Onkvisit S., Shaw J. International Marketing: Analysis and Strategy

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Figure 15.4 A standardized advertisement?

Source:

Reprinted with permission of Schenley Industries, Inc.

advertisement featured a Bangkok architect. These

campaigns were handled by the local Leo Burnett

ofﬁces.

Because of the inclusion of both the stan-

dardization and localization elements, it is very dif-

ﬁcult to determine whether these campaigns are

more standardized than localized (or vice versa) –

without a precise deﬁnition of the concept of

standardization.

The issue of advertising standardization, without

doubt, has far-reaching implications. If it is a valid

strategy, international business managers should

deﬁnitely take advantage of the accompanying ben-

eﬁts of decision simpliﬁcation, cost reduction, and

efﬁciency. On the other hand, if the premise of this

approach is false, the indiscriminate application of

standardized advertising in the marketplace will

cause more harm than good since it may result in

consumers misinterpreting the intended message.

Consequently, the important function of advertising

to facilitate a consumer’s search process can be

seriously impaired.

Three schools of thought

There are three schools of thought on the issue of

standardized advertising: (1) standardization, (2)

individualization, and (3) compromise.

The stan-

dardization school, also known as the universal,inter-

nationalized, common, or uniform approach, questions

the traditional belief in the heterogeneity of the

market and the importance of the localized

approach.This school of thought assumes that better

and faster communication has forged a convergence

of art, literature, media availability, tastes, thoughts,

religious beliefs, culture, living conditions, lan-

guage, and therefore advertising. Even when people

are different, their basic physiological and psycho-

logical needs are still presumed to remain the same.

Therefore, success in advertising depends on moti-

vation patterns rather than on geography. British

Airways’ image advertisements featuring movie

stars, which were designed by Saatchi and Saatchi

in the 1970s to trumpet the newly sleek British

Airways, have been cited as an example of a suc-

cessful standardized campaign.

The opposite views of the standardization school

is the localization school, also known as the non-

standardization, speciﬁcity, individualization, adapta-

tion, or customization approach. This conventional

school of thought holds that advertisers must

particularly make note of the differences among

countries (e.g., culture, taste, media, discretionary

income). These differences make it necessary to

develop speciﬁc advertising programs to achieve

impact in the local markets. A good illustration of

the importance of localization is the Shiseido case.

The Japanese corporation, the world’s third largest

cosmetic company, did poorly in its ﬁrst attempt to

penetrate the US market because its advertisements

featured only Japanese models.

Between these two extreme schools is the

compromise school of thought. While recognizing

local differences and cautioning against a wholesale

or automatic use of standardization, this middle-of-

the-road school holds that it may be possible, and in

certain cases even desirable, to use US marketing

techniques everywhere under some conditions.

Jain has proposed a framework for determining

marketing program standardization. Standardiza-

tion is more practical and effective under these

conditons.

1 Markets are economically alike.

2 Worldwide customers, not countries, are the

basis for identifying the segments to serve.

3 Countries have similar customer behavior and

lifestyle.

4 The product has cultural compatibility across

countries.

5 There is a great degree of similarity in a ﬁrm’s

competitive position in different markets.

6 The ﬁrm competes against the same adver-

saries with similar share positions in different

markets.

7 Product is industrial or high-tech (versus con-

sumer product).

8 Home market-positioning strategy is meaning-

ful in the host market.

9 Countries have similar physical, political, and

legal environments.

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10 There are similar marketing infrastructures in

the home and host countries.

11 Firms possess key managers who share a

common world view.

12 Strategic consensus exists among parent–sub-

sidiary managers.

13 Authority for setting policies and allocating

resources is centralized.

Keegan provides a set of guidelines that can help

in determining when it is appropriate to use stan-

dardized advertising.According to Keegan,there are

ﬁve international product and promotion strate-

gies.

The choice of strategy depends on such

factors as cost, need, and use conditions.A particu-

lar product may be extended (i.e., unchanged) if use

conditions are uniform across markets. Likewise,

a promotional campaign may be standardized or

extended if consumer need for this particular

product is universal. As a company moves from the

ﬁrst strategy toward the last, there is a correspond-

ing increase in cost.

The ﬁrst of the ﬁve strategies is one product, one

message,worldwide.This strategy is feasible if both the

need and use conditions are uniform across coun-

tries. Not many products satisfy these conditions,

though Coke and Pepsi are often cited as examples.

Other examples include diamonds, Chivas Regal

Scotch, and BMW automobiles. Mentioned in jest

by some authorities are products that may be even

more truly global, such as Israeli Uzi submachine-

guns, French Exocet missiles, Russian Kalashnikov

riﬂes, and nuclear weapons.

The second of the ﬁve strategies is product exten-

sion-communications adaptation. A product may be

extended to other countries because of uniform

use conditions, but the promotional message will

probably need to be changed since needs vary.

Toothpaste is used in the same manner everywhere

but often for different reasons. People in the north

of England and the French-speaking areas of Canada

use toothpaste primarily for breath control, making

the appeal of ﬂuoride toothpastes rather limited.

Anheuser-Busch and its partners market the

same beer in many countries but customize their

advertisements (based on American themes) for

each national market.

Product adaptation-communications extension is the

third strategy.When use conditions differ but need

remains constant across markets, modiﬁcation of

product but not promotion is necessary. Black and

Decker, although wanting to globalize its power

tools, must make several product adjustments to ﬁt

certain markets. The tools everywhere look the

same on the outside, but inside it is another matter,

especially for markets in which the variations in

electrical outlets and voltages require different

circuits and cords.

Dual adaptation is the fourth strategy. Both the

product and the promotion have to be changed

for a foreign market owing to variations in need

as well as use conditions in different countries.

Refrigerators made for the USA, for example, must

be modiﬁed to accommodate 220-volt and 50-Hz

electricity overseas. The large refrigerator and its

spacious freezer compartment do not appeal to

people in countries where shopping for fresh food

is done daily and where a refrigerator is used mainly

for short-term storage. In addition, with the high

cost of electricity in virtually all markets outside

the USA, the advertising appeal must be based on

low electricity consumption, durability, reliability,

and compactness.

Product invention is the last strategy.This strategy

may have to be used if the existing product is too

expensive for foreign consumers. A brand new

product with different features may have to be

designed in order to make it affordable. For genera-

tions, Indians have called dhobis to collect dirty laun-

dry from middle-class neighborhoods and wash it

upon the rocks in the rivers.Seeing this as an oppor-

tunity for product invention, Whirlpool Corp. has

appealed to young professional Indian couples who

want Western-style automatic washing machines by

offering what it calls the World Washer.Whirlpool’s

compact washers have specially designed agitators

that do not tangle saris, the ﬂowing outﬁts worn by

a large number of Indian women.Variations of the

World Washer are also manufactured and sold in

Brazil and Mexico, and there are plans to export

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them to other Asian and Latin American countries.

Apart from minor variations in the controls, the

three versions are nearly identical and sell for $270

to $650.The World Washer is a simple, affordable,

bare-bones washer that does only eleven pounds

of washing, or about half the capacity of the typical

US model.

Keegan’s guidelines, although useful, are quite

general. Thus one must consider other relevant

factors and treat them explicitly.

Feasibility and desirability

For an international advertising manager, the deci-

sion is affected by his or her perception of whether

it is “feasible” and “desirable” to implement stan-

dardization. In some cases it may be feasible but not

desirable to use a standardized advertisement; in

other cases it may be desirable but not feasible to do

so.The applicability of advertising standardization is

a function of these two conditions.

The feasibility issue has to do with whether

environmental restrictions or difﬁculties may pro-

hibit the use of a standardized campaign. Three

common problems are literacy (for print advertise-

ments), local regulations, and media and agency avail-

ability.

Because illiteracy adversely affects the compre-

hension of advertising copy, the text portion of an

advertisement must frequently be minimized or

replaced with pictures. Visual aspects inﬂuence

perceived similarity of advertising.

Nevertheless,

not all types of pictures are universal in their mean-

ings, and some may not be an effective means of

communicating with nonliterate market segments.

Therefore, although pictures are more universal

than words, international marketers should still

research their markets before attempting to com-

municate with them through pictures.

Many countries have laws that place restrictions

on the nature, content, and style of advertising mes-

sages.The Marlboro cowboy was banned in England

on the grounds that cowboy worship among chil-

dren might induce them to take up smoking. So the

company had to use noncowboys driving around

Marlboro country in a Jeep.

Germany’s emphasis on fair competition results

in the prohibition of slander against competitors.

As a result, the advertiser must be wary of using

comparatives (e.g., better, superior) and superla-

tives (e.g., best, most durable). In China, Duracell

battery commercials were taken off the air because

the drumming bunny’s endurance claim violated the

rules that prohibit superlative claims and compara-

tive advertising. Likewise, Budweiser’s “King of

Beers” slogan was found to be unacceptable.

A multinational advertiser wishing to use a stan-

dardized advertising campaign needs to rely on an

advertising agency with a worldwide network to

coordinate the campaign across nations. Unfortu-

nately, almost no agencies, regardless of size, are

in a position to control local agencies overseas. In

spite of this difﬁculty, a few multinationals (e.g.,

Bayer, Colgate-Palmolive) have decided to consoli-

date their global advertising at one agency. Ogilvy

& Mather Worldwide, overseeing 272 ofﬁces,

created “White on White” TV commercials to sell

laundry detergent in France and was later used to

replace twenty different local campaigns in thirty

countries. Similarly, IBM’s Personal Systems Group

awarded its entire sales promotion business to

Einson Freeman Promotional Campaigns, making it

the ﬁrst global brand to use a single agency.

It should be noted that the use of a single agency

to handle worldwide advertising, while resembling

the standardization approach, does not necessarily

mean that the approach is purely standardization.

While Colgate-Palmolive believes that there is no

need to reinvent a winning formula, the directive

of IBM’s Personal Systems Group is “Do it once,

replicate, and localize.”

According to one study, advertising agency exec-

utives believe that client pressure will result in

greater use of standardization. However, they also

feel that client pressure and “saving money” are

among the least important reasons for standardiza-

tion because it makes no sense to use a bad or

unproven campaign just to save money. Local agen-

cies tend to think that they can produce better

advertisements for their local markets and that cre-

ative impact should be the most important reason

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as to whether an advertisement should be standard-

ized or localized.

A study of ethical perceptions provides another

relevant perspective. Relative to the USA, hiring

personnel from other advertising agencies was

viewed more negatively in Korea. Also in Korea,

clients’ expectations for favors as well as social

obligations arising from gifts received may require

a different response.

Degree of feasibility varies from country to

country, facilitating the implementation of stan-

dardization in some countries while creating prob-

lems in others. Furthermore, an environment may

change, permitting either more or less opportunity

for standardization in the future. Therefore, feasi-

bility is dependent on the situation and does not

offer solid support for either of the two extreme

schools of thought.

Three major criteria exist to judge the degree of

desirability of a standardized advertisement. One

of these is the amount of cost savings that may be

achieved. Thus standardization is desirable only

when the derived saving in production cost of this

type of advertisement is signiﬁcant.

Another criterion of desirability is consumer

homogeneity, a major assumption of the uniform

approach. If consumers were indeed homogeneous

across countries, the debate would be resolved,

since consumers could then be motivated in exactly

the same way. Are consumers homogeneous? The

proponents of each school of thought have offered

real-life examples that are subjective and highly

judgmental. Consumers would be better served

if the collection of empirical data were based on

research designs that eliminate the effect of con-

founding factors.The results of the literature review

of management responses, consumer characteris-

tics, and consumer responses indicate that there is

no theoretical or empirical evidence to support the

standardization perspective in its present form.

an example, a sample of Dutch respondents exhib-

ited a somewhat negative attitude toward the use of

the English language in TV commercials.When the

English text was shown on the screen as well as spo-

ken,about 50 percent of the subjects made a correct

interpretation. Without the text being shown, the

percentage dropped to just 22 percent. Therefore,

the use of a foreign language (English in this case)

made it more likely for a commercial to be misun-

derstood.

Language thus poses a challenge.

The third criterion of desirability has to do with

the degree of cooperation of an MNC’s foreign sub-

sidiaries and national managers. Because of sub-

sidiaries’ involvement,it is a good idea to investigate

the standardization decision-making process by

studying two organizational factors (decision

powers of subsidiaries and familiarity with foreign

markets at headquarters) and two cultural factors

(similarity in market position and country environ-

mental conditions). MNCs are more likely to cen-

tralize control and adopt standardization when they

understand similarities in market position, when

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Cadbury ran an advertisement in a Mumbai newspa-

per. The advertisement featured a map highlighting

the boundaries of India’s Jammu–Kashmir state, the

Indian-controlled part of a disputed region. The

company compared the Kashmir region to a chocolate

that was too good to share. The copy below the map

read: “Issued in the spirit of Independence Day by

Cadbury Temptations – International chocolates you’d

love to share but won’t.” India and Pakistan have

fought two wars over the province. Cadbury was

rebuked for using a highly sensitive issue as a topic

for advertising. After all, the dispute has claimed the

lives of thousands of people and soldiers.The company

apologized. In hindsight, both Cadbury and its adver-

tising agency should have known better.

Source:

“Cadbury Apologizes for India Ad,”

San José

Mercury News

, August 23, 2002.

MARKETING ETHICS 15.1 NOT A LAUGHING MATTER

they are familiar with foreign contexts, and when

they develop shared values and beliefs among sub-

sidiary managers and headquarters managers.

Otherwise, standardized decisions are likely to be

challenged by local subsidiaries.

Similarly, another

study conﬁrmed that a global company’s ability to

foster successful relationships in terms of marketing

operations between the headquarters and its foreign

subsidiaries can enhance product performance

across markets. As a ﬁrm tries to standardize its

marketing programs, the subsidiaries’ acquiescence

becomes increasingly important.

Research and empirical evidence

At present, the research focus has shifted toward a

more limited level of horizontal homogeneity. Instead

of showing that multiple countries are basically

equivalent (when it is now quite clear that they are

not), several researchers have moved away from the

country as a unit of analysis. Instead, they focus on

examining whether a subset of one national market

is similar to another subset of another national

market. This is what Hassan and Blackwell and

Unnava et al. call a global segment.

A recent study focused on “marketing universals”

which are deﬁned as “consumer behaviors within a

segment and toward a particular product category

that are invariant across cultures.” The researchers

used a sample representing thirty-eight nationalities

and found that, while certain behaviors are likely to

be universal, others are not. Therefore, marketing

strategies should not be uniform across countries.

At present, the available empirical data deal with

the effectiveness of standardization only in an indi-

rect manner. The available data are concerned

primarily with showing how national markets differ

in some ways without indicating whether such

differences actually affect the effectiveness of inter-

national standardization. Most of the recent studies

have shifted the emphasis to national advertising prac-

tices. The evidence is rather overwhelming that

certain advertising methods (e.g., use of symbols,

comparative advertising) may be the norm in

some countries but the exception in others. The

researchers are virtually unanimous in cautioning

against the automatic use of standardization.Accord-

ing to them, since consumers are used to a certain

advertising method which is predominant in their

country, these consumers may not be receptive to

other advertising tactics.

One group of researchers has focused on corporate

responses by investigating whether multinational

ﬁrms prefer to standardize or localize their cam-

paigns. Overall, companies are more likely to

employ localization rather than standardization, and

advertising in particular is the component of the

marketing mix that is most adapted. However, a

recent interview with 150 Norwegian exporters,

focusing on standardization and cooperative climate,

found that companies with high local market know-

ledge had better performance.While the researcher

believed that this relationship partially supported

the standardization approach, it should be noted that

standardization usually focuses on the home country

while ignoring the preference of the host countries.

As also noted by the author, standardization pro-

grams should not be initiated without a thorough

understanding of local market conditions.

Examinations of advertisement content have

repeatedly found that, in practice, the content or

message of advertisements varies signiﬁcantly from

one market to another. In the case of children’s TV

commercials from China and the USA, a content

analysis found that Chinese commercials reﬂect

China’s traditional cultural values and its social and

economic development level. However, there

appears to be a shift in China from the elderly to

the young, reﬂecting the country’s one-child policy.

There is also some evidence of Western values

creeping in.

Another study compared the US and

Chinese advertising appeals in terms of cultural

values. The youth/modernity appeal, supposedly

reﬂecting Westernization, is equally and promi-

nently displayed in both sets of commercials.Yet the

Chinese commercials emphasize the following cul-

tural values more frequently: (1) the soft-sell appeal

in seven product categories, (2) the veneration

elderly/tradition appeal in six product categories,

(3) the oneness with nature appeal in two product

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categories, and (4) the group consensus and status

appeals each in one product category. In contrast,

the US advertisements more frequently use the

hard-sell appeal, the time-oriented and individ-

ual/independence appeals, and the product merit.

Japanese advertisements are also distinct. A

content analysis of how teenage girls and “girlish”

images were portrayed in eight issues of Seventeen

magazine (four being the US edition and four being

the Japanese version) found culture-based differ-

ences. There is a higher frequency of verbal and

visual girlish images in the Japanese issues.

analysis of women’s magazine advertisements in

Germany and Japan focused on ad format, use of

models, male and female role portrayal, and value

appeals. While there are some similarities, there

are also distinct cross-national differences in the

way marketers adapt their strategies.The nontradi-

tional approaches in targeting women are more

culturally speciﬁc than the traditional approaches.

Male role portrayal is an important element of the

non-traditional approaches in women’s maga-

zines.

Similarly, a study of TV commercials from

Japan, Russia, Sweden, and the USA in terms of

the masculine–feminine continuum found that fem-

inine countries show a higher degree of emphasis

on relationships for male and female characters.

Since not all cultures share the same values, adver-

tising standardization appears to be strategically

unwise.

One content analysis examined advertisements

from the USA, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United

Arab Emirates. In Arabic magazine advertisements,

people are depicted less frequently. When these

advertisements show women, the women wear long

dresses. The American advertisements, in contrast,

provide more information content, price informa-

tion, and comparative advertising.

Yet another

content analysis found that standardization is a

ﬂexible policy that may be adapted to accommodate

different market circumstances.

While Hollywood movies are an international

medium, the acceptance of these movies as well as

products placed in them may vary from one country

to another. Unlike commercials that can be adapted

for a particular country, product placement is not

so adaptable because a movie shows a product

being placed in the same way all over the world.

Consumers in the USA, France, and Austria exhib-

ited varying responses with regard to acceptability

and purchase behavior. As an example, Americans

were more likely to accept and purchase the prod-

ucts shown in the movies. However, there was also

some degree of convergence. For example, women

were less positive than men, and this less positive

attitude was persistent across all three countries. In

any case, one implication is that it is a good idea

to identify speciﬁc segments in terms of country,

product, and individual differences.

In practice, the degree of standardization

depends in part on corporate policy and strategic

planning.At the same time, it depends on the impor-

tance of a particular overseas market and the insis-

tence of the head of that subsidiary. As in the case

of Harley-Davidson, the corporate headquarters

had always required the Japanese to use the US

print advertisements.

But the president of the

Japanese unit felt that desolate scenes and the tag

line “one steady constant in an increasingly screwed-

up world” were not meaningful to Japanese buyers.

He was ﬁnally able to obtain permission in to run

a separate advertising campaign. The advertise-

ments juxtaposed American images with traditional

Japanese ones (e.g.,American riders passing a geisha

in a rickshaw). While it is difﬁcult to determine

the effect of the new campaign on sales, the waiting

lists for Harley-Davidson motorcycles have grown

longer.

After having seen or experienced difﬁculties in

implementing the standardization concept, most

international advertisers today have had second

thoughts about standardization and have moved

toward some degree of localization. Parker Pen Co.

launched an ambitious “one world, one voice” pro-

gram in 1984 to sell its writing instruments all over

the world.The campaign was a big disappointment,

and the company has once again tailored its adver-

tisements to local markets. As Procter & Gamble’s

international chief has pointed out, although “tech-

nology” (e.g., gel toothpaste) is global, other aspects

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such as taste, coloring, packaging, and advertising of

the technology are usually local.

In conclusion, an overwhelming number of

studies does not show evidence that supports stan-

dardization. Instead, most studies have found con-

sumer, market, and media differences. However, the

empirical evidence that contradicts the use of stan-

dardization is indirect in nature.This is not surpris-

ing because it is very difﬁcult to design a study that

truly proves the validity (or lack of it) of advertis-

ing standardization. It is possible though to design a

more rigorous study that will address the issue in

terms of cause and effect.

A decision-making framework

All forms of advertising standardization should not

be ignored by the marketer.This technique may be

appropriate on a modest scale, though deﬁnitely not

on a worldwide basis. A limited homogeneity does

existing in many cultures around the world.Thus it

is a good idea to ﬁnd out when and where this

limited scale of homogeneity exists so that some

level of standardization may be considered.

For decision-making purposes, market segmen-

tation can provide a practical framework for stan-

dardizing advertising, as shown in Figure 15.5. If the

world is treated as one whole market, a standard-

ized advertisement may then be used. But if the

world is divided into several segments (i.e., regions

or countries), each segment probably requires its

own custom-made marketing mix (i.e., a localized

advertisement).

A market should be segmented when ﬁve

requirements are met: identiﬁcation, accessibility,

differential response, segment size, and cost/proﬁt.

Each country (or region) should be considered as

a distinct segment if the following conditions

are met:

1 The marketer can identify the country’s unique

demographic characteristics.

2 The responses to a unique marketing mix of

customers in the country will be appreciably

different from those of other countries.

3 The country is accessible through available

selective advertising media with minimum pro-

motion waste.

4 The country’s population size is large enough

to justify the specially designed marketing cam-

paign.

5 Incremental cost as a result of the segmentation

is less than incremental proﬁt.

When all these segmentation criteria are met,

market segmentation is applicable but advertising

standardization is not. There is no question that

the USA is a market segment on its own due to

its unique characteristics and responses, media

availability, market size, and great proﬁt potential.

As such, Asian and European marketers generally

design advertisements speciﬁcally for the US

market. In contrast, these marketers are more likely

to introduce in, say, Asian countries (except Japan)

the advertisements that they have already used in

their own countries.This action may be due to their

belief that these other markets are either similar or

are not economically signiﬁcant enough to justify

nonstandardized advertising.

In a number of cases, it may not be strategically

sound to localize an advertisement for a particular

market. Some countries are too small to warrant

that kind of special attention and the associated

cost. From 1870 to the 1920s, as tariff rates slowly

rose, the number of nations remained stable or

decreased. When trade barriers fell dramatically

after World War II, the number of small countries

soared from seventy-four in 1946 to 192 in 1995.

At present, over half of all nations have smaller pop-

ulations than the state of Massachusetts.

It is

almost impossible to justify why an international

ﬁrm should design an advertisement speciﬁcally

for Tuvalu, whose economy relies on ﬁshing and

coconuts, and has a population of only 10,000.

Even on a bigger scale, it may be easier to justify

why, in many instances, standardization should not

be employed when marketing in the CIS countries.

In spite of their new-found independence, they are

still similar in many ways. Perhaps more impor-

tantly, their market sizes may not be adequate:

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Armenia (3.8 million citizens), Azerbaijan (8.1

million), Georgia (5.4 million), Kazakhstan (14.9

million), Kyrgyzstan (4.7 million), Tajikistan

(6.2 million), Turkmenistan (5.4 million), and

Uzbekistan (25 million).

Marketers should understand that standardiza-

tion is not a universal tool that can be automatically

used without proper consideration. It makes no

sense to forge worldwide uniformity and confor-

mity for management’s convenience if consumers

seek diversity and individuality. Standardization and

advertising are not synonymous. Advertising is sup-

posed to (1) inform and (2) persuade customers (3)

effectively. Standardization may fail to perform any

(or all) of these three objectives.Thus it is critical

to pretest each advertisement in an international

context to determine the effectiveness in terms of

attention getting, comprehension, and persuasion.

It is probably a mistake to use either standard-

ization or localization on a wholesale basis. Some

degree of standardization or localization on an

international or regional basis should be carefully

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Criterion 1: Identification

Does the target group have unique and

measurable characteristics?

Criterion 2: Selectivity

Can this group be reached through the

available media with minimum waste?

Criterion 3: Response

Will this group respond differently but

more favorably than other groups to this

particular marketing mix (e.g., a

specially prepared advertisement)?

Criterion 4: Size

Is the group significant enough in terms

of size to justify a special attention?

Criterion 5: Cost/Profit

Market segmentation

Will extra costs associated with the

special attention to the group be less

than incremental profit?

Localization

(nonstandardization)

yes

Standardization

Figure 15.5 A decision-making framework for advertising standardization

Source:

San Onkvisit and John J. Shaw, “Standard International Advertising: A Review and Critical Evaluation of the

Theoretical and Empirical Evidence,”

Columbia Journal of World Business

22 (fall 1987): 53.

considered. While a US campaign may not work

well in Europe, some type of pan-European adver-

tising may be possible.Yet even then, some country-

speciﬁc information may still be required. It is

important to realize that a well-thought-out adver-

tising idea tends to perform reasonably well in mul-

tiple markets without a great deal of adjustment,

but any ﬂaws associated with a standardized adver-

tisement will multiply in tandem with the number

of countries. As advised by McCollum Spielman,

Worldwide’s chief executive ofﬁcer, “the best

precept to follow is to do your homework. When

entering another country, make sure that your ad

campaign meets the basic rules and preconditions of

its targeted culture. Test it! And be sure to test

through a researcher who is part of that culture.”

GLOBAL ADVERTISING: TRUE

GEOCENTRICITY

Criticisms of myopic standardization should not be

interpreted as an endorsement for a polycentric

approach, which requires custom-made campaigns

for each individual market. Localization, practiced

for its own sake, can be just as myopic. What is

desirable is a kind of geocentricity, which is not the

same thing as standardization.

Standardization is basically a campaign designed

for one market (home country) but exported to

other markets regardless of justiﬁcation. In contrast,

a geocentric campaign requires an advertisement to

be designed for the worldwide audience from the

outset in order to appeal to shared common denom-

inators while allowing for some modiﬁcation to suit

each market.The geocentric approach combines the

best of both worlds (i.e., the cost-reduction advan-

tage of standardization and the advantages of local

relevance and effective appeal of individualization).

For example, Levi Strauss has switched from all

localized advertisements to a pattern advertising

strategy that provides the broad outlines,but not the

details, of the campaign.

Devising a global advertisement is anything but

easy. However, with some planning, it is possible

to create an advertisement which can maintain the

main theme internationally while allowing neces-

sary adaptation. A global advertisement should be

adaptation-ready in the sense that necessary and

desirable adaptation is planned at the time of con-

ception rather than after the fact. Coca-Cola Co.’s

“General Assembly” campaign is a good example.

The campaign shows a thousand children singing the

praises of Coke. Because each McCann ofﬁce had

permission to edit the ﬁlm to include close-ups of

a youngster from its market, at least twenty-one

different versions of the spot existed.

The success of IBM’s Subtitles campaign has

demonstrated that it is possible to integrate global

and local action if the markets are similar and if

the product/brand is perceived similarly in those

markets. Previously, the company allowed each of

its core thirteen semiautonomous business entities

to develop its own independent business strategy.

Seeing greatness in the sum of the parts, IBM’s

chairman reintegrated these units into a cohesive

whole in 1993. One advertising agency was

appointed in 1994 to have the prime responsibility

for executing IBM’s communication programs with

a single voice worldwide.

The Subtitles campaign achieved global imagery

through the use of the same footage in each country

while employing local subtitles to translate the for-

eign language of the commercial. Local subtitling

permits each country to retain its home cultural

accent.The message of the campaign was that IBM

could deliver simple and yet powerful solutions

to manage information anywhere and any time for

individuals and companies of all sizes.The company

wanted to communicate that it was vigorous and

innovative while maintaining the latent strengths of

global scope, leadership, and reliability. Naturally,

the international implementation encountered

some local difﬁculties ranging from limited access to

television commercials to the common practice of

dubbing for foreign language ﬁlms and commercials.

The campaign was run in forty-seven countries,

and was pretested and/or tracked in over twenty

markets worldwide. Although individual markets

showed some response variation, the responses to

the campaign were considerably consistent.Among

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