New Directions in International Advertising Research: Volume 12

Cross-cultural research presents unique challenges due to language and cultural differences. Based on a large-scale research project involving television advertisements from Japan, Korea, and the U.S., the article identifies a number of problems encountered in developing equivalent research instruments in, and discusses ways to achieve reliable and valid results in cross-cultural content analysis research. The importance of understanding the languages and culture, selecting, training and supervising coders in a consistent manner and the practical value of back-translation process in cross-cultural research in achieving reliable and valid research results are emphasized. Specific guidelines for ensuring equivalent research instruments are provided.

While considerable prior research has focused on the development of standardized viewer response scales in advertising, such studies have, without exception, taken an emic approach. In other words, the scales have first been developed in one country, often the U.S., and then validated or replicated in other countries. Emic approaches have obvious limitations in an increasingly multicultural environment. By contrast, we offer a simple uni-dimensional advertising response scale developed following an etic approach, in which a universal measurement structure across cultures is sought using multiple cultures simultaneously. Psychometric tests demonstrate that the new scale is reliable, valid, parsimonious and generalizable across cultures and product categories. Theory-building and managerial implications of the approach are discussed, limitations noted and future research directions outlined.

This paper provides a review of the academic literature regarding examining the standardization vs. specialization debate during the 1990s. While numerous studies have examined the validity of both strategies, it is clear that many companies are adopting an approach where broad strategy is standardized but actual advertising executions are localized as necessary. There is a need for future researchers to focus on how to effectively develop and implement standardized strategies as opposed to examining whether advertising should be standardized. Suggestions for further research are provided.

For well over forty years, academics have debated the effectiveness of the standardization/adaptation of international advertising, with practitioners beginning four decades earlier. As the debate has progressed, a critical distinction in the literature has developed related to this issue, that of process and program standardization. In this study, we examine the association of process and program standardization, inclusive of consumer market and environmental similarity, within a sample of U.S. multinationals operating in India. Results indicate a positive association between process and program advertising standardization of U.S. multinationals operating in India. Implications for academics and practitioners are presented.

American business curricula, theories, textbooks, and teaching methods have been widely disseminated and copied all over the world. This wholesale acceptance has violated a scientific principle that requires a systematic evaluation and replication to establish the external validity of the theories and concepts in question. This paper discusses the degree of universality of the marketing discipline, concepts, and strategies. In particular, there is a critical examination of the advertising principles commonly found in marketing and advertising textbooks. Based on the validity (or the lack of it) of these principles and assumptions, advertising and research implications are offered.

This paper provides a case study comparing the international advertising strategy that Hyundai Motor Company, Korea, utilized when they introduced the Hyundai Santa Fe in Korea and in the United States. Based on Hyundai's understanding of factors affecting standardization and adaptation decisions and possible negative country-of-origin effects, the case illustrates how Hyundai created a positive brand image with a local adaptation advertising strategy. A framework illustrating factors affecting the local adaptation decision, the advertising decisions that Hyundai made, and the effectiveness of those decisions is presented. Given the success of Hyundai's local adaptation advertising strategy and the Santa Fe, Hyundai announced plans to build a production facility in the United States.

An emotional and a rational advertising message for a new brand of juice are tested in a positive and negative newspaper context in a sample of 100 young Polish consumers. The positive context leads to more positive attitudes and to better ad content recall. The rational advertising message results in significantly more positive attitudes, in a higher purchase intention, and in better ad content recall. The attitude towards an emotional ad and ad content recall are significantly more positive in a positive context. Purchase intention and content recall as a result of rational ads are higher in a negative context.

This paper examines Czech expectations of their advertising, the perceived intensity level of that advertising, and how various cultural factors affect the efficacy of that advertising. Findings suggest that the hypothesis that transitioning economies may be free of advertising clutter to no longer be true in the Czech Republic. Information gleaned from in-depth interviews and a survey suggests that effective Czech advertising reflects the collectivistic nature of the culture as well as the contextual level of communication. Simple, direct approaches that inform, along with the use of clever, humorous creative and group depictions, are often effective.

This study presents a cross-cultural analysis of environmental information on packaging. We used judges and packages from four countries (Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and we asked judges to determine their own environmental information. Results suggest that whilst there is some consistency in judges' views, there are also important information differences across countries. Judges were found to infer environmental information from material that has not been considered to be environmental in nature. Our results may have important connotations for advertising, where environmental information might be offered as part of the array of product benefits being presented to consumers.

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the digital divide so advertisers recognize opportunities, threats, and responsibilities in their use of the Internet to promote goods and services worldwide. Through data collected by a variety of international organizations and in cooperation with the United Nations, this research explores the diffusion of information and communications technology within the context of vast socioeconomic inequalities across and inside nations. The paper opens with a brief discussion of the impact of the technological revolution on advertising, followed by a look at the digital divide. Data descriptions are presented in the next section, along with findings that provide regional comparisons. The paper closes with implications for advertising practice as well as global policy.

This study explores country of origin phenomena by assessing the impact of hybrid vs. non-hybrid products on target consumers' product evaluation. In addition, since advertising is a major form of marketing communication that is used to present consumers with information and image of products and build preferences, the impact of indirect country of origin cues through foreign language slogan is also investigated.Results from the study indicate a significant difference between French hybrid and non-hybrid products. This distinction between hybrid and nonhybrid products may be relevant only when the relative roles of design and manufacture are considered simultaneously. The impact of foreign words in ads on product evaluation is observed to be similar to that of the direct country of origin cues.

The study reported here examines the effects of power on two major outcome variables — commitment and communication — at three different levels of analysis: the individual firm, a cross level, and a dyad level. The hypotheses were tested through dyadic data on advertising agencies and their client firms in South Korea. Results highlight the constructive nature of power in agency-client relationships. The authors also found that: (a) the power of a client firm has a significant effect on commitment and communication; (b) client firms expect a high level of communication with agencies regardless of level of power, and (c) total commitment and total communication at the dyad level do not change much as relative power of a firm increases.

This paper investigated the effects of exposure to advertising images on quality of life issues. Affordable products and unaffordable products, as well as control images, were presented to participants of the experiment. Subjects' self-esteem, life-satisfaction and materialism were measured using a battery of scales. Results indicated affordable product images did not affect any dependent variables. However, exposure to unaffordable products enhanced, rather than decreased, Chinese students' self-esteem and life-satisfaction, contrary to results found in previous social comparison research. This suggested that Chinese students were rather optimistic about their future and they used future orientation in their prediction of success. Implications of the study were discussed.

This paper examines the information content of print advertisements for high involvement products in Australia, by Australian, Japanese and U.S. firms. Paired comparisons between firms found that the information in Japanese firms, Australian advertising is relatively more similar to information in Australian firms' advertising than is the information in U.S. firms' Australian advertising. Comparisons between the results of this study and previous works found that the information used in Australian advertising by both Japanese and U.S. firms differed from advertising within the two respective home markets. This may support the view that there is some localization of information taking place.