This chapter discusses the differences between PR practice in Western countries and the Southeast Asia region. In the text, it is mentioned that no one theoretical model can cover all aspects of Asia's public relations and this stems from the sole reason that Asia is a vast place. There are differences in culture, differences in democracy and how the country is being run, and the differences in markets and global trading landscape.
Understanding this chapter warns me to do sufficient research for my PR plan. It helps that I am a Singaporean, hence able to understand the cultural roots of Singaporeans.
"What draws us to an event?"
" What impression do we have of this brand?"
" What motivates me to change my behavior?"
Of course, planning a strategy cannot only be based on the 'ME' factor, but with research and analysis, fully understand the construct of the local society.
By doing so, it will be easy to target a specific community as your audience.
Here are a few pictorial representations of the differences between the Westerners and Asians.
Lifestyle
Retirement Life
Self Ego
Punctuality
Queuing
When at a party
What they think is cool (identical to FeiYue's dilemma)
Hey Joane,
ReplyDeleteAwesome idea, using Feiyue as an example to illustrate your points. Haha.
Anyway, the main point that you have brought up is very relevant indeed. The differences in culture, what is acceptable and what is not, what is deemed normal or unusual.... These are factors that can make or break a public relations campaign.
This is the very reason why we should go back to the chapter on RESEARCH.
Being able to understand and develop PR strategies and tactics based on a deep understanding of a region's culture is one of the most important factors which will determine if the message that you as a PR practitioner is trying to get across reaches its intended audience.
This is increasingly crucial in Asia, as cultures here are generally more conservative than Western countries. One wrong step may lead to an offended and pissed-off audience and you can forget about reaching out to them next time round.
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how it is easy to be offensive to a culture if proper understand is not achieved prior to any execution of events, campaigns etc. Apart from cultures, I feel that it is also important to research on the prevalent communities in a particular country.
For example, if the targeted audience for Feiyue was the skater community in France (presumably), the strategy might not be wise in Singapore as the local skater community is relatively small. Therefore I feel that research on culture itself is insufficient, but PR practitioners have to zoom in on by-products of the cultures.