The world really needs more intercultural communications

4 04 2009

I am currently working on the final piece of research I need to achieve graduate, and in the process of being chained to my computer, I came across an excellent example demonstrating the need for communications professionals that understand cultural difference, and the impact this difference has on communications and marketing.

First, we need to talk about the concept of “high context” (HC) and “low context” (LC) communications. Edward Hall introduced this concept quite some time ago. The basic premise is that cultures are either HC or LC, and this difference results in very different communications styles. LC countries, like Canada, the US, & Germany, require explicit communications. We want you to tell it to us straight, think using euphemisms to communicate is a bit of a cop-out, and we require constant, explicit downloads of information to get the point. For us LC’ers, the message is contained in the words, regardless of how or where the words are presented or delivered. HC cultures are the opposite. For them, the message is contained not in the words, but in the context of the message: is the person delivering the message important or not (this will clue them into whether the message itself is important or not), is the person delivering the message taking this seriously (i.e. are they dressed seriously or casually, is the message being delivered in an office or in the cafeteria, etc)? For HC’ers, like China and Japan, giving someone a large amount of explicit information may be considered patronizing. Additionally, HC’ers tend to already know alot about what’s going on without being told explicitly. The use of stories, symbols, and metaphors is strong in HC cultures.

Now that we’ve had a brief introduction, I’d like to introduce these two advertisements which illustrate the difference. Both are ads for international film festivals. The first ad is for the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and is directed at international film industry professionals. The caption isn’t included in the image below, but it is:”Where is the next crouching tiger and hidden dragon?” According to Brand Republic Asia, the ads ride on “Ang Lee’s award-winning film “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”, to lure international film professionals to Hong Kong and scout for Asian talent during the film festival. The creative visuals show an animated jungle with various hidden animals, using the tagline “Where is the next Crouching tiger and hidden dragon?”, the Chinese proverb refers to undiscovered gems and talent.”

What I find fascinating about this ad is that the objective is to communicate to international film industry professionals, and yet the ad relies entirely on a Chinese proverb that many non-Chinese may not understand. It is a typically high-context ad, and would probably be very effective in communicating with Chinese film professionals. However, I question its efficacy in communicating with European producers and directors at Berlin, where this ad premiered.

HKIFF Trade Ad

The second ad is for the film festival I work for, The Calgary International Film Festival (which is great BTW). This is a postcard we put together to begin to communicate our positive impact on the city in which we operate. To be fair, we didn’t intend this piece to be intercultural per se, but we also admittedly didn’t think about the different cultural groups that make up our community and would therefore see it (whoops!). The point I want to make here is that it is an example of LC communication.