Evolution in the usage of localized appeals in Japanese and American print advertising

Based on global consumer culture theory, this empirical investigation examines how the usage of local appeals in Japanese and American advertising content has shifted over a period of nearly three decades. It replicates and improves upon Mueller’s investigation (Journal of Advertising Research, 1987, 27(3)). Content analysis determined the existence or absence of five traditionally Japanese appeals vs five traditionally Western appeals in 2005 issues of women’s, general interest, business and sports magazines published in each country. A total of 899 US ads and 853 Japanese ads were collected. Japanese advertisers appear to have turned to a rather more direct and persuasive selling approach, but continue to maintain a tradition of Japanese subtlety. American ads have shifted from a hard-hitting and aggressive strategy to a more benefit-orientated strategy with a distinctly softer touch. Appeals employed, however, were found to vary with the product category promoted. Overall, findings suggest that while Japanese advertising may have become somewhat more ‘American’, American advertising appears to have become significantly more ‘Japanese’. Possible future convergence between Eastern and Western advertising has implications for international marketers as they craft messages to appeal to these audiences.     

The ‘miracle’ of car ownership in Japan's ‘Era of High Growth’, 1955–73

The ‘Era of High Growth’ in Japan is well known for its ‘miracle’ economy, although the reasons why car ownership increased during this period have been largely ignored. Both the ‘miracle’ and the process of motor manufacturing have been viewed from the perspective of supply rather than demand. This article examines the ways in which the formidable barriers to mass car ownership were removed during this period by analysing quantitative data and also reconsidering narratives of Japanese manufacturing predicated on Japanese cultural uniqueness (nihonjinron). It considers the Japanese as consumers as well as workers, and concludes that car ownership is less a ‘miracle’ than a manifestation of Japan's process of modernisation during the twentieth century.     

China myths and advertising agencies

One of the fastest growing sectors in China's transforming economy is advertising. Within the industry, large numbers of ‘advertising agencies’ are typically reported. This article charts growth in the industry and classifies agencies by type, in order to establish a more accurate understanding of agency numbers and growth. Advertising agencies are but one type of organization among the huge number of licensed ‘advertising practitioners’ in China, which are often erroneously referred to as agencies.     

Forecasting Advertising Expenditure

The 1980s are proving to be a decade of great uncertainty during which the possession of accurate short-term forecasting techniques can lead to better decision-making. Forecasts of advertising expenditure in total and by medium is an especially important source of information for the advertising industry—advertising agencies, media owners, advertisers—and all others concerned. Furthermore, it is particularly important to unravel the systematic from chance changes in the market as a whole. This paper attempts both to illustrate and to evaluate the ‘naive’ Box-Jenkins method of time series forecasting as related to aggregate advertising expenditures in Britain and West Germany.     

Ad agencies

This article highlights advertising agencies as marketplace icons. The role of ad agencies in creating iconic brands can sometimes be obscured, yet ad agencies are central to how the contemporary marketplace works. While ad agencies are no longer the hegemonic instance of consumer culture that they were from the 1950s to the 1990s, they have adapted to today's democratic advertisingscape by shepherding cultural content produced elsewhere to market. Ad agencies have remained the engine behind significant shifts in consumer culture, such as the warming of relations between music and advertising, by acting as the ‘midwife’ between art and commerce, facilitating new cultural practices in the process.     

Evans,W. A. Advertising Today and Tomorrow. Great Britain: George Allen and Unwin, 1974

Abstract

This study reports on developments in the international advertising agency business during the 1970s. Findings suggest that U.S. agencies remain the dominant force in international advertising in contrast to the declining performance of U.S. industry in other sectors. Specifically, American agencies have found faster growth in their overseas markets leading to continually larger shares of their total billings; there has been a growing concentration in the international business of U.S. agencies and in the industry internationally; and, the international experience of U.S. agencies has led to a growing penetration of foreign markets, to growth in productivity, and to increasing domestic market power. Results of the study indicate however, that U.S. agencies may be facing increasing challenges from non-U.S. agencies in the future; notably from the West European, Japanese, and some developing countries.     

An Aspect of Family Enterprise in the Industrial Revolution

The status hierarchy in Japanese enterprises collapsed during the tumultuous years of ‘total war’ and post-war democracy, and the ‘Japanese employment system’ was greatly affected by the ‘white-collarisation of blue-collar workers’. This transformation can be seen through changes in the work rules and wages systems at Hitachi Electric from the 1930s to the 1950s. The labour ideology of the wartime planned economy, which saw enterprises as ‘production communities’ and assumed equality between white- and blue-collar workers, challenged the nature of employment relations. As the experience of the post-war union movement reveals, this wartime ideology exerted a pervasive influence on Japanese labour, and, during the US Occupation, it forced widespread, ‘democratic’ reforms on enterprise management. In consequence, the main elements of the Japanese employment system were formed and reinforced during the 1950s and 1960s.     

Japanese Women in Management: Getting Closer to ‘Realities’ in Japan

Women managers are seldom seen in Japan. Female legislators, senior officials and managers are only 9 per cent of the total. It is also one of the main factors that have created the significant gender wage gap; female workers earned just 66.5 per cent of male worker earnings in 2002. This contribution explores reasons for the persistent phenomenon of very few female managers in the Japanese workplace despite economic and political factors favourable for ‘empowering’ women. To what extent is this situation explained by the cliché that women lack the ‘will’ to be promoted? The common explanation is that women ‘choose’ not to be promoted or leave their jobs because of their ‘attitude’ to marriage, birth and family responsibilities. Is that all? A recent study on work organization revealed the mechanism of constructing female private ‘attitudes’ and ‘choice’ within the organization. Although this new approach seems promising, this contribution argues that its local-oriented approach should be combined with macro analysis, especially focusing on the institutionalized practices beyond each workplace.     

British Business History: A Review of the Periodical Literature for 1998

Japanese economic success has been built upon the establishment and development of key manufacturing sectors, and the perspectives of business history can especially reveal that complex interaction of companies, markets, business networks, and state which has over time created a globally competitive industrial system. Long-term economic growth was capped in the 1950s and 1960s by growth rates that were unprecedented in their scale and duration. Similarly, the process of industrial transformation accelerated in the years between 1918 and 1950, important developments finally coalescing during the post-war period into the so-termed ‘Japanese industrial system’. Debates over the timing of economic development in Japan are intertwined with debates on the contribution of a pre-industrial national culture to business success. The historical record suggests that the acquisition of organisational capabilities within Japanese manufacturers has been shaped by the timing of the country's industrialisation and by its consequent development needs. The nature of Japanese management and Japan's industrial system, although influenced by cultural attributes, was shaped by organisational and economic objectives attuned to the circumstances of the country's industrialisation, and competitive advantage followed from the unavoidably nationally specific process by which potential was ultimately matched by capability.     

Promoting sustainability through social marketing: examples from New Zealand

This paper investigates the social marketing of sustainability in New Zealand and examines the usefulness of advertising campaigns to enlist and empower people, as both consumers and citizens, towards environmental care. It draws on discussions about ‘citizen‐consumer subjectivities’ and the model of the ‘political economic person’, which link sustainability and consumption through asserting people’s capacities as reflecting citizens. Printed advertisements by local and national government agencies about air pollution, fuel dependency and energy consumption are analysed to see whether advertising campaigns can operate on multiple levels for a range of audiences – desirable for broadening understanding of sustainable consumption and dealing with the complexity and experiential aspects of ‘doing’ sustainability. The advertisements analysed have an authoritative dimension that downplays this complexity and variability. The paper concludes that these advertisements do not go far enough to involve individuals in processes of co‐producing knowledge about sustainability, and to vest them with expertise in exercising sustainability in their daily lives. The implications are that advertising campaigns that engage with the complexity surrounding consumption in people’s modern lives, and with variability in meanings of sustainability, have the possibility of inciting citizen‐consumer political subjectivities.     

Agency practitioners’ meta-theories of advertising

Research on practitioner theories of advertising uncovered that agency practitioners not only have definite theoretical beliefs about how advertising works, they also have meta-theoretical beliefs, fundamental presuppositions about the nature and possibility of knowledge in advertising. The meta-theoretical belief in creativity and its dictum of ‘no rules’ was found to be more important than any other guiding principle in advertising work. The primacy of creativity denies the possibility of any other moderator-focused theories that would prescribe ‘rules’ for creative content. Practitioners believe that the ontological status of advertising (as a territory defined by creativity, art and tacit skill) places it mostly outside the reach of scientific modelling. While practitioners acknowledge that knowledge about advertising is ‘layered’ (i.e. certain aspects of it are more explainable by the legitimation system of science), they also insist that the creative ‘layer’ is much thicker than other layers. A further qualifying factor is practitioners’ epistemological scepticism, which questions the validity of both academic and commercial social research as applied to advertising, and suggests instead that knowledge about advertising is better understood as ‘common sense’. The study’s findings have fundamental consequences for the professional aspirations of the advertising industry as well as the academician–practitioner gap in advertising.     

Advertising industry evolution: agency creativity,fluid teams and diversity. An exploratory investigation

ABSTRACT

The advertising industry is in a state of flux, where the agency model is evolving alongside todays’ fast paced digital environment. This paper reviews the drivers of change in the industry and explores how creative advertising agencies are evolving and developing their team resources to improve the creative product using the resource based view (RBV) as a theoretical lens. The study adopted a qualitative approach using a key informant strategy with 16 interviews with Creative Directors, Chief Executive Officer’s and Heads of Planning and Account Directors. The findings suggest that agencies who embrace team functional diversity, include external stakeholders and develop team fluidity as a dynamic capability will enhance agency creativity.     

Advertising effectiveness from a consumer perspective

Communication effectiveness research is moving away from investigations of advertising’s forms, content and the degree and type of consumer involvement, to a greater focus on the process of reception and the social and cultural roles that advertising plays in society and in individual lives. This shift in emphasis has been influenced by communication and media studies, which have prioritised the psychological, social and cultural contexts within which consumers relate to commercial information and the roles that advertising media play in their lives. The focus on the ‘receiver’ as the key actor in the advertising communication process has also coincided with increasing interest in consumer culture theory, brand communities and the new service dominant logic of marketing. This paper provides a useful perspective from which to view contemporary developments in advertising effectiveness research, and has important implications for future studies.     

Call for papers: Special issue on Latin America

In green advertising research, images of pleasant nature scenery have been classified as vague, unspecific and possibly ineffective green claims, as opposed to substantive, informational claims. In this study, the concept of virtual nature experiences is introduced to point out a perceptual mechanism through which the association of a brand with nature imagery may indeed lead to significant advertising effects. Consumers’ exposure to specific nature imagery in green brand communications may lead to pleasant feelings analogous to those experienced in ‘real’ nature. If adequately conditioned, these ‘virtual nature experiences’ may enhance the consumer’s attitude towards a given brand. The perceptual and attitudinal effects of substantive green claims and nature imagery are analysed in the scope of an experimental study. The field study consisted of a national survey, allowing for the relative statistical representativeness of the sample. Results of the study confirm significant perceptual and attitudinal effects of both informational claims and virtual nature experiences. The latter are identified as a distinct perceptual dimension of green brand associations, and turn out to wield additional positive influences on the consumer’s attitude towards the brand.     

Determinants of Consumer Perceptions toward Mobile Advertising — A Comparison between Japan and Austria

Mobile marketing provides an innovative channel for transmitting advertising messages to customers via mobile devices. The growth of mobile advertising in recent years requires that researchers and practitioners understand consumer perceptions of this form of advertising. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing the perception of mobile advertising in different cultures. Based on samples from Austria and Japan, we empirically examine relevant m-advertising effects. The results suggest that infotainment and credibility are key factors predicting advertising value among Austrians and the Japanese. However, our findings show that Japanese customers are more irritated by mobile advertising than are Austrian respondents.     

Advertising agency planning – conceptualising network relationships

This study investigated the networked relationships between agency parties involved in the process of advertising planning, internal and external to advertising agencies. The study provides a conceptual grounding for understanding the shift from dyadic to multiple relationships in advertising planning. It focuses on the degree of collaboration and integrative relationships inherent. Using a theoretically derived, grounded theory approach, depth interviews were conducted with twenty two practitioners spread across four dominant parties: advertising account management and creatives, independent media planners and researchers. Four core constructs were abstracted from the data forming the conceptual basis for a model. These were shared (agency) purpose and philosophy, personal chemistry between involved parties, power relations between parties with their incumbent conflictual tensions and finally trust between parties. The study provides an important bridgehead, opening up and exploring the increasingly networked foundations for advertising planning.     

The Role of the Advertising Agency in the Cultural Message Content of Advertisements: A Comparison of the Middle East and the United States

ABSTRACT

This study compared responses of advertising agencies located in the Middle East and the United States to an email survey examining their approach in designing advertisements. The survey examined whether the advertising agency incorporated area-specific cultural values and advertising appeals in the execution of their advertisements. Results indicate that indeed advertising agencies do use, or at least report to use, different cultural values and advertising appeals. Advertising agencies in the Middle East tend to focus more on filial obedience, customs and traditions, loyalty to one's group, honor, and patience. In addition, agencies in the Middle East reported that they tended to portray women in a more modest fashion than their counterparts in the United States.     

Standardized Advertising Campaigns

This empirical study examined U.S. advertising agencies' practices in Europe to decide whether they were promoting products and services the same way everywhere. Information regarding environmental factors and advertising strategy were gathered from 160 European affiliates of U.S. advertising agencies in 16 countries. It was found that in general, agencies were neither standardizing nor customizing their sales platforms and creative contexts. Instead they tended to utilize the adaptive approach-a strategy that seems to viewed as the ontimal approach when dealing in multiple foreign markets. Legal restrictions abroad was one of the major motivators for usage of adaptative strategies. More specifically, restrictions on claims their ads could make and limitations on hiring foreigners were stated as the two top problems facing agencies' operations. Surprisingly, cultural factors presented much lesser problems to agencies.     

A comparison of attitudes towards Internet advertising among lifestyle segments in Taiwan

As the Internet gradually diffuses throughout more sectors in society many advertisers have begun to consider the diversity in various aspects of consumer behaviour among Internet users. As Internet users' attitudes towards Internet advertising are found to influence their brand attitudes and purchase intentions, the study can contribute to the design and assessment of Internet advertising. The study identified potential lifestyle segments among Internet users and examined the relationships between lifestyle segments and their attitudes towards Internet advertising. This study surveyed 700 Internet users and employed a lifestyle segmentation approach for categorizing consumers into three distinct lifestyle groups: ‘experiencers’, ‘traditionalists’ and ‘self‐indulgents’. Statistical analyses pointed out that all three groups differed from one another in several demographic characteristics. Moreover, the lifestyle clusters were found partly to predict Internet users' attitudes towards Internet advertising. The findings of the present study provide justifications for marketers to treat Internet users as a heterogeneous group. Furthermore, advertising researchers should be aware of the diversity of the Internet population in order to assess the effectiveness of Internet advertising better.