When one of my Dutch colleagues referred to “hives” in a conversation about social networks couple of days ago I have to admit that I was confused. Why had a discussion about Facebook morphed into a differebt one about a nasty skin rash? As the conversation proceeded it became clear that Hyves was in fact a big social network in the Netherlands. I had just never heard of it before.

This occurence serves to confirm the basic thrust of the the first few posts of a series titled “One Size Fits None” have appeared on PepperDigital. The series proposition is that while social media platforms seem to offer instant access to a global audience, that access is actually far more fragmented than it first appears. The posts cite many platforms set up for individual countries. Also, since social media habits vary by geography, it may not really be easy to target the same demographic group across countries.

I would suggest another difference, which may be even more significant than those two: The same idea may be received very differently by people from different cultures.

This difference is hidden beneath what appears to be a global homogenization of consumer desires. When shopping malls in major cities around the world offer up a familiar array of upscale brands, it becomes all too easy to believe that brands and advertising will appeal equally well across cultures. But if history is to be our guide, there is a good chance that consumers in developing economies will retain their own strong cultural identities. Though it has become a major economic power, Japan has not lost its unique culture, and as a result, it is one of the most challenging markets for global brands.

I believe that cultural diversity around the world may well increase, not decrease, as standards of living rise. As a result, global brands will increasingly need to take account of the cultural differences they encounter, both online or off.  (More on this topic can be found here.)

In a recent article in the Market Leader, I outlined the difficulties facing global brands seeking to engage a global audience. You have to subscribe to the magazine to read the full article but David Taylor over at brandgymblog has provided an nice summary illustrated with some of the ads I featured. (Thanks David, much appreciated.)

The basic point of the article is that you can’t count on the same campaign idea or execution working everywhere. One in ten TV ads that tested exceptionally well in one country tested below average in another. And there is absolutely no reason to believe social messaging would be different.

Culture dictates how people interact with both advertising and media channels. I was chatting to Mark Husak, Head of Media UK & Ireland at Millward Brown, about the differences in the ways people around the world interact with online channels and he offered up this example. Around the world, soon-to-be mums are often hungry for advice and information. The Internet offers a great means for companies to reach out and engage them. But in China, there is a prevailing belief that pregnant women should not use computers because radiation from the screen may have a negative effect on the unborn child. So, though the same need exists in that country, for now it will need to be satisfied using different media channels.

Even if cultural diversity does not increase over time, the global internet audience is still likely to fragment as a result of Icann’s approval of the use of non-Latin-script for urls. Currently billions of people are forced to type in web addresses in English. It’s much easier to type them in your own language. It will only accelerate the current trend toward local language and site surfing.

Bill Gates once said, “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” These days it might be more appropriate to say the Internet is becoming multiple town squares, each with its own language and cultural diversity. So what do you think?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 10:10 am and is filed under Brands, Creative, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Print this Page