Effective Communication Report - Sunshine 100, Marketing Director Role

This report examines the challenges and solutions related to effective communication within a virtual team, specifically in the context of a marketing director at Sunshine 100. The report begins by outlining a scenario where Jane Wilson, the newly appointed Marketing Director, is tasked with managing a global team to promote a new line of baby food products in China. It then explores the challenges of managing cultural differences, communication styles, and responsibilities across eight different countries. The report includes an email draft from Jane to her team, outlining the agenda for a conference call and emphasizing the importance of building trust and understanding. The discussion further addresses the need for cross-cultural competencies, such as identifying high-context and low-context cultural values, to avoid miscommunication. It also touches upon the application of the 4Ps of marketing (Product, Pricing, Promotion, and Place) to tailor strategies for foreign markets. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing various tasks and issues associated with multicultural teams, such as leveraging technology and democratic leadership styles to achieve company goals.

Running head: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Effective Communication
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Reference List............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Jane Wilson has taken up the position of Marketing Director at a company known as
Sunshine 100 and the Company was undertaking new ventures to expand its business on
wholesome baby products in China. Several nutritionists as well as dieticians under the
guidance of Dr Jeremy Jones have started working on several campaigns in order undertake
promotion of one of those products ‘KidsEats’ and Jane was given the responsibility to work
on marketing various campaigns and motivate school children so that they show their
interests in buying those health products that would come to benefit of people.
The Company CEO prefers utilizing virtual teams at international level as this would render
wide number of opportunities to employees of the Company to interact with staff members as
well as colleagues, involve latest technologies towards producing health products and also
finds various ways so that costs due to logistics can be minimized (Lilian, 2014, pp. 1252-
1254). Although Jane knew that it would be difficult for her to manage the teams through
processes of virtual communication however she studied on those facts and came to know the
facts that high level of emotional intelligence as well as expertise in communication skills can
be easily facilitated through virtual means (Cherry et al. 2014, pp. 470- 471). This particular
discussion takes into account several challenges faced by Jane in management of various
cultural differences, roles as well as competencies that might be faced while working in
groups at global level. She also finds a solution to deal with various problems as well as
conflicts that might be experienced in the future among the team members while taking a part
in promotion of brand new products in the wholesome market (Van Dijk, Antonides and
Schillewaert, 2014, pp. 4-6 ).
Discussion
Question 1: Email to the team members from the side of Jane regarding conference call

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Jane wrote a mail with respect to all the members in the team:
Dear Colleagues,
Hi, I am Jane Wilson, Marketing Director of Sunshine 100 has decided to form
a team involving virtual communication among all the members since it would involve
various technologies in order to build various relationships and also it would help to facilitate
interpersonal communication skills. I would like to announce a conference that would taking
place amongst us in order to introduce ourselves to each other at 8:52 A.M. according to time
standards at World Map. The agenda for this meeting to ask questions and gather information
from each other regarding test relationships as well as behaviours towards assigned tasks. It
would give me opportunities to build a good bond as well as trust and I would like to clarify
our goals as well as objectives regarding promotion as well as branding of goods.
The questions that would be mostly discussed between me and my members shall remain
unbiased and members must take the chance to understand my leadership skills, my services
towards Sunshine 100, an agreement on goals from both of our sides and in addition I would
like to share my feelings as well as experiences of working in the Company and I think that
this group conference calling would be a motivation key for my team members. I think that
multicultural teams at global level can help to deal with various challenges for me and I
would try to bridge various gaps associated with time, culture or distance and would like to
direct my team members so that they deviate from their presented values as well as cultures
towards establishment of new set of cultures as well as achievements for the team.
Yours faithfully
Jane Wilson

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Question 2: Management of responsibilities on part of Jane to bridge differences
associated with communication, customs, and responsibilities that would help in
directing team members
Various managing of grounds in order to bridge the differences that may arise on the basis of
communication grounds with respect to various styles, rules as well as regulations, customary
traditions that would have a great deal of impact on the business (Barak, 2016, pp. 2- 4). Jane
must take into the fact that in the business world of modern era, team leaders usually provide
great deal of appreciation towards various individuals as well as group of human beings in
terms of representing the team from the perspectives of political, social, cultural as well as
institutional systems. Since Jane’s team is made up of people from eight different countries,
therefore various cultures in shaping up as well as having an effect on communication at
international standards. Virtual communication would help to enhance progress through
diversity in culture as well as communication grounds.
From the viewpoints of Jane, it is necessary to identify high-context as well as low-context
cultural values and this would help to avoid grounds on miscommunication as well as
misinterpretation of any message. As a result communication in cross-cultural grounds shall
be enhanced and several competencies associated with multicultural communication can also
be handled by Jane in easier manner. There might be various challenges faced in terms of
pricing of those goods and many parents might not be able to trust the nutritional values that
KidEats might be able to provide or not (Pulde and Lederman, 2016, pp. 11- 13). There are a
number of health products for children in the market already available in the market therefore
Sunshine 100 would be facing threats due to competitive markets. In order to set a vision at
global level standards, Jane must consider the 4Ps associated with marketing that are Product
modification, Pricing issues as well as mixing of Strategies towards Promotion as it would
provide further opportunities to team members so that they can focus their concentration on

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lifestyle patterns associated with foreign customers and understand their cultural sentiments
to undertake standardization of various products (Resnick et al. 2016, pp. 155- 174). This
would increase sale of these health products and ensure better health facilities among school
children.
Question 3: Application of cross-cultural competencies that might be faced from the
perspective of team interactions
Several cultural competencies might be faced and this would help to develop various
interpersonal skills and would also help to bridge the differences in communication. Various
models associated with Cultural Competencies are usually employed in production
companies like Sunshine 100 that would help to motivate people through analysing their
performances by forming questionnaires on competencies and various concepts oriented to
cultural diversity that would help to identify strengths as well as weaknesses of individuals
who are from various nationalities (Ting-Toomey and Dorjee, 2018, pp. 13- 14). It also helps
to develop empathy in terms of culture and spread spirits that would contain inquiries with
respect to other cultures, beliefs or patterns towards effective communication.
Question 4: Important tasks as well as issues associated with various processes that are
required to be addressed towards multicultural teams
Considering various technologies and innovative methods that could be easily exercised in
presence of multicultural teams to facilitate branding as well as promotion of goods or
services. Various ways of handling processes of team, listening to the team members while
taking active decisions during conduction of campaigns in various places can facilitate team
work. Through democratic styles of leadership, understanding the potentialities of team
members would help the Company to accomplish its goals (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider, 2015,
pp. 1-6). This type of virtual communication is enhanced due to technological mediation that

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act as mode of differentiation in between different types of computer at the mediated level. It
can be recommended that Jane being a marketing director can easily handle if any kind of
issues arise in between team members through interaction as well as collaboration.
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion it can be identified that Jane has to take necessary
initiatives in order to deal with various challenges that might be faced due to adoption of
virtual communication processes among team members. Cross-cultural communication
would also help to exchange various ideas among the individuals that might be useful for
Jane to deal with branding as well as promotion of goods or services.

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Reference List
Lilian, S.C., 2014. Virtual teams: Opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 110, pp.1251-1261.
Cherry, M.G., Fletcher, I., O'Sullivan, H. and Dornan, T., 2014. Emotional intelligence in
medical education: a critical review. Medical education, 48(5), pp.468-478.
Van Dijk, J., Antonides, G. and Schillewaert, N., 2014. Effects of co‐creation claim on
consumer brand perceptions and behavioural intentions. International Journal of
Consumer Studies, 38(1), pp.110-118.
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Pulde, A. and Lederman, M., 2016. Forks Over Knives Family: Every Parent's Guide to
Raising Healthy, Happy Kids on a Whole-food, Plant-based Diet. Simon and
Schuster.
Resnick, S.M., Cheng, R., Simpson, M. and Lourenço, F., 2016. Marketing in SMEs: a “4Ps”
self-branding model. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research,
22(1), pp.155-174.

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Ting-Toomey, S. and Dorjee, T., 2018. Communicating across cultures. Guilford
Publications.
Iqbal, N., Anwar, S. and Haider, N., 2015. Effect of leadership style on employee
performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), pp.1-6.