Promotion of Collectivistic and Individualistic Values

As we all know from the notes, values prevailing in high contex cultures (HC) are generally tied to collectivism and those in low contex cultures (LC) to individualism. I think that this can be shown whereby HC and LC culture websites share different values. Collectivist cultures tend to emphasize being in good physical shape and time spent with family and friends as their dominant values, individualist societies implies relaxation and time spent by oneself. Images of individuals dancing or doing sports are more prominent on HC websites than LC websites, whereas in LC countries individuals tend to be portrayed in more relaxed situations or situations connoting holiday activities, such as a trip to the lake or listening to music.

Indeed, according to reasearch I have found, McDonald's indeed uses different approaches to profess its slogan "I'm lovin' it." The slogan not only promotes the food, but a whole lifestyle. The Swiss-German site (which shows low contex culture-individualism) displays images of individuals enjoying themselves with music and relaxation and offers an in-depth explanation of the philosophy behind the new slogan: "You're immediately at the center of attention—your individuality, your everyday life, situations in which you recognize yourself and where you would like to see yourself."

However, on the other hand, this definition is absent in sites such as the Indian one, where an image of a man running with a boy in a shopping cart is placed next to the slogan (shown above), creating a visual connection between the two texts. Both the man and the boy, with a Happy Meal on his lap, are laughing wholeheartedly as they speed down the supermarket aisle. The slogan seems to reflect the thought of both of the participants, and seems to reflect the fun of being together as a father and a son, uncle and nephew, or some other close relationship.

The Indian site certainly emphasizes a different enjoyable experience from the kind found in the Swiss-German site, which rather praises that time which is spent by oneself, for instance by listening to music with earphones large enough to block out the outside world (shown below).

Taken from the Swiss Site

Taken from the Indian Site

Also, Macdonald's community work is communicated differently in the two sites. On the Swiss-German site, a link to the Ronald McDonald fund is placed near the bottom of the page, as the last point on the menu. However, McDonald's India may have replaced a group photograph of happy employees with one of a man and a boy, the "Community" link has been placed to a much more prominent location on the home page, which is placed second on the menu of links. Does the communication of community work depends on the collectivist or individualist orientation of the user's culture?

From research, there is also the point stating that collectivistic societies place high importance on people and relations, whereas individualistic societies tend to value products and consumerism. When displaying a product together with an individual, it reflects the values of HC cultures by drawing focus away from what the product offers and towards what the person receives when enjoying the product. However, images of individuals or products by themselves are not present in LC culture websites.

In addition, we can expect that at least one image of an individual together with the product will be found on the homepage or main pages of an HC culture site. Is this really true?

Research information taken from Würtz, E. (2005). A cross-cultural analysis of websites from high-context cultures and low-context cultures. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), article 13