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Marketing Tourism 2 Professor Jan Fazlagić VISTULA University, Warsaw Poznan University of Economics, Poznan www.fazlagic.pl [email protected]
Marketing Tourism 2Professor Jan Fazlagić
VISTULA University, Warsaw
Poznan University of Economics, Poznan
www.fazlagic.pl
How to compete in today’s
global economy?There are only 3 reasons why you choose to buy a product or a
service:
1. It's the cheapest
2. It's unique
3. You're sold on marketing!!
A company can choose to:
1. Differentiate on price (Indian IT companies, Goods sold in Flea markets)
2. Differentiate on product (Apple, Tata Nano)
3. Differentiate on marketing (Pepsi, Coke, Microsoft)
Designing a “user experience,” therefore,
represents the conscious act of:• coordinating interactions that are controllable (choosing food
ingredients, training waiters, designing and programming buttons)
• acknowledging interactions that are beyond our control (uncomfortable seats in a 100-year-old theater, lack of fresh produce in winter, low-hanging clouds that hide a sunset.)
• reducing negative interactions (providing tents as emergency shelters at outdoor events in case of rain; making sure restaurant seating next to the noisy kitchen door is the last to be filled, putting in an extra intermission so folks can stretch their legs).
Experience design
• Experience design (XD) is the practice of
designing products, processes, services,
events, and environments with a focus
placed on the quality of the user
experience.
• Who are the people we are designing for? What
is the activity (or activities) they are trying to do?
• And what are the contexts in which they are
trying to operate?
Touchpoint
The point of contact, esp when products orservices come into contact with a customer
• Where you sleep is now no longer where the travellers sits. The level of investment required to develop a new seat for the fleet is around £1-2m. Then to roll that out across the fleet is around £100m.
• Following a large customer survey, which revealed little more than the fact that people wanted to be able to visit a clean toilet, they also redesigned the Upper Class lounge. In order to ensure that the experience and service level was matching the products Virgin partnered with London's Soho Hotel - the aim to create a real 5 star hotel experience.
Your task:
• Try do design your ideal hotel for people aged 18-30
• What should it look like?
• What special features should it have?
• How should it be equipped?
Cultureand
Marketing Tourism
The cultural economy:
• It indicates that economic activities are embedded in cultural meanings.
• Meaning is manipulated through language, representation and discourse so that economic practices carry particular meanings and construct certain identities; e.g. students are not using education, but consuming it.
The cultural economy:
• ‘Culture’ is important to doing business. For instance, fashion, music, and film have become significant industrial sectors.
• Culture structures the way people think, feel and act in organisations – cultures of production.
• Goods and services as seen as ‘cultural
goods’ in that– aestheticisation of
products. Advertising, design and
marketing are cultural intermediaries.
Cultural Differences
Prof. Jan Fazlagić
Poznan University of Economics
ue.poznan.pl
e-mail: [email protected]
In order to pass the course ...
1. You should have a good understanding
of the English language.
2. Should attend all classes.
3. You should prepare and deliver a PPT
You should participate in the workshop
expercises in the class.
4. You are encouraged to participate
discussions in the class.
Grading criteria
• The final grade is calculated based on
the grades you have earned during the
course
• You MUST attend all classes – you may
mis two classes if you are ill.
Tasks• A PPT presentation (in class) – every team must present their
presentation in front of the class.
• 3-5 exercises (performed in class or as a homework), including a reportt based on the paper: CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN HELPING STRANGERS, ROBERT V. LEVINE, KAREN PHILBRICK
• Final exam (open end questions)
Video library (1)Seven deadly sins - speech by Geert Hofstede
2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2V8kVwIp2U&feature=related
Cultural Issues in Arab World Business Deals,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bspFbFytRiM&feature=related
East & West Difference
Video library (2)Gestures across cultureshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxoB6MhmbIg
Sheikha Al Mayassa: Globalizing the local, localizing the globalhttp://www.ted.com/talks/sheikha_al_mayassa_globalizing_the_local_localizing_the_global.html
Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion's free culturehttp://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html
Shereen El Feki: Pop culture in the Arab world
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/shereen_el_feki_pop_culture_in_the_arab_world.html
Dan Ariely: Save More Money
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cw4PiCB8X8&feature=relmfu
Rise of the Creative Class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuLmw-TuAjk
"How much is 10 x 100 grams?"
1. 90% of the USA citizens responded that apart from cheese and wine, they were not interested in French "inventions".
2. 52% of the UK citizens responded that they did not want to change their treasured British Imperial system.
3. 80% of Indians responded that the problem was simple as the three zeros at the end of a number could be replaced by prefix "kilo", therefore, 1000 g equaled 1 kilogram.
4. 30% of the South African in Cape Town responded that science was always a difficult subject for them; ey customarily were buying only 1 x 100 g or 2 x 100 g of a Hungarian salami.
5. 90% of the French citizens answered that a such test was outdated and should had been administered during a Bonaparte time.
6. 97% Germans responded promptly: "1 kilogram".7. However, 67% of Polish and Russians answered: "1 liter"! NB: Polish restaurants sell vodka
in grams.
Conclusions:Re 1) With some exceptions, they are too complacent...
Re 2) Hmm, tradition...tradition... Re 3) "See how they run". Forward, of course... Re 4) The country will need technicians and Indian science teachers in a short future... Re 5) They know how to live... Re 6) They are the best, obviously... Re 7) They should drink less vodka!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/240461
Layers of Culture (Schein, 1992) (1)
Layers of Culture (Schein, 1992) (3)
Geert Hofstede
Differences in Cultures (1)
In an ideal world ...
• the policemen would be
English
• the car mechanics would be
German
• the cooks would be French
• the innkeepers would be
Swiss,
• and the lovers would be Italian
Differences in Cultures (2)
In a living hell ...
• the policemen would be
German
• the car mechanics would be
French
• the cooks would be English
• the innkeepers would be
Italian
• and the lovers would be
Swiss
Differences in Cultures (3)
• In the US, a firm, short handshake indicates self-confidence and (heterosexual) masculinity. A limp handshake by a man can be interpreted (usually wrongly) as a sign of homosexuality or wimpiness. But in most parts of Africa, a limp handshake is the correct way to do it. Furthermore, it is common in Africa for the handshake to last several minutes, while in the US a handshake that is even a few seconds too long is interpreted as familiarity, warmth and possibly sexual attraction.
• In Britain, men do not look at women on the streets. The French do. Recently, a French public figure mentioned in a speech that the Brits are all gay -- the evidence was their lack of overt interest in women.
Differences in Cultures (4)High Context vs Low Context• A low context culture is one in which things are fully
(though concisely) spelled out. Things are made explicit, and there is considerable dependence on what is actually said or written.
• A high context culture is one in which the communicators assume a great deal of commonality of knowledge and views, so that less is spelled out explicitly and much more is implicit or communicated in indirect ways. In a low context culture, more responsibility is placed on the listener to keep up their knowledge base and remain plugged into informal networks.
• Low context cultures include Anglos, Germanics and Scandinavians. High context cultures include Japanese, Arabs and French.
Differences in Cultures (5)Implications
• Interactions between high and low context peoples can be problematic. – Japanese can find Westerners to be offensively blunt.
Westerners can find Japanese to be secretive and bafflingly unforthcoming with information
– French can feel that Germans insult their intelligence by explaining the obvious, while Germans can feel that French managers provide no direction
• Low context cultures are vulnerable to communication breakdowns when they assume more shared understanding than there really is. This is especially true in an age of diversity. Low context cultures are not known for their ability to tolerate or understand diversity, and tend to be more insular.
Differences in Cultures (6)
Monochronic vs Polychronic
• Monochronic cultures like to do just one thing at a time. They value a certain orderliness and sense of there being an appropriate time and place for everything. They do not value interruptions. Polychronic cultures like to do multiple things at the same time.
• A manager's office in a polychronic culture typically has an open door, a ringing phone and a meeting all going on at the same time.
• Polychronic cultures include the French and the Americans. The Germans tend to be monochronic.
Differences in Cultures (7)
Implications
• Interactions between types can be problematic. German businessman cannot understand why the person he is meeting is so interruptible by phone calls and people stopping by. Is it meant to insult him? When do they get down to business?
• Similarly, the American employee of a German company is disturbed by all the closed doors -- it seems cold and unfriendly.
Differences in Cultures (8)
Future vs Present vs Past Orientation
• Past-oriented societies are concerned with traditional values and ways of doing things. They tend to be conservative in management and slow to change those things that are tied to the past.
• Past-oriented societies include China, Britain, Japan and most spanish-speaking Latin American countries.
• Future-oriented societies have a great deal of optimism about the future. They think they understand it and can shape it through their actions. They view management as a matter of planning, doing and controlling (as opposed to going with the flow, letting things happen). The United States and, increasingly, Brazil, are examples of future-oriented societies.
Differences in Cultures (9)
Power Distance
• The extent to which people accept differences in power and allow this to shape many aspects of life. Is the boss always right because he is the boss, or only when he gets it right?
Implications
• In high power distance countries (most agrarian countries), bypassing a superior is unsubordination. In low power distance countries (US, northern europeans, Israel), bypassing is not usually a big deal.
• In the US, superiors and subordinates often interact socially as equals. An outsider watching a party of professors and graduate students typically cannot tell them apart.
Differences in Cultures (10)
Individualism vs Collectivism
• In individualist cultures, individual uniqueness, self-determination is valued. A person is all the more admirable if they are a "self-made man" or "makes up their own mind" or show initiative or work well independently. Collectivist cultures expect people to identify with and work well in groups which protect them in exchange for loyalty and compliance.
• Paradoxically, individualist cultures tend to believe that there are universal values that should be shared by all, while collectivist cultures tend to accept that different groups have different values.
• Many of the asian cultures are collectivist, while anglo cultures tend to be individualist.
Differences in Cultures (11)
Implications
• A market research firm conducted a survey of tourist agencies around the world. The questionnaires came back from most countries in less than a month. But the agencies in the asian countries took months to do it. After many telexes, it was finally done. The reason was that, for example, American tourist agencies assigned the work to one person, while the Filipinos delegated the work to the entire department, which took longer. The researchers also noticed that the telexes from the Philippines always came from a different person.
Differences in Cultures (3)Some Perceptions of Americans
• Europe & especially England. "Americans are stupid and unsubtle. And they are fat and bad dressers."
• Finland. "Americans always want to say your name: 'That's a nice tie, Mikko. Hi Mikko, how are you Mikko'
• Indian. "Americans are always in a hurry. Just watch the way they walk down the street."
• Kenyan. "Americans are distant. They are not really close to other people -- even other Americans."
• Turkey. "Once we were out in a rural area in the middle of nowhere and saw an American come to a stop sign. Though he could see in both directions for miles, and there was no traffic, he still stopped!"
• Colombia. "In the United States, they think that life is only work."
• Indonesia. "In the United States everything has to be talked about and analyzed. Even the littlest thing has to be 'Why, why why?'."
• Ethiopia. "The American is very explicit. He wants a 'yes' or 'no'. If someone tries to speak figuratively, the American is confused."
• Iran. "The first time my American professor told me 'I don't know, I will have to look it up', I was shocked. I asked myself 'Why is he teaching me?'"
Here is the description of the Chinese culture. Try to compate it with your native culture.
What are the differences and similarities..?
Chinese culture (1)
1. Social Structure – In China the social structure is formal and hierarchical. You know where you fit in the structure and you abide by the rules there. There is no crossing into other areas. In America, it is much more loose and informal. It is not uncommon to see those of various social levels socializing and knowing each other. There are very few lines that socially are not allowed to be crossed. This can cause problems in business relationships if the visiting culture is unaware of it.
2. Confrontation/Conflict – If you are planning on conducting business in China or expecting an extended stay, it might be useful to know that the direct way that most Americans approach issues is not the way to go in China. Direct conflict or confrontation over issues is highly frowned upon. Doesn’t matter that the “truth” needs to be spoken, respect and honor to each person supersedes that. To prove a point and show yourself in the right even over business issues is considered shameful and should be avoided
Chinese culture (2)
2. Self – The Chinese looks more at the group collective than at individualism. America has become known for its push of individualism which has been a source of conflict with other cultures that look collectively. A person from China is more prone to look at how their acts affect the whole instead of how it affects them personally. They are more willing to give up and sacrifice for the greater good. America’s individualism has been its backbone and the reason for its success as a world power, but when visiting China it needs to be reined in.
3. Face/Reputation – Reputation of the individual is very important in China. If an action will humiliate someone or ruin a reputation, it is avoided. When shame occurs, the person sacrifices their job or whatever it is that will heal the shame. In America, reputations come and go overnight and in the end usually does not matter. The end result is more of the focus. A person is more likely to overlook a reputation to get the job done.
Chinese culture (3)
5. Business Relations – When doing business in China, be prepared for much socializing. Business becomes secondary as the parties get to know each better. If it delays a contract, that is perfectly acceptable as long as the correct social time is allotted for. In America, business associates are usually more aloof. There might be some social gathering but the business is more important and the socializing will be sacrificed to get the job done if needed. Though there seems to be shift in America regarding this. The recognition of networking is becoming more pronounced.
6. Morals – Chinese society places high values on the morals of their people. Marriage is not encouraged until the late twenties. In fact, dating is discouraged early in a young adult’s life and proprieties are expected to be held up. The American culture is much more relaxed and some could even argue that there needs to be more moral emphasize.
Chinese culture (4)
7. Recognition of the Dead – One of the time honored traditions of the Chinese is the recognition of the dead. Once a year, all members of a family visit the gravesites of each ancestor and pay their respects. Honoring ancestors is very important in Chinese culture. 8. Humility – Humility is a revered virtue in Chinese culture. The success of one’s business or personal life is downplayed while in America the successes are lauded. Most Americans in the fast business world consider humility a sign of weakness. This can be an issue that hurts inter-cultural relations. Be very sensitive to comments and actions in the presence of another culture.
9. Time Sensitivity – Crossing cultures for business can be frustrating when it interferes with getting the job done. Most Americans are very time sensitive when it comes to meetings and deadlines. If the meeting was to commence at 2:00, then all parties are to be present at that time. The Chinese do not view time as an absolute but more as a suggestion. Concern is not expressed for a meeting starting late or ending at a different time. The same can be applied to deadlines. If a report is due on Friday, an American would be waiting for that report to be received before end of business day. The Chinese would not worry if it showed up several days later.
10. Respect – Being sensitive to another person’s needs is very important in Chinese culture. It is expected that you will respect the other person and treat them well. Their needs are met at each encounter.
Chinese culture (4)
7. Recognition of the Dead – One of the time honored traditions of the Chinese is the recognition of the dead. Once a year, all members of a family visit the gravesites of each ancestor and pay their respects. Honoring ancestors is very important in Chinese culture. This is in direct contrast to most Americans who rarely know where the majority of their ancestors are laid to rest. This might be due to the fact that most Americans are immigrants who either have lost the information on grave locations or the locations are in foreign countries. China’s culture is much older and the percentage of immigration is far less.
8. Humility – Humility is a revered virtue in Chinese culture. The success of one’s business or personal life is downplayed while in America the successes are lauded. Most Americans in the fast business world consider humility a sign of weakness. This can be an issue that hurts inter-cultural relations. Be very sensitive to comments and actions in the presence of another culture.
• 9. Time Sensitivity – Crossing cultures for business can be frustrating when it interferes with getting the job done. Most Americans are very time sensitive when it comes to meetings and deadlines. If the meeting was to commence at 2:00, then all parties are to be present at that time. The Chinese do not view time as an absolute but more as a suggestion. Concern is not expressed for a meeting starting late or ending at a different time. The same can be applied to deadlines. If a report is due on Friday, an American would be waiting for that report to be received before end of business day. The Chinese would not worry if it showed up several days later.
• 10. Respect – Being sensitive to another person’s needs is very important in Chinese culture. It is expected that you will respect the other person and treat them well. Their needs are met at each encounter. This is a characteristic that unfortunately has fallen on the wayside in most American circles.
Chinese culture (4)
7. Recognition of the Dead – One of the time honored traditions of the Chinese is the recognition of the dead. Once a year, all members of a family visit the gravesites of each ancestor and pay their respects. Honoring ancestors is very important in Chinese culture. This is in direct contrast to most Americans who rarely know where the majority of their ancestors are laid to rest. This might be due to the fact that most Americans are immigrants who either have lost the information on grave locations or the locations are in foreign countries. China’s culture is much older and the percentage of immigration is far less.
8. Humility – Humility is a revered virtue in Chinese culture. The success of one’s business or personal life is downplayed while in America the successes are lauded. Most Americans in the fast business world consider humility a sign of weakness. This can be an issue that hurts inter-cultural relations. Be very sensitive to comments and actions in the presence of another culture.
• 9. Time Sensitivity – Crossing cultures for business can be frustrating when it interferes with getting the job done. Most Americans are very time sensitive when it comes to meetings and deadlines. If the meeting was to commence at 2:00, then all parties are to be present at that time. The Chinese do not view time as an absolute but more as a suggestion. Concern is not expressed for a meeting starting late or ending at a different time. The same can be applied to deadlines. If a report is due on Friday, an American would be waiting for that report to be received before end of business day. The Chinese would not worry if it showed up several days later.
• 10. Respect – Being sensitive to another person’s needs is very important in Chinese culture. It is expected that you will respect the other person and treat them well. Their needs are met at each encounter. This is a characteristic that unfortunately has fallen on the wayside in most American circles.
RELIGION AND CULTURE
Culture has been defined as the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning
Religion has been defined as a system of beliefs based on humanity's attempt to explain the universe and natural phenomena, often involving one or more deities or other supernatural forces and also requiring or binding adherents to follow prescribed religious obligations. Two identifying features of religions are they to some extent (a) require faith and (b) seek to organize and influence the thoughts and actions of their adherents.
What differentiates Europeans from Americans ?
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (1)Feeling of time & distances:
Perception is shaped by our environment. A 100-year old house or church is considered new by Europeans, but old by Americans. I have even heard Americans think that 200 years was "ancient". For a European "ancient" refers to something that is typically 2,000 to 5,000 years old (related to the Antiquity, not antiques !).Things are reversed when it comes to distances. Europeans would tend to think that driving 100 km is quite a long way, while for Americans that would be rather near. This is due to the much higher density of population in Europe, and the smaller size of Europe (believe it or not the EU is over twice smaller than the USA). Yet, Europeans travel much more than Americans, inside or outside their own continent. This might be because Europeans are used to go "abroad" since their childhood, European countries being so small, and do not feel the whole experience to be so exceptional. Supposedly Seatlle residents feel the same about going to Canada, a stone's throw away.
Cars:
Almost all Europeans have cars with manual gears, while Americans have a marked preference for automatic ones.European cars are also very different in style than their American counterparts. American cars tend to be more massive and squarer, because size matters in the States. Americans have a fondness for (very) long limousines as well as pick-up trucks (in the country). Both are virtually unseen in Europe. Europeans like rounder designs of cars. Smaller cars are much more common in Europe, probably because Europe has a more urbanised population and small cars are easier to park in cities (especially on pavements of historical cities where big parking lots are rarer than in the USA).
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (2)Measure System:
All Europeans use the metric system (metres, grammes, litres, Celsius, etc.). Although Americans do learn it at school, the vast majority of them still use the old English Imperial system (yards, miles, pounds, Fahrenheit, etc.) for everyday life.
Date and time system:
Europeans write the date in the format "Day Month Year", whereas Americans use "Month Day, Year". Americans usually consider that the week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday, while in Europe it always starts on Monday and finishes on Sunday.
Most non-English-speaking Europeans use the 24h system, as opposed to the 12h system used in English-speaking countries.
Public holidays:
International Workers' Day (a.k.a. Labour Day or May Day, on 1st May) is a national holiday in (most) European countries, but not in the USA. EU countries also celebrate Europe Day (5th or 9th May), although it is not an official holiday (yet).
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (3)
Social customs:
Europeans think of "traditions" like baby showers and bachelor(ette)'s night with strip-teasers as typically American (which they are). This is something most Europeans only see in US series and movies. The same is true of Thanksgiving and Halloween (although this last one has exported itself pretty successfully to Europe and East Asia from the late 1990's onwards). American marketing strategies have also given rise to nationwide phenomena like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which as potent as they are in the US, hardly have any equivalent in European countries.
Schooling:
Schools and universities are free in most European countries. Europeans see university as granted, while American families often have to save for years for their children to attend one. What is more, universities in most countries around the world have entry exams, while only a few European countries do (like the UK).
North Americans have prom night at the end of the last academic year of high school (and sometimes also middle school), while Europeans have no such tradition.
Languages:
Foreign-language learning in Europe is now compulsory in every country since primary (elementary) school. Most Europeans learn 2 to 4 foreign languages, for obvious reasons. Americans usually only speak English (+ their mother tongue for immigrants) because they do not need more in their huge country.
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (4)
Politics
Europeans tend to be more liberal regarding soft drugs, prostitution, alcohol, abortion, or cloning (but interestingly not so for GM food). Americans on the contrary grant greater freedoms when it comes to gun possession, as well as driving a car from a relatively young age (the norm is 18 years old in Europe).
Government system:
Americans have a "Congress", while Europeans all have "Parliaments".American politcs is chiefly curtailed to two parties, which would be center-right and right, but lack influential left-wing or green parties. It is rare for a European country to have less than 3 main parties. It is often 4 or 5, which makes politics less bipolar (but often also more complicated to reach agreements).
The American police (FBI) is much more "aggressive" than the police in Europe (car chases, break into houses with guns shouting "police, don't move, hands on your head !" or such scenes almost non-existent in Europe). Suspects in the US are detained more easily and interrogated more harshly. Americans also go to court much more promptly than in Europe.
The legality of guns in the States also makes daily life and one's sense of safety completely different from Europe.
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (5)
Patriotism:
Americans put much more emphasis on patriotism than Europeans. Being a patriot is a way of life in the USA. The term is rarely used in Europe.
Few Europeans would mind rational critics of their country's government, while a good deal of Americans find them offensive or disrespectful (especially from non-Americans). Some Americans go as far as regarding criticism of their government as a personal attack. Europeans are only too happy to hear other people criticising their own politicians or their country's problems.
Religion:
Americans are much more religious than Europeans. Church going is very popular in the US, where it is seen as an indispensable way of socialising. In Europe the practise has almost entirely disappeared and is mostly limited to the elderly, or special events like weddings or Christmas.
God is often mentioned by American politicians, but almost never in Europe. Mixing religion and politics is taboo in many European countries (notably France), due to the stricter separation of state and religion. There are exceptions, such as Poland or Spain, but even these countries do not appear very religious compared to the USA.
More extremely, a majority of Americans would find offensive for someone to openly claim not to believe in god, whereas the opposite is often true in Europe.
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (6)
Political correctness
Due to their great ethnic and religious diversity, Americans have developed a more acute sense of political correctness, in an attempt to attenuate frictions between the various groups. Europeans still associate very much with their place of birth with their ethnicity, language and culture. In fact, until recently, adjectives for language, ethnic group and nationality would often match (with notable exceptions, like Belgium and Switzerland). In the US (almost) everybody has the same nationality and language, and it is ethnicities and religions that differentiate people first, hence the greater importance for respect toward other ethnicities and religions in the USA.
In Europe the emphasis of respect is put on cultures and languages. Making aggressive jokes about a particular linguistic or cultural group (e.g. calling the French "cheese-eating monkies) because of the importance of cheese in French culture), for instance, is the equivalent of attacking a particular ethnic or religious group in the US. It's a big no-no. However, making fun of religions is usually quite acceptable in Europe.
Food
Europeans all have a lot of traditional dishes from their region or city. Specialities tend to be very local, so that some pastries can be seen in one town, but not 100 km away.
Europeans eat more varied and balanced meals (especially in southern cultures) and less fast food than Americans (except maybe the Brits). Europeans eat more cheese (not just the French !), more yoghurts, and on average drink more wine and stronger beers than Americans.
Americans consume sweeter food and much more soft drinks than Europeans. US alcohol laws are much tougher than anywhere in Europe.
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (7)Sports:
It is interesting how the popularity of sports can be so different between Europe and North America. The most popular sports in ALL Europe is football (soccer), probably followed by tennis, cycling, and Formula 1 (as well as other motor races). In the US, soccer and F1 are far away in the popularity ranking. It is baseball, basketball, ice hockey and American football that attract the crowds and make money. And as much as European sports lack popularity in the US, the reverse is true (except for basketball).
Advertising:
Advertising practices vary greatly between Europe and North America (especially the USA). While it is common to see people wearing inflatable costumes to promote products on American streets, it is very rare or never observed in most European countries. Likewise, Americans like to place giant billboards along highways/mottorways, this practice is absent (usually illegal because too distracting) in most of Europe, where the only signs are public awareness campaigns for safer driving.
Naming practices:
Americans are possibly the only people in the world who have taken the habit to use surnames as given names, and this trend is getting increasingly popular. These are names like Jackson, Cooper, Harrison, Mason, Jenson, Austin, Sheldon, Tyler, Riley, Dylan, Bradley, Roy... They are mostly boy names, but girls aren't immune either. Taylor, Cameron, Mckenzie, Addison and Maddison are just a few examples. This practice was originally used mostly for middle names (as in John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or William Jefferson Clinton), but has become widely used for first names since the second half of the 20th century.
What differentiates Europeans from Americans (8)
Dating & Marriage:
While marriage is increasingly seen as a completely optional "folkloric tradition" in Europe, it is still quite important in the USA (probably because religion is also more important there). Statistically Americans marry much more than Europeans, but also divorce more. Gay marriage, now legal in several EU countries and hardly an issue for debate in Europe (because of the little importance of marriage in Europe nowadays), is still vehemently opposed by a big part of the US population.
Wedding ceremonies are also much more important and formal in the USA. In most of Europe it is limited to an informal family gathering (usually at the bride or groom's parental home). Marriage traditions do vary considerably between European countries, and even more between families. But in average it is certainly less important than in the States (or in Asian countries for that matter).
Furthermore, there are some strong nationwide American traditions regarding wedding ceremonies, like bringing "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue". There is obviously no equivalent thing at a European level, and most often not even at a national or regional level.
Problems Caused byCultural
Differences
Video library (1)Seven deadly sins - speech by Geert Hofstede 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2V8kVwIp2U&feature=related
Cultural Issues in Arab World Business Deals,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bspFbFytRiM&feature=related
East & West Difference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI5OoXIdW_0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Ckb9sdLTk&feature=related
Video library (2)Gestures across cultureshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxoB6MhmbIg
Sheikha Al Mayassa: Globalizing the local, localizing the global
http://www.ted.com/talks/sheikha_al_mayassa_globalizing_the_local_localizing_the_global.html
Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion's free culture
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html
