Onkvisit S., Shaw J. International Marketing: Analysis and Strategy
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resume their spending and working habits, especially where the exploration of new lands is key. Through these
challenging times, it is necessary to continue to uphold the integrity of the economy in the public, producing, and
service sectors. The following case examines the current role of the international human resources component
and then introduces the AllWorld Corporation, an organization which provides a new outlook to overseas living
and work.
HR’s old ways
According to
Webster’s Dictionary
, an expatriate is defined as “one who has taken up residence in a foreign
country.”
The human resources department (HR) of a given company is responsible for providing a wide array of admin-
istrative services to its expatriate employees through employee benefits, policies, and training programs.The expa-
triate population is often neglected in the world of HR. HR’s lack of focus on overseas career needs often results
in poor expatriate selection, management, and repatriation.
This, however, may be a line management problem and the re-education of executive management perhaps needs
to be addressed. A key challenge for many companies involves attracting qualified employees to accept an overseas
assignment. Reasons for transfer are career broadening, promotion, mergers and acquisitions, and untapped pro-
duction possibilities within the markets of the world. Usually technical personnel or middle managers are selected
for transfer and, during the selection process, priority is based on management or technical merit. Criteria in
personnel such as personality, adaptability, and preference for independence are often completely overlooked.
A lack of HR involvement can lead to many problems regarding the assignment of expatriates overseas. As
mentioned before, poor selection procedures tend to take place, leaving the decision up to senior management
where HR skills are minimally understood. These unqualified decisions often prove very costly. Unclear goals pose
another problem and may be attributed to poor planning.The logistics of the move becomes more important than
the actual goal of the relocation. Once unrealistic goals are set, they will never be met. In addition, many line
managers set their own goals once in-country. A major problem is insufficient cost predictions where costs are
not properly projected. An overseas assignment may cost up to a million dollars. Other problems remain such as
cultural issues, domestic and family concerns, political turmoil, economic instability, and complex labor laws. HR
departments also continue to neglect another of the most important transitions: repatriation. An individual who
has been overseas for a number of years may find that it is more difficult to move back to one’s native country
from having been overseas when compared to the initial transfer. Lastly, overseas assignment failure tends to
be high due to a lack of employee preparation. Global Relocation Survey and Measuring Expatriate Success
provides the following statistics, pinpointing HR’s lack of involvement which can eventually lead to employee
dissatisfaction:
■ 34 percent of employees report that HR had little or no role in the selection process.
■ 13 percent report that measurable goals are never set, while 22.5 percent set goals only 75 percent of the
time.
■ 75 percent report some failed assignments in their organizations, with 28 percent reporting a failure rate of
10–15 percent.
■ Average size of responding organizations to the survey comprised 3200 employees with only twenty-four
expatriates.
■ Of transferred spouses, 49 percent were employed before assignment and only 11 percent found employment
during an assignment.
■ 70 percent of companies outsourced expatriate management.
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PROMOTION STRATEGIES
AllWorld’s first steps
AllWorld Corporation’s mission statement states that the company “provides an overall expatriate relocation
service designed to train, prepare and educate future expatriate employees for their overseas assignments. The
service is based on international relocation.”
AllWorld is a corporation in the introductory stage of its life cycle; the implementation of the marketing mix
will produce the growth stage. As a new entrant in the consulting industry, this limited liability corporation (LLC)
is attempting to redefine and reinforce the expatriate relocation experience. The purpose of the firm is to prop-
erly educate and acclimate soon-to-be expatriates to their new foreign home through cultural/language immer-
sion, personal experience, and truthful testimony.
In regard to financial backing, AllWorld is currently deciding whether to rely on an IPO or to consider long-
term capital markets for initial working capital. AllWorld intends to begin as a new independent business opera-
tion which will focus on expatriate relocation (headhunter).The growth opportunities for AllWorld are to ultimately
replace corporate human resource departments for those similar services.
AllWorld provides a refreshing and informative insight through the education of its expatriate clients.The ben-
efits of AllWorld’s services can lead to corporate customer satisfaction, prolonged overseas assignments, and a
willingness of employees to return overseas. AllWorld achieves what HR departments commonly overlook.Through
a major focus on expatriate selection, management and repatriation, selection procedures, goals and cost projec-
tions will be accurate and well thought out. Cultural issues, domestic concerns, political turmoil, the causes of
economic instability, and complex labor laws are all carefully examined.The location of AllWorld is built around
its customer base. The majority of customers will be large international firms that wish to expand their number
of overseas personnel but face complications due to lack of (or nonexistent) uninformed HR representatives when
dealing with overseas expatriate assignments.
Employee selection at AllWorld makes the company unique. The company’s employees are initially selected on
their overseas experience. Selection is based solely on qualifications through and/or language/country experience.
The provision of appropriate consulting and knowledgable personnel is based on regions of the world, with each
region having its own well-versed set of representatives for that region. For instance, to be a country representa-
tive, you must be of that nationality, have lived overseas or have visited that country frequently to properly inform
the client about a given assignment.This is not to say that every country will be represented. The projected goal
of AllWorld in the future will be to represent every region or country that qualifies in the business model. In addi-
tion, each employee will establish contact with immigration attorneys in order to expedite work visas needed by
our client base.
Marketing objectives
The marketing objectives of AllWorld are to persuade corporate clients to use AllWorld’s services by attracting
new clients, have existing customers specify the need for AllWorld’s services, while reminding potential customers
of the inadequacy of their own HR departments by showing how AllWorld can provide a global solution for expa-
triate employees. Its target market relies on employees accepting overseas assignments and deals only with the
expatriation or repatriation process. In the company’s marketing campaign, AllWorld will project various images
to its clientele. Some examples include service, education, growth progression, potential market leadership, and
dependability.The market position for AllWorld is yet to be established due to its recent inception.In the company’s
marketing campaign the need to experience AllWorld will stress its relocation services. AllWorld aims eventually
to outperform existing HR departments. Promotion of AllWorld is based on personal contact through the prior
experience of employees, with some emphasis on the company web page. Advertisements will be made in various
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PROMOTION STRATEGIES
international journals, newspapers, and magazines. Word-of-mouth and other recommendations are key promo-
tional tools as well.
As services are based on the customer needs and wants, the pricing strategy will be competitive. Based on a
commission strategy, AllWorld will be paid based on successful assignments of clients overseas. AllWorld’s renu-
meration would be three to six months of employee salary, making it competitive to the industry standard.
To realize fully its place in the market, AllWorld must analyze the strengths and weaknesses of its competi-
tion. The competition includes any human resources department and other consulting agencies. For example,
Prudential Relocation International has implemented a helpful way to deliver this service to new expatriates.
Prudential’s four main goals are: to meet the company’s needs, prepare the assignee, maximize the investment,
and reach and attain their goals. Prudential examines the company’s policy statement which becomes the
platform of the international assignment program. The firm is committed to help the transferred family prior to
departure in order to gain the confidence to work in a new culture or environment. The firm’s goal is to obtain a
high return on the assignment while retaining and maintaining one’s assets. In addition to offering international
assignment reports, Prudential helps the employee’s family acclimate while maintaining job productivity. Other
competitors have similar goals. Again, as explained above, AllWorld wants to take this experience a step further.
Through this innovative strategy of preparing employees for overseas assignments, AllWorld hopes to become
a market leader with a significant percentage of market share while maximizing profit and maintaining quality
service leadership for its corporate clients.
Points to consider
1 If you were a corporate manager with overseas locations, would you consider AllWorld Corporation for your
expatriate needs? Why or why not?
2 Where should AllWorld corporate headquarters be located, and why?
3 What elements of the marketing mix does AllWorld need to focus on in order to accomplish its goals, and
why? How would it structure the marketing mix in order to accomplish these goals?
QUESTIONS
1 Explain how personal selling overseas may differ from how it is used in the USA.
2 What are the requirements of a good publicity program?
3 What is a carnet?
4 Explain why standard sales promotion tools (e.g., premium, coupon) may not be applicable or effective
abroad.
DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENTS AND MINICASES
1 Compare domestic communication with international communication. Explain why “noise” is more likely to
occur in the case of international communication process in all five stages (source, encoding, information,
decoding, and receiver).
2 Why is telemarketing not as widely used outside of the USA?
3 Should expatriate personnel be used? What are some of the difficulties that they may encounter overseas?
What can be done to minimize these problems?
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PROMOTION STRATEGIES
NOTES
1 Wilbur Schramm (ed.), “How Communication Works,” in
The Process and Effects of Mass Communication
(Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1961), 3–26.
2 “America’s Latest Software Success Story Is German,”
Business Week
, August 8, 1994, 46.
3 Harold C. Cash and W. J. E. Crissy, “Comparison of Advertising and Selling,” in
The Psychology of Selling
,
Vol. 12 (Personnel Development Associates, 1965).
4 Itzhak Harpaz, “The Importance of Work Goals: An International Perspective, “
Journal of International
Business Studies
21 (No. 1, 1990): 75–93.
5 Anthony M. Townsend, K. Dow Scott, and Steven E. Markham, “An Examination of Country and Culture-
based Differences in Compensation Practices,”
Journal of International Business Studies
21 (No. 4, 1990):
667–78.
6 Masaaki Kotabe, Alan J. Dubinsky, and Chae Un Lim, “Perceptions of Organizational Fairness: A Cross-
national Perspective,”
International Marketing Review
9 (No. 2, 1992): 41- 58.
7 Alan J. Dubinsky
et al
., “Influence of Role Stress on Industrial Salespeople’s Work Outcomes in the United
States, Japan, and Korea, “
Journal of International Business Studies
23 (No. 1, 1992): 77–99.
8 Nakíye Boyacigiller, “The Role of Expatriates in the Management of Interdependence, Complexity and Risk
in Multinational Corporations,”
Journal of International Business Studies
21 (No. 3, 1990): 357–81.
9 J. Stewart Black and Lyman W. Porter,“Managerial Behaviors and Job Performance: A Successful Manager
in Los Angeles May Not Succeed in Hong Kong,”
Journal of International Business Studies
22 (No. 1,
1991): 99–113.
10 J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen, “The Other Half of the Picture: Antecedents of Spouse Cross-
cultural Adjustment,”
Journal of International Business Studies
22 (No. 3, 1991): 461–77.
11 Ivan M. Manev and William B. Stevenson, “Nationality, Cultural Distance, and Expatriate Status: Effects on
the Managerial Network in a Multinational Enterprise,”
Journal of International Business Studies
32 (second
quarter, 2001): 285–303.
12 Meg G. Birdseye and John S. Hill, “Individual, Organizational/Work and Environmental Influences on
Expatriate Turnover Tendencies: An Empirical Study,”
Journal of International Business Studies
26 (No. 4,
1995): 787–13.
13 Earl Naumann, “Organizational Predictors of Expatriate Job Satisfaction,”
Journal of International
Business Studies
24 (No. 1, 1993): 61–80.
14 Daniel C. Feldman and Holly B. Tompson, “Expatriation, Repatriation, and Domestic Geographical
Relocation: An Empirical Investigation of Adjustment to New Job Assignments,”
Journal of International
Business Studies
24 (No. 3, 1993): 507–29.
15 Sunkyu Jun, James W. Gentry, and Yong J. Hyun, “Cultural Adaptation of Business Expatriates in the Host
Marketplace,”
Journal of International Business Studies
32 (second quarter, 2001): 369–77.
16 Moshe Banai and William D. Reisel, “Expatriate Managers’ Loyalty to the MNC: Myth or Reality? An
Exploratory Study,”
Journal of International Business Studies
25 (No. 2, 1994): 233- 48.
17 “The Fast Track Leads Overseas,”
Business Week
, November 1, 1993, 64ff.
18 Linda K. Stroh, Arup Varma, and Stacey J. Valy-Durbin,“Why Are Women Left at Home: Are They Unwilling
to Go on International Assignments?”
Journal of World Business
30 (fall 2000): 241–55.
19 “A Crisis of Confidence,”
Business Week
, September 18, 2000, 40–2; “Jac Nasser’s Biggest Test,”
Fortune
,
September 18, 2000, 123ff.; “Ford vs. Firestone: A Corporate Whodunit,”
Business Week
, June 11, 2001,
46–7.
20 “Ask the TIC: Temporary Imports, ATA Carnet,”
Export America
(March 2001): 14–15.
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440
Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed
unconventionally.
John Maynard Keynes
CHAPTER OUTLINE
■ The role of advertising
■ Patterns of advertising expenditures
■ Advertising and regulations
■ Advertising media
Television
Radio
Newspapers
Magazines
Direct mail
Outdoor
Internet
Screen (cinema)
Directories
Rural media
Stadiums
Other media
Media mix
■ Standardized international advertising
Three schools of thought
Feasibility and desirability
Research and empirical evidence
A decision-making framework
■ Global advertising: true geocentricity
■ Conclusion
■ Case 15.1 The Marlboro Man: should we modify his image overseas?
Promotion strategies
Advertising
Chapter 15
Developing and socialist/communist countries,
emphasizing production and distribution efficiency,
usually attack advertising as a wasteful practice
whose primary purpose is to create unnecessary
wants.Yet advertising serves a very useful purpose
– consumers everywhere, irrespective of their
countries’ political systems and level of economic
development, need useful product information.
Interestingly, Russian consumers were found to
exhibit more favorable attitudes toward advertising
in general, whereas American respondents felt
that advertising resulted in greater negative social
effects.
1
Since the 1950s, China has prohibited foreigners
from advertising there because advertising was
considered politically inappropriate. In the 1980s,
however, China changed its policy in order that the
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ADVERTISING
PURPOSE OF CHAPTER
The examples in the marketing illustration below emphasize the need to communicate with buyers and to
endow a product with a distinct image. A product must not only be physically superior but must also be
psychologically desirable. Frequently, a product’s psychological attributes are even more important than its
physical characteristics. To convince consumers that a product is psychologically superior, a company uses
advertising. A product has to be differentiated from competitive brands, and the differences can be either
real or imagined.
The marketing of products overseas underscores the necessity for the adaptation of communication. To
advertise internationally, a firm cannot simply repeat the same message indiscriminately in all markets. A
message that elicits a favorable response in one country can easily fail to communicate with an audience
in another country. To complicate the matter, there are constraints on advertising that preclude the use of
certain kinds of media in certain countries.
The purpose of this chapter is to examine advertising practices in various countries. The variations in
advertising practices are discussed, as well as particular problems associated with the use of advertising
media abroad. Finally, the chapter closely analyzes the most controversial subject in international adver-
tising – standardized advertising. Some practical guidelines are offered that may be useful in resolving the
controversy.
Coca-Cola Co. acquired the Thums Up brand in India
in 1993.Thums Up is a sweeter local cola that at one
time commanded more than 60 percent of carbonated
beverage sales.Because of Coca-Cola’s neglect,Thums
Up’s market share plunged to just 15 percent by 1998.
Finally, the chief of operations in India has managed to
get an approval from Coca-Cola to push local brands
as much as Coca Cola. Advertising and distribution
have been strengthened. Within a year,Thums Up has
made it back to become the No. 2 soda in India.
In the case of Coke itself, the operations chief has
introduced a new advertising campaign that equates
Coke with
thanda
, the Hindi word for “cold.” He also
uses Bollywood movie star Amir Khan as Coke’s
celebrity spokesman. The advertising campaign has
been a big success.
Source:
“Finally, Coke Gets It Right,”
Business Week
,
February 10, 2003, 47.
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION THUMB DOWN AND THUMB UP
THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING
Chinese population could be informed of products
available, just as in a modern industrial society.
Virtually all media are now available for advertising:
billboards, department stores’ display cases, tele-
phone books, newspapers, magazines, and journals.
Even radio and TV time is available and may be pur-
chased. TV advertising is quite a bargain, since a
sixty-second spot for the nationally broadcast China
Central Television I network costs only $5000.
Chinese viewers generally enjoy watching the
commercials shown.
A correlation has been demonstrated to exist
between advertising expenditures and a country’s
GNP and level of economic development. As a
country becomes more industrialized, the level of
advertising expenditure tends to increase as well.
The USA is highest in per capita advertising at $499
per person. In the case of Japan, Canada, Germany,
and France, the figures are $298, $266, $196, and
$154 respectively.
2
Regarding the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS), foreign companies are
responsible for about half of the advertising done
there. The advertising expenditures in the CIS are
quite tiny and represent only the amount of a small
advertising account in the USA.
Many of the largest advertisers in the USA also
advertise heavily overseas. Procter & Gamble and
General Motors, for example, are among the largest
advertising spenders in France and Canada. Local
firms in markets outside the USA often view this
kind of expenditure as an unfair trade practice.They
fear that American firms could easily overwhelm
local firms in terms of advertising dollars.
PATTERNS OF ADVERTISING
EXPENDITURES
In one study, advertising-to-sales ratios varied across
fifteen countries, ranging from 0.95 for Yugoslavia
to 7.62 for Australia.These ratios were not related
to population size, number of directly competing
brands within the firm, or number of directly com-
peting brands outside the firm.
3
Advertising expenditures vary widely from
industry to industry. Mars allocates 5 percent of the
company’s total sales to advertising. Manufacturers
of dolls and stuffed toys maintain an advertising-to-
sales ratio of more than 15 percent. On the other
hand, manufacturers of certain nonconsumer goods
(e.g., industrial machinery and equipment and agri-
cultural chemicals) do not advertise very much,
spending perhaps less than 0.5 percent of their total
sales.
4
The relationship between advertising expendi-
ture and sales generated has been well documented.
Certain variables determine the size of the adver-
tising budget as well as the size of the overall mar-
keting budget. According to the well-publicized
ADVISOR models, the size of an advertising budget
is a function of: sales (+), number of users and other
participants (+), customer concentration (–), frac-
tion of sales made to order (–), stage in life cycle
(–), and product plans (+).The size of a marketing
budget is a function of: prospect–customer attitude
differences (–), proportion of direct sales (+), and
product complexity (–). It should be pointed out
that the importance of particular predictor variables
is not uniform across countries.
It is important to note variations in the different
types of marketing expense – when expressed as a
percentage of sales – across countries and product
categories.The variations in the marketing expense
ratios indicate that executives should be careful
when they approach advertising budget decisions in
other cultures.
ADVERTISING AND REGULATIONS
Advertising can be affected by local regulations in
several ways. The availability of media (or the lack
of it) is one example.When and how much media
time and space are made available, if at all, is deter-
mined by local authorities. Belgium prohibits the
use of electricity for advertising purposes between
midnight and 8 a.m. German laws regulate TV
advertising contents and limit advertising on the
national TV channels to twenty minutes a day,
forcing advertisers to switch from state-run TV to
private channels. Greece and South Korea ban the
erection of new signs. Furthermore, nationalism
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ADVERTISING
may intrude in the form of a ban on the use of
foreign languages and materials in advertising.
The advertising industry may have a local self-
regulatory organization which regulates the style
and content of promotional activities.As in the case
of England, the Committee of Advertising Practice
has issued new codes which require all nonbroad-
cast advertisements to be “legal, decent, honest and
truthful.”
5
For instance, no medium may be used to
advertise alcoholic drinks if more than 25 percent
of the audience is aged under eighteen years.
Children should not be encouraged to eat or drink
at bedtime or to replace main meals with confec-
tionery or snack foods. Regarding motor vehicles,
speed or acceleration should not be the predomi-
nant message, and cars on public roads must not be
shown to exceed speed limits. Those selling treat-
ment of minor addictions and bad habits must
acknowledge the vital role of willpower.
The legitimacy of comparative advertising has
not been fully settled in many countries. Certain
products are banned altogether from certain media,
or from advertising in certain countries.
A number of countries have complete bans on
cigarette advertising. Interpreting the law creatively,
R.J. Reynolds attempted to circumvent Norway’s
ban on cigarette advertising by advertising “Camel
boots” instead. The advertisement used the same
model, trademark, and lettering in the word Camel
as those used in Camel’s cigarette advertisements.
After a protest, the advertisement was eventually
withdrawn.Advertisements in France are limited to
a picture of a cigarette package with no “seductive
imagery.” To overcome this restriction, cigarette
makers create products such as Marlboro cigarette
lighters and Pall Mall matches that are purposefully
made to resemble cigarette packages because there
is no restriction on how such products may be adver-
tised. In Sudan, Philip Morris advertised by having
the Marlboro cowboy hold a Marlboro lighter.
ADVERTISING MEDIA
International advertising is the practice of
advertising in foreign or international media when
the advertising campaign is planned, directly or
indirectly, by an advertiser from another country.To
advertise overseas, a company must determine the
availability (or unavailability) of advertising media.
Media may not be readily available in all countries
or in certain areas within the countries. Further-
more, the techniques used in media overseas can be
vastly different from those employed in the USA.
Television
For Americans, television is taken for granted
because it is available everywhere and in color.
Outside of the USA, even in other advanced nations,
it is a different story altogether.This difference may
explain why US advertisers spend $20 billion each
year on TV commercials, four times the amount
European advertisers spend.
In most countries, television is not available on a
nationwide basis due to the lack of TV stations,
relay stations, and cable TV. Color television, for the
poor, is a rarity. Nevertheless, the viewing habits
of people on a lower income should not be under-
estimated because of the “group viewing” factor. For
example, a TV set in a village hall can attract a large
number of viewers, resulting in a great deal of inter-
action among the villagers in terms of conversation
about the advertised products.
In many countries, TV stations are state con-
trolled and government operated due to military
requirements. As such, the stations are managed
with the public welfare rather than a commercial
objective in mind.The programming and advertis-
ing are thus closely controlled.The programs shown
may vary widely and are usually dubbed in the local
languages. European governments particularly
abhor the US private broadcast model with its
degenerate mass programming. More recently,
however, European restrictions have been reduced
on featuring films with frequent interruptions from
advertisements. The reduction is due in part to an
attempt by European countries such as France to
end the government monopoly on media and to pri-
vatize the broadcast business by making available
private broadcasting franchises.
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Commercial TV time is usually extremely diffi-
cult to buy overseas.This is true even in Europe and
Japan, where television is widespread. The usual
practice in Tokyo is to use TV advertising to bombard
the market, but the challenge for the marketer is
to get air time.There are several reasons why televi-
sion advertising time is severely limited. Many coun-
tries have only a few TV channels, which may not
schedule daytime television or late-night programs.
With less broadcast time comes less advertising
time. Some countries do not allow program spon-
sorship other than spot announcements. Belgium,
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ban advertising on
television altogether. Some governments permit
advertising only during certain hours of operation.
In Germany, advertising on television is permitted
only between 6.15 and 8 p.m. (except for Sundays
and holidays) for a total advertising time available of
twenty minutes. That same number of commercial
minutes also applies to Switzerland.The problem of
getting a fraction of the available television time was
so severe for Unilever that the firm had to make
adjustments in media strategy by relying more on
other media. In most countries, the situation is such
that an advertiser is fortunate to get air time at all.
There are at least two tactics an advertiser can
employ to overcome the problem of lack of broad-
cast time for advertising. One is to use shorter com-
mercials. In the USA, 61 percent of TV spots are
thirty-second commercials, and 35 percent are
fifteen-second commercials. In Japan, 79 percent of
TV spots are fifteen-second commercials. Not sur-
prisingly, clutter is worse in Japan: there are sixteen
commercials per hour in the USA but thirty com-
mercials per hour in Japan.
6
Although disputed in the USA, fifteen-second
spots have become the norm in a number of coun-
tries. Spots shorter than thirty seconds are an over-
whelming majority in France (71 percent), Japan
(79 percent), and Spain (80 percent). In fact, the
Japanese even have eight-second spots that function
almost like billboards on TV and yet are graphically
compelling.
7
Another tactic is to purchase TV time well
in advance. With a waiting list of 100 companies,
TV advertising time in the Netherlands must be
booked with a year’s notice. Those advertisers
able to get air time still face other advertising
hurdles. For example, commercial interruptions
may be long and frequent, creating a severe problem
of clutter.
Advertisers sometimes use TV stations in one
country to reach consumers in another country.
Canada is a prime example. More than 75 percent
of Canadians are clustered within 100 miles of the
US border, and 95 percent are within 200 miles.
Thus, nearly all Canadians are within the broadcast
range of US stations. US advertisers often use US
TV stations to communicate with Canadian con-
sumers. In fact, Canadian advertisers themselves
make it a practice to use US stations at the border
(e.g., Detroit, Spokane, and Buffalo) to air com-
mercials aimed primarily at the Canadian market.
Reasons for this practice are that American TV sta-
tions have higher program ratings than do Canadian
stations, and that the Canadian audience in total
spends some twenty-six billion hours a week
viewing US shows – the equivalent of 78 percent of
the total hours spent watching Canadian English-
language TV programs.
New technology may allow advertisers to solve
some of the problems related to TV time and gov-
ernment regulation (e.g., a ban on the advertising
of certain products or to certain groups). Cable TV
is available in Western Europe. Commercial pro-
grams, for example, can be beamed from the United
Kingdom to cable networks in Norway, Finland, and
Switzerland. Retransmitting the signal, however, is
still illegal in Norway.
Satellite TV may present another solution and is
gaining wider acceptance. McDonald’s and Mars
have begun to funnel some advertising dollars to
the Sky Channel satellite network. Cable TV and
satellite TV are often international media in the
sense that they reach multiple countries outside
the country where the broadcast originates.Turner
Broadcasting’s Cable News Network has a global
reach of more than sixty million households in
more than 200 countries and territories. MTV’s
thirty-three channels across the world have access
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ADVERTISING
to almost 375 million households. MTV,VH1, and
Nickelodeon altogether reach one billion people in
eighteen languages in 164 countries.
8
The two cable or satellite channels that are truly
international are CNN and British Broadcasting
Corp. Because of CNN’s US-centric approach
during the Iraq war in 2003, the BBC was able to
attract new audiences all over the world with its
authoritative coverage of the war. Its balanced cov-
erage frustrated those from the Right as well as
those from the Left.Those on the Right called the
BBC the Baghdad Broadcasting Corp., while those
on the Left dubbed it the Blair–Bush Corp. For
those in the middle, the BBC stood for better,
balanced coverage.
9
France has TV5 that broadcasts
internationally, but this French-language channel
primarily offers movies and general programming.
France is in the process of creating a government-
supported all-news channel to present its point of
view that may counter those of CNN and the BBC.
10
Regionally, Channel V is an Asian alternative to
MTV. Channel V is 87.5 percent owned by Star
Group, News Corp.’s wholly owned subsidiary. Both
Channel V and Star Group have their headquarters
in Hong Kong. In order to localize its operations,
Channel V has moved the production of its Channel
V International from Hong Kong to Malaysia. Its six
other channels have local production teams that
focus on China,Taiwan, Korea, India,Thailand, and
Australia.
11
One advertising problem with this new technol-
ogy has been that, when an advertisement is aired,
consumers in all countries are exposed to an iden-
tical message. But improved technology has now
made it possible for advertisers to beam particular
advertising versions to different countries.
Radio
Radio is no longer king of the media in the USA,
but it retains its status in many countries as the only
truly national medium. In Mexico, for example,
radio provides coverage for 83 percent of the
country. It is popular for several reasons.A radio set
is inexpensive and affordable – even among poor
people. It is virtually a free medium for listeners:
the programs are free, and the costs of operating
and maintaining a radio set are almost negligible.
Furthermore, illiteracy poses no problem for this
advertising medium. As a communication medium,
radio is entertaining, up-to-date, and portable.The
medium penetrates from the highest to the lowest
socioeconomic levels, with FM stations being pre-
ferred by high-income and better-educated listen-
ers. Not surprisingly, radio commands the largest
portion of advertising expenditures in a great
number of markets.
In order for radio stations in the USA to survive
and counter the threat of television, they have
adopted the “magazine” format by specializing in a
particular type of programming. Advertisers must
not assume that stations have adopted this same
approach abroad. In many countries, radio stations
have not become specialized in a particular program
format and see no need to be selective in order to
attract the listening audience. Radio stations com-
monly vary their programming format throughout
the day, sometimes as often as every half hour. An
audience shift should thus be expected, and a con-
sequence of this practice is that it may not be easy
to reach the target market effectively.
Unlike US stations, which do their own pro-
gramming and hire their own announcers or disc
jockeys, overseas stations are quite liberal in selling
air time to outside operators.This is true in spite of
the fact that for security reasons most overseas sta-
tions are owned, controlled, and operated by the
government. Once the air time has been sold,
the program format is determined by the sponsor
or independent disc jockey.Thus listeners’ loyalty is
not so much to the station but to the disc jockey
who may roam from one station to another through-
out the day.
Newspapers
In virtually all urban areas of the world, the popu-
lation has access to daily newspapers. In fact, the
problem for the advertiser is not one of having too
few newspapers but rather one of having too many.
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ADVERTISING