terminada la modelación, se proponen situaciones que lleven a la

The Danish company profile website bears the headline “Rig-Tig’s (his-)story” (Rig-Tigs historie) and can be accessed through main menu link “About Rig-Tig” (Om Rig-Tig) and the subordinate link “History” (Historie). The menus to the left and on the top of the website are identical to those of the homepage, with an exception to the promotional boxes in the left menu, which have been removed. The website has a plain white background colour, and the central element on the website is a light brown image which illustrates handwritten drafts of the brand name. The website content is about the brand its values and target audience, how the brand name was chosen and how the brand is linked to its mother company Stelton.

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Screenshot 2: The company profile website of RigTig by Stelton (DEN)

Culture

Overall, the website is characterised by a heavy use of high individualism cultural values, as the user’s needs are highly focussed. Further, the brand’s focus on design and functionality can be interpreted as a personal benefit for the customer, and as focus on newness and uniqueness. In addition, a prominence of youth and action can be found explicitly in the description of the brand’s target group. Finally, the consumers are respected as individuals by not expecting them to by the brand’s product at any price (para. 5). However, the brand’s focus on sustainability accounts for a minor collectivistic

cultural approach, as the user is expected to act as a part of a society with common interests7_. A general emphasis on the benefits of design and the offering of flexible products can be interpreted as an approach of highlighting some quality of life, which is a low masculinity value. However, these issues on design and product flexibility can also be interpreted as an offer for personal development of the consumer, which accounts for a low power distance culture.

The website includes values that are ascribed to high uncertainty avoidance cultures. The highlighting of the connection to the mother company Stelton shall guarantee the quality of the new brand, and further, it is highlighted that “experts” have been consulted for finding an adequate brand name. The last named example could further be interpreted as a minor approach of a high power distance

culture, as experts stand for adding a high social status approach to the brand.

7 _{As the high individualism approach dominates, it will be highlighted with a “⁺” in the summary.}

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Linguistic

The rhetorical style can be described as argumentative, which is a sign of high individualism. Overall, the website text is written to explain the brand and its values to the reader, and the text paragraphs are introduced by leading headlines, which are formulated as questions, simulating possible

questions of consumers.

An approach of low uncertainty values can been seen in rather informal phrases and personal anecdotes of the sender.

Technical

The website includes widely identical technical approaches as the homepage, and thus it bears a low

power distance approaches and low individualism values. The added “send to a friend” function could

be interpreted as an additional low individualism approach, as the user can share the website content with other users.

Visual

The surrounding frame of the website is widely identically with the homepage, and thus the website bears low masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance values in its overall approach towards visual aesthetics and colour coding respectively.

Also, the homepage design corresponds to an high individualism cultural approach as the website design follows an independent theme and offers an individualised navigation design.

The German and English versions

Visually, the German and English websites “Our history” (In German: Unsere Historie) are identically to the domestic Danish website. Both language versions are reached by the same navigation link. In addition, the written content of the company profile websites does not appear to be highly culturally adapted. However, both websites include additions to explain the Danish meaning of the brand name.

Culture

The German version includes an added high power distance approach, as the dominant role of the mother company Stelton is further emphasised, e.g. the mother company is directly named as “company” (Unternehmen) and is further articulated as “House of design” (Designhaus) (para. 4).

Linguistic

The German and the English website includes the argumentative rhetorical style of the domestic website, which accounts for high individualism values.

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The German website includes rather formal formulations with some local terminology, which is a

high uncertainty avoidance value. For example, the headline is named “history” (Historie), which is a

rather formal formulation for “story”. Also, in para. 1, the Danish approach of calling their company as “brand” (brand), has been adapted to “series” (Serie), and “to the greatest possible extend” (weitestgehend). In para. 4, the German phrase “thanks (to)” (Dank) has been added to describe the affordable price level of the products in a more formal way. Examples of local terminology can be found in para. 1 “quite simply” (schlicht und ergreifend) and para. 4 “it is foreign to our nature” (es

liegt uns volkommen fern).

The English website includes some colloquial phrases which account for a low uncertainty avoidance. For example, para. 4 is introduced by “Well,…”, and another example can be found in para. 5,

describing the companies’ target group as “RIG-TIG is actually for…”. I

It should be named that the English website include American English phrases, e.g. para. 5 “socializing” and para. 3 “realizing”.

Summary DEN UK GER Culture ↓↑⁺IDV ↑UAI ↑↑PDI ↓MAS ↑PDI Linguistic ↑IDV ↓UAI ↑IDV ↓UAI ↑IDV ↑UAI Technical ↓IDV ↓PDI Visual ↑IDV ↓UAI ↓MAS

Table 8: The cultural values on the company profile website of RigTig by Stelton