bilingual website comparison

8/3/2019 Bilingual Website Comparison

1/7

Bialecki 1

Bilingual Website Comparison of U.S. and Mexican Websites

Introduction

When choosing which organizations websites to compare, I simply went with the firsttwo large, international companies that came to my mind. Thats how I decided on Wal-Mart and

McDonalds. For this report, I will be comparing the United States and Mexican versions of eachwebsite.

Wal-Mart, which is based in the United States, is one of the largest retailers in the world.

The main purposes of its website are to promote its products, to allow consumers the option of

buying products online, and to provide a forum for consumers to offer feedback and have theirquestions answered. In addition to the United States and Mexico, Wal-Mart has websites for the

following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, Puerto Rico, and the United

Kingdom. Here are the links to the websites I compared:

United States:http://www.walmart.com/Mexico:http://www.walmartmexico.com.mx/

McDonalds, which is also based in the United States, is one of the largest fast food

chains in the world. The main purposes of its website are to promote its products, to informconsumers about its products, and to provide a forum for consumers to offer feedback and have

their questions answered. In addition to the United States and Mexico, McDonalds has websites

for 57 other countries. Here are the links to the websites I compared:United States:http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa.html

Mexico:http://www.mcdonalds.com.mx/Mexico/HTML/index.html

Methods

For this comparison, I chose to do a content analysis, similar to the one performed by

Singh and Baack in their case study. I looked for the presence or absence of the bulleted

variables Singh and Baack have listed under Hofstedes cultural dimensions in their Table 1. In

addition to the content analysis, I also compared some of the design elements of the websites.

Fortunately, the Mexican Wal-Mart website has a button in the navigation bar that translates thewebsite into English. For the Mexican McDonalds website, I used the Google Translator totranslate the website into English. In the remainder of this report, I have summarized my

observations into tables and discussed the similarities and differences between the websites.

Results (Wal-Mart)

Dimension: Collectivism

Categories U.S. Website Mexican Website

Community Relationships Yes (giving back to the

community)

Yes(giving back to

community, Social

responsibility policy, social

responsibility reports)
http://www.walmart.com/http://www.walmart.com/http://www.walmart.com/http://www.walmartmexico.com.mx/http://www.walmartmexico.com.mx/http://www.walmartmexico.com.mx/http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa.htmlhttp://www.mcdonalds.com/usa.htmlhttp://www.mcdonalds.com/usa.htmlhttp://www.mcdonalds.com.mx/Mexico/HTML/index.htmlhttp://www.mcdonalds.com.mx/Mexico/HTML/index.htmlhttp://www.mcdonalds.com.mx/Mexico/HTML/index.htmlhttp://www.mcdonalds.com.mx/Mexico/HTML/index.htmlhttp://www.mcdonalds.com/usa.htmlhttp://www.walmartmexico.com.mx/http://www.walmart.com/


2/7

Bialecki 2

Clubs or Chat Rooms Yes(Members club) No

Newsletter Yes(newsletter) Yes(social responsibility

reports, financial reports)

Family Theme Yes(pictures of family,

pictures of teams of

employees)

Yes(pictures of family,


employees)Country Specific News No No

Symbols/Pictures of National

IdentityNo No

Loyalty Programs Yes(Special MembershipProgram, company credit

cards)

No

Links to Local Websites No No

Dimension: Uncertainty Avoidance


Customer Service Yes(FAQs, customer serviceoption, customer help, etc.)

Not really(They only have ageneric Contact us form

that you have to submit

through the site)

Secure Payment Yes(VeriSign, privacy policy,security policy, product return

policy)

No

Guided Navigation Yes(Site map, well-displayed

links, links in form of pictures

and buttons)

Yes(Site map, well-displayed

links, links in form of pictures

and buttons)

Tradition Theme Yes (emphasis on history) Yes(emphasis on history and

ties of the company with thenation)

Local Stores Yes(Store finder) Yes(Store finder)

Local Terminology No No

Free Trials or Downloads No No

Customer Testimonials Yes (customer ratings of

products, reviews by

customers)

No

Toll Free Numbers Yes No

Dimension: Power Distance


Company Hierarchy

InformationYes(Information about the

types of careers with the

company)

Yes(Information about thetypes of careers with the

company)

Pictures of Important People

Within the Company

Yes (mostly on the Careerslink)

Yes

Quality Information and No Yes(mention of quality


3/7

Bialecki 3

Awards information and quality

certification by international

agencies)

Vision Statement Yes No

Rank or Prestige of the

Company

No Yes(mention of prestige of the

company)Pride of Ownership Appeal Yes(depictions of happy and

proud customers and

employees)

Yes(depictions of happy andproud customers and

employees)

Proper Titles No Yes (titles of people at the

contact section)

Dimension: Masculinity


Quizzes and Games No No

Hard Sell Approach Yes(discounts, promotions) No

Explicit Comparisons No NoRealism Theme Yes(only relevant product

information)No

Product Effectiveness Yes (durability information,

quality information, product

attribute information)

No

Use of Superlatives Yes Yes

Clear Gender Roles No No

Design Elements


Color Scheme White and blue White and blue

Content of Images Products, advertisements People, advertisements

Navigation Bar Found on the top, left, and

bottom of the pages; designed

to be read from left to right;

more in-depth

Found on the top, left, and



less in-depth

Results (McDonalds)

Dimension: Collectivism

Categories U.S. Website Mexican WebsiteCommunity Relationships Yes (Ronald McDonald House

Charities, Social

Responsibility Policy)

Yes(Ronald McDonald House

Charities, Social

Responsibility Policy)

Clubs or Chat Rooms No No

Newsletter Yes (News reports and

articles)Yes(News reports and

articles)

Family Theme Yes (mention of employee Yes(pictures of family,


4/7

Bialecki 4

teams and emphasis on

teamwork)


employees)

Country Specific News No No

Symbols/Pictures of NationalIdentity

No Yes(soccer theme on first

page, as well as traditional-

looking Mexican cartooncharacters)

Loyalty Programs Yes (company cash cards

Arch Card)No

Links to Local Websites No No

Dimension: Uncertainty Avoidance


Customer Service Yes(Contact information) Yes(FAQs, contact

information)

Secure Payment No No

Guided Navigation Yes (well-displayed links,links in the form of pictures

and buttons, directional

navigation buttons)

Yes(well-displayed links,links in the form of pictures

and buttons, directional

navigation buttons)

Tradition Theme Yes (emphasis on history) Yes(emphasis on history)

Local Stores Yes (Restaurant Locator) Yes(Restaurant Locator)

Local Terminology No No

Free Trials or Downloads No No

Customer Testimonials No No

Toll Free Numbers Yes Yes

Dimension: Power Distance


Company Hierarchy

Information

Yes(information about the

ranks of company people,

information about country

managers, biographies of

executives)

Yes(information about the

organizational hierarchy)

Pictures of Important People

Within the CompanyYes(pictures of important

people in the company)No

Quality Information and

Awards

Yes (mention of awards won,

quality information, andquality certification by

international and local

agencies)

Yes (mention of quality

information)

Vision Statement Yes Yes

Rank or Prestige of the

CompanyYes (mention of prestige and

fame of the company)

Yes (mention of prestige and

fame of the company)

Pride of Ownership Appeal No No


5/7

Bialecki 5

Proper Titles Yes (titles of important people

in the company)

No

Dimension: Masculinity


Quizzes and Games Yes (Games, fun information) Yes(fun information)Hard Sell Approach Yes (promotions) Yes (promotions)

Explicit Comparisons No No

Realism Theme Yes(emphasizes product

attributes)Yes(emphasizes product

attributes)

Product Effectiveness Yes(quality information,product attribute/nutrition

information)

Yes(quality information,product attribute/nutrition

information)

Use of Superlatives Yes Yes

Clear Gender Roles No No

Design Elements


Color Scheme Black, white, and red Many different colors

Content of Images Advertisements, food, andpeople

Advertisements, food, and

people

Navigation Bar Found on the top, left, andbottom of the pages; designed


Found on the top, left, and



drop-down menu

Discussion

The most crucial difference between the U.S. Wal-Mart website and the Mexican Wal-Mart

website is the level of completion. The U.S. website is very thorough. The Mexican websiteseems like it's still in the beginning stages of development, possibly because Wal-Mart hasntbeen around in Mexico as long as it has in the U.S. This may have been the reason for some of

the differences I noticed between the two sites.

CollectivismThe Mexican website seemed to emphasize community relationships more so

than the U.S. website. The Mexican website puts a lot of focus on social responsibility. It has a

social responsibility policy and social responsibility reports, and it mentions what theyve done

to support the environment and the welfare of remote communities. I didnt find any mention ofsocial responsibility on the U.S. website, but they did have a few articles about things theyvedone to give back to the community. Neither website showed symbols or pictures of national

identity. I thought that surely the Mexican website would, but since the site seems like its stillbeing developed, they might not have gotten it to it yet.

Uncertainty AvoidanceOne thing that surprised me is that the U.S. website seems to show

stronger uncertainty avoidance than the Mexican website. The U.S. website has FAQs, customer


6/7

Bialecki 6

service/help, etc., but the Mexican website currently has only a generic Contact us form on the

website. The U.S. website has a VeriSign endorsement, a privacy policy, and a product returnpolicy. The Mexican website has none of these. This also might be due to the level of completion

of the website. In the U.S. website, you can buy Wal-Mart products online, but there is no

information whatsoever about products on the Mexican website. The Mexican website has more

of a tradition theme, with emphasis on history and ties of the company with the nation, whereasthe U.S. website emphasizes only the history of the company. Neither website displayed local

terminology. The U.S. website featured customer ratings and reviews of products. Since, at this

point, the Mexican site is strictly promotional and informative, there were no customertestimonials. Another surprising thing is that the U.S. site displays toll free numbers for

customers to call, but the Mexican website doesnt.

Power Distance - An interesting difference between the two websites is that the Mexican

website includes information about the quality of the company and quality certification by

international agencies, such as the U.N. There was no mention of this kind of information on the

U.S. website. Given its pride in social responsibility, you would think the Mexican website

would have a vision statement, but currently, it doesnt. The U.S. website, however, does have avision statement. Another interesting difference is that the Mexican website emphasizes the

prestige of the company, but the U.S. website doesnt. The Mexican website used the propertitles of people in its contact section, but the U.S. website discussed only the job duties of

important people in the company, rather than the people themselves. These last two differences

may be due to the differences in power distance between the U.S. and Mexico.

MasculinityOther than the use of superlatives, which was found in both websites, I did not

find any aspects of the Mexican website that suggest masculinity. But again, this may be due to

the level of completion of the Mexican website.

Design ElementsThe U.S. and Mexican websites are somewhat similar in terms of design

elements. One difference is the content of the images. While both websites have a lot of

advertisements, the images in the Mexican website focus more on people, whereas the images inthe U.S. website focus more on products. This could be due to the more collectivist nature of

Mexico. Another difference is in the navigation bars. There are many more links in the U.S.

websites navigation bar than there are in the Mexican websites navigation bars. In the U.S.website, the major links are located in the top and bottom navigation bars, and the links to the

different store departments and types of products are located in the left navigation bar. In the

Mexican website, the major links are on all three navigation bars, and there are no links to the

stores different departments and products. Again, the difference between the navigation bars

might be due to the level of completion of the Mexican website.

There were a lot more similarities than differences between the U.S. and Mexican versions of the

McDonalds website. Unlike the Wal-Mart website for Mexico, the McDonalds website for

Mexico seemed complete. Both versions of the McDonalds website are very thorough.

CollectivismBoth versions of the website exhibited a family theme but in different ways. TheU.S. version emphasized teamwork more so in words, whereas the Mexican version emphasized

teamwork more so in pictures. Perhaps this is because the U.S. is more of a low-context country,


7/7

Bialecki 7

and Mexico is more of a high-context country. A big difference between the two versions is that

the Mexican version showed symbols of national identity, and the U.S. version did not. On thehome page of the Mexican website, you see a soccer field in the background. Soccer is a popular

sport in Mexico. You also see a graphic of some traditional-looking Mexican cartoon characters.

Since McDonalds is based in America, maybe they didnt feel it was necessary to include

symbols of national identity in the U.S. website.

Uncertainty AvoidanceIn terms of uncertainty avoidance, there were no significant

differences between the two versions of the McDonalds website.

Power DistanceThe only significant difference between the two versions is that the U.S.

website went into more detail about the company hierarchy information and the qualityinformation and awards.

MasculinityIn terms of masculinity, there were no significant differences between the two

versions of the McDonalds website.

Design ElementsThe two websites are somewhat similar in terms of design elements. The

biggest difference is the color scheme. In the U.S. website, the background color on most pagesis either black or white. There is a lot of red on the pages as well. In the Mexican website, there

is a different background color for each of the major categories of pages. These colors include

red, green, purple, blue, and gold. The differences in color symbolism between the U.S. and

Mexico might explain why the two websites have different color schemes. Another difference is

in the navigation bar. The Mexican websites top navigation bar has a drop-down menu on each

link, whereas the U.S. website has more links in their navigation bars. This difference pertains to

accessibility. Perhaps there are differences between the U.S. and Mexico in what makes awebsite more or less accessible.

After reviewing the differences between the U.S. and Mexican versions of both websites, I was

able to identify only one consistent difference. The U.S. websites featured loyalty programs, andthe Mexican websites did not. Since both companies have been around in the U.S. longer than

theyve been in Mexico, perhaps they have not yet gotten around to creating loyalty programs for

their Mexican customers. The lack of consistent differences between U.S. and Mexican websitescan be best explained by the small sample of websites I compared for this report. Had I used a

larger sample, I would most likely have discovered more differences. Another contributing factor

could be the lack of completion of the Wal-Mart website for Mexico. In any event, one must notassume that all international companies will have similar websites for each country with whom

they do business.

bilingual website comparison

Documents