Cross-cultural communication  

    The Public Relations (PR) industry is responsible for creating and maintaining relationships between clients and customers. Through areas such as brand management, advertising, media relations and crisis management, PR practitioners seek to foster interest, trust and belief in a product or company.

   PR practitioners are aware of how best to carry this out when dealing within their own nations and cultures, however, when dealing with a foreign audience it is critical that cross cultural differences are recognized. Cross cultural differences can make or break a PR campaign. It is therefore crucial that PR practitioners dealing with PR campaigns that incorporate a cross cultural element analyze likely cross cultural differences. A few key areas shall be highlighted in order to help PR practitioners begin to consider how culture may affect future projects. Robert L. Wakefield asserted that in the 21st century, public relations practitioners face new challenges. Once primarily a domestic undertaking, public relations have gone global. The increased number of multinational organizations, ease of transnational and worldwide communication, and global marketplace has redefined the practice of public relations. Although some organizations and industries are more often affected, changes reverberate throughout organizational practice. Thus, skills in communicating with multiple publics across different cultures are essential. Sriramesh noted that “PR practice in the 21st century has, and will continue to, become multinational and multicultural in nature”.

    However, “precious little information exists to help multinational organizations to understand the global nature of their public relations or to guide them as they develop resources not only to get their messages out to increasingly cross-cultural publics but also to anticipate and respond to behaviors by those publics that could affect the organizations” This lack of information hampers efforts and places achieving organizational goals in jeopardy. Multinationals need to understand the nuances of public relations between countries, or even in different regions within countries, and how misunderstandings of those nuances can bring problems on a global scale. PR practitioners employ many different communication channels when trying to circulate information relating to their campaign. The main channels of communication in the UK or America are the radio, the press, TV, internet and public spaces. However, these channels may not always be applicable abroad.

   In many countries the radio, TV or newspapers may not be the primary source of information. Literacy rates may be poor and/or radios may be expensive. In Africa, only 1.4% of the population have access to the internet. Even where such channels of communication do exist, such as TV, some methods used by PR practitioners, namely guerrilla marketing, would be interpreted differently in foreign countries. For example, interrupting live TV may be laughed at in the UK but in other countries it would be seen as irresponsible and rebellious.

   The usual channels of communication in some countries would simply have no effect in terms of PR. In such countries, local alternatives need to be sought such as religious leaders, tribal chiefs, school teachers or NGO's. Information coming from such figures will not only reach the audience but be perceived as more credible than if it were from foreigners. Every public relations professional dreams of developing a campaign that puts his or her company’s tag line on the lips of the entire world. However, the tried and true rules of continuity, consistency, and even practicality don’t always apply when it comes to international or cross-culture campaigns. Before you try to recycle your PR campaign in a foreign market, consider that you are dealing with a completely new audience with its own characteristics, ideals, and preconceived notions about what you’re selling. Industry experts recommend using a public relations or advertising agency that specializes in international campaigns.

  In order for a PR campaign to be successful abroad, an appreciation of the target language and its cultural nuances is necessary. The PR and advertising industries are littered with examples of poor translations and a lack of cross cultural understanding leading to PR failure. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Ke-kou-ke-la,” meaning “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax,” depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent, “ko-kou-ko-le,” which translates into “happiness in the mouth.”- Pepsi also had trouble in China with the slogan “Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation,” which translated into “Pepsi Brings your Ancestors Back from the Grave”.- Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)’s experience in China has been fraught with a few obstacles. For example, the company’s slogan “finger-lickin’ good” was translated as “eat your fingers off.”

- A T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish-speaking market that promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of “I Saw the Pope” (el Papa), the shirts read “I Saw the Potato” (la Papa).

- A curling iron called the “Mist Stick” was released in Germany, where the word “mist” is slang for “manure.”

- A Scandinavian company marketed their vacuum in America using the slogan, “Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux.”

- A major beer company directly translated their slogan “Turn it Loose” to Spanish, where it was understood as “Suffer from Diarrhea.”- A slogan for chicken, “It Takes a Strong Man to Make a Tender Chicken,” was translated into Spanish as “It Takes an Aroused Man to Make a Chicken Affectionate.”

- In translating the slogan for a ballpoint pen, “It Won’t Leak in Your Pocket and Embarrass You,” the Spanish word embarazar, meaning to impregnate, was used instead of “embarrass.” The ad read, “It Won’t Leak in Your Pocket and Make You Pregnant.”

Questions:

1. What is Public Relations responsible for?

2. Why can cross cultural differences make or break a PR campaign?

3. What has redefined the practice of public relations in the 21st century?

4. What do public relations practitioners face in the 21st century?

5. What difficulties exist to help multinational organizations to understand the global nature of their public relations?

6. What does every public relations professional dream about?

7. What should every public relations professional consider before trying to recycle his PR campaign in a foreign market?

8. Why do the usual channels of communication in some countries would simply have no effect in terms of PR?

9. What should every public relations know about a simple translation?

10. What misunderstanding may happen if the public relations practitioners have no idea about the culture of another country?

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PR in Sport

Sport is both a major international business and a key structure in globalised society. It encompasses business communication as well as cultural and inter-cultural communication, and political communication. To illustrate the political component we have only to consider the communicative aspects of events such as the Olympics and the way in which they are utilised as cultural diplomacy to promote national ideals and cultural identity internally and externally and to stimulate tourism (sport, business and leisure).

Sport’s newsworthiness derives from its financial growth as well as its central role in culture. Football, for example, is a ”media product” for many organizations put vast sums of money into the game to secure live television rights. Football provides the consummate example of personal PR and branding. This is where the worlds of sport and celebrity overlap. The case where PR tends to be a marketing tactic is sponsoring. That is created from a centralised marketing strategy because sponsorship practice is changing to take a more holistic approach linking corporate affairs and marketing communications (including hospitality).

In addition to the business and news value of elite sport and celebrity sports stars there is a vast sports market comprised both of giants that encompass clothing, equipment, footwear and, to some degree fashion, (Nike, Adidas) and niche specialists (De Rosa bikes, Aquaman wetsuits). Such strongly branded companies are highly newsworthy and maybe vulnerable to whistleblowers. Internal and external corporate social responsibilities are vital PR functions. Of course, all such commercial companies require public relations expertise beyond marketing, not least to effect productive employee relations but also to facilitate an understanding of organisational culture and climate and their relationship to organisational vision and mission.

The field of sports PR is wider yet. Sports tourism includes both the promotion of events worldwide to sports-specific fans and holidays which offer sports facilities at a variety of recreational levels and targeted at different markets (family orientated, adventure or ‘adrenaline junkie’, training camp). The importance of the concept of lifestyle should be emphasised as markets and media fragment.

 As with any sector in public relations, there are career opportunities in sport in agencies and in-house. One of the important things to bear in mind is that public relations work may be described by another term such as ‘sports direction’ (US term), ‘sports promotion’, ‘sports development’, ‘sponsorship exploitation’, ‘event management’ or ‘sports marketing’. Agencies specialising in the field likewise present themselves in a variety of ways including ‘sports PR’, ‘sports PR and brand building’, ‘brand and event promoting agency’, ‘sponsorship marketing’, ‘brand and events promotion’, and ‘athlete management’. 

However, a very different level of public relations takes place in minority sports, some of which may be new on the market, for example parkour a form of free fall street gymnastics using street furniture as props. Others may be struggling to establish their identity, for example, korfball, practised in Holland for over a hundred years but not so well-known in the UK. Identity construction and management is essential to minority sports.

Questions:

1. How are the communicative aspects of events such as the Olympics utilized?

2. Where does sport’s newsworthiness derive from?

3. Where do the worlds of sport and celebrity overlap?

4. In what case does PR tend to be a marketing tactic?

5. What is a vast sports market comprised of?

6. Why do some commercial companies require public relations expertise beyond marketing?

7. What does sports tourism include?

8. What career opportunities are there in the field of public relations?

9. In what way do agencies specializing in the field of sports present themselves?

10. Where does a very different level of public relations take place?

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PR and Railways   

Public relations are used by railway firms who seek more visibility to their customers. As with advertising, public relations can be segmented to reach particular consumers or markets. For example, a manufacturer of rail cars would target an industry magazine's rail car wrap-up issue rather than concentrating on getting an article in a track publication.

One of the most effective PR methods is press briefing and trade press briefing. For instance, a major railroad supplier in Kansas City takes its top executives to New York each year to meet with industry trade and major business media about product and service benefits. It allows to maintain a presence - not only with the railroad book, but with business and related trade publications. Plant openings or site visits are perfect for demonstrating how the product is made and what makes it different.

Other tactics include special events and opening launches. To give an example, a major manufacturer of rail cars conducts a special event in Moscow to announce the completion of a major project.

Building a rapport with trade association officials and members helps build recognition of the company and its products within the industry. For example, at a rail forum or roundtable, the comments of the participants don't escape notice in the rail magazines and that leads to credibility for them and their companies.

Rebranding is a successful PR-technique used by JSC Russian Railways which has been 

been restructured in response to rising demand for transport services in Russia. The company has picked a new corporate outfit to match its new outlook and new logo to embody new aspects of development like tourism, construction, and telecoms. The new brand will help attract both passengers and investors. The bright red color represents the company’s aggressive approach and willingness to change. The sign also displays the Cyrillic abbreviation of Russian Railways, pointing to the Russian origin of the company. Also Russian Railways will pick its corporate colours, which will provide the uniforms for 1.3 million staff as well as a new-look for the carriages.

In conclusion, the rail industry is a diverse one with a myriad of different companies working in and around the sector. As such, PR and advertising companies need to have a variety of ways to apply the media coverage they provide, from crisis PR through to brand exposure and raising profiles for marketing reasons.

Questions:

1. Do railways seek more visibility to customers?

2. Will a manufacturer of rail cars target an industry magazine's rail car issue or will he get an article in a track publication?

3. What example of trade press briefing is given in the text?

4. What is perfect for demonstrating how the product is made and what makes it different?

5. What tactics of PR are mentioned in the text?

6. What helps build recognition of the company and its products within the industry?

7. What successful PR-technique is used by JSC Russian Railways?

8. Why has Russian Railways picked a new corporate outfit and a new logo?

9. What does the new company brand represent?

10. The rail industry is diverse with lots of different companies, isn’t it?

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