Global Marketing and Advertising: : Understanding Cultural Paradoxes

Citation

Vandermerwe, S. (1998), "Global Marketing and Advertising: : Understanding Cultural Paradoxes", International Marketing Review, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 234-235. https://doi.org/10.1108/imr.1998.15.3.234.2

A widely accepted tenet in both academic and media circles is that markets everywhere are globalising. Moreover this trend towards “globalisation” is accelerating, observers say, thanks to the growing ease and affordability of air travel and the profusion of satellite television. Many companies assumed that, in addition to standardising products, they could also standardise their advertising program and so enjoy vast economies of scale. Most, as Marieke de Mooij points out in her book, tried eagerly to follow in the global branding footsteps of McDonald’s, Coca‐Cola or Nike. But though the game was standardisation, in reality few successful global brands were fully standardised. The wish for global brands was in the mind of the producer, not in the mind of the consumer. “Consumers don’t care if the brand is global, and they increasingly prefer local brands, or what they perceive as local brands”, says de Mooij.

The reason for this, as de Mooij sees it, is that despite the stretch of globalisation, people remain resolutely connected to their indigenous cultures. People’s attitudes and values are different from country to country, the author states, and she uses several cultural models to demonstrate this. And because their values are different, so too are their responses to advertising messages. Thus the decision to standardise “has more to do with corporate cultures than with the culture of markets”. Is this a sweeping statement or fact? According to de Mooij, if you look at the large advertisers they adapt their advertising to suit local conditions. “Local markets are people; global markets are products”, says one provocative subtitle.

As a result, companies may efficiently produce and distribute globally, but they cannot effectively communicate globally. The paradox inherent in global marketing communications, she argues, is that the values and systems of one culture are used to develop advertising for other cultures. But models of one culture cannot be successfully projected to other cultures. Global standardized advertising can only fail therefore in influencing the multifarious target markets it addresses.

What about global consumers? de Mooij says “No go ... If young people adopt what is called a global popular culture such as music and fashion they tend to adapt it to their own values.” Spanish students, she claims, will not wear torn jeans like the Dutch students do. Moreover motives of business people, also frequently considered a “global consumer group”, vary just as much by culture as consumers’ motives do.

In her discussion of the differing cultural values and related communication styles, de Mooij refers extensively to Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture (Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long‐Term Orientation) and demonstrates ‐ in a series of chapters dealing with the value paradoxes in advertising appeals, cross‐cultural research, and different “executional” (her word) styles ‐ the relevance of these criteria to global advertising. In addition to adequate academic footnoting and referencing, the text also includes examples of different advertising which take into consideration these different dimensions. On the whole they well illustrate the cultural set of values and communication styles unique to individual countries in the past.

But, we are tempted to ask: what of the future? And how will advanced technology and the Internet impact this? de Mooij’s book is thought provoking in a world where globalisation is a very hot issue for corporations and academics. Ironically, though, while she warns against the traps of the global stereotype she tends at times to rely on cultural stereotypes as a basis for her arguments, especially when describing different cultures or nationalities. The title of the book Global Marketing and Advertising will certainly attract attention ‐ the first rule of any good advertising. But the real payoff for readers will come from the subtitle: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes, i.e. how managers translate cultural paradoxes into effective communication strategy.

de Mooij clearly challenges the modern practitioner:

Understanding how culture is reflected and should be reflected in advertising may not lead to the largest cost savings in the production of advertising. It will lead to more effective advertising appeals and concepts; that is, more cost‐effective advertising. Decision makers have to decide whether (a) they want the easy‐to‐calculate savings of standardisation, leading to bland, less effective messages that lack culture fit but are easy to calculate in terms of money and are aimed at short‐term accountability; (b) or they will choose non‐standardised, culture appropriate, effective advertising without short‐term savings but generating long‐term sales effects.