Ease suspicion with direct contact

Suspicion is a barrier to cross-cultural entrepreneurship. Many will not trust an outside venture until they hear reports from others in their own culture that it holds value for them. Even when some benefit from the business venture, interest will often build slowly. The entrepreneur, knowing acceptance of his business venture will take time, may choose to market his business to the whole population in hope that for some his business venture may be recognized as valuable. But rather than convince many at once of the value his venture provides them, he may find no one recognizes it as valuable.

When Tochisako began to market the value of MFIC’s remittance services to the local Hispanic population, he first chose newspaper ads - an example of wide marketing strategy. But when he and his staff spoke face-to-face with Hispanics in their neighborhoods, handing them fliers in their own language (and in Tochisako’s case, also speaking in Spanish), some began to adopt his remittance service. (Isenberg, chapter 2, pg. 50)

Therefore, though one may be tempted to mass-market one’s product or service to another culture, the effort to win a few through identification with their culture may meet with more success in overcoming cultural distrust.

This insight is important to a cross-cultural business because the tactics used by others in the same market may not work for outsiders. Had Tochisako employed the same tactics as other financial institutions, who often market to people who already use and trust their business in other capacities, the migrant Hispanic opportunity would have eluded him. When he and his staff demonstrated personal interest in the people by walking through their neighborhoods, speaking to them in their native language and offering their services to them, he proved to them that his business was for them. In this way he won a few, and those few helped spread his service to those more skeptical.

When I consider the launch of a business venture in another culture, I expect a level of distrust and misunderstanding. Unless the venture is outside anyone’s experience, it will be compared and contrasted to others in the region.

Say we start a legal firm in Lahore, Pakistan. We offer sound legal counsel at an affordable price to local corporations. Other legal firms market their services outside the courthouse or use their family and business connections to gain customers. But I, as an American with no connections to Pakistani business people, must garner support for my services in another way.

In order to be more personal, I may choose to visit corporations and offer my service to them in person. If I’ve invested in the language, I’ll be able to communicate to them in the language they’re most familiar with. I can explain how my services differ from others that are available, such as price differences and anti-bribery policies. Coming into direct contact with the people who will benefit from my services also gives me valuable feedback from which to modify the business to better meet their needs.

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