Cross Cultural Advertising - Essay Example

Cross Cultural Advertising. Task: Cross Cultural Advertising. Culture refers to the various customs, beliefs, and values that define any society. This means that a society can be understood from its cultural point of view, and the corresponding characteristics that define it. As such, any form of interactive activity geared towards a community must be within the cultural expectations. Consequently, culture has always played a crucial role in the way that advertisements are crafted. As per Global Works CEO Yuri Radzievsky, ‘Brands that wear cultural relevance like a second skin are more likely to succeed than brands that generalize their approach to a distinctive market place.’ This contextualizes this study, consequently augmenting the fact that advertising has relied on culture to deliver a message effectively. This is what entails the whole concept of Cultural Advertising. Furthermore, the current element of globalization has resulted in the industry adjusting accordingly, and this necessitated the need to move from a cultural based advertising platform to a cross-cultural one. This has been facilitated by the developments in social media that makes it possible to share content widely and rapidly among consumers. As much as this seems to be a noble idea, it has raised questions regarding the effect of designing advertisements across platforms. In light of this, the controversy generated raises the question, ‘Is cross-cultural advertising bringing a unified message or a unified culture into a society?’ The affirmative power of advertising is brought into this research through previous studies, and this facilitates the learning of how culture influences advertising and focusing on the advertising strategies and techniques used. This enables the proper adaptation into a country’s culture. Additionally, it brings to light the individualistic structuring of the American/European culture and the collective or communal Asian culture. Another factor to consider is the way that previous studies focused on the means rather than the consequences on the society. To this end, the subsequent research proposal will put emphasis on the following: Understanding the impact that advertising has on values and behavior within a society. A deeper understanding of how a society reacts to cross-cultural advertising, with major focus on France, USA, and Korea. Moreover, the research will try to highlight the way that advertising reacts to the rejection of a cross-cultural approach. Focusing on all of these areas will form a framework for establishing an effective stand-point for answering the research question: how can advertising preserve culture in a society. Importance of the research. In consideration of the research, the first assumption that can be made is that a cross-cultural advertising approach is an obstacle to a society’s endemic culture. Studies have confirmed that most consumers have had some form of opposition and negative reactions to the cross-cultural approach to advertising, thereby supporting this assumption. Therefore, this strengthens the understanding that the strategy is not particularly effective in delivering the message, as it has the ability to distort a culture. As such, cross-cultural advertising is the cause of its own backlash, in consideration of the variable of cultural influences. A second hypothesis that may be generated is that advertising has the power to both engage consumers while unifying them and preserve their inherent cultures. This can be acknowledged due to the underlying fact that advertising has a significant effect and impact on the culture to the extent of modifying and altering the norms and customs of a society. This can best be highlighted by the idea of having make up for men in the United States, which is steadily becoming a mainstream custom. Therefore, advertising has the power of altering the consumer’s mindset, subsequently having the ability to unify a society without necessarily having to use the cross-cultural strategy, but by adapting a framework that adjusts to the society’s values and beliefs. This is in consideration of the engagement variable. Aim of this research. This research majorly aims to prove that the advertising industry has the ability to have beneficial impacts on a society and be perceived positively by the consumers. Through studies and surveys, the research aims to highlight how the majority of consumers across the world have a very negative vision of advertising. The cross-cultural strategy is increasingly getting a growing negativity and rejection from the public. This point can be augmented by Brene Brown, a research professor at University of Houston Graduate College, who posited that ‘Ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth.’ This may be true to some extent, but consumers have changed tack and may not necessarily view them as being trustworthy or reliable any more. To fully achieve the aforementioned aims, it is important to understand how a cross-cultural advertising approach impacts the cultural ideals of a society, particularly the damages caused. In addition, the research will look into the history of advertising and the way that it has evolved from a typical cultural form to the cross-cultural platform. Furthermore, emphasis will be put on the different impacts of the cross-cultural approach in light of the different ethnicities, thereby highlighting that it is not the most accurate strategy. The main countries and civilizations to be studied include France, USA, and South Korea. The choosing of France is based on its relatively flexible culture that allows both individuals and advertisers to express themselves freely. Its lack of restriction is what sets it apart, since various topics such as religion, politics, and women can be raised quite easily unlike, say, the middle-eastern countries. As such, these qualities make it an interesting choice to study the impact of cross-cultural advertising. On the other hand, the South Korean environment has very strong cultural presence in advertising, denoted by a very particular style that represents the Asian culture, thereby making it one of the most interesting Asian societies to study. Finally, the choosing of the USA is based on its massive influence on the rest of the world. The US is one of the biggest advertising industries in the world, and this makes it able to set trends and beliefs in the world of advertising. This has already been proven by the concept of globalization, which is the cause of the cross-cultural advertising. Despite this, it is a country that rejects most of the campaigns under the cross-cultural platform. Recent studies show that it has greatly criticized the latest cross-culturally based campaigns such as the ‘It’s beautiful’ Coca Cola campaign, which led to some users calling for the overall boycotting of Coca Cola’s products. Impact of this research. Due to the wide scope of this research, it will have a great impact on an equally wide spectrum. This ranges from the different assets of the advertising industry down to the consumers. All elements of the advertising industry will eventually gain from it. For a start, advertisers will be able to generate more effective and accurate results from their ads, meaning that this will result in a more relevant outcome. They will manage to accurately aim their ads to their specific targets, resulting in the message being delivered as needed. Consequently, the product will have the rightful impression on its consumers, and this will also meet the values and customs of its intended culture. Through this, advertising will manage to engage the consumers as required, while still unifying them and preserving their endemic cultures. Therefore, there will be no need to use a cross-cultural platform, and this will not jeopardize a society’s norms and customs. This will then translate to advertisers not being perceived as liars, thereby reducing the negative perception that currently exists. Consequently, their reputation would be restored. Another impact would be the instituting of the fact that advertising can be beneficial to both the brand and the consumers by effectively selling the product while also caring for the integrity of the consumer’s customs and beliefs. In the long run, this would help rebuild the connection that exists between consumers and advertisers, thereby improving consumer’s opinions on advertisements by making them particularly positive and optimistic. Additionally, this research would enable societies to preserve their customs and beliefs through advertisements. By demonstrating how a cross-cultural approach to advertising limits the preservation of a society’s ethics and customs, this research will aid in the fading of this approach, consequently enabling societies to preserve their history and values through advertising. As such, advertising can incorporate both delivering a message and still preserving the traditions, beliefs and norms of a society if culture is taken into consideration. Additionally, this research will unearth the various factors that determine the success of an advertisement. By doing so, it will facilitate a deeper understanding of how advertisements work, thereby improving the effectiveness of advertisements that adhere to its findings. This will be made possible by the fact that the research will relate the results from the current cross-cultural platform to what consumers think of it. By relating these two, the research will have a better perspective of what consumers exactly want and what is currently being offered for them (Herbig and Kaynak 2014, p. 199). If carried out effectively, such a relationship is bound to enable a deeper understanding of the connection that exists between what consumers want and want is provided. As such, the research will be a one of a kind report that provides insight into the minds of both consumers and advertisers. Finally, the study will have a great impact on the brands since it will facilitate a better relationship between the brands and the consumers by enabling the preservation of consumer culture. This will be the most important impact, as it will allow consumers to feel closer to their brands, enabling a connection that will improve brand affinity thereby aiding consumers to spread word about brands in an assenting way. This will improve trustworthiness of the products to the buyers, thereby enable consumers connect with the products in their own social communities. Research shows that the best way to gain brand loyalty is to appeal to the social elements that consumers most connect with (Taylor 2013, p. 308). Apart from building brand loyalty, this new form of relationship will result in a deeper and more rewarding attachment between the consumers and the brand. Proposed Research method. This study is to be enabled through a quantitative research method. Therefore, it is based on a survey and questionnaire analysis as this will be able to confirm the theories highlighted above. The intention is to prove that consumers have a negative judgment about current advertising, and the research method is expected to gain insights on the consumers’ global opinion about advertising. This will specifically highlight how consumers have a negative reaction to cross-cultural strategy and disapprove of the lack of cultural influence in advertisements. This will substantiate the underlying fact that consumers need to relate to an advertisement to enable them have the greatest gain from it. The research plan is to be based on convenient sampling as it is to be shared to contacts from different cultures living in different countries and experiencing the cross-cultural movement. Therefore, it will also reach expatriates in addition to the locals, since expatriates may have a more obvious feel about the cultural influences found in advertisements. In addition, the research plan will aim to reach a wider audience through the use of Google form which is to be shared across social media platforms such as Facebook. This is expected to generate a high number of responses, ranging between 200 and 500 which will facilitate the realization of highly accurate results. Conclusion. Basically, the overall aim of the research is to show how the cross-cultural advertisement platform is not as effective as it is thought to be. It fails to deliver a message accurately, and leads to the fading of a country’s culture and endemic beliefs. Consequently, the research also aims to demonstrate that advertising has enough power and impact on a society to enable the effective passing of a message as well as the preservation of the country’s customs and culture. As shown, this will bring numerous benefits since culture is one of the definitive characteristics that define or differentiate one community from another. References. Articles & others: http://www.saferbrain.eu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=PsQ5JyGmQKI%3D&tabid=286 http://culturalconfidence.com/unified-communications-and-cross-cultural/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2014/06/26/cross-cultural-ad-campaigns-preparing-for-the-possible-backlash/ http://www.qcalliance.org/2013/10/09/brand-loyalty-and-brand-affinity-whats-the-difference/ http://adage.com/article/the-big-tent/culture-multicultural-relevant/228938/ Books: Herbig, P. and Kaynak, E., 2014. Handbook of Cross-Cultural Marketing. New York: Routledge. Taylor, G., 2013. Give Your Marketing a Digital Edge. 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