Marketing communication: principles and practice

CULTURE AS COMMUNICATION
There is little doubt that culture significantly affects communication:
it determines the time and timing of interpersonal events, the places
where it is appropriate to discuss particular topics, the physical distance
separating one speaker from another, the tone of voice that is
appropriate to the subject-matter . . . Culture includes the 
relationship
of what is said to what is meant
.
(Hall and Whyte, 1960: 6, authors’ emphasis)
Based on the work of Edward T. Hall (1961), we can identify ten ways in
which culture is expressed in human behaviour. These provide ten ‘languages’
that may be used when communicating with potential customers.
I N T E R C U L T U R A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N
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According to Hall, culture is not constituted as a simple whole. There are
ten areas of human activities that combine to produce culture (Figure 6.1).
These he calls ‘primary message systems’. They are closely connected to each
other. We can not only investigate each separately, but also examine how
they work together to form a culture as a whole system.
All things that people do involve interaction with something or somebody
else. One of the most elaborated forms of interaction is speech. Association
refers to conventions that govern the groupings of people and the roles that
people play, rank and hierarchy, class and formal organization, and so on.
Subsistence means the processes by which a society satisfies the basic physical
needs of daily life and the attitudes towards such matters as food, drink 
and work. Bisexuality is concerned with both the way the sexes are
distinguished and the relationships which are permitted between them.
Territoriality refers to conventions which govern the division of space between
people and its allocation for different purposes. Temporality is concerned
with conventions which govern the way that time is constructed and used.
These conventions govern when to do things, in what order to do them, and
how much time is allowed for doing each of them. Learning refers to the
conventions that govern being taught and teaching. Play is concerned with
whatever a society regards as entertaining, for example painting, music,
literature, sports, games, etc. Defence refers to protective activities or
techniques which the individual and the community need, not only against
potentially hostile forces in nature, but also against such forces within human
society. Exploitation is concerned with how to develop and make use of
resources.
Hall suggests that each of these message systems communicates at formal,
informal, and technical levels. Formal behaviour patterns are mostly learned
in childhood through rules and warning. Informal behaviour patterns are
learned through imitation, usually out of the awareness of both learner and
model. These are usually subconscious rules of behaviour until broken.
Technical learning occurs at a high level of consciousness.
Hall proposed a general theory of change: change moves from formal to
informal to technical levels, and then, perhaps, to a new formal level (i.e.
the change is circular rather than linear). For example, consider the message
system of exploitation. A change in the concept of comfort (formal) may