Introduction to Cross Cultural Surveying

One of the greatest challenges standing in the way of market researchers is accounting for different cultures when it comes to creating their surveys. The world is quickly becoming its own cross-cultural melting pot, and these cultural differences may make the data you collect inaccurate.

Republished from Kwintessential : "Traficante" and Italian mineral water found a great reception in Spain's underworld. In Spanish it translates as "drug dealer". An American business person refused an offer of a cup of coffee from a Saudi businessman.

Such a rejection is considered very rude and the business negotiations became stalled. A golf ball manufacturing company packaged golf balls in packs of four for convenient purchase in Japan. Unfortunately, pronunciation of the word "four" in Japanese sounds like the word "death" and items packaged in fours are unpopular.

A nice cross cultural example of the fact that all pictures or symbols are not interpreted the same across the world: staff at the African port of Stevadores saw the "internationally recognised" symbol for "fragile" (i.e. broken wine glass) and presumed it was a box of broken glass. Rather than waste space they threw all the boxes into the sea! A company advertised eyeglasses in Thailand by featuring a variety of cute animals wearing glasses.

The ad was a poor choice since animals are considered to be a form of low life and no self-respecting Thai would wear anything worn by animals.

Every culture is different. The above marketing blunders show how what something means in one language or culture will not necessarily translate to another. Your surveys work in a similar way. From the designs to the questions to the data, your survey will often reach people of other cultures than the survey offer, and unless you understand how to craft a survey that takes into account cultural awareness, you may find that the data you receive is not an accurate representation of the population.

As you create your survey, you need to do your best to take into account cross cultural issues. The University of Michigan created their own booklet of Cross Cultural Survey Guidelines for you to follow with your research. If you are dealing with diverse populations, it is especially important that you pay attention to differences between populations when completing your survey, and find a way to ensure that the data you are collecting is accurate. Continued…