Co-Author of The Culturally Customized Web Site
Partners with ePlus Marketing

Dr. Arun Pereira, co-author of The Culturally Customized Web Site© has recently partnered with ePlus Marketing, LLC. Dr. Pereira, Associate Professor of Marketing at St. Louis University, along with Dr. Nitish Singh, Associate Professor at California State University, Chico, has researched and written a book about developing Websites to culturally match an international audience. ePlus Marketing, LLC, headquartered in St. Louis, develops and markets Websites and Internet projects.

ePlus Marketing services includes Web globalization, internationalization, localization and international Internet marketing. They assist companies who wish to utilize the Internet to reach an international target audience. All of the company’s marketing efforts regardless of local, national or international audience is focused on marketing ROI (return on investment). A key element in marketing ROI is conversion rate which is a measure of a Website’s ability to persuade visitors to take a desired action.

”Website internationalization means that a site was developed in such a way that it can easily be customized or modified for a given international target audience. Localization means that the site has been localized for a specific country or region. Localization includes translating text, adjusting the graphics and visual elements, including international symbols. Other details such as the page size for PDFs or the way phone numbers are written all need to be adjusted.” explained Patricia Hughes, founder of ePlus Marketing.

Ms. Hughes continued, “Dr. Pereira goes beyond localization to what he calls a “culturally customized” site. Sites that are culturally customized can look as if it was developed in the target country. His book shows the research and evidence that people are more likely to utilize a site that fits into their culture. That means, for our clients, that their target audience will visit their Website, stay longer and purchase their products.”

Dr. Pereira’s research shows that culture plays a tremendous role in persuading individuals to take action. In his book he states “persuading them is inextricably linked to their respective cultures because cultures impacts how we perceive, process, and interpret information.” His research concluded that sites which are highly adapted to a target audience’s culture rate higher in a positive attitude toward the site and in the purchase intention compared to sites that had a medium or low degree of adaptability to their culture.

This partnership will provide an expert in the field of culturally customizing Websites for ePlus Marketing’s clients who want a Website that is integrated with the culture of their target audience. ePlus Marketing promotes and sells Dr. Pereira’s book on their site (http://www.eplusm.com) and offers his white papers as a free download.

“Most companies take global marketing a step at a time. Once they start seeing results, they realize that the more they adapt their site and products to the target audience’s culture the higher their return on investment,” stated Hughes.

Dr. Pereira’s book and research shows that it is critically important to understand the subtle role of culture when it comes to numbers, letters, graphics, color and more. It is also important to understand the behavior of the target audience. Various behavioral aspects of culture such as power distance, individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, low-high context and the role of masculinity and femininity all play a role in culture and behavior. These behaviors should be taken into consideration when building and marketing a Website. Analyzing the target audience’s behavior will enable marketers to develop ways to persuade Website visitors to take action, and will improve a Website’s conversation rate.

According to Internet World Stats (http://www.internetworldstats.com), over a billion people use the Internet world wide. 30% of internet users speak English and approximately 20% of internet users are in North America. If companies are only marketing their products on the Internet to North America they are missing 80% of all Internet users. “Those numbers are too big to ignore” said Hughes. “The numbers alone would tell you that it is worth considering taking your site to a global audience. But the key is doing it right.”

Companies that rush in and don’t take the time to do it right often make costly mistakes. Some of the more publicized mistakes have been similar to KFC’s blunder in China when “finger-lickin’ good” was translated into “eat your fingers off”. While it may seem amusing, these mistakes are costly.

“We are very excited about having Dr. Pereira’s assistance with our international projects. Our partnership arrangement ensures that we have experts to support us with our Web globalization and international Internet marketing efforts. This will help us avoid mistakes and produce the best results, as well as increase the marketing ROI for our clients.” stated Ms. Hughes.

Research clearly proves that, in general, customers exhibit a more positive attitude towards Websites that are consistent with their cultures and languages. It is apparent that customization can help build a strong loyal customer base. It is also evident that presently most international Websites are not highly localized and almost none are culturally customized. According to Dr. Pereira’s book, as of 2004 he found none of the US Websites he studied to be culturally customized.

This aspect of international marketing is a new concept for most Web companies but, it is not surprising that ePlus Marketing recognizes this before most other companies in their industry. Ms. Hughes’s career and experience indicates that she has been on the forefront of Internet marketing.

“I have been studying and working with Internet marketing for over ten years” explained Ms. Hughes. She continues, “in the mid 1990’s I was completing my MBA and wanted to focus on Internet marketing. There was very little information on the subject. After completing my degree and research project, I talked with some of the major advertising agencies. I was told that the Internet was just a fad or that they had a programmer in charge of their Web project. I understood at the on-set that the Internet is a marketing tool and Websites should be developed with a marketing focus.

Some agencies even today really don’t get it. So, I’m not surprised if they don’t understand the importance of a global market. Their focus is divided among too many aspects of marketing while we focus on the Internet. Other companies that produce Websites have a programming focus which lacks the aspects of marketing including consumer behavior and culture.”

For more information about ePlus Marketing or Dr. Pereira’s book visit www.eplusm.com.