Topic > Intercultural Communication - 912

With the development of economic globalization, intercultural communication has played an important role in international business activities. To achieve effective intercultural communication, people should understand and focus more on cultural identity. Jameson (2007) stated that cultural identity which refers to a person's status in a group includes six components: vocation, class, geography, philosophy, language, and biology (p.210). This essay will discuss that customers' cultural identity is an important consideration for Haier Group when developing new products and markets, especially when it comes to the vocation of class and geography. Class-related cultural identity has a great effect on a company's marketing. The social and economic class to which people belong has a great effect on their daily consumption decisions (He & Liu, 2003, p.249). Leung (2005) stated that people's social and economic status is a reliable indicator of the class they fall into, providing valuable practical information for businesses (p.362). In general, people who belong to the high social and economic class are usually more willing to consume. In other words, it can mean that the economic class of the consumer will directly influence the consumer's demand and spending habit (Leung, 2005, p.370). Jameson (2007) found that “economic, social, and educational classes often define groups of people who share common values, behaviors, and attitudes; these cultural groups also cross national and ethnic lines” (p.212). Therefore, people belonging to the same economic or social class can have the same tendency to consume. The specific economy class usually requires a particular service or product. In general, the single white-collar crowds belong to the high-income class. They are the class that has a considerable income and have the requirements of high quality of the product. However, they don't have too many clothes to wash. For example, when Haier Group entered the Japanese washing machine market, it found that most of the washing machines on the market were large capacity. They are not suited to the unique class of office workers. Therefore, Haier Group designed and introduced a small capacity and high quality washing machine for them. The products are widely appreciated and the Haier Group was the first to open the doors to the Japanese market. Due to the profound impact that geographic environments have on human life, people living in different regions have different demands for products. Jameson (2007) argues that “geography creates cultural groups but not only in terms of nationality.