on her solution.  It’s a strong looking offer you think you’re going to need.

But she enters the room looking disheveled.  She doesn’t make eye contact or shake anyone’s hand.  She’s mumbling to herself.

She realizes her presentation isn’t loading on her antiquated looking laptop.  She decides to wing it.  Afterwards, she asks for business cards to put in her Rolodex.

Are you going to do business with her?

I was looking for a dentist and found one close to my home.  I thought he would likely be my choice.  Then I visited his website.

 

The dated feel of this design gave me pause.  If this is what his site looks like, what kind of dental equipment does he use?

Immediate distrust.

He’s probably a competent dentist.  The salesperson had a strong solution.

Yet we write these people off.  Their problem is not with their offer, but their lack of cultural wisdom.  They don’t see that their presentation is so out of the norm that we figure they can’t actually have a service we’d want.

 

A Culturally Aware Website

At its most fundamental level, a business website must do two things.  These are things the online consumer culture requires if they are going to seriously consider the business offer.

The first is that visitors have to understand what you do.  You have to clearly communicate what your offer is so a website visitor has a chance to consider if it’s a fit for their needs.

The second is that you have to get people to believe that you’ll keep your promises.  That you’ll deliver on the value you’re offering.  If there is any doubt that you’ll actually come through, you damage the chances of persuading your audience.

There are a host of things that affect how you meet these cultural expectations.  Intelligent user experience in design and a clear value proposition can help ensure people know what you do.

Being specific about your offer and social proof will get people to believe in you.

On the other hand, outdated designs like the dental website cause doubt.  So does inconsistent information, like saying you have a 100% guarantee, then offering no details about how it works.

Many business websites today struggle with conversions because they lack awareness of how the online consumer culture works.  They think people will take long periods of time to learn about what they do.  They believe a clever, cool design that’s a reflection of their tastes is important.  They lose sight of how confusing their content is because they can’t view from the perspective a new online visitor.

Their website is like an inappropriate, awkward handshake.

Take a look at your website.  Is it culturally aware?

 

The Online Consumer Culture

Descriptions of cultures are by their nature limited.  A “culture” is dynamic and nuanced.  Part of cultural wisdom is being aware of this.

Still, there are things about how consumers behave online today that allow us to discuss them at a cultural level.  Here are some things to be aware of.

Online consumers like speed.  They want content to load fast, and they want to be able to consume it in short periods of time.  Information needs to be presented in short bursts that are direct – even blunt.  Don’t beat around the bush.  Get to the point.  And make sure your pages load fast on all devices.  Every second of delay costs you conversions.

Online consumers like specificity.  When they have a problem or question and search for a solution, they want the content they find to be an exact match for their need.  Sorta close doesn’t cut it.  Understand your audience’s needs and match your content to them exactly.

Online consumers favor simplicity.  They enjoy websites that are easy to navigate and direct them to what they want without surprises.  On the other hand, they can’t stand to be confused.  Never favor design or content that’s confusing just because you want to be unique or cool.  Consider Facebook and Google, the most popular sites online.  Both are simple and easy to use.

Online consumers respond when they feel an affinity with content or business.   They want to be drawn into a story that fits their lifestyle.   They expand on their connection to brands, seeing what they buy as a reflection of their personalities.  Developing an underlying story and connection on a personal level through social media are important cultural connections in today’s marketing.

And in a more recent cultural shift, online consumers expect content to adjust to where they are.  Of course this is facilitated by mobile devices, but its cultural impact is powerful.  Your content needs to be easy to consume on a phone.  You need to automatically geo-locate.  Many apps, videos, and social media services need to be designed to prioritize the mobile experience.  The culture of the internet itself is heading towards mobile connectivity.

Take the time to look at your online audience as if you were visiting a foreign country.  There are norms and expectations you need to learn and adapt to.  The culture doesn’t adapt to you, you must adapt to it.

If, for example, you’re a Gen-X’er targeting Millennials, you may feel like you are in fact dealing with a totally foreign culture.  Always connected, Snapchatting, expecting instant answers, weaving their social life into their consumer life.

To sell to them you have to think like them.  Your content has to be culturally wise.

Step outside yourself.  Open your mind to a way of seeing the world that’s new and unexpected.

You’ll do a better job of selling, but you’ll also learn another valuable life lesson (which is also powerful marketing lesson).

For all those differences, there are many ways in which we are the same.  You can become close friends with someone who has a totally different cultural background.  You learn from each other.

Same goes for marketing.  Chances are you understand the online consumer culture pretty well.  You’re part of it.

What sells you?  The answer to that question is increasingly the same as to What sells the world?