Viewpoints
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Modern Marketing's Toughest Culture Gap
Misplaced Modesty
Muhammad Ali vs. Brian Nielsen. Nike vs. Ecco. Carlsberg vs. Miller (the best-selling beer in America). The American Dream vs. Janteloven. Denmark’s international enemy has a name: humility.
Danes are great! Tycho Brahe, Carlsberg, Hans Christian Andersen, Arne Jacobsen, LEGO Company, Karen Blixen, Kierkegaard, Niels Bohr, Victor Borge. The list goes on and on. Denmark is a nation of achievers. It’s a highly educated nation that churns out innovations in engineering, energy, pharmaceuticals, biotech and the like. Danish design is famous throughout the world. Danish architecture is the pride of Australia. More recently, even the Danish monarchy has helped to bring the name “Denmark” to the attention of worldwide audiences. For this piece, by the way, I am totally going to ignore the effects of the Mohammed crisis.
You’re Danish! From a land of modesty and moderation where all right-thinking people do the same things. So you’re shy about it all. Don’t want to be too proud, don’t want to let people know how good you are – prefer that they kind of guess their way to it. Maybe you think that the more modest you are, the more successful, the more intelligent and the better a business partner people will guess you to be.
Modesty doesn’t score points in the international arena. It’s out of place. But does that mean you should be boasting? Not necessarily. What it does mean is that it is important to look powerful, professional, like a leader. Modesty can all too often result in a belief that we don’t have to worry about looking ’smooth’. The Danish version of modesty often means that we think people will like us for our modesty and won’t be so focused on whether we look like an international leader - they won’t mind minor mistakes and that they will accept a boring website as long as it is ’seriøs’. ’Seriøs’ seems to mean modest, factual, conservative. Here’s the news: The English-speaking world doesn’t even have a word equivalent to ’seriøs’! It’s just not a key value. You can’t score points with it in most spheres.
It’s time to tell the world just how good Danish companies are. Why? Because it is absolutely crucial to get on equal footing with the international companies with whom we are competing out there.
And it’s hard enough coming from Denmark. Sorry to say it, but few people know where Denmark is or what it stands for. Everyone knows LEGO and Hans Christian Andersen, but Denmark hasn’t managed to become associated with them in the big wide world. In many situations, as a Danish company, you’ll be on the back foot. "Denmark? Isn’t that the capital of Stockholm?"
There’s a mile-wide cultural gap, too. At Eye for Image, the copywriting agency I helped to start, where 90% of our staff are native English speakers, we quite clearly share a common cultural background. English speakers just kind of ’click’ together. I’m not enjoying writing this, but Danes, like Swedes, Norwegians and Germans, will always be outsiders in the English-speaking world. There are some important implications of this, of course, but it is interesting for the moment to take a look at why there is such a major cultural gap between what may appear to be quite similar Western cultures.
To illustrate the point, I’ll take the most extreme difference: American cultural values vs. Danish cultural values. When researchers at the University of Illinois wanted to examine differences in achievement values in Western cultures, they chose Denmark and the US as two extremes on the scale. Since advertisements often reflect cultural values, they compared, for example, the two slogans below:
Probably the best beer in town.
—Carlsberg Beer advertising slogan
Best-selling Beer in America.
—U.S. beer slogan
—Carlsberg Beer advertising slogan
Best-selling Beer in America.
—U.S. beer slogan
In this case, the Danish brewer espouses its modesty and the U.S. beer maker its competitive prowess. These slogans mark cultural beliefs related to achievement and norms describing the appropriate display of success. Actually, Carlsberg’s overall vision, and I quote: "…is to build probably the best beer in town." Wow – what a knockout, inspiring vision! I want to join that company! Not. Interestingly, when Carlsberg put up its slogan in London, New Zealand’s Steinlager breweries promptly put up an equally large sign across the square saying "Steinlager – definitely the best beer in town".
Another example: Copenhagen Airport is No. 1 in the ratings (or has been) – but do they ever say it? If they were Americans – or probably British – they would proclaim it to the skies! Not so the Danes.
Danes believe in equality – and Danish cultural values reflect this strongly. Americans believe in ’equality’ too. But the American notion of equality is ’equal opportunity’. Historically, the frontier spirit and financial incentives to explore new territories attracted and reinforced values of individual achievement and success in the US.
People in the United States have been shown to aspire to social distinction and financial success. In fact, in the United States, "Success is communicated, shared and displayed because it is natural to show off". Literature and popular culture in the United States promote the notion of social mobility up the vertical ladder through rags-to-riches themes and depictions of the American Dream. When Americans were asked about the future in the Illinois survey, their responses reflected career options first, often with an interest in entrepreneurship and, for women, the desire for family, too. Similar to their Danish counterparts, 4 of the 6 women mentioned family and career. The single men, on the other hand, almost unanimously mentioned work-related goals alone. When probed about their personal lives, they tended to define marriage as an option but not necessarily a goal. These results are quite different from the single Danish males, who always mentioned family in their responses. In addition, the entrepreneurial spirit heard in Americans’ responses was completely lacking from Danish informants. Perhaps this reflects the influence of the American Dream prevalent in the United States. Responses reflected elements of freedom, rewards, and influence without the themes of modesty and moderation prevalent in the Danes’ responses.
Whereas a rags-to-riches American Dream story emphasizes competitive behaviors to rise above others, Janteloven rewards modesty and blending into the group. In the Illinois study, the values of Americans were more achievement-oriented than those of Danes - more oriented toward success, ambition, and gaining influence. In contrast, the values of Danes were more universalistic than those of Americans - more oriented toward nature, social justice, and equality.
Queen Margrethe has proclaimed, "We are very proud of our modesty. It is our inverted megalomania. It is highly sophisticated" (Askgaard, 1992, p. 8). The "Danish way" is not to rise above others. Now what can you use that for in an internationally competitive arena?