Culture Code - Aurora Winter

Interview Feb 23, 2015
“Marketing Across Cultures”
Guest expert Dr. John Wong interviewed by Aurora Winter
www.AuroraWinter.com

In this interview, you will why businesses must differentiate or die. You will learn how McDonald’s cracked the “culture code” and how you can, too, unlocking new income streams.

You will learn how the internet has changed marketing completely over the past 15 years, and 3 simple steps to your success.

You will learn why the explosion of small businesses means that everyone is now in the business of moving people. we’re all sales people. The good news is that that doesn’t mean “used car salesman” like it used to.

You will also learn what you can learn from Starbucks, and how to apply that to your business…and more!

I’m Aurora Winter, author of “Marketing Fastrack” and my guest today is Dr. John Wong, marketing guru and former chairman of the Dept. of marketing at the University of Iowa.

Welcome, Dr. Wong!

The #1 key to success is marketing and branding is to get clear on what story you are telling. If you’re not story telling, you’re not selling. Is that true in your view?

Dr. Wong, can you share your story of getting interested in marketing?

Daniel Pink, summarizes his book “to sell is human” with a Pixar pitch:
“Once upon a time only some people were in sales. Every day, they sold stuff, we did stuff, and everyone was happy. One day everything changed: All of us ended up in sales—and sales changed from a world of caveat emptor to caveat venditor. Because of that, we had to learn the new ABCs—attunement, buoyancy, and clarity. Because of that, we had to learn some new skills—to pitch, to improvise, and to serve. Until finally we realized that selling isn’t some grim accommodation to a brutal marketplace culture. It’s part of who we are—and therefore something we can do better by being more human.”
(Excerpt From: Daniel H. Pink. “To Sell Is Human.” Penguin Group, USA, 2012)

Your comments?

Daniel Pink says the explosion of information available on the Internet means that the buyer is often more informed than the seller. And that changes sale entirely to serving. And from “buyer beware” to “seller beware”. What do you think?

Any other ways the Internet has changed the nature of selling and marketing?

Daniel Pink surveyed 7,000 adult workers in the US and discovered 2 main findings, which he reported in his book “To Sell is Human”
1. People are now spending about 40 percent of their time at work engaged in non-sales selling—persuading, influencing, and convincing others in ways that don’t involve anyone making a purchase. Across a range of professions, we are devoting roughly twenty-four minutes of every hour to moving others.
2. People consider this aspect of their work crucial to their professional success—even in excess of the considerable amount of time they devote to it.*”
In other words, we are all in the business of selling or moving others!

We’re here in Italy, so this is a perfect place to talk about cross cultural differences, including what the social contract is that Americans have with McDonald’s — and how that doesn’t work well in a place like italy.

But first, can you share a bit of your multi-cultural background?

So what social contract do we have with McDonald’s? How is it different in italy?

McDonald’s entered a new business in Japan that would never work in the US – can you tell us about McWeddings?

How can entrepreneurs around the world apply this McWeddings lesson to their businesses?

“Differentiate or die”…Seems like cracking the culture code could be a key solution to differentiation?

In “The Culture Code” the author Clotaire Rapaille shares that different cultures have deep-seated associations or codes for different things, that get imprinted early in life with an emotional experience. The best marketing gains traction by accessing these culture codes. And the worst marketing is doomed to fail because it gies against the grain. For example, when nestle was initially marketing tea to Japan, they were trying to get people to choose coffee instead if green tea. Hopeless! Japanese people have a strong code for tea, and had nothing for coffee. They solved the problem by introducing caffine free coffee tasting desserts for children, creating a positive association and future coffee drinkers.

With your multicultural background, what marketing advice do you have for entrepreneurs so they don’t make this kind of costly mistake?

In “The Culture Code” the author shares the story of the different culture code for car, in America, it is identity. So he helped with the pt cruiser, which has a unique bold identity. You love it or hate it. In Germany, the culture code for car is engineering, so they were appalled. They predicted doom and relegated it to being manufactured only in one plant in Mexico. Boy were they wrong!

They got their cultural wires crossed! People paid up to $4,000 just to get on a waiting list to get the PT cruiser. It had a strong identity. Your thoughts?

While we are talking about cars, What can we learn from Henry Ford?

You presented 3 easy access points for us to connect with prospects – head, heart, hands. Can you talk a bit more about that?

What is Pepsi doing right? How can entrepreneurs learn from Pepsi? (What biz are you really in?)

McDonald’s CEO and founder Howard Schultz shockingly said that he didn’t want to meet customer expectations. What did he mean?

Thanks so much for your time!

Any final words of wisdom?

My final thought: Sony Founder Akio Morita said, “Marketing imagination is more powerful than innovation.” So how can you make your marketing more imaginative? And more powerful?