Question

Task: After reviewing both documents, answer the five questions.

1. How does the difference in the salutations (the “Dear . . .” part of the letter) reflect a cultural difference?

2. Does the first paragraph of the second letter have any function beyond delaying the discussion of business?

3. What is the point of telling Mr. Kirisawa about his own company? How does this paragraph help the writer introduce her own company’s products?

4. To a reader from the United States, the third paragraph of the second letter would probably seem thin. What aspect of Japanese culture makes it effective in the context of this letter?

5. Why doesn’t the writer make a more explicit sales pitch at the end of the second letter?

Background

You are the Director of Marketing for Yakima Properties, a real-estate company that employs 18 agents and advertises approximately 100 residential properties at any one time. The company advertises in the Saturday real-estate supplement in the local newspaper and on its own website, presenting photographs and a description of each of the properties. In addition, for properties that are advertised at a price of $750,000 and above, the company presents virtual 360° tours on the website. When Yakima Properties began offering the virtual tours on its website two years ago, it contracted with Edelson Custom Photography, a high-end photographic supplier, to provide both the virtual tours and the traditional photographs of all the company’s properties. Yakima’s contract with Edelson is about to expire.

In an attempt to determine if it is possible to cut costs, you have asked one of your agents, Rachel Stevens, to research whether it would be possible to have the real-estate agents take their own photographs of the properties they list. You ask Rachel to sketch out how she would research the topic:“ Write me an email listing the questions we need to answer to know whether this idea would work, and how you’d answer them.” Two days later, she sends you an email (Document 6.1).

You leave her a phone message: “Thanks, Rachel. Good to know that the hardware is available and cheap. What I’d like you to think about now, however, is what our agents would think about being asked to take their own pictures. How many of the agents are experienced with taking digital photos? Do they have any preferences about the kind of camera to get? Would they consider it an imposition to have to take their own photos, or do they think the ability to shoot just what they want—and have the photos available right away—outweighs the extra work we’d be asking them to do? And keep in mind that, with 18 agents, you’re going to want to choose types of questions that let us quantify the responses effectively.”

Rachel sends you an email saying that she’ll get on it, and the next day you receive her response (Document 6.2). After studying it, you realize that you are going to need to become more involved in carrying out this research. You know that Rachel is a good worker who has a bright future with Yakima Properties, but she has little experience writing questionnaires. You ask her if she would like you to critique her five questions. She says yes.

Document 6.2 Rachel’s Email Proposing Questions About Agents’ Skills and

Attitudes (Note: when editing the questionnaire, use strike-throughs and highlights)

1. Do you feel comfortable using a digital camera? Why or why not?

2. Do you feel that it would be productive to send out the agents with digital cameras to take pictures of the featured property?

A.) Strongly Agree B.) Agree C.) Neutral D.) Disagree E.) Strongly Disagree

3. What direction should the company go in terms of use of the digital camera for agents?

A.) The company should equip the agents to take pictures of real estate.

B.) The company should do more research on the cost effectiveness of every agent having a digital camera.

C.) It would be a waste of resources to have the agents take pictures.

4. Do you feel that we should be having the agents take the pictures for our clients? Do you feel that it would make the selling process more or less professional?

5. Please explain in a few paragraphs your usage and understanding of digital cameras.

Document 6.1 Rachel’s Response to the Request for a List of Questions That Need

to Be Answered

To: [yourname]@yakimaproperties.com

From: [email protected]

Subject: camera research

I’ve had a chance to speak with Jill in Production, who said that it would be pretty easy to have our agents do the stills. Almost any level of digital camera would work. We already have the image-editing software, so that wouldn’t be a problem.

I checked online, and there’s all kinds of cameras at less than $200 that we could get. For instance, for about $110, we could get a Nikon Coolpix 20-megapixel, with the following features:

• 20 megapixels, for pics up to 16 x 20 inches

• 5x optical/4x digital/20x total zoom

• 3.0-inch high-resolution LCD

• High ISO sensitivity (80-1600)

• Digital image stabilization

• 27 MB internal memory and three digital media card slots (SD, SDHC, SDXC)

There’s a good dozen companies offering similar products. And there’s no shortage of sites that sell these packages.

Let me know if there’s anything else you need. I think we’re good to go.

Rachel

Answer 1

1. The salutation “Dear” used in the letter reflects the cultural differences as the salutation so used is much more formal and reflects that the writer is aware of the type of relation he holds with the receiver. If the salutation “Sir” would have been used, it would have been less formal and would have pointed out towards the presence of a friendly relation. The salutation used thus shows the respect towards the Japanese culture and that the writer is aware of the cultural differences and know how to respect others culture.

2. Yes! The first paragraph of second letter is delaying the discussion of the business. But apart from delaying the business discussion, the paragraph helps in creating a friendly relation and building rapport between the writer and the receiver. The writer knows the importance of creating interest of the reader in the letter so that is why instead of going directly to the business terms, the writer tried to create a sense of pleasure, well being and rapport with the reader.

3. The idea of telling Mr. Kirisawa about his own company is of great importance as doing this will help the writer tell about his own knowledge about the company. Doing this the writer can connect with Mr. Kirisawa as both are well aware about the company and its products. Doing this the writer can easily introduce the products of his own company as it creates a base for the conversation to take place and which can help in introducing the products with ease. Moreover the connect can be created and Mr. kirisawa can be made aware that the writer can provide him with the products he is wanting.

4. The aspect of Japanese culture that makes this paragraph effective is the “High context culture”. It means that this culture believes in communicating in an implicit manner and the communication is dependent upon the availability of context. Moreover such culture believes in collectivism and trusts in building strong interpersonal relations with the one you are communicating.

5. The writer does not make use of explicit sales pitch in the letter because as per the Japanese culture, people do not use direct ways of communication rather they use indirect communication techniques and use more implicit ways for communicating. The writer avoids the use of direct sales pitch and tries to create a long term and personal relationship with the company.