Globalization has enabled companies to work with worldwide stakeholders, whether customers, employees, or third-party providers. However, cultural awareness and sensitivity are needed when dealing with these global audiences. Nearly 10% of organizations consider handling culturally sensitive situations one of their public relations challenges.
When mastering PR campaigns, how do you engage with the general public, media, and other stakeholders amid cultural differences?
This post tackles the importance of cultural sensitivity in global PR campaigns. Read on to learn how to avoid some PR missteps and build culturally sensitive strategies.
Common Cultural Missteps in PR Campaigns
Public relations involves connecting with the general public and the media as well as establishing good stakeholder relationships. The goal is to uphold and protect your brand image and reputation to gain customer support and achieve business success.
However, many PR professionals have some PR lapses or shortcomings. Nearly 50% struggle to prove the value of their work. Unfortunately, cultural missteps are one of the grave mistakes they tend to commit.
As far as cultural sensitivity is concerned, here are some common missteps to avoid for your PR campaigns.
- Committing translation errors: Your company’s global stakeholders might use different languages in other countries. So, never employ direct translations for your content messaging. For example, KFC’s “Finger-Lickin’ Good,” translated poorly in China, becomes “Eat Your Fingers Off.”
- Engaging in cultural stereotypes: People tend to have certain stereotypes about particular countries or their people. However, getting to know your stakeholders deeply is better enough to avoid stereotyping. For instance, never produce or publish ads that depict an entire region as culturally homogeneous.
- Ignoring customs and traditions: Understanding the cultures of the countries or stakeholders you’re connecting with is vital. That way, you can create brand messages, promotional content, or ad copies that they can instantly relate to. Most importantly, these messages aren’t culturally offensive to them at all.
- Overlooking social and political context: You should also learn about your target stakeholders’ countries and societal norms. Whether implementing SEO-friendly content strategies, social media engagement, or PR outreach, consider how they are culturally appropriate and relevant to your target stakeholders.
Learn how to implement a PR campaign with cultural sensitivity in the next section.
How To Build Culturally Sensitive PR Strategies
Public relations plays a critical role in stakeholder engagement, customer support, and business success. That’s why companies and organizations invest in PR management by putting their time, money, and effort into it. In fact, its global market is projected to grow from $114.1 billion this year to $144.28 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.0%.
Learn from seven of the best PR campaigns in 2024. Top brands like Lego, Apple, and Nike do what it takes to promote key initiatives, such as technological innovation, business sustainability as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). However, one thing companies and organizations shouldn’t ignore is cultural sensitivity.
The NYC government regards cultural sensitivity as recognizing and understanding cultural differences without judgment. However, it involves building skills to learn from diverse backgrounds. To expound further, have a peek at the picture below:
But when implementing PR campaigns, how do you employ culturally sensitive strategies? Follow the crucial steps below:
1) Understand cultural differences
Cultural understanding is the initial step in any public relations strategy. Before you can promote diversity and inclusion in modern PR campaigns, understand your global stakeholders’ cultural nuances. What are their cultures and traditions, and how can your PR strategies impact these? Remember, cultural insensitivity can set your campaign up for failure.
Rodger Desai, CEO of Prove, recommends conducting research to identify your stakeholders’ cultural identities. He claims, “Studying your target audience is the first step to a successful PR campaign implementation. But while at it, you should familiarize yourself with their culture and tradition to avoid cultural missteps in your campaign.”
2) Immerse in the local communities
Julia Doak, Franchisor at Bedpost, suggests local immersions for genuine cultural understanding. “They let you get acquainted with your stakeholders and understand their day-to-day operations on a deeper level. That way, you can develop PR messaging and engagements that are culturally relevant and appropriate for them.”
That said, what better way to have cultural awareness than to engage with the locals? Suppose you’re targeting B2B clients and third-party vendors in China for the metal industry. In that case, check if they’re open to leveraging modern technologies for logistics operations, such as steel inventory management software, rather than doing manual work.
3) Invest in cultural training programs
It’s best to provide your PR team with cultural training, especially if your organization operates globally. This training should involve deep culture orientation and effective PR strategies for engaging with worldwide stakeholders. That way, you can all be culturally sensitive when implementing campaigns.
Take it from Grant Aldrich, Founder of Preppy. He firmly believes in constant growth and development through training programs and learning opportunities. However, he cites, “This essentially applies to any PR campaigns, where your team should develop cultural sensitivity. That way, you’ll make your PR strategies more relevant, appropriate, and effective for a global audience.”
4) Set culturally inclusive PR strategies
Reyansh Mestry, Head of Marketing at TopSource Worldwide, advises incorporating cultural sensitivity in PR campaigns. “After performing due diligence and investing in training, it’s time to create PR strategies that are culturally diverse and inclusive. Whether journalist outreach, digital PR, or social media engagement, have a dedicated team or a digital marketing agency tasked with specifically checking on cultural sensitivity.”
When it comes to a culturally sensitive PR campaign, it’s best to harness the power of storytelling. Cision reported that 45% of communication leaders identify content creation as their top priority. However, only 33% consider themselves “excellent” in conveying a compelling brand story. That’s why you should dedicate time and effort producing and publishing content for your PR campaigns.
5) Take advantage of data and analytics
We now live in a data-driven world, and leveraging modern technology is critical to organizational success. As such, employ big or small business tools to streamline your PR campaigns. According to the same Cision report, 42% of PR leaders rely heavily on data and analytics this year, compared to 30% last year. That said, data analysis is key to cultural understanding!
AI-powered analytics tools enable you to collect data and analyze behaviors for informed PR decision-making. Let’s take the web scraper, for example, which allows you to extract information from the web. With this in place, you can research your target stakeholders’ cultural nuances to develop culturally sensitive messaging and effectively engage with them.
Final Words
A culturally sensitive PR campaign is crucial for businesses operating globally. As such, create brand content and messaging that resonates with your global audience. Likewise, engage with your stakeholders without offending them amid cultural differences.
As a PR practitioner, avoid the common missteps outlined above. More importantly, consider the key steps for building culturally sensitive PR strategies. By doing so, you can achieve a successful PR campaign amid culturally diverse global stakeholders!
Looking to optimize your PR campaign and connect with a global audience? Agility PR Solutions offers media relations services to connect with journalists and media organizations. Connect with us and book a demo today!
