Reading/Discussion Qs

To-Do Date: Feb 5 at 11:59pm

Read:

Chapter 3- Intercultural Communication (textbook)

Will Walmart ever be successful overseas? Links to an external site.

What It's Like to Shop at Walmart in China Links to an external site.

Chapter 3- Slides  Download Chapter 3- Slides 

Discussion and assignment: Wednesday, February 5, complete both 1 and 2

1. Intercultural Blunders: Write a response to each situation: consider the gravity of each offense, then discuss each for its take-away, the lesson to be learned from it. Bring your written responses to class on Wednesday for participation credit: 

a. Burger King’s U.K. division had the best intentions, but its attempt to entice more women to become professional chefs misfired, although the fast-food chain was offering scholarships as inducements. The problem? On International Women’s Day the company tweeted “Women belong in the kitchen.” The slogan fell flat. Apparently, the public was not willing to consider the context in which the prototypical sexist phrase was used.

b. British multinational bank and financial services holding company HSBC missed the mark internationally with an innocuous campaign tagline: “Assume nothing.” In English-speaking markets, the ambiguity of the phrase worked with audiences. Abroad, however, the slogan translated roughly to “do nothing.” The intended effect of this marketing effort was lost on international audiences.

c. Papa John’s pizza company forced out its founder and CEO, John Schnatter, after he had used a racial slur and made other racially tinged comments during a conference call with executives and the company’s advertising agency. Predictably, his remarks made it onto social media, and Papa John’s sales dropped 10.5 percent in the following weeks.

d. Amazon’s Swedish website launch astonished audiences. The machine-translated Swedish version of Amazon’s portal went live with embarrassing blunders. For example, the AI substituted the Argentinian flag for the Swedish flag (although they really don’t look much alike!) and featured embarrassingly inaccurate product descriptions. Let’s just say that the word rooster was replaced with the Swedish word for male genitalia.

e. Coca-Cola failed miserably in New Zealand when it attempted to combine Māori, the indigenous language, and English. Vending machines full of Coca-Cola bottles greeted Māori consumers with “Kia ora, mate”—a banner that translated as “Hello, Death” in the indigenous language. “Mate” was supposed to suggest friendliness since it is a friendly form of address common in Australia and New Zealand, but in Māori the word “mate” means death.

2) After reading the article above: Will Walmart Ever Be Successful Overseas? Consider the following questions for discussion in class:

1) What challenges does Walmart face expanding stores overseas?

2) What adaptations should Walmart be making when expanding overseas in India? In Asia?

3) Should Walmart sell standardized consumer products (such as they do in the US) or, cater to local differences in taste? 

 

Assignments:

Grammar assignment due: February 10

Writing assignment due: February 19