Standardisation versus Adaptation - Literature review Example

MARKETING Standardisation versus Adaptation Faculty Literature Review Conclusion References This paper is a review of the academic literature on Standardisation versus Adaptation in the context of International Communications Planning. This has been a controversial issue for the marketers and researchers from the past. The globalisation and internationalisation processes have opened various geographic locations and new markets for the firms from all over world. These have also increased the complications of various operations related to financial, marketing or manufacturing of various products. Standardisation on one hand offers various companies to maintain a consistence image across all the markets whereas adaptation offers them better opportunity to reach the target audience and consumers through the communication process. This literature work is being produced to understand various factors of the controversial Standardisation versus adaptation strategy of international communication strategy. Literature Review In the recent past, economies of various part of world have experienced tremendous change due to the fast changes in technology and socio-economic patterns. These changes have raised various issues. One of them is the international communication strategies for a global company. Standardised communication process among all kind of customers has been criticised. It is on the basis of the differences in the consumer choices and preferences across various consumer groups. There have been various debates on the global marketing mix strategies for the international market. Lots of studies and opinions have been developed. (For example, Ghoshal, 1987; Jain, 1989; Levitt, 1983; Quelch and Hoff, 1986)1 The communication process for the different market focusing on advertising issues, its objectives, message, presentation and various decisions related to advertising has gained attention and interest of most of the researchers. It was early 1960 when the issue of advertising standardization in foreign markets was first discussed. (Elinder, 1961; Fatt, 1964)2 Any product or service is result of needs and wants of buyers and consumers. This is the basic factor of any communication process. The objective of communication can be knowledge, persuasion, purchase, interest and others. All of it is based on the basic factor of ‘need’ of consumer. Various authors and researchers have focused on this factor for the international communication strategy as well advocating the universal advertising approach (Fatt, 1967; Buzell, 1968; Sorenson and Weichmann, 1975; Killough, 1978; Levitt, 1983).3 Cost effectiveness, clarity of message, utilisation of minimum resources to achieve maximum gains and consistent brand and corporate image can be maintained through the standard communication process. In this process the organisation does not have to deal with multiple media agencies. The overall coordination process would be smoother as compared to dealing with multiple companies. Kotler (1986) has been one of the great supporters for the localisation of global company according to consumer tastes, preferences and other factors influencing consumer decision making process.4 There are various factors i.e. culture, market environment, important aspects of local market, objectives of advertising, effectiveness of creative strategies and others which differ from country to country and place to place and which influences overall customer decision making process.5 These factors influence the functioning of any multinational organisation, their image building and business operations. These factors can not be standardised and any multinational organisation have to take care of these in order to succeed in that particular market. The adaptation of these factors is vital to formulate new or separate communication strategies for the local market. Some researchers argue on the standardisation approach and its basic assumption of needs or wants being standard across foreign markets considering it dangerous for the organisation (Helming, 1982; Youovich, 1982). Some work has been done in order to understand the required degree of standardisation in overall communication processes. These can be related to the languages used, colours schemes, pat of the advertising communication, timings of the communication and others. (See, for example, Light, 1990; Peebles et al., 1977; Quelch and Hoff, 1986)6 Creative strategies can be different for various communication processes based on the local market adaptations. Creative strategy refers to the advertising concept or theme (promise/claim), while creative tactics relates to the way in which the advertising strategy is expressed or "executed" in the finished advertisements (e.g. visual elements, headlines, content of appeal, process of appeal) (Papavassiliou, 1990)7 As per Quelch and Hoff (1986) a companys business strategy will determine the approach it takes to global marketing/advertising strategies (i.e. whether to standardize or not). View of, Szymanski et al (1993) about the marketing strategy formulation process in multinational corporations is of a series of decisions about overall strategic orientation.8 These are decisions regarding standardization or adaptation, the desired degree of standardization of the strategic resource mix and strategy content. The message of any message will be better understood and comprehended if is in tune with the local languages and other important aspects. The reason that various companies place an emphasis on integrated communications is to produce a co-ordinated communications effort (Zinkhan, 1994)9. The overall communication process involves international advertising strategies and tactics. These strategies will be related to the decision of standardisation or local. These will be on the basis of various studies done for the international communication, mission and vision of the corporate and target consumer group. Consumer involvement in the overall communication process will helps the companies to develop a successful communication plan. These objectives are achieved with the help of the local media firms and managers. The range of the international advertising decisions can be identified and among them factors to be standardized or localised can be decided based on the local market needs. The international marketing communication decisions should be adapted if they are not standardised. This is required here to understand which are the areas of changes and what kind of changes are required for the local market. The framework can be prepared to understand the determinants that influence the degrees of adaptation. The impact of cultural environment can not be ignored while developing communication strategies.10 This is a set of beliefs, values, norms and attitudes of the consumers. (Britt, 1974)11 Consumer in a particular territory will have a certain cultural issues common among them. These will influence the overall communication strategy. (See, for example, Donnelly, 1970; Britt, 1974; Douglas and Dubois, 1977; Albaum and Peterson, 1984; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1987; Kanso, 1992; Mueller, 1992; Harvey, 1993)12 Various studies revealed the success of advertising strategies depends on how well it fits with the belief and traditions of the citizen of the country. Study done by Kanso (1992) on the international advertising strategies of Fortune 500 corporations’ reveals that the advertising messages should be in consistent with the belief s and traditions of the company13. Another study, done by Hornic (1980) to study degree of transferability was conducted by distribution American printed material in Israel and studying the reaction of the receivers14. Tse et al. (1986) had examined the influence of values on international marketing decisions made by executives in China, Hong Kong, and Canada. The study revealed significant differences.15 These differences could be attributed to the cultural norms of these countries. Another study in (1993) of the content of humorous television advertising in Korea, Germany, Thailand and the USA shown that the content (i.e. humour) of the advertisements varies among those countries according to cultural dimensions. Another study of economic conditions prevailing in the host country is found to be one of major concerns in influencing international communication strategy (Britt, 1974; Donnelly, 1970; Harvey, 1993; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1987). Dunn (1976) had identified 31 environmental variables16. These variables are important determinants of the transferability of advertising strategies. Even the attractiveness of the industry or market structure influences the communication strategies at local level. There are various factors which help in the process of determining the standardisation in the local market. These variables are product, customer, competition, market, government, infrastructure, social, organisational or control.17 The impact of competition on the communication studies can be easily understood by the two Cola giants Pepsi and Coca-cola18. Harvey (1993) argued that some factors affect the degree of communication standardisation i.e. industry structure (e.g. oligopoly or monopoly), the influence of suppliers, the companys market position (e.g. leader or follower), and the consumers bargaining power19. Tangibility is another factor studied by Britt (1974) and he argued that even though the tangible characteristics of a product may be perceived in the same way by consumers in different countries, the "consumption patterns" of the product may vary. There are certain perception and assumption about the quality of products among consumers on the basis of ‘Made in….” tag. The country-of-origin image which has certain quality perception among the consumer group can assist advertising managers to understand the target market and consumer adaptability pattern which help them for proper positioning of the product and developing effective communication message. Parameswaran and Pisharodi, 1994 have studied three facets; general country attributes, general product attributes and specific product attributes to describe the current conceptualization of the country-of-origin image. Parameswaran and Pisharodi (1994) have studied various component of the country of origin image. According to them these components can be stable but the factors attribution to these components will depend on the local / country specific factors. 20 Elinder, 1965; Fatt, 1967 from the Standardization school assumes that faster communication is convergence of art, media activity, living conditions, cultures21. Advertising should follow the same suit. Levitt (1983) have emphasised on the marketing globalisation of the global corporations by the success of McDonalds, Pepsi-Cola, and Coca-Cola which are globally standardised and sold everywhere22. Kotler argues with the same by pointing out the fact that even these companies have used local brand ambassadors and communication strategies, customised products. The form and extent of standardization is another important issue in front of the advertisers and marketers.23 Multinationals have to face various decision making difficulties for these issues (Harris, 1994). Peebles, Ryans, and Vernon (1977) differentiated between what they termed “prototype standardization” and “pattern standardization.”24 In the prototype standardization the international business organization operating in various countries would use the same advertisements or campaigns with the appropriate translations and a few idiomatic changes. This will allow the target group to understand the message in their language. Under pattern standardization single promotional theme would be developed for the local market, it will be based on various external and international factors of the organization and market. According to some researcher on their investigations on levels and types of standardization and localization, they found that neither complete standardization nor complete localization is usually implemented (Donnelly and Ryans, 1969; Dunn, 1976; Whitelock and Chung, 1989; Kanso, 1991; Terpstra and Sarathy, 2000).25 Some researchers have identified various approaches of advertising. These are based on the important factor of advertising; messages (Marquez, 1979; Dowling, 1980; Hong, Muderrisoglu, and Zinkhan, 1987; Mueller, 1987; Rice and Lu, 1988; Tansey, Hyman, and Zinkhan, 1990; Frith and Wesson, 1991; Graham, Kamins, and Oetomo, 1993; Hitchon and Zhong, 1994; Cheng, 1996)26. Fatt; 1967 was concerned with advertising of an international firm to be based on individual characteristics of the country and the market firm was serving, or through advertising based on universal appeals.27 The communication process for the international firm have several decision making points. These are at the international headquarters and at local levels. The attitudes vary at these levels towards the communication processes. The local executive would be looking at narrow approach for the specific consumer group. On the other hand the attitude of headquarters’ executives toward standardization would be different. (Donnelly and Ryans, 1969; Wills and Ryans, 1977; Hite and Frazer, 1988; Kirpalani, Laroche, and Darmon, 1988; Kanso, 1992)28 The studies suggested that comparison of attitude on several controversial issues will revealed the sensitiveness of the company executives towards local issues. The more relaxed stand on the standardization issue headquarters has, leaving the local marketing decisions on local executives better is the relations and results of the international firm in a local market. 29 The globalisation process has started in early 1980s and with it the debate and discussion on standardisation and localisation issues have fuelled up. Levitt 1983 was strong supporter of the standardisation process. There have not been very detailed investigations to substantially support the standardization hypothesis, even in global markets (Usunier 1990; Vardar 1992)30. Cavusgil and Zou (1994) studied the strong positive impact of product adaptation on export performance and at the same time adaptation of promotions seem to affect it negatively.31 Several researchers have studied and investigated in various markets and marketing condition across the industries and have come up with contradictory results in favour of or against the standardisation process. There were findings in the support of adaptation process by Vardar (1992); Walliser and Usunier. (1998)32 “……. even though opportunities exist to standardize the strategic levels of international advertising, mainly on a regional basis, "considerable adaptation of executional elements in international advertising campaign is inevitable.” Walliser and Usunier (1998)33 Tai; 1997 conducted study on the advertising strategies of international corporate in the Asian market. It revealed that the successful strategies have drawn out of the joint effort of headquarter and local office and it is a mixed strategy not pure standardisation or localisation.34 Conclusion Over the period of 1950 to till date there have been various studies and discussion on the hot topic of Standardisation and adaptation in international communication processes. The main thing here is how well a consumer is able to associate himself or herself with product or services of any company. Various products experienced various need of changes in the communication process. It differs from industry to industry and country to country. Most of the academicians have supported the adaptation process of international business. It can be in any form or degree from minimum to maximum changes in the communication and business strategies. Reference 1. Cervellon, Marie-Cécile, Dubé, Laurette; 2000, Standardisation versus cultural adaptation in food advertising: insights from a two-culture market; :International Journal of Advertising; Vol. 19 Issue 4, p429-447, 19p, 3 2. Fatt, Arthur C; 1967, The Danger of "Local" International Advertising, Journal of Marketing; Jan67, Vol. 31 Issue 1, 3. Fred, Z and et al; Sep/Oct1994 GLOBAL REACH AND LOCAL TOUCH: ACHIEVING CULTURAL FITNESS IN TV ADVERTISING, Journal of Advertising Research; 34 Issue 5, p35-63, 29 4. Green, Robert T., The Effectiveness of Standardized Global Advertising, Journal of Advertising; 1975, Vol. 4 Issue 3, p25, 5p 5. Harvey, Michael G; 1993, POINT OF VIEW: A MODEL TO DETERMINE STANDARDIZATION OF THE ADVERTISING PROCESS IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS.: Journal of Advertising Research; Jul/Aug93, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p57-64, 6. James, W.L. Hill, J.S ; 1991, INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING MESSAGES: TO ADAPT OR NOT TO ADAPT (THAT IS THE QUESTION).:Journal of Advertising Research; Jun/Jul91, Vol. 31 Issue 3, p65-71 7. Kanso, Ali and Nelson, Richard Alan 2002 Advertising Localization Overshadows Standardization. : :Journal of Advertising Research; Jan/Feb2002, Vol. 42 Issue 1, p79-89 8. Solberg, Carl Arthur: 2002; The Perennial Issue of Adaptation or Standardization of International Marketing Communication: Organizational Contingencies and Performance. Journal of International Marketing; 2002, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p1-21 9. Tai, Susan H.C; 1997 Advertising in Asia: Localize or Regionalize, International Journal of Advertising; 1997, Vol. 16 Issue 1, p48-61, 10. Vlasis Papavassiliou, Nikolaos Stathakopoulos: 1997 Standardization versus adaptation of international advertising strategies: Towards a framework:European Journal of Marketing; 1997, Vol. 31 Issue 7/8, p504-527 Read More