Cross-Cultural Meanings of Healthy and Beautiful in Words,Beauty Types,and Products

Abstract

The debate about standardized versus localized advertising strategy is a long-standing one, and fraught with human and organizational complexities that argue for the cultural uniqueness of a national market versus the desire for a unified global image. A key issue is whether the same meaning in a specific advertising message will be transferred across cultures. This study deals with cross-cultural comparisons across five European cities (Madrid, Milan, Paris, London, and Hamburg) and focuses on the perceived differences of the meaning of two words (healthy and beautiful), two beauty types (women' faces), and two products (water and perfume). The results show that it is difficult to achieve sameness of meaning for even international products and beauty types. Suggestions for a conceptual match-up model for advertising components are made and implications are drawn for future practice and research.     

洛阳市户外广告的发展研究

本文对洛阳市户外广告进行了分析和探讨,认为洛阳市户外广告取得了不少成绩,但仍然存在很多问题。为此,洛阳市户外广告在今后发展中应突出地方特色,满足城市居民的需求,借鉴多种艺术表现形式,维护整体城市景观等。     

户外广告受众和投放内容比较分析——以合肥市户外广告市场为例

近年来合肥市的户外广告市场以前所未有的速度持续增长。户外广告与其他媒介相比较具有较大的优势,它覆盖面广,有强大的视觉冲击力和有效的到达率,户外广告的目标受众也越来越细分化。当电视、报纸等传统强势媒介的投放成本越来越高时,户外广告表现出其竞争优势,占据着一定的市场份额。本文主要是对合肥市近年来户外广告的受众和投放内容进行一些探讨和分析。     

Advertising in Malaysia—A Cultural Perspective

This article outlines, through a cultural perspective, one possible approach for advertising in Malaysia. The basis for this approach is derived from an analysis of the standardized and localized schools of advertising. Within the study, a Canadian example is used to shed light on the implications for businesses around the world for advertising in Malaysia. In addition, a comparison is drawn between Saudi Arabian and Malaysian cultures to determine if an advertising strategy used in other Islamic countries should be adopted in Malaysia. The findings suggest that although the majority of the citizens of Malaysia are Muslim, Malaysia's heterogeneous culture does not encourage a strict adherence to Islamic principles. The implication for Western businesses advertising in Malaysia is that a compromise be struck between a standardized and a localized advertising strategy.     

环境媒体广告——户外广告创意新思路

环境媒体广告强调媒体特点是广告设计和传播的重要参与因素,它是户外广告创意的一种全新方法。本文通过研究环境媒体广告的概念和特点,探究如何运用环境媒体广告的新思路、新方法。     

Effectiveness of Outdoor Advertising of Services

Outdoor advertisements are now routinely used by marketers of products and services as they have been found to be effective in general. However, there have been no studies testing the effectiveness of outdoor advertising of services in particular nor have there been studies comparing the effectiveness of outdoor advertisements of services with that of consumer goods. In this paper we study the effectiveness of outdoor advertisements of services and investigate the influence of few billboard and consumer related fac- tors on its effectiveness. The results show that the outdoor advertise- ments of services are very effective. Further, the recall of outdoor advertisements of services may be enhanced by providing direc- tional information when applicable and by unusual executions such as having them in black and white when most other ads are in color. Recall of outdoor advertisements of services was also found to be positively associated with respondent involvement with outdoor advertising and their attitude toward advertising.     

Habitus,doxa, and ethics: insights from advertising in emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa

The advertising industry influences culture through its pervasive messages that reflect and shape culture and through the role that advertising practitioners play as cultural intermediaries. As such, the manner in which advertising practitioners confront ethical issues is important. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, this paper examines how the perceptions, practices, and discourses of advertising practitioners in the Middle East and North Africa influence the advertising field's habitus and doxa. It demonstrates that understanding ethical problems is enhanced by examining them as macro, meso, and micro phenomena. However, that is not enough. Understanding how factors at the three levels interrelate, interact, and reinforce one another is critical to understanding the habitus. Underlying biases that shape the doxa can be explained by ideas central to behavioral ethics. A better understanding of the forces that shape the habitus and doxa with respect to ethics is key to moving toward a culture that encourages ethical advertising practices.     

Consumer Responses to Slice-of-Life Versus Slice-of-Death Advertising Appeals: Exploring the Role of Polysemy,Branding, and Culture

Prior research has not verified the theoretical or practical value of slice-of-life and slice-of-death advertising appeals in relation to advertising and branding constructs like advertising polysemy and consumer-based brand equity. The authors make conceptual, measurement, and managerial contributions to this research issue dealing with slice of life versus death advertising appeals. Across three studies, the authors measure, evaluate, compare, and contrast slice-of-life and slice-of-death (SOL/D) advertising appeals across British and American cultures. The authors demonstrate the interrelationships of SOL/D appeals with advertising polysemy, consumer-based brand equity, cultural differences in advertising attitudes, and purchase intentions. From a measurement perspective, the authors develop and validate parsimonious measures of slice-of-life and slice-of-death (SOL/D) advertising appeals. Furthermore, they test the assumptions that underlie these appeals for United States and British customers, and investigate how the cultural characteristic of uncertainty avoidance moderates the impact of SOL/D advertising attitudes on purchase intentions. Managerially, the research demonstrates that SOL/D appeals offer value in predicting (a) consumer-based brand equity through advertising polysemy, (b) consumers’ advertising attitudes across different cultures, (c) consumers’ intentions to purchase, and (d) advertising differences and varying consumer responses in the United States and Britain.     

The use of culturally relevant stimuli in international advertising

International marketers are increasingly advocating the practice of incorporating cultural aspects in advertising. However, little is known about how these culturally relevant aspects are interpreted by the intended audience, or if their impact is universal for all members of the target culture. It is purposed that when a norm is incorporated in an advertisement, members whose self-concept is congruent with the norms of their culture will use normative rules to evaluate an advertised brand. Conversely, among members whose self-concept is deviant from their culture, advertisements incorporating norms will stimulate cognitive elaboration. An empirical example, using norms pertaining to group affiliation, investigates the use of cultural norms in advertising within two divergent cultures (the collective culture of Taiwan, and the individualist culture of the United States). Implications for marketing in collective (Asian) cultures are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

How well do advertising images of health and beauty travel across cultures? A self‐concept perspective

This study is a cross‐cultural examination of the ideal self‐image of women in terms of health and beauty. The match‐up between two advertising beauty types (possible advertising presenters) and female consumers' ideal health and beauty images in terms of wanting to look like a specific model were tested with 750 female respondents from five European cities. The respondents also identified the ideal eye and hair colors for health and beauty. This quantitative study revealed cross‐cultural variation in ideal self‐image in terms of healthy and beautiful beauty types. International advertisers need to understand the important, contemporary, cultural characteristics of an ideal beauty type in terms of healthy or beautiful before developing standardized advertising communicating such appeals. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effects of outdoor advertising: Does location matter?

The growth and success of outdoor advertising is in large part due to the medium's ability to reach an increasingly elusive and mobile consumer. However, this success has come with a price. Public pressure and regulation have begun to eliminate or curtail many outdoor advertising locations, leading practitioners to question the effectiveness of the remaining outdoor advertising sites. Using associative learning techniques, these studies investigate what effect, if any, the environment in which outdoor advertising appears has on the attitudes, beliefs, and purchase intent of the advertised brand. The results of four experiments presented here suggest that the background environment does not impact advertising effectiveness, and practitioner concern of such may be unfounded. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Role of Culture in Creative Execution in Celebrity Endorsement: The Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT

In advertising literature, an area rarely explored is cross-cultural studies on celebrity endorsements. A good deal may be learned from understanding how a culture's communication style can shape the type of advertising most effective for that culture. This study examines the creative styles (creative executional factors) found in the advertising of Korea and America. The two countries represent two distinct cultures—Korea being a collectivistic culture and the United States being individualistic. Both cultures affect the norms and rules that guide their inhabitants’ behavior, directly affecting communication styles. The study finds that embedded in the use of celebrity endorsement are cross-cultural characteristics. The details of these findings will be useful to international advertisers executing celebrity endorsement campaigns in different cultural settings.     

Ad Element Liking and Its Relationship to Overall Ad Liking

Abstract

This study explored differences in affective response content across three cultures and the role of these responses in predicting overall advertising liking. Based on a field survey, subjects from England, Norway and Spain evaluated cosmetic ads on a series of liking scales. Ad content was coded into elements reflecting product- or ad-related affect based on existing theory on ad evaluation criteria and on the theory of central and peripheral routes to persuasion. This study revealed that it might be difficult to achieve sameness in likeability even for international brands and beauty types. However, quite consistently across cultures, the findings suggest that the same affective processes along a peripheral route influence overall liking across cultures. Implications are drawn for future practice and research.     

Right appeals for the 'right self': connectedness–separateness self-schema and cross-cultural persuasion

While culture is often used as a segmentation variable, it may not be used as a surrogate for individual consumer in particular cultures. It is important to identify the underlying mechanism that explains the observed cross-cultural similarities and differences of consumer behaviour and to conduct international advertising research based on theoretically valid frameworks. The present paper presents the connectedness-separateness (C-S) self-schema theory based on psychological and anthropological research streams. It is argued that consumers from different cultures tend to have different construals of the self, which in turn influence their cognition, emotion, motivation and behaviour. It is proposed that cross-cultural differences in consumer responses to different advertising appeals may be explained by consumer C-S self-schema, rather than cultural orientation per se . The C-S construct can also be employed to segment the world market across cultures as well as within a culture. A series of propositions is developed by relating cross-cultural differences in self-construal to the effective design of cross-cultural advertising themes and executions.     

裸露符号在广告中展现女性美的现代解读

本文通过在广告艺术中对女性美的形象最终意义的塑造和对女性主义的现代解读,以及裸露符号如何表现女性美的解读,揭示裸露符号如何展现女性美,如何在现代广告艺术中的解读对商品的影响,对当今社会价值的认同。     

城市户外广告媒体资源市场化配置研究

城市,外广告媒体资源市场化配置是市场经济发展的必然要求,本文基于公共资源的视角,分析城市户外广告媒体资源市场化配置的寻租风险、商业风险和道德风险,通过完善户外广告管理系统,建立有救的产权交易机制,以及系统性的政府立法等,来提高城市户外广告资源的经济效益和社会效益。     

An Empirical Evaluation of the Effect of Peer and Managerial Ethical Behaviors and the Ethical Predispositions of Prospective Advertising Employees

An advertising firm's ethical culture (as defined by the firm's managerial and peer ethical behaviors) may affect the employees' comfort levels and ethical behaviors. In this research, scenarios were used to describe advertising firms with various ethical cultures. Respondents' perceived comfort levels in working for the firms described in the scenarios and the respondents' behavioral intentions when faced with various advertising situations were assessed. Results of the study indicate that peer ethical behavior exerts a strong influence on the comfort or discomfort level and the ethical behavioral intentions of potential advertising employees. Further, the strong influence exerted by peers seems to transcend the ethical behavior of the manager and carry over to the attitude toward the entire corporate advertising environment. This study provides insights for firms and researchers interested in assessing the impact of an advertising firm's ethical culture on potential employees.     

Comparing Society’s Awareness of Women: Media-Portrayed Idealized Images and Physical Attractiveness

An advertiser develops visual associations of signs and symbols to create a product image that motivates consumers. Today is characterized by a solid consumer culture based on visual identity consumption that articulates and interacts with each consumer’s daily actions, words, and visual perceptions. The frequent use of female role portrayals and physical attractiveness in advertising contributes to an increase in society’s awareness of women. Some scholars have developed an ethical discussion out of the phenomenon of female role portrayals not matching the public expectations because the portrayals are too narrowly defined and women are unfavorably depicted. But another group has studied the product-type match-up hypothesis, which emphasizes effectively employing attractive female endorsers that closely match the product type. The shift in female social status in Taiwan contributes to the importation of foreign ideas such as feminine values, rituals, and esthetics. Women in Taiwan have been introduced to a new feminism, a modified perception of appropriate personal appearance and behavior. This current research utilizes content analysis and in-depth interviews to explore contemporary female role portrayals in advertising. In addition, this article examines the relationship between the formation of contemporary physical attractiveness and visual consumption in advertising. The results reveal that most endorsers were celebrities, with fit bodies and pleasant␣expressions, portrayed as product users who offer personal experiences to deliver product knowledge. Conservation classical beauty was the most common depiction, while sexual expression was the least common. Finally, this article recommends that different types of beauty, posture, and appeal should be carefully selected to match domestic and foreign magazines’ readers.     

Impacts of advertisements that are unfriendly to women and men

Taking Belgium as a case in point, this study analyses, first, tolerance for advertisements unfriendly to women and men as expressed by advertising and marketing professionals, consumers and gender equal opportunity workers. Second, it compares which types of unequal gender portrayal raise concerns with which sector of respondents. Finally, it analyses the differences in adherence of the three sectors to the two main policy solution paradigms proposed in the 2008 European Parliament Resolution on ‘How marketing and advertising affect equality between women and men’. Results suggest a degree of tolerance that varies significantly according to sector, language, gender and age. Overall, respondents express more concerns regarding traditional sex roles in advertising than regarding nudity, unattainable beauty standards or gender stereotypes, and prefer gender-and-advertising literacy programmes and awards for advertisements that break through gender stereotypes over stricter ethical and/or legal regulations. These findings should prove useful to advertising and marketing professionals, national advertising regulatory bodies and policy makers.     

Time Orientation and Attitudes toward Advertising in a High-Context Culture: An Empirical Study of Macau

Each culture has its own dominant construct of time that influences the value placed on the use of time by individuals. This empirical study examines how time orientations influence attitudes toward advertising in a high-context culture of an Asian economy. Data was collected through surveys in Macau. Findings show that Macanese are more future orientated but less enthusiastic towards advertising; they switch to another channel and engage in other activities during commercial breaks. Results also show that past orientation has the strongest impact on advertising avoidance. The authors offer managerial implications for the development of effective advertising programs in this emerging market.