MA CREATIVEADVERTISING (2017-18)CULTURALINFLUENCES ON ADVERTISING UNIT CODE:FCW722STUDENT ID:13915533TOPIC: HOW AGLOBAL BRAND LOCALISES ITSELF & THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING AND CULTURE IN IT? INTRODUCTIONIn today’s world all big brands want to globalize themselves. De Mooij states that”global advertising can only be effectiveif there are global consumers with universal values.” (2011, p.
17). They are no longer restricted by any boundaries. Insimple words globalization is the upsurge of the brand to interact with variousother nations to increase its viability. De Mooij claims that “Theterm globalization is used to cover the global flow of capital, technology, andmedia, as well as changes in human behavior that are expected to result fromglobalization forces” (2014, p.6). The brand or the company uses various marketingstrategies to target customers, however the same strategies arguably might notwork effectively as consumer behavior differs from culture to culture andnation to nation. Forexample, De Mooij (2014) argues that, a consumer from Singapore would counterand consume the product differently as the consumer from the India or the USA.This is where the global strategies should be well thought-off for both brandsand advertising when localizing themselves and keeping in mind the consumerbehavior related to each culture.
For instance, taking the example of Unileverice cream having the same logo but recognized by different names like GoodHumor in United States, Wall’s in Singapore.Comparing culture of the selected countriesIndia is a country ofdiverse population and culture united by national values of conventionalseasonal market expenses. People here have relatives all over the world who onterm influences resident Indians to try international brands. GDP is promisinggrowth for start-ups with young generation being more spending customer. Wordof mouth in India is highly effective so an international brand fiving qualityproducts and services faces less problems with capturing market.Culture can be defined as “Thecollective mental programming of the people in an environment.” (De Mooij,2004 cited in Hofstede 1991. p.
5). (Hofstede Insights., 2018) came up with the six-dimensionmodel to compare various countries based on parameters such as Power Distance,Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-term Orientation, andIndulgence. People in India andSingapore score high on Power Distance(PDI) compared to the United States.Countries high on PDI believe in acceptance and the demonstration of the socialidentity is more important.
While in the US, people like to be more independentand less powerful. However, the country low in PDI (US) scores the highest onIndividualism, as they believe in ‘I” culture. India scores moderate whichmeans that it is a mixture of both Individualist and Collectivist. On the otherhand, Singapore is low on Individualism which means that they believe in ‘WE’culture.
De Mooij (2004.,p.34) describes the Individualistic and Collectivistic cultures asuniversalistic and particularistic respectively. Coming to Masculinity,India and the US are more towards the masculinity culture which depicts thatpower, social image, achievement is more important.
(Anon.,2018) looking at an advertising campaign ofP&G’s Ariel ‘SHARETHELOAD’ in India, which shifted the belief, that doinglaundry is a women’s job. The aim of the campaign was to deteriorate thegender inequality. It featured various ads under the campaign depicting thatmen should also ‘SHARETHELOAD.
‘ As discussed above in the Hofstede’s Insightsmost Asian countries(India) scores high on the masculinity parameter. Singaporeis less on Masculinity which shows the tender aspects of culture such asharmony, sympathy etc. The Uncertainty Avoidance scores are low for all thethree countries which means that people do not actually believe in acceptingnew things and are okay with adjusting and adapting the culture. De Mooij (2014., p.35) statesthat people low on Uncertainty Avoidance believe in results than in theprocess. Hofstede Insights (2018) explains Long term orientation as living inthe present, but still maintaining few links with the past and also tacklingthe challenges of near future. The US and India score low on thisparameter as compared to Singapore.
People from India and the US believe intruths as the people from Singapore accentuate on virtues and believe inkeeping many choices open. There is acceptance of change in high long-termorientation. Indulgence istermed as “the extent to which people tryto control their desires and impulses, based on the way they are raised.” (HofstedeInsights, 2018). India and Singapore score less on this parameter whichsays that the culture is Restraint and people tend to be a bit pessimistic,while the US which scores high is an Indulgent do not worry too much.When advertising to anycountry there are various factors to consider such as the culture, consumptionpatterns, target groups, communication, etc. Such factors differ from countryto country and people to people. As Halve (2005) argues that there are various factors before consuminga product.
He explains this with an example of a woman as to what questionsarises in the mind of the consumer. Questions such as ‘Why should I buy it?’,’What’s the difference?’, ‘It’s not worth the price’, ‘Where’s the buzz?’ andso on. He also points out on other factors like the target group.Viewing the above-mentioned example of the P&G Ariel advertising campaign,there was a specific target group which would have been decided as we could seethat the husbands and father were contributing themselves into the householdchores. · Exploration of culture-Factorsconsidered while advertising globally and consumption patterns· Case study- The Coca-Cola ‘Tastethe Feeling’ global campaign 2016.Moye (2016) stated that the Coca-Cola’s’Open Happiness’ campaign which ran for almost seven years has been replaced bythe new campaign ‘Taste the feeling’.
De Quinto (cited in Moye 2016) says that for the first time,Coke’s four variants, Coca-Cola Light/Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zeroand Coca-Cola Life- with or without calories, with orwithout caffeine, will be launched under ‘one brand’ approach. Further, he addsthat Coca- Cola has different variants, but has the same values, whatever theoccasion may be, with Coca- Cola everyday moments are made special. They wererooted to their commitment of choice, presenting the consumers whicheverCoca-Cola ensembles their taste, lifestyle and diet. One example from thecampaign was the Supermarket advert which aired globally. This supermarketadvert was aired in India with a touch of Desi twist to it. Vinaya (2016)argues that the earlier campaign ‘Open Happiness’ did create some amusingadverts, but it didn’t do well with sales. Further, the advert deconstructs as,the brand Ambassador Siddharth Malhotra who is also an Indian Actor enters thestore and asks about Coca-Cola, the cashier girl being busy on phone, fails tonotice him and just directs about the whereabout of a Coke.
Later when he findsa coke she finds him too and zooms in the in-store camera, by this time she islost in “Taste the feeling” of a chilled Coke and fails to realise that he hasfinished the coke. She cooks up a story in her mind so that she relishes themoment even more, announcing that he is the lucky winner and gets another bottlefor free which needs to finish it there itself so that she could enjoy themoment a little extra. Looking at the audience, this advert focused to includea desi twist to it like an auto rickshaw instead of a truck, featuring anIndian actor where people can get instantly get connected. Also, in a countrylike India, portraying the essence of a culture also while instillingbenevolent sentiments and compassion among the people, undoubtedly derives thetruest sense of a connection towards an advertisement. It awakens or ratherbrings out the obscure side of human being. In case of the supermarket advert, atypical romantic dreamy touch has been added which engages the viewers.
Various marketers like, Nadkarniand Chawla (cited in Balakrishnan, 2016) expressedtheir views on this campaign, stating that before actually finding theirroots, Coca- Cola lost almost its five to seven years in India as they failedto realise that without the proper cultural attainment a global campaign doesnot associate especially with a food and beverage category, whereas it is alsonecessary for a brand to contemplate that people should always find a reason tobuy and with Coca-Cola’s ‘Taste the Feeling’ campaign , it clearly focuses onthe product benefits and day to day events which adds to their brand value. Techhoot(2018) explains the current Indian culture by saying that consumers are valueconscious, prefer high quality with less price and are bit inclined towardsprice sensitiveness while making purchasing decisions. Lookingat another advert from the Coca-Cola’s ‘Taste the Feeling Campaign’ is the ‘ChineseNew Year’ TVC 2017 · Conclusion
