Mirjana Milenkovic

Global Advertising in a Cultural Context

Diplomica Verlag

Mirjana Milenkovic Global Advertising in a Cultural Context ISBN: 978-3-8366-1995-0 Herstellung: Diplomica® Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, 2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables ...........................................................................................II 1 Objectives and Structure of this Thesis...................................................................1 2 Concept of Culture ....................................................................................................3 2.1

Definitions of Culture.......................................................................................... 3

2.2

Elements of Culture ............................................................................................. 4

2.3

Culture and Consumer Behavior ......................................................................... 8 2.3.1

Hofstede’s Five Dimensions................................................................... 9

2.3.2

High-Context Cultures versus Low-Context Cultures ......................... 12

3 Global Advertising...................................................................................................15 3.1

Characteristics of Advertising ........................................................................... 15

3.2

Advertising as a Communication Tool.............................................................. 17 3.2.1

Advertising Strategy............................................................................. 17

3.2.2

Advertising Execution .......................................................................... 21

3.3

Specifics of Global Advertising ........................................................................ 23

3.4

Standardization of Global Advertising .............................................................. 25 3.4.1

Kinds of Standardization ...................................................................... 25

3.4.2

Arguments for Standardization............................................................. 26

3.4.3

Arguments against Standardization ...................................................... 28

3.4.4

Culture and Global Advertising Strategy ............................................. 30

3.4.5

Culture and Global Advertising Execution .......................................... 34

4 Overcoming Cultural Differences ..........................................................................45 4.1

“Culture-free” Products ..................................................................................... 45

4.2

Cross-Cultural Market Segments ...................................................................... 48

4.3

Universal Appeals ............................................................................................. 49

4.4

Culture-Cluster .................................................................................................. 50

4.5

The “Country-of-Origin” Effect ........................................................................ 52

4.6

The “Middle-of-the-Road Approach” ............................................................... 54

5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................57 Bibliography.................................................................................................................59

I

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1:

Elements of Culture ........................................................................................... 4

Figure 2:

High-Context versus Low-Context Cultures ................................................... 13

Figure 3:

Three Types of Advertising............................................................................. 15

Figure 4:

First Television Advertisement for Bulova Watch ..........................................16

Figure 5:

Emotional Advertisement of Marlboro Cigararettes........................................ 20

Figure 6:

Advertisement by Benetton.............................................................................. 22

Figure 7:

Advertisement by K-Fee .................................................................................. 23

Figure 8:

Two-Stage Standardization of International Advertising ................................ 25

Figure 9:

Soft-Sell Japanese Advertisement for Mayonnaise .........................................36

Figure 10:

Commercials for High Power Distance and Low Power Distance Cultures ...37

Figure 11:

Dutch Commercial for Blue Band Margarine..................................................38

Figure 12:

Role Differentiation in Masculine and Feminine Cultures .............................. 39

Figure 13:

German Commercial for Jever Beer ................................................................40

Figure 14:

Visualizations of “Oriental” for the German and American Culture...............42

Figure 15:

Standardized Advertisement for Chanel in France, Germany and USA.......... 43

Figure 16:

Image Campaign for Martell Appearing Internationally ................................. 46

Figure 17:

Advertising for Designer Fashion as an Example for “Universal Appeals”.... 49

Figure 18:

Culture Cluster ................................................................................................. 51

Figure 19:

Stereotypes in a German Book for English Pupils........................................... 53

Table

Associations of Colors in different Countries ................................................... 8

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Objectives and Structure of this Book

The ongoing process of the globalization of markets in context with the innovation of technologies caused that more and more companies expand their market activities internationally (Müller, 1997). At the same time product offers at saturated markets increasingly are qualitative alike and thus, become exchangeable. A differentiation solely through product attributes is not possible anymore. Advertising became a key function in marketing as communication through advertising provides the only opportunity for companies to differentiate from their competitors (Went, 2000). Both, the globalization of markets and the great importance of advertising raise returning discussions whether global advertising and its planning should be standardized or not. Standardization means that an identical advertisement can appeal different cultures in the same way. On the one hand it can not be denied that things like ethnical cuisine, tourism, and worldwide media lead to an exchange between cultures. On the other hand it is questionable if this exchange causes an automated homogenization of cultures (Müller, 1997).

In 1983 Theodore Levitt already was dealing with the necessity of standardized advertising in the course of globalization. However, Levitt asserted that a standardization of advertising is necessary but did not go into detail how this can be realized best (Went, 2000). Furthermore, he did not consider the enormous impact of culture on the perception and behavior of people and the resulting difficulties to use one single advertising campaign across cultures. In addition to that different national advertising restrictions have to be taken into account. As it is assumed that the trend to globalization will continue and strengthen, the issue of global advertising is always relevant. In this book, the focus is exact on the obstacles of standardized advertising in front of the cultural background. Furthermore, characteristics of various approaches to overcome cultural differences and their suitability for standardized advertising will be examined (Went, 2000).

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