A Comparative Analysis of the Use of Corporate Advertising in the United States and Japan

This article outlines one possible approach that companies can use to identify candidate countries for standardized international advertising campaigns. By clustering countries based on their similarity economically, culturally, and in their media availability and usage, marketers can identify those in which similar campaigns may be successful. In this paper, 40 countries were clustered into six groups within each of which standardization could be attempted. Discriminant analysis provided validation for the appropriateness of this six cluster solution. The implications of these results are discussed and directions for future research based on this approach are suggested.