Singh - The Culturally Customized Web Site

THE CULTURALLY
CUSTOMIZED WEB SITE

Customizing Web Sites for the
Global Marketplace

THE CULTURALLY
CUSTOMIZED
WEB SITE

Customizing Web Sites for the
Global Marketplace

Nitish Singh, Ph.D. California State University, Chico Arun Pereira, Ph.D. Saint Louis University

Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann
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ISBN: 0-7506-7849-6

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Printed in the United States of America

For adoptive families the world over, in appreciation;
for Kavita and Meera, with love.
-AP

CONTENTS

PREFACE

This book is the result of over four years of research on various aspects of e-commerce, culture, and online consumer behavior. The Internet, with its unparalleled access to global customers and the potential for highly-customized marketing, has brought with it both promise and peril for international marketers. The promise of being born global with access to far-flung customers at unprecedented low costs must be tempered with the need for extraordinary business savvy to effectively confront the complexity of international competition and pressure on profit margins. How a global marketer manages the access to a vast, multicultural customer base, and handles other competitors vying for these customers will determine if it succeeds in the marketplace.

A key issue in the quest for global success through the Internet is the ability to design a web site that draws targeted customers, generates the desired behavior (be it a purchase or otherwise), builds trust and loyalty with these customers, and is invulnerable to competitive marketing actions. The process for this will obviously vary, depending on the needs of the targeted customersand customers in the global marketplace are of every cultural stripe possible, making for a multicultural sea of differing tastes and needs. In this context, where does one start to design web sites that are customized to draw specific cultural segments? The answer: right here, in this book.

Our researchalong with the research of othershas emphatically shown that culturally-adapted web content enhances usability, accessibility, and web site interactivity, with the relevant cultural group. To help implement such cultural adaptation, we provide a theoretically-sound, rigorously-tested framework. This framework provides the fundamental steps needed to culturally customize web sites. Our approach is country-based; as such we assume that countries can be defined by their dominant culture. The key reason for such an approach is a practical one: At present, global businesses continue to use countries as a basis for segmenting and targeting global customers (e.g., companies talk in terms of entering the Chinese market). However, we recognize that the continuing march of globalization is dramatically changing the world with massive migrations of people, and national borders being redefined or erased. In this context, targeting countries must be done with caution; a country may have strong subcultures established by immigrants (for example, Indians in UK, French in Canada, etc.). However, it must be noted that the resulting situationalthough more complexis still structurally unchanged (targeting Canada may mean a secondary target of the French in Canada; thus both are again, country based). As such, our approach of defining countries based on their dominant culture(s) is practical, and readily implemented by companies looking for success in the global marketplace.

In conclusion, we would like to acknowledge the help and inspiration we received from faculty members and students at California State University and Saint Louis University. Our special thanks to California State University Research Foundation for the grant that they made available to write this book. Finally, we also extend our thanks to several academic reviewers and consultants that provided us valuable feedback and recommendations.

All examples of web sites used in the book were accessed from the Web during 2004. Please visit www.theculturallycustomizedwebsite.com for additional information and updates.

Nitish Singh
California State University, Chico
Arun Pereira
Saint Louis University

FOREWORD

The phenomenal growth of the Internetand its associated World Wide Webis a development that's not expected to abate in the near future. The World Wide Web removes all national boundaries in global commerce. With the expansion of market boundaries comes a broadening of the diversity within the pool of prospective customers. Thus, sales toolssuch as web sitesmust be treated with sensitivity to the demographic profiles of the various targets around the world. Companies that realize the importance of cultural differences, and design web materials with this in mind, will increase international market shareat the expense of those who ignore local customs. This book will help companies avoid unintended mistakes and cultural misunderstandings.

The Culturally Customized Web Site, by Professors Nitish Singh and Arun Pereira, is a timely publication that provides valuable information and insight into designing web sites for worldwide e-commerce. This book is the first comprehensive how to publication for customizing web sites to specific country cultures. The guidelines offered, which are specific and clearly written, are based on sound theory and vigorous empirical testing. Furthermore, this book is well organized, so that readers will easily understand the cultural differences underlying the global market.

Companies and institutions targeting culturally diverse customers can use this book to gain knowledge of the specific attributes required in a web site to attract a particular target groupincreasing the probability of repeat visits and the building of customer trust and loyalty. For example, if a company wants to target customers in Australia, France, India, and China, the web sites will have to be different; reflecting core cultural differences which impact business practices and human behavior.

This book is appropriate for several audiences: First, web designers who design web sites for international companies and organizations will find that this book complements their technical expertise by offering insights into cultural diversity and its implications for web design. Second, managers of multinational companies and other organizations who target multicultural groups across the globe will find that this book provides a framework that will help them understand the breadth and depth of resources needed to be allocated in order to fund the cultural customization of their web materials. Finally, faculty who teach courses such as International Marketing, Global E-Commerce, International Advertising and other international business courses will find that this book provides an outline to teach students the cultural aspects of online marketing, based on established theory and empirical testing, along with end of chapter exercises that enhance the classroom learning experience.