DG406 Intercultural

Design

Reflection on theory

I already knew about the dimensions of ‘Hofstede’, but I never gone into depth with these dimensions. It was very interesting that these dimensions have so many influences on the daily life of people and the behaving and also why it is as it is. For example dinner in the Netherlands is together with parents, but in China that is not the case because of the power distance. First I only thought of the distance between employee and boss with power distance. But now I’ve learned that in many more environments in a society this dimensions takes his role. To understand some ones culture and behavioral you have to have knowledge about the five dimensions of ‘Hofstede’. I’ve learned that these dimensions are general and don’t apply to all people from one culture. The dimensions show and explain some aspects of the culture in overall. Also all the values a culture have come from hundred or thousand years ago and still are present now a day. Here you can see how deep the values go, how important they are, and how obvious it is for the people. What I also learned to understand a culture you only have to know some rules. Understanding goes beyond that and you need to dive into the cultures values and where they come from. Still cultures will change through time because of globalization but not as far that there will come a global culture. The values are in the nature of the people and will not disappear or change suddenly.

Integrating knowledge into your daily life or project

I’m doing a project this semester about a disadvantages urban neighborhood at Brussels in Belgium. In this neighborhood you have to deal with people from several different cultures. This assignment I could really use for my project. You have to understand the cultures values because then you can see the problems or conflicts between cultures easier. When you know the values and habits of one culture you can better contact the people. Also the power distance within a neighborhood can be caused by several ways: culture, education level, wealth, look(clothes), and behavior. These things are very important to find out and so I used them in my project. I’ve learned a lot about cultures and how to deal with it in our design world.

I already dealt with a culture difference in my project group. I had a foreigner in my team and he was from Iran. It was very hard to communicate with him, because he was very quiet and he didn’t put any input into the project. First I thought that he was just very shy or insecure. But now I understand that the way he behaved was because of his different kind of culture background and that he was in a strange country dealing with other cultural values. It was very hard to handle such a team member in your group. We were a bit frustrated about his passive attitude and we misunderstood his behaving. But it was not a good way to solve this problem but we didn’t know his background and different values so we couldn’t understand it. I think now that I can deal better with foreigners in my group and other different culture issues.

A small experience was at the propedeutic ceremony where a Chinese person received his diploma. He grabbed his paper with two hands. That is something that I noticed. I realize that I am aware of culture differences and now I also see them more what is very interesting.

Water bottle campaign

We had to create a water bottle campaign for the country Saudi Arabia. First of all we all searched for information on the internet about the culture, economy, population, relation men and women, media, dimensions Hofstede, and existing advertisements or commercials of Saudi Arabia. When you take a look to commercials of Saudi Arabia you see that they use a lot of visuals to make things clear and little text. They use short slogans and metaphors. Further it is acceptable to take care of one’s teeth in public. The commercials are simple and the colors are not very striking. As you can see on the picture below they also use a metaphor for floss wire for your teeth: “Catch food effectively”. It is more common to use humor in the commercials than before. The commercials are getting more western: Take a look at the Coca Cola promotion and commercial in Saudi Arabia.

The age of the population of Saudi Arabia is very low. The middle age is 22 years old, that’s why we choose as the target group middle class 22 years old, both genders. The women don’t have many rights in Saudi Arabia but they are taking care for the family and husband so they will buy food and the men can also buy food.

The water bottle designFirst we made several first drafts of water bottle designs. We experimented with different forms, combining masculine forms with feminine forms, expressing Arabian values into the form like uncertainty avoidance, thinking about the cleanliness of the water and bottle. The collectivism aspects, like a family feeling with the water like the coffee drinking ritual in Saudi Arabia. Combining these aspects we came up with a unique design.

The water bottle is a mix of modern western look with Arabic tradition patterns on it like they made on pottery in former time. It is a unique form and has an Arabic look. People from Saudi Arabia value high quality of products, but cheap. We thought of the material of the bottle, what is hard plastic, which s cheap. Further the uncertainty avoidance is very high in this country. That’s why we made the bottle transparent, so you can see what’s in it. And we made the cap sink into the bottle so it looks like it is always new and never opened. This gives the feeling that the water is clean and pure.Next to that we came up with a four-pack as a marketing strategy. It ensures that you drink enough water for one day. So the uncertainty is gone. And Saudi Arabia is a collectivist country, so the family is very important for the people in Saudi Arabia. With the four-pack the whole family can drink water together by sharing, just like the coffee ritual.

We made four posters as advertisements and in each poster we used a metaphor and typical icons of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is known for the oil export. We used this big icon for the water export. The coffee drink ritual used for water ritual and so on. In the advertisements we used more visuals than text. They are simple and the colors are not very striking. The brand name is ‘Rayya’ which means saturated with water.