1. Introduction
With this assignment I want to bring out the differences between advertising in different cultures by defining international advertising and costumer communication, explaining the reasons for different advertising campaigns of companies and by giving several examples.
On the one hand I chose this topic since I already took a close look at differences between cultures and advertising campaigns within my studies what made me interested in this subject and on the other hand because it is a topic that will always be present in our society because of the globalization. 2. Definition
2.1 International Advertising
International Advertising serves the purpose of spreading a commercial message of a product to several target audiences in many countries. Since target audiences differ from country to country with regard to humor, values, languages or interpreting symbols companies have to be aware of the perception that distinguishes between cultures.
In addition it is a communication process. It takes place in several cultures which differ concerning communication styles, terms of values and consumption patterns. As a business activity it involves advertisers and advertising agencies which buy media and create ads in different countries.
It is a main precondition to succeed in marketing strategies across different cultures. 2.2 Customer communication
Customer communication is an essential instrument within marketing with which companies get in direct touch with its customers to satisfy their needs. The aim of customer communication is to raise the customer loyalty sustainably.
3. Reasons why we need international advertising
Every culture is different. They differ with regard to values, attitudes and perception. 3.1 Language barriers
One obvious difference between cultures and countries is the language. When a company wants to promote a product internationally it needs to be aware of language barriers, especially when words can have several meanings in another language. 2
Fiat had some problems when they launched their Fiat Uno in Finland since „uno“ means idiot in Finnish. Another example is the launch of the Chevrolet Nova in Spain. They had to call it Chevrolet Chevy instead because nobody wanted to buy a car which „no va“ what means „isn’t working“.
Companies may have to use different names for their products as it might be possible that people of a country cannot pronounce the words properly. For this reason companies either have to find a product name that people all over the world can spell or they have to choose at least two different names for the product. 3.2 Communication styles
One major reason is the difference between communication styles. In general you can say that there are two types of communication styles, the explicit communication style and the implicit communication style. An example for explicit communicators is the USA. The Americans assume
that listeners are „unaware of background information or related issues to the topic of discussion“1. For this reason the explicit communicator provides the listener with this information. A country that represents the implicit communicator is for example Japan. Within this communication style the communicator does not provide the listener with too much information assuming that the listener already has the information which is necessary and that he can understand everything without additional information. Implicit communicator may consider the explicit communication style as excessive Advertising whereas in the opinion of the explicit communicators think that the implicit communication style not distinct enough. 3.3 Values and perceptions
When international companies want to produce an international advertising campaign, this can be favorable due to cost savings but it can also be very difficult when the target group consists of members of different cultures with different values and perceptions. Therefore, they have to examine exactly the differences between the cultures and how to appeal to them. Especially in terms of beauty and food products, you have to identify the different ideals of beauty and eating habits. Furthermore, it is also very important to investigate how open a culture or specific country is in terms of sexuality and nudity which often refers to its religion. In the following, I want to describe these differences which may occur. 3.3.1 Ideal of beauty
The ideal of beauty in the western world, that is to say Europe and the USA, is nearly the same. The most important and worth striving for aspects are slimness, natural suntan, sportiness and 1
http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/introduction-advertising/201203-communication-style-cross-cultural-advertising.html 3
youthfulness. Especially models and famous actresses serve as a role model for this ideal. But especially in the USA, almost 50% of the population is over weighted which leads to the fact that American woman have more frequently a tense relation to beauty. Furthermore, “the American code for beauty means rescue of the man”2 which represents that women have to be beautiful to rescue the men in their life’s and to guarantee the reproduction of the species. But on the same time, they should not be too beautiful because this also could constitute a threat. So, they have to find “a middle course between attractiveness and provocation”3. Another difference between the USA and Europe is that the ideal of beauty of women is more natural, especially in France, Germany and the Northern countries. Women there also spend a lot of time to get themselves ready but they want to look natural and not artificial, like many women in the USA. In Asia, particularly in China and Japan, they orient themselves more and more by the western ideal of beauty due to the growing globalization and common markets. This means that Asian women often strive for big and round eyes, narrow cheekbones or bigger breasts. But they also have their own ideals of beauty like fair, nearly white skin which is linked with prestige. A big contrast to the Western and Asian ideals of beauty represents the African and Saudi-Arabic ideal of what is beautiful. In Africa, women and men prefer more curvy women who have especially a generous backside and also in Saudi Arabia, the ideal of beauty is represented by corpulent women. The reason for this is that Saudi Arabian men see in the physical appearance of its wives the mirror image of its own success which means that a slim woman could give the impression that the man cannot support her. But also these countries fall more and more under the influence of the Western
world and its ideal of beauty so that they also want to get slimmer or bleach their skin like for example in India. Due to these variations, companies have to adjust their advertisement campaigns if it affects one of these differences. One example could be that they use models with fair instead of tanned skin in the advertisement for beauty products in Asia or more corpulent women in Saudi-Arabia. But most of these ideals can be applied only for women because the appearance of men in different cultures does not differ that much except of the normal variations. 3.3.2 Eating habits
Different cultures also have different eating habits which should be taken into consideration when designing an advertisement of similar food products in different countries. Although Europeans nowadays often eat almost the same food like in the USA, the eating habits differ a lot. One reason is that the culture code in the USA for food signifies fuel. This leads to the fact that not the delight and enjoyment are the centre of attention but just the function of the food which means being nutritious and full of energy. Therefore, the US-Americans prefer huge portions and a fast preparation of the food. On the contrary, in Europe and especially in France, they prefer slow food which means that the portions are smaller but there are also more courses. So, the eating of the meal and also its preparation
2 Clothaire Rapaille: Der Kultur Code (published in 2006) 3 Clothaire Rapaille: Der Kultur Code (published in 2006) 4
takes longer. In France, the sense of the food is not also repletion like in the USA but more a feeling of attainment of pleasure and furthermore, total empty plates and glasses could be seen in some circles as vulgar. But not only in France they value good food and smaller portions but also in Italia, where eating also is connected with a family reunion. In Japan, they see the preparation and enjoyment of food as a striving to reach perfection. This means that sushi cooks are seen as artists because they can cut and prepare the sushi in an (almost) perfect way. In Saudi Arabia, due to its strict obeying of Islamic law, it is very important that people eat only with the right hand because the left one is seen as impure. Furthermore, alcohol is prohibited in the whole country. These different eating habits should also be remembered for advertising and costumer communication. In the USA, the advertisement of food products should focus on quantity instead of quality and more on fast food, which means that the preparation should not take too long. Furthermore, they could portray the human body in the USA as a machine and the food as a fuel which drives him on. In an Arabian food campaign, it is very important that no alcohol is shown or drunken during the meat and that, if they have no cutlery, they eat only with the right hand. 3.3.3 Sexuality and nudity
Another important aspect to consider when designing an international advertisement is the various dealings with sexuality within the different countries, especially when promoting beauty products where they often show skin. Europe is dealing very openly with sexuality and nudity and therefore, you can see in each magazine an ad with women or men showing almost the whole naked body. In the USA, although they also talk all the time about sex, they are more prude regarding advertisements showing a lot of naked skin. Due to its strict Islamic faith, in Saudi Arabia, it is forbidden to women to show their skin in public so that advertisements can only show entirely covered women.
These cultural differences are very important and should not be neglected because they could lead to a failure or even a prohibition of the total advertisement campaign, losing millions of money. In
the following part, there are shown some examples of advertisements which describe how the producers dealt with the cultural values and differences.
4. Description and analysis of different commercials of big brands 4.1 Mc Donald’s
The first brand I want to look at is the McDonald´s Corporation. McDonald´s is a US-Company which has worldwide more than 30 thousand fast food-restaurants and is the most rentable fast food chain in the world. 5
Since more than 10 years, McDonald´s has a new international motto “I’m lovin´ it”. It is part of the new marketing strategy of the company. The campaign focuses around the motto. With this brand McDonald´s wants to regenerate the brand worldwide and unite its messages. The big advantage of this campaign is that McDonald´s is saving a lot of money, because it uses the motto worldwide and doesn´t need specialized advertisement for every individual country. But this is also a disadvantage, because McDonald´s has the risk that the motto doesn´t fit to every country. Through different internet platforms like Facebook or Twitter the world gets connected. This is the big advantage for McDonald´s because it is easier to create global campaigns with the same message. The younger generation doesn´t look that much for cultural differences like the older people, therefore it is easier to promote a global company through social media. McDonald´s has at Facebook more than 8 million fans worldwide. And everybody of those fans understand the message “I’m lovin´ it”.
The commercial of McDonald´s new motto “I’m lovin´ it” is in every country very similar. The actors are young and have a very good mood and they also look very friendly. McDonald´s shows in every country the same message: people are there because they love the food and variety of McDonald´s. The people are trendy and have a good style. But not only young people are sitting together; sometimes there are also children, families or older people, to show that McDonald´s is opened for everybody worldwide.
To show this I chose two different commercials of McDonald´s. The first one is from India and shows two little kids sitting in front of a McDonald´s restaurant. The boy is flirting with the girl and he invites the girl to a meal at McDonald´s at the end the boy says: “I’m lovin´ it”, because McDonald´s helped him to have a chance with the girl.
The second one is from American Samoa and has the same message, but in this commercial there are young people sitting together and having a good time. But the message is the same “I’m lovin´ it”.
With the campaign of McDonald´s and its new motto they create one of the best campaigns of advertisement. The motto “I’m lovin´ it” is spread through the whole world. Mostly everybody knows the motto worldwide and feels similar to any McDonald´s worldwide, because they have the same style and decoration. McDonald´s is therefore a very good example that companies can also do advertisement without individualizing the different cultures. They have one motto for all. And through the using of social media it was easier to spread this motto to everybody. 4.2 Dove
Dove is a beauty brand of the company Unilever. It is represented in 80 countries worldwide with different products in the field of body care. It competes with L’Oréal, 6
the market leader in the beauty market and Nivea the leading brand in many segments of the skin care market.
Unilever is a Dutch – British company which is one of the globally leading producers of consumer goods. Its main markets are food, cosmetics, personal hygiene, household goods and products for the care of textiles.
Dove is an example that there are not always differences in the field of international advertisement. Beyond, Dove breached worldwide with the cliché that only young and slim women are credible to promote beauty products. For the brand, this breach was no disadvantage but resulted in high sales figures.
Some time ago, Dove launched an advertisement campaign promoting its new body lotion. For this advertisement, the brand didn’t use supermodels but normal women which have no perfect bodies but like themselves and their bodies.
In another advertisement campaign, Dove showed older women or women with freckles to promote the beauty products. These women are in the cliché considered as not being beautiful. That fact was denounced by the brand Dove with the advertisement. 5. Conclusion
I already know that there are differences between cultures and countries. The examples showed that international advertising is indispensable and that there are actors on the international market that are able to fulfill the different needs and values of their customers but that there are also companies which have trouble with their international advertising. To be a successful player on the international market some companies need to become more aware of the cultural differences between their customers. 7
6. Bibliography
http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/introduction-advertising/201203-communication-style-cross-cultural-advertising.html
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/24315_international-advertising
http://www.dapg.de/Content/news/2011-05_enzweiler&piotti_geschmackssachen_schoenheitsideal_china.html
http://web.me.com/weidenhaus/Website/Schönheit_in_China.html
http://www.n-tv.de/panorama/Ein-kurviger-Hintern-muss-es-sein-article910644.html
http://www.paradisi.de/Beauty_und_Pflege/Schoenheit/Schoenheitsideale/Artikel/8301.php http://www.kulinarisches.eu/arabien-und-mittlerer-osten.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/204957/cultural_differences_in_advertising.html?cat=7 http://www.mcdonalds.de/
Clothaire Rapaille: Der Kultur Code (published in 2006)
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容