Cultural considerations in global advertising campaigns and consumer behavior

Consumer Behavior -- the Impact of Advertising

"Brands should redouble their efforts in using advertising to grow brand advocacy through the integration of online and offline branded consumer contact points…[and moreover since] brand advertising stimulates website visits…" understanding the online and social media sites and applications can go a long ways to creating successful advertising campaigns… (Graham, et al.).

Purpose and Expectations

Advertising in the current global marketplace requires a great deal more than simply preparing entertaining, informative and attractive advertising campaigns. This paper points out that along with a good product or service, the marketing company needs to fully understand the dynamics and cultural realities of the targeted consumer. There are consumers that are worldly and others that are more parochial in their outlook, and still others that will resist buying anything made in a foreign country. Hence, the outlook and cultural make-up of the potential consumer ranks as high or higher on the list of priorities than even the quality of the product or service. It is a fascinating world now that globalization brings companies into the consciousness of consumers thousands of miles away, across deserts, across oceans, and across myriad cultures that are vastly different but all consume and buy. But indeed product marketing can backfire and cause wasted resources if the marketing strategy does not take into consideration all the pertinent aspects of the consumer and his or her location and cultural values. What is the impact of any advertisement on consumers at varying ends of the spectrum? That is the question to be approached and understood in this paper.

Discussion -- The Literature

The use of metaphors in advertising is the interesting and important subject of a peer-reviewed piece in the Journal of Advertising; and albeit the use of metaphors hasn't been researched a great deal in the literature, this is clearly an important component of many marketing campaigns. Typically, the metaphor used is something like, "…exercise lays the foundation for lasting fitness," the authors explain, and this use of rhetorical figures in this context is called "artful deviation from expectation" (Phillips et al., 2009, p. 49).

Moreover, the authors explain that the "essence of metaphor" is embracing a "cross-domain comparison"; that is, a metaphor compares two different objects through an analogy that suggests one of the objects is "figuratively like another" even though to the eye and the mind they seem very different (Phillips, 50). In the quote used above, the intension of the advertising is to give the impression that exercise builds a "foundation" for the body (muscles, heart, etc.) that is comparable to the sturdiness of the foundation below the house one is living in (Phillips, 50).

The authors conducted a study using 344 undergraduate students (and paid each of them $10 for their participation); the students were shown three different metaphors all regarding exercise and asked to "rate their degree of belief" in each one, using an 11-point scale. The three were: a) "exercise is a journey"; b) "exercise is work for pay"; and c) "exercise is heat" (Phillips, 54). The results of the study showed that under "moderately incidental advertising exposure" the three metaphors had "little power to shift belief" (i.e., make the respondent believe in the product or service) vis-a-vis the advertising approach. However, when the metaphor is "highly figurative" it can "shift beliefs" across a variety of participants -- especially when the metaphor is visual and not just verbal. Moreover, some individuals have a "high degree of ability to process metaphors" and that group will be very responsive when exposed to metaphors even in an incidental moment of exposure to the metaphor (Phillips 57).

Internet Marketing

The fastest growing form of advertising today is on the Internet, which the authors of an article in the Journal of Marketing Research assert will bring totals to an estimated $34 billion in 2014 (up from $23.4 billion in 2008). Roughly 40% of Internet advertising is placed on what the authors call "sponsored searches" -- typically these ads are positioned next to a Google search result, which is in fact a teaser, or a link, to an advertisement that often relates to the specific search the user has launched (Agarwal, et al. 2011, p. 1057). What is novel about this form of Internet advertising is that it the positioning of a company's ad is based on a bidding process.

That is, an advertiser doesn't merely put out cash to be placed in a pivotal spot; rather, there is an auction and the search engine company (Yahoo, MSN, and Google, for example) ranks the order the advertisements will be placed based on the "submitted bid and past click performance" (Agarwal 1057). A quote used by the authors asserts that being placed #1 at the top of the list of links to the right of the search result will bring "…3 1/2 times more traffic…as opposed to #2, and the numbers keep sliding from there" (Agarwal 1057).

However, there is a good bit of controversy as to the success an advertiser may achieve vis-a-vis the positioning on search sites; indeed, and because there is a lack of empirical evidence on this issue, the authors engaged in research to come up with data they can support. They used experimental keywords across several positions on the search results pages; their data set consisted of 3,187 observations of "…daily impressions, clicks, and orders for 68 keywords over a 45-day period from June 2009 to July 2009" (Agarwal 1061). As to the strategies employed, the article offers numerous pages of complicated algebraic equations and formulae -- that would require a math major to fully understand -- but their narrative leaves little doubt that advertisers engaged in "…intense bidding wars to secure the top positions" are basing their bids on "faulty assumptions" (Agarwal 1070).

In fact, Agarwal concludes, being at the top of the list of ad links on search result pages for Google does not always "maximize revenues" (1070). Further, the advertiser seeking to get good results on these search results pages may be "better off in the short run placing less weight on obtaining top positions" (Agarwal 1070). Also, selecting the most effective keywords can mean greater success luring online consumers than being at the top of the list, Agarwal contends (1070).

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is among the most sought after components of the entire marketing and advertising field. An article published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business (Abbasi 2011) emphasizes that the very "substance of advertising" lies in the fact that it has likeability, it has persuasiveness, and that it has "brand personality" (Abbasi 2). The authors of this article review a number of other articles on brand loyalty, calling the their own literature review of the available resources a "…mishmash of studies that pull glimmer on the atrociousness of advertising and its prominence on consumer buying power" (Abbasi 2).

The article asserts that advertising can be boring and in fact many advertisements appear to be "a squander of time and effort" by most people. Hence, the need to create advertising that has "likeability" otherwise consumers are not going to buy, and will never become loyal to that brand (Abbasi 3). One point-of-view in the literature suggests that in order to get the consumer to like the advertising that a given company puts out, the advertising must have a cognitive viewpoint that can stimulate consumer behavior. Another position states that merely getting the consumer to like the advertising is the key and still another suggestion from the literature the authors revealed concludes that getting consumers to like it depends on "…the element of entertainment and information that is provided" by the advertising (Abbasi, 3). Sometimes it is just a matter of impacting the potential customer's mind in a positive way, to get that person to buy the product.

One key hypothesis put forward by the authors suggests that the brand should actually have "personality" -- brand personality offers the consumer time to assess the message in terms of the personality put forward by the image, the message, and the theme. Among the most frequent ways of inducing a sense of personality in advertising is to get a celebrity to endorse the product, Abbasi explains (4). In that case, there is a strong need that the celebrity is a likeable person, and that he or she appeals to a broad range of potential customers.

Whether or not the advertising actually uses a celebrity, or otherwise comes up with a formula to appeal to consumers, first comes the "brand image" -- which should be a definable and memorable image because the image "ultimately" creates an awareness in the target consumer market. And if the brand image is successful in making the consumer aware, then the consumer will have a sense a "brand equity" in the product -- which ultimately leads to brand loyalty (Abbasi 5). .

In the case of brand loyalty that means the customer will come back over and over again to purchase that product or service. It is in the company's best interest to not only lure new customers into its fold, and get them to be loyal to the brand, it is imperative that the advertising message put out by the company or its marketing component to "…retain the old ones through advertising and fulfilling of promises" (Abbasi 6).

Product Positioning vis-a-vis World Mindedness

Edwin Nijssen and Susan Douglas examine positioning in advertising based on the fact that there are global, foreign, and local cultures to appeal to. The authors examine the aspect of advertising that zeros in on the "global consumer culture"; this is pertinent because there are today -- due to globalization -- consumers that are "world-minded." Other consumers are tuned in to local issues and still others that are part of a "foreign consumer culture" (Nijssen, et al. 2011). These differences in consumer patterns presents the need for advertising strategies to be geared to not just one consumer culture, and hence, therein lies the challenge in the world of globalization.

The bottom line in this article is simplistic, albeit the strategies the authors pursue are not simplistic at all. How do advertisers relate to consumers that reflect three different world-minded approaches to culture? After reviewing previous research, Nijssen and colleagues report that those consumers that advertisers hope to reach that are "world-minded" tend to be respectful of other cultures and in fact are eager to learn about other people's ideas and values. In other words world-minded consumers care about world events and are more progressive in that sense. Hence, these consumers are expected to respond positively to ads that reflect foreign consumer positioning.

On the other hand, consumers with more ethnocentric attitudes will hold "negative beliefs" about buying foreign-made products because they are not as open to ideas from other cultures than the world-minded consumer. And local-minded consumers are even more prone to avoid foreign-made items. So, given the parameters the writers have established in this article, it behooves advertising professionals to know what group of consumers they are reaching out to, so as not to waste time and money promoting to consumers that won't respond but rather they should invest efforts to go after those specific consumer groups that will respond to their messages.

Marketing Through Blogs Online

What are the most effective strategies for advertising on blogs? This question is answered in the article by I-Ping Chiang and colleague in the journal Social Behavior and Personality. There are relationships that are important in terms of learning what advertising works in blogs and what does not work. There are three phases in terms of the theory of purchasing: "pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase" (Chiang 2011, p. 1246). This article is mainly concerned with pre-purchase in blogs, and among the ways that consumers make decisions about ads place on blogs is through the posts that previous visitors have left, and whether those posts were positive or not.

Why do people browse through blogs? Sometimes it is just for entertainment, other times it is to seek information, and for still others they are just "following trends" (Chiang 1246). For those consumers that are seeking information, and for those that engage in the interactivity aspects of blogs, and if the blogs are popular and hit the right note, the consumer will click on the link to the product and will buy the product (Chiang 1247).

The results of this peer-reviewed research article show that factors that influence the use of blogs -- for marketing purposes -- include convenience, interactivity, real time conversation, popularity, specialization, and the quick availability of blogs "…in allowing for quick decision making" (Chiang 1249). What the advertiser needs to understand is that if the blog writer has compelling narrative and easy interactivity for the browsing consumer, and the material is presented in a compelling and entertaining format, the consumer browsing the site will buy.

Consumers' Buying Behavior in the Two Wheeler Segment

An article in the Journal of Marketing & Communication (Jha, et al., 2011) explains that the key to success in the auto industry is not just having a dependable and excellent product to sell, but also in being able to "…provide the customer with the level of service they desire." In this article, the authors focus on the Indian auto industry (India), and in particular they zero in on the two-wheeler market, since many people in India prefer a two-wheeler (for gas mileage and easy access in crowded streets) to a four-wheel auto (Jha, 18).

The authors went to the trouble of presenting a number of manufacturers' versions of two-wheelers (Honda, Hero Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, TVS and others) and their advertising slogans and strategies to a sampling of consumers in India. For example, in the consumers' response to Hero Honda advertising they "strong agreed" they liked the ads (only 3.33% of respondents disliked that ad); and for Suzuki, again consumers "strongly agreed" they liked the ads and were moved by the ads (Jha 22). Using page after page of charts, math formulae, and other data, the authors conclude that good advertisements that appeal to Indian consumers in specific ways -- given the Indian culture and the ads' sensitivity to that culture -- can sell two-wheelers more effectively.

How Consumers Respond to Advertising for Video Games

The online reviews of various video game products are more influential for some less-popular games that players engage with on the Internet than other forms of video game advertising, the authors assert. In other words, the more reviews by consumers, the more likely a person online will take notice. The theme of this article is similar to others in that the marketing of video games should be "…contingent on product and consumer characteristics" (Zhu, et al. 2010). But this article takes the issue to another level.

As the number of consumer reviews on a given video game increase, the "overall rating converges to the true quality" of the product (Zhu, 136). And because popular products usually get more reviews -- and give the consumer the impression that the video game is "more trustworthy" -- consumers will be more willing to purchase that product. So, what they are saying here is that it's not just the quality of the product, or the quality of the advertising, but rather it can come down to how many consumer reviews are posted online near the blog or the actual ad page for the company (Zhu, 136).

Knowing this, advertising companies need to be very savvy about social media, about blogging, and about consumer behaviors vis-a-vis products that attract consumer interactivity and input online.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are a number of aspects to marketing products today that go well beyond the quality or cleverness or entertaining value of the advertising. Smart, alert marketing professionals must do their research on what consumers respond to in various regions around the world prior to setting out on any given strategy. The world is becoming more and more globalized and what people are doing and buying in Dubai is relevant to marketers in Germany, Japan, Canada and the United States because the digital technologies available worldwide link those diverse places instantly.