Multicultural Marketing

Abstract

This research proposal aims at investigating, examining, and evaluating strategies of multicultural sales employees in the Auckland residential housing market. Also, there is an identification of differences in the multicultural sales employees, to assist the organization to identify specific issues that would improve overall market efficiency. The introduction explains the multicultural sale employees. The literature review gives main points of the strategic multicultural sales employees. Methods, results, and discussions, supplement the literature review information to complete the research proposal. This research helps all concerned parties in an organization, to understand the position of multicultural sales employees in the Auckland residential housing market.

Introduction

Multicultural marketing involves marketing to one or more target group of a specific ethnicity. Multicultural marketing is improved by the different cultures in the ethnic groups. Some advantages that accrue due to communication and persuading the audience are traditions, celebrations, language, and religion. Consumers from different cultural background have mixed motives, perceptions, and beliefs that Multicultural marketing allows. International marketing would work with the national marketing to understand the Multicultural marketing of the region. There are some ways of having Multicultural sales employees in an organization (Arnett, 2014). First, as the top authority of a company, one should work with the human resource staffers. This helps to diversify the organization's workforce. Second, a high administration should get buy-in from the sales force members. In this way, hiring a professional to perform counseling on diversity, suits. Other methods are exploring the community's concentration of minorities, work a fully cognizant recruiter, having a mentioning system in place, get to know the relationship among sales staffers, and maintain a level of the playing field.

In the research, there would be examining, investigating, and evaluating strategies of Multicultural sales employees in the Auckland residential housing marketing. Bar foot & Thompsons is the company that is to be referred to as the point of reference. The main aim is to identify the sales employees' difference and help the organization note major issues that will improve the market efficiency. Barfoot & Thompsons are found IN New Zealand, and it is the largest privately owned Real Estate Company. The company practices Multicultural marketing that helps it and in other ways affects it negatively (Arnett, 2014). Dwelling on the negatives to improve the status of the organization is the main aim of the proposal. There are communication challenges that are as a result of Multicultural marketing in Barfoot & Thompsons Company in Auckland. Such problems to be addressed are direct versus indirect communication, accents and fluency trouble, hierarchy and authorities having different values, and different norms for decision making. There are two variables in the Multicultural marketing. Employees' perception and business performance are the variables that would change the situation at the Multicultural marketing.

Thesis: despite Multicultural marketing having advantages to a company, it has demerits that would drag a business behind, not unless these cons are considered and appropriate measures applied to them.

My research revolves around the Multicultural marketing of the sales employees in Barfoot & Thompsons Company. It will locate the issues that make the company not to perform, that originate from the Multicultural matters, and address them accordingly (Arnett, 2014). The fundamental concept here is Multicultural marketing, which merely means having different cultures in the business places. Therefore, Multicultural marketing is the matter of concern that needs to be examined, investigated, and evaluated.

Literature review

This research deals with the current issues that affect Multicultural marketing in Barfoot & Thompsons Company. Multicultural involves different cultures in working in the same place. Such perceptions have various ways of handling problems in real life situation. Once they are together, there needs to be a general guidance that would direct them to work together to reduce the difference gap. Overlooking the unity in such a scenario would widen the gap and hence support sharp division amongst the employees of a Company (Arnett, 2014). Therefore, eliminating the differences by having major combining factors is suitable because both the employees and the workers would benefit. There are four main issues of concern in the Multicultural marketing of sales employees in Barfoot & Thompsons Company. These demerits are direct versus indirect communication, trouble with fluency and accents, different perceptions towards hierarchy and authority, and various norms for decision making. These challenges concentrate on the transmission of the Company. Communication is a crucial concept in organizations without which, agencies will perform terribly (Basham et al., 2015). Indirect versus indirect connection, there is comparability between the Western and non-western cultures. The Western civilization is termed direct because it is obvious. The other religions express themselves in different ways. Hence, communication between the non-western and Western is a problem. The challenge comes in the verbal communication; thus the other parties result in communicating with signs.

The trouble with accents and fluency is the other challenge that sales employees working in Barfoot & Thompsons Company face. People who do not use English would meet the challenge of low self-esteem. They think that they are not recognized and noticed in the running of the business. Hence, this results in part of the employees not contributing to the success of the company. This situation causes interpersonal conflict and frustrates the affected people. Different attitude (Basham et al., 2015)es towards hierarchy and authority are the third issue. Some cultures have employees treated differently according to their ranks. The workforce ends up being disconnected, making some employees feel left out and not recognized.

The final part of the challenges in the communication sector in the Barfoot & Thompsons Company is the norms that conflict with decision making. Different cultures have their specific ways of reaching an argument and make final decisions. This entails the time it takes to make a decision and steps followed in making the decisions. This comes in as a challenge when people of different cultures are brought together (Basham et al., 2015). If there were directions of what to do, profound differences would be created in the meantime.

All these four challenges in the communication sector of the Company are real and can be tackled. Communication means everything to an organization. Proper communication channels laid in any group of the relevant parties to follow enable a good performance from the body, thus portraying a right image to the external environment. Poor communication methods in an organization should hence be discarded. A culture of awareness is built in the prosperous agencies to inspire employees have unity despite their cultural differences (Basham et al., 2015). The result of a good relationship amongst the employees and between the employees and the employer has positive effects. Collaborations, new ideas, and different perspectives are some of the positive outcomes of having best communication channels.

Methods

In this research, there are various ways that I used to examine, investigate, and evaluate the strategies of Multicultural sales employees in the Auckland residential housing market. The methods helped me solve the crude problems that encounter them as workers of different cultural background (Demangeot et al., 2015). These plans were using of questionnaires, having face to face conversation with some of the employees, using previous researchers conducted to solve the problem, and getting some information from bodies that are concerned with employees' welfare.

Questionnaires were a great deal. I produced some copies that could be answered by relevant people and went to distribute them. In the inquiries were questions like:

• What are the most significant challenges that employees face?
• What invigorates the situation?
• How do you curb the challenges?
• What are the results of having control of the situation?

All questions from various Companies were well answered. I thought it appropriate for Barfoot & Thompsons Company to follow the same to have an improvement in their communication sector.

Face to face communication was helpful too. Going to various companies and asking them direct questions of what they encounter was appropriate. It also gave them the courage to speak out from the bottom of their heart thus psychologically solving the internal fight due to the issue (Erford, 2017). This strategy was perfect because everyone could explain to me what they are going through and possible solutions or what they went through and how they solved the problems. I took notes on the most sensitive and general parts, which I thought they could be helpful to the employees at Barfoot & Thompsons Company. I realized the answers and situations from various organizations were common and knew they could have positive impacts on the problems.

There were researches done before over the same issue on different organizations. Such documented activities were of great importance to my research too. According to what was recorded for the past periods, employees who face the same cultural-based problems came up with different routes of handling the situation (Feldman, 2016). Some could talk to one another to have the problem solved. Those who had high differences involved mediators in presiding over solving the problems. Also, top authorities paid for seminars for the employees to appreciate the differences they have regarding cultural diversity. These tips were constructive and applicable according to my rational thinking and empirical approach to human normalcy. I included them in summary in my research to help solve the current and relative problems. Barfoot & Thompsons Company found it necessary to have the same applied to its employees too.

Some bodies cater for the welfare of employees. These agencies are conversant with predicaments employees go through and give solutions to such problems. Hence I found it according to approach such institutions to have an idea of how they view cultural differences amongst employees. The management explained to me the same issues I encountered while having a direct conversation with the employees (Haubl, 2015). Also, the authority in the institutions gave me appropriate and most effective ways of controlling the differences amongst the employees in any organizations. I added on what I had what I found to be a new development in handling the issue of employees' cultural diversity. The team that caters to the employees' welfare was concerned and gave me all detailed information of what I asked for.

Results

Despite the drawbacks that face a company which is comprised of employees with different cultural values, there are various ways of dealing with the situation. Some of the central actions to be taken are keeping an open mind, having at least some knowledge of peoples' culture, practicing active listening, and watching personal non-verbal communication (Jafari & Visconti, 2015). Keeping an open mind refers to being ready to learn, grow, and strengthen one's belief. It also builds up the culture of being honest. Being open-minded facilitates honesty because one admits that they do not know all things around. Being open-minded encourages one to need to know more than what they already know. There are benefits of being open-minded that helps in the proper running of an organization (Koppelman, 2016). The pros from practicing open-mindedness are letting go of control, experiencing changes, makes one being vulnerable, people would make mistakes and learn from them, strengthening oneself, being honest, and gaining confidence. When all these are practiced, it means being open-minded would help employees curb their differences.

Also, having some knowledge of people's culture is vital for reducing the gap created by a difference in employees' culture. Unity is the last resort amongst the employees once they understand what the other culture requires (Miley et al., 2016). This is brought up by being open-minded: ready to learn. Some advantages of knowing other people's culture are, dismantling the dominance by some religion, employees becoming more efficient, the new level of awareness develops, work becomes more efficient, and opportunities are recognized in every encounter.

Contrary to the diversification situation, knowing people's culture helps bring the people working together close to one another and erase the doubts. Dominating the environment by one culture becomes obsolete under this application. Appreciating the presence of different cultures makes the other parties feel involved hence working together without majority and minority. Employees become efficient at their workplaces because there is increased interaction and people are ready to work by the rules of the organization (Nardo et al., 2017). Also, there would be a development of new levels of awareness. The different cultures would express their grievances and such an exchange when absorbed inclusively, the work flow is maintained at a flat rate. Therefore, the smoothness of the workflow makes the work more efficient. Such a free working zone enables the employees to realize new opportunities since all concentration is converged at work.

Practicing active listening is another way of reducing the diversity amongst workers. If people would avoid ignorance and appreciate what the other parties tell them, this leads to a healthy working environment among the employees (Pertersan et al., 2015). Listening improves the employees' ability to understand one another well and look for appropriate solutions to problems affecting their work, rather than being separated.

Finally, watching one's non-verbal communication is vital in the presence of Multicultural marketing. Non-verbal communication comes in different ways among the different cultures. Despite the fact, there are general non-verbal communications that are accepted globally. In a situation where the employees cannot communicate well verbally, they are advised to use appropriate non-verbal communications, like using signs to convey messages. Therefore, using the worldwide non-verbal communication is suitable because it would make it simple for the people working together understand one another (Seo, 2015). Such an act would reduce disagreements, save time, and lead to improved production of quality goods and services. Hence, improving the communication levels at workplaces entailing cultural diversity lessen the difference gap and ends up having quality results.

Discussions

Employees have the same issues to address when it comes to cultural diversity. When they are working together, and as norm find that they differ in their perception about approaching the same thing, they end up organizing themselves on how to encounter the problem. Such a move is crucial to the workers as it helps them have unity and get the way forward. It saves time and keeps organizations on the track of the strategic plan they had since the beginning. Also, loopholes that occur within communication channels are sealed, and activities carried on swiftly. I realized that cultural diversity ha more harm than good when practiced among employees working in the same organization (Basham et al., 2015). Parallel cultural practices when curbed would lead to employees sorting out issues that are of concern to them hence improving the organization's performance level.

The problems were sorted out after enough research was done. Communication is the main problem that employees would suffer from in their endeavors to perform in their respective organizations. Questions that related to the communication channels were, direct versus indirect communication, trouble with accents and fluency, different attitudes towards hierarchy and authority, and various norms for decision making (Basham et al., 2015). The variables which were employees' perception and business performance were affected too. Employees' thoughts could be positive if directed well and negative if the relevant parties did not bother. Also, when the employees worked together, the business would perform better, compared to when they are divided. Hence, unity amongst the employees was found to be a vital issue. Such togetherness erased negative thoughts and encouraged the employees to work well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, examining, investigating, and evaluating strategies of multicultural sales employees in the Auckland residential housing market as possible. Though there were cons realized due to the different cultural practices by the employees working together, steps to curb such developments were arrived at in excellent condition (Basham et al., 2015). Problems that led to employees' differences were direct versus indirect communications, trouble with accents and fluency, different attitudes towards hierarchy and authority, and different norms for decision making. Though the issues were chronic, I found possible solutions through using questionnaires, face-to-face approach, using previous researchers conducted, and getting information from bodies that cater for the welfare of the employees. Variables affected were found to be employees' views on working for organizations and how the business performed.

Multicultural marketing acknowledges the difference in how employees think, intrinsic motives and beliefs among the consumers who have various cultures, and makes use of norms in the literature from different cultures to have organizations benefit more. Cultural differences need to be pinned out for a multicultural marketing to succeed (Basham et al., 2015). International marketing has to work with national marketing to reduce the cultural diversity amongst the employees. Global marketing assesses national marketing through social media, education, Gross Domestic Product, and product category data. Both secondary and primary data assist in determining the cultural value. Primary data need face to face communication in handling the issue. Secondary data are approaches like going to the institutions that cater for the employees' welfare. Individual data are combined at the national level and linked to the country level or pre-existing country-level measures. Hence, cultural diversity is solved, and employees work accordingly.

References

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Basham, K., Byers, D. S., Heller, N. R., Hertz, M., Kumaria, S., Mattei, L., ... & Shilkret, C. J. (2016). Inside out and outside in: Psychodynamic clinical theory and psychopathology in contemporary multicultural contexts. Rowman & Littlefield.

Demangeot, C., Broderick, A. J., & Craig, C. S. (2015). Multicultural marketplaces: new territory for international marketing and consumer research. International Marketing Review, 32(2), 118-140.

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Feldman, R. S. (2016). Life span development: A topical approach. Pearson.

Hubl, G. (2015). Consumers' perceptions of uni-and bi-national products: the interaction of country of origin and brand name. In Proceedings of the 1996 Multicultural Marketing Conference (pp. 61-61). Springer, Cham.

Jafari, A., & Visconti, L. M. (2015). New directions in researching ethnicity in marketing and consumer behaviour: A well-being agenda. Marketing Theory, 15(2), 265-270.

Koppelman, K. L. (2016).? Understanding human differences: Multicultural education for a diverse America. Pearson.

Miley, K. K., O'Melia, M. W., & DuBois, B. L. (2016). Generalist social work practice: An empowering approach. Pearson.

Nardon, L., Steers, R. M., & Sanchez-Runde, C. J. (2017). Developing Multicultural Competence. Challenge.

Petersen, J. A., Kushwaha, T., & Kumar, V. (2015). Marketing communication strategies and consumer financial decision making: The role of national culture. Journal of Marketing, 79(1), 44-63.

Seo, Y., & Gao, H. (2015). Towards a value-based perspective of consumer multicultural orientation. European Management Journal, 33(1), 30-36.

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