GLOBAL ADVERTISING (CM2049)
Chapter 4: Dimensions of Culture
- When internationalising, companies increasingly want to know to what extent host markets
are different form the home market
- The underlying values of two motives will be different depending on culture
- Without systems for understanding and classifying cultural differences, objections to an
imposed brand position or advertising concept from another culture can too easily be labeled
as the ‘not-invented-here-syndrome’
Classifying cultures
- Cultures: identifying metaphors that members of a given societies view as very important,
- Expressions of culture including religion, family structure, small-group behaviour, public
behaviour, leisure pursuits and interests, greeting behaviour, humour, language, sports,
educational system, social class structure etc
- Cultural characteristics distinguishing countries are sense of self and space, communication
and languages, food habits, time consciousness, values and beliefs etc
Dimensions of national culture
- Most common dimensions used for ordering societies is their degree of economic evolution,
ordering societies from traditional to modern
- Two world values: traditional vs secular-rational and quality of life
- Idea that Basic common problems exist isn’t new
- 5 value orientations
- Perception of human nature, relationship of man to his environment, time orientation,
orientation toward the environment, orientation toward human relationships
- 5 elementary forms of sociability that occur within and across cultures
- Communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, market pricing
Models applied to cross-cultural marketing and advertising
- Geert Hofstede used five dimensions of national culture (power distance, individualism/
collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long/short term orientation
- Closure: Americans are driven to achieve closure meaning a task must be completed or it is
perceived as wasted
Time orientation toward the past, present or future
- North America- future oriented where the future is a guide to present action, embrace the
new
- Many europeans are past oriented believing in preserving history and past traditions
- Asia have a long term future time horizon but look at the past for inspiration
- Africa is mostly short-term oriented whereas the concept of time is simply a composition of
events thus future is absent as events which lie in it have not happened yet
Time is linear or circular
- As a line of sequential events or as cyclical and repetitive
,- Latter time orientation is linked with asian culture- causing people to see time as
compartmentalised, schedule dominated
- US have a linear time concept with clear structures where time is used as a measuring
instrument and a means of controlling human behaviour by setting deadlines and objectives
- In Japan time is circular and is related to the special meaning of seasons
Monochromic and polychromic time
- People from monochromic cultures tend to do one thing at a time
- Polychromic people tend to do many things simultaneously
Cause and effect
- Time also relates to concept of cause and effect
- Things don’t just happen but something makes them happen
- Concrete and measurable causes that precede the consequence or effect
Relationship of man with nature
- 3 types of relationships between humanity and nature
- Mastery over nature, harmony with nature and subjugation to nature
- In western world humanity is viewed as separate from nature - nature be conquered,
controlled for human convenience
- Harmony with nature orientation draws no distinction between human life, nature and
supernatural- each is an extension of the other
3 major large-scale dimensional models
- All overlap in some ways but vary with respect to purpose, sampling and type of questions
used
- All aggregating responses by individuals drawn from a series of different national or regional
samples
- Characterising cultures in terms of shared values, shared beliefs or shared sources of
guidance
- Measuring various elements of human behaviour in business or organisations
- Hofstede model used to understand differences in the work motivations of all levels of
employees, caused by the nationality of the employees
Description of the dimensional models
- Autonomy-embeddedness measures several aspects of individualism-collectivism
- Institutional and in-group collectivism measures collectivism on the one pole and on the other
individualism
- Not all models and dimensions within models contribute equally well to understanding
differences in consumer behaviour, marketing and advertising
- Individualism-collectivism
- Most important for understanding differences in communication
- Individualistic cultures- people look after themselves and their family only, I conscious and
express private opinion
- Collectivistic cultures- people belong to in-groups which look after them in exchange for
loyalty, we conscious and identity is based on the social system
- Collectivistic cultures: people more interested in concrete product features than in abstract
brands
- Individualists: see brands as unique human personalities, linked with wealth
, - Individualism/collectivism explains different behaviours in the private and public domain
- Adoption of the internet and technology has varied with culture, and social media usage is
stronger in collectivistic than in individualistic cultures
Power distance
- Values related to peoples relationships with elders and authority or dependence and
independence values
- Measures the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept and expect that
power is distributed unequally
- Influences the way people accept and give authority
- In high power distance cultures everyone has their rightful place in a social hierarchy and
acceptance and giving of authority come naturally, appearance is important
- People take the hierarchical distribution of roles for granted and comply with the obligations
and rules attached to their roles, less travel, lower use internet, less newspaper reading
- Low power distance culture focus on equality in rights and opportunity, play more sports,
children and adults live in different worlds
- Degree of power distance tends to decrease with increased levels of education
Assertiveness and male-female roles
- Assertiveness: measures the degree of assertiveness and gender egalitarianism measures
gender equality
- Masculinity pole: achievement orientation vs femininity pole is quality of life oriented
- Cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance feel the need to structure reality but they will do
this in different ways, low tolerance ambiguity, higher stress levels, interest in technology,
process orientation, respect for experts, passive attitudes to health
Indulgence vs Restraint
- Degree of happiness people experience, control they have over their own lives and
importance of leisure
Using dimensions
- Not all dimensions contribute equally to understanding differences in consumer behaviour,
marketing and advertising
- The cultural dimensions described can be used to generalise the specific
- Countries can be described according to a number of characteristics
Chapter 7: Culture and Communication
- If we want to understand how advertising works across cultures, we’ll have to learn how
communication works first
- Styles of communication vary by culture and are influenced by deeply ingrained habits and
philosophies
Communication
- All humans communicate through sounds, speech, movements, gestures and language
- How people communicate is based on cultural conventions that are adhered to in interacting
with other people, in producing and sending messages and in interpreting messages
- The model of communication shows communication as a two-way process
, - Process of encoding,
interpreting and decoding
- Circular process- sender and
receiver are in a continuous
process of sending, interpreting
and receiving messages
- Model is sender-oriented
- SMCR model acknowledges the
role of the relationship between
source and receiver and the
influence of communication
skills and characteristics of
sender and receiver that
influence the proper transfer of the message
- Literary points at writing, reading, learning and developing knowledge - ability to read and
write, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written
material
- Reading and writing developed in a different way and at different places in the various parts
of the world
- Northern Europe: literacy developed with the advent of Protestantism because individuals
were expected to read the bible
- In East Asia it was confucianism which had emphasised written communication and not oral
communication
- Writing is the tool for permanent recording whereas an oral utterance has vanished as soon
as it’s uttered
- However in writing something can be totally deleted whereas what is said can’t be unsaid
- People in oral society had to rely on real situations for the understanding of abstract things:
conceptualise and verbalise all their knowledge with close reference to the human life
world
- Receivers of the message use the same body of cultural knowledge to read the message, infer
the senders intention, evaluate the content and formulate a response
- Cultural knowledge provides the basis for interaction
- 4 elements of advertising style (each vary by culture)
- Appeal (include movies and values)
- Communication style (explicit, implicit, direct and indirect)
- Basic advertising form (testimonial drama, entertainment)
- Execution (how people are dressed, look of kitchens, or male-female role)
- When discussing the role of emotions in advertising, one must distinguish between
emotional stimuli (advertising content) and emotional response
- Emotion as one of four main processing responses to advertising: attention, learning,
accepting or believing what the ad says and emotion that is stimulated by the ad
- An emotional response will mediate what is learned and whether or how a particular
point is accepted
- In US emotions in ads are used as part of the argument whilst in south of Europe it
reflects the pure emotional relationship between consumer and brand without the
argumentation
- Rules for emotional displays are culture specific
Chapter 4: Dimensions of Culture
- When internationalising, companies increasingly want to know to what extent host markets
are different form the home market
- The underlying values of two motives will be different depending on culture
- Without systems for understanding and classifying cultural differences, objections to an
imposed brand position or advertising concept from another culture can too easily be labeled
as the ‘not-invented-here-syndrome’
Classifying cultures
- Cultures: identifying metaphors that members of a given societies view as very important,
- Expressions of culture including religion, family structure, small-group behaviour, public
behaviour, leisure pursuits and interests, greeting behaviour, humour, language, sports,
educational system, social class structure etc
- Cultural characteristics distinguishing countries are sense of self and space, communication
and languages, food habits, time consciousness, values and beliefs etc
Dimensions of national culture
- Most common dimensions used for ordering societies is their degree of economic evolution,
ordering societies from traditional to modern
- Two world values: traditional vs secular-rational and quality of life
- Idea that Basic common problems exist isn’t new
- 5 value orientations
- Perception of human nature, relationship of man to his environment, time orientation,
orientation toward the environment, orientation toward human relationships
- 5 elementary forms of sociability that occur within and across cultures
- Communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, market pricing
Models applied to cross-cultural marketing and advertising
- Geert Hofstede used five dimensions of national culture (power distance, individualism/
collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long/short term orientation
- Closure: Americans are driven to achieve closure meaning a task must be completed or it is
perceived as wasted
Time orientation toward the past, present or future
- North America- future oriented where the future is a guide to present action, embrace the
new
- Many europeans are past oriented believing in preserving history and past traditions
- Asia have a long term future time horizon but look at the past for inspiration
- Africa is mostly short-term oriented whereas the concept of time is simply a composition of
events thus future is absent as events which lie in it have not happened yet
Time is linear or circular
- As a line of sequential events or as cyclical and repetitive
,- Latter time orientation is linked with asian culture- causing people to see time as
compartmentalised, schedule dominated
- US have a linear time concept with clear structures where time is used as a measuring
instrument and a means of controlling human behaviour by setting deadlines and objectives
- In Japan time is circular and is related to the special meaning of seasons
Monochromic and polychromic time
- People from monochromic cultures tend to do one thing at a time
- Polychromic people tend to do many things simultaneously
Cause and effect
- Time also relates to concept of cause and effect
- Things don’t just happen but something makes them happen
- Concrete and measurable causes that precede the consequence or effect
Relationship of man with nature
- 3 types of relationships between humanity and nature
- Mastery over nature, harmony with nature and subjugation to nature
- In western world humanity is viewed as separate from nature - nature be conquered,
controlled for human convenience
- Harmony with nature orientation draws no distinction between human life, nature and
supernatural- each is an extension of the other
3 major large-scale dimensional models
- All overlap in some ways but vary with respect to purpose, sampling and type of questions
used
- All aggregating responses by individuals drawn from a series of different national or regional
samples
- Characterising cultures in terms of shared values, shared beliefs or shared sources of
guidance
- Measuring various elements of human behaviour in business or organisations
- Hofstede model used to understand differences in the work motivations of all levels of
employees, caused by the nationality of the employees
Description of the dimensional models
- Autonomy-embeddedness measures several aspects of individualism-collectivism
- Institutional and in-group collectivism measures collectivism on the one pole and on the other
individualism
- Not all models and dimensions within models contribute equally well to understanding
differences in consumer behaviour, marketing and advertising
- Individualism-collectivism
- Most important for understanding differences in communication
- Individualistic cultures- people look after themselves and their family only, I conscious and
express private opinion
- Collectivistic cultures- people belong to in-groups which look after them in exchange for
loyalty, we conscious and identity is based on the social system
- Collectivistic cultures: people more interested in concrete product features than in abstract
brands
- Individualists: see brands as unique human personalities, linked with wealth
, - Individualism/collectivism explains different behaviours in the private and public domain
- Adoption of the internet and technology has varied with culture, and social media usage is
stronger in collectivistic than in individualistic cultures
Power distance
- Values related to peoples relationships with elders and authority or dependence and
independence values
- Measures the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept and expect that
power is distributed unequally
- Influences the way people accept and give authority
- In high power distance cultures everyone has their rightful place in a social hierarchy and
acceptance and giving of authority come naturally, appearance is important
- People take the hierarchical distribution of roles for granted and comply with the obligations
and rules attached to their roles, less travel, lower use internet, less newspaper reading
- Low power distance culture focus on equality in rights and opportunity, play more sports,
children and adults live in different worlds
- Degree of power distance tends to decrease with increased levels of education
Assertiveness and male-female roles
- Assertiveness: measures the degree of assertiveness and gender egalitarianism measures
gender equality
- Masculinity pole: achievement orientation vs femininity pole is quality of life oriented
- Cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance feel the need to structure reality but they will do
this in different ways, low tolerance ambiguity, higher stress levels, interest in technology,
process orientation, respect for experts, passive attitudes to health
Indulgence vs Restraint
- Degree of happiness people experience, control they have over their own lives and
importance of leisure
Using dimensions
- Not all dimensions contribute equally to understanding differences in consumer behaviour,
marketing and advertising
- The cultural dimensions described can be used to generalise the specific
- Countries can be described according to a number of characteristics
Chapter 7: Culture and Communication
- If we want to understand how advertising works across cultures, we’ll have to learn how
communication works first
- Styles of communication vary by culture and are influenced by deeply ingrained habits and
philosophies
Communication
- All humans communicate through sounds, speech, movements, gestures and language
- How people communicate is based on cultural conventions that are adhered to in interacting
with other people, in producing and sending messages and in interpreting messages
- The model of communication shows communication as a two-way process
, - Process of encoding,
interpreting and decoding
- Circular process- sender and
receiver are in a continuous
process of sending, interpreting
and receiving messages
- Model is sender-oriented
- SMCR model acknowledges the
role of the relationship between
source and receiver and the
influence of communication
skills and characteristics of
sender and receiver that
influence the proper transfer of the message
- Literary points at writing, reading, learning and developing knowledge - ability to read and
write, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written
material
- Reading and writing developed in a different way and at different places in the various parts
of the world
- Northern Europe: literacy developed with the advent of Protestantism because individuals
were expected to read the bible
- In East Asia it was confucianism which had emphasised written communication and not oral
communication
- Writing is the tool for permanent recording whereas an oral utterance has vanished as soon
as it’s uttered
- However in writing something can be totally deleted whereas what is said can’t be unsaid
- People in oral society had to rely on real situations for the understanding of abstract things:
conceptualise and verbalise all their knowledge with close reference to the human life
world
- Receivers of the message use the same body of cultural knowledge to read the message, infer
the senders intention, evaluate the content and formulate a response
- Cultural knowledge provides the basis for interaction
- 4 elements of advertising style (each vary by culture)
- Appeal (include movies and values)
- Communication style (explicit, implicit, direct and indirect)
- Basic advertising form (testimonial drama, entertainment)
- Execution (how people are dressed, look of kitchens, or male-female role)
- When discussing the role of emotions in advertising, one must distinguish between
emotional stimuli (advertising content) and emotional response
- Emotion as one of four main processing responses to advertising: attention, learning,
accepting or believing what the ad says and emotion that is stimulated by the ad
- An emotional response will mediate what is learned and whether or how a particular
point is accepted
- In US emotions in ads are used as part of the argument whilst in south of Europe it
reflects the pure emotional relationship between consumer and brand without the
argumentation
- Rules for emotional displays are culture specific
