An investigation into cross-culture marketing: the difference between the Asian and Western countries - Essay Example

According to Gesteland (2006), the business cultures are divided into Deal-Focus (DF) and Relationship-Focus (RF) two parts all over the world. To conduct business, this Great Divide affects from the beginning to the end of all commercial relationship. There is a large proportion of relationship-oriented in the world’s market where people prefer to avoid doing business with strangers. In other words, they deal with people who are well known to them. So the proper third-party introduction is more helpful than telemarketing in these countries.

According to Gesteland (2006, pp.30), “building trust and rapport with your customer is important everywhere in the world.” The business men have to spend more time to build trust and develop a personal relationship in RF than in DF cultures country. DF business people are more comfortable discussing important issues in writing or over the phone than RF business people. Therefore, in the DF cultures businesses rely more on lawyers and detailed contracts than on personal relationships. The communication in RF and DF business cultures is also very different.

In order to avoid embarrassing or offending other people, the Relationship-oriented negotiators tend to use indirect and roundabout style language. In contrast, Deal-oriented negotiators always say what they mean. The following figure explains that different cultural values result in differing business as well as consumer behaviours. The barriers in the forms of gender, status and youth are more or less affect the marketing strategies execute. How to overcome the barrier is still the Deal-oriented negotiators’ big question.

In business, time is money. “The seller has to show respect to the buyer. Being on time is one way of showing respect, even in a polychromic culture” (Gesteland, 2006, pp.61). Very interestingly, in some countries, punctuality is not very important, so being patient is the key point. The international companies operate to