Multicultural marketing and management of change

In recent months I have been working on a project with a client in Europe. The so-called “common market” can be the least uniform of the markets. We find that economic barriers are disappearing, but others such as cultural specific still remain important.

Without going any further, the language. The European marketing direction of our client manages around 30 countries with nearly as many languages. When educating clients, European programs have to be converted, in most cases, to the local language.
Realities can be as diverse as Germany, with 80 million inhabitants and an economy that works again against Bulgaria, with a per capita income averaged 44% of the 27 European Union countries.

And speaking of the education profile of customers, we can also imagine big differences. Technical workers have a very different level of preparation in some countries and others. If we try to use the Internet, the level of use in some countries and in others it may be very different.

We could talk about topics including law, religion, customs, etc.., but it would be going too far.

How to implement solutions in this scope? With good management of change: information, involvement, training and support. Paying more attention to people who have to act as agents of change than to the solution itself. That is the factor that brings us closer to success.