How does a global company keep one voice across many cultures?
Cultural sensitivity, consistent messaging, and localization, used together inside and outside a multinational, build brand cohesion and the trust of employees, partners, and customers.
Hypotheses.
What the paper argues, written so it can be tested.
- H1
Markets where a company uses cultural sensitivity, consistent messaging, and localization together show more brand cohesion and customer trust than markets where it uses only one or two of them.
- H2
Offices where internal messages keep the company’s core values and are adapted to local culture by local teams report stronger employee alignment with the company’s purpose.
The model.
Three strategies used together: cultural sensitivity, consistent messaging, and localization. Applied inside and outside the company, they build brand cohesion and the trust of employees, partners, and customers, and feedback from both sides tunes the next message.
Partial abstract.
A case study of Unilever’s internal and external communication across markets, from localization to employer brand to crisis response. The paper argues that cultural sensitivity, consistent messaging, and localization work best together.
Effective International Communication Strategies: A Case Study of Unilever
Key sources
- Barrett, D. J. (2017). Leadership communication.
- Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture.
- Keller, K. L. (2013). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity.
How we’ll test it.
No results yet. This is the plan: the data, the measure, and what would count as support.
The data
Employee reviews, customer reviews, and campaign records from several of Unilever’s markets, each campaign and message coded for which of the three strategies it used.
The measure
Brand cohesion and trust per market, from review sentiment and survey scores, set against how many of the three strategies were in use there.
What would count as support
Trust and cohesion that rise with each strategy added and are highest where all three are used together.
How it connects to Pulp.
Thinkwell is built for teams that speak to many publics at once.
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