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Advertising spending is on the rise, as study a show that in the US, $1 billion was spent on advertising during 2006 alone. A review built by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers that same year stated that the worldwide advertising expenditure was at $billion. What is Global Advertising? Terminology such as international, global, export and multinational has caused some problems when mentioned along with advertising.
Some of this is due to the facts that that some organizations produce and market their products in a range of countries and have some form of subsidiaries there. This has caused some of them to focus solely on export from their home country or the country of manufacture, some impasses perform their marketing abroad largely through franchisees and licensees; whilst some engage in both forms together. Global advertising is therefore defined as the advertising activities of any profit or non-profit organization in more than one country. (http://en. Wisped. Erg/wick/ Advertising#Gibbon_advertising) Factors That Affect Global Advertising Standardization Vs. Customization This is a problematic issue that organizations face whether to standardize their advertisements to a single message for all the countries they advertise, r try and adapt them in so they can be tolerated and meet the requirements of the variety of markets globally. Standardization Standardization is about considering the world as one whole market, ignoring the fact that there could be cultural, national and regional differences, and advertising a company’s message in the same manner in all countries.
By doing this they are targeting similar consumers in each state, all with similar buying trends and attitudes. There are a few advantages of this approach, one being that it doesn’t need that much if any advertising research in imprison to customization, which in turn is cheaper to manage, and requires less work to be done overall. This means that one message is used to transpire a company’s message. Arguments that are for this include: -In recent times the world seems to be adapting to similar lifestyles and behaviors. This is very common in developed countries.
However, countries like India and China have even adapted to more westernizes living traits, especially in their main developed cities. This shows that in International Marketing, people’s lifestyles and behaviors are important factors to consider. The world’s population is now seemingly becoming more and more similar in terms of living traits, especially in the more developed countries, which could come to benefit marketers where they can market similar products and services without having to tailor it. – The world we live in continues to urbanism, so more and more people are moving from bucolic areas into cities to work.
This allows them to implement similar attitudes and lifestyles to each other, even though they may live in different states. This again shows that people are now moving out of rural areas to cities, where hey work in similar environments to people all around the world. The world is becoming similar in this aspect and in terms of International Marketing it shows that marketers consider this a beneficial as people are now more likely to develop similar trends. – Media has now become much internationalization, which has in turn given people similar outlooks, even though they live in different countries.
The youth culture, for example, is similar across different countries. This is because they all seem to read the same magazines, watch the same programmed or movies, and dress up similarly too. This eventually grows with them, as they take these similarities in to their later life, so they will end up following these similar trends. This is beneficial to companies, as it could help in the development in their international marketing strategies. The youth are the adults of tomorrow, so companies like Pepsi like to focus on the youth as they will end up being the adults, hopefully taking the mindset of purchasing the product with them.
An example of standardization is that of Red Bull, who worldwide use the same adverts and slogans, which is that ‘Red Bull gives you wings! This is because there is a similar target market as they are seeking middle-class individuals, teens to adults, to buy the product. Another example is that Of ‘Birdseed Fish-fingers’ which use the same ‘Captain Birdseed’ character in all of their commercials worldwide. This is due to the fact that it is culturally respectful, and is inoffensive to people religious beliefs or a government’s political agenda.
The only aspect that changes in these commercials is the language voice-over. In terms of international marketing, standardization is an important factor, which many organizations choose to SE in advertising promotion and production. This is due to the fact that it is a much cheaper tool to use, and is less time consuming and complicated as they only have to create one or two approaches to market penetration. An example of standardization in production side of marketing is Range-Rover, who produces the same type of cars for countries worldwide.
Customization Customization is the opposite of standardization, basically considering that there are factors in different markets, especially in international markets that force companies to adapt their product or campaign to a different country or racket segment. The main problem with customization is that it would cost more due to the fact that adverts would have to be modified for the different market segments. These are the factors to why customization should be used in international advertising: – Cultural differences between the countries. This could be due to their way of living or religious beliefs.
Countries in the middle-east for example, have different culture views on women in society, where they are not allowed to dress indecently. Commercial like L’Oreal, which use women to promote their shampoos, would not go well with some f the people living there. That commercial may do something called ‘changes in symbols’, which means changing (in this circumstance) a woman to a man to promote their products. Because International Marketing is about what a company performs in markets outside its core region, culture is a main aspect they always have to take in consideration.
Knowing the cultures of different regions could help create a desire for a product. In 1 998, Coca Cola made a commercial directed at the Muslims, who fast for a month called Ramadan. This commercial was shown in all Islamic countries, showing the importance f charity, which was of collective importance to all Islamic regions. Coca Cola’s agency, McCann Erickson, used their marketing strategies to help them understand the culture behind Ramadan, and used that to tailor an advertisement. – Complications in language translation.
It isn’t always easy to just simply translate what an advert is saying as it could then have a whole different meaning. This is why firms should always check with the correct people, if the correct message is being put across. Pepsi -Cola, for example, founds that its slogan ‘Come alive, you’re the Pepsi Generation’ had a impolitely different meaning when translated into some countries, laying the slogan across as ‘Pepsi brings you back from the dead’! Language translations should be done with caution in marketing.
They should be monitored and checked by the right people that the message portrays what a company is trying to mention. Mediumistic had to rename its Pagers model in Spain, because when translated it meant a ‘masturbating man’. They renamed the model to Mentor. – Lack of media coverage. In some countries, the media costs are higher, and the information needed for the media was poor. Advertisers relying on television advertisements may have to rethink their strategy when going to countries like Sweden, where they don’t have commercial television.
In Denmark, where they have recently allowed television advertising, the media cost were extremely high. Sometimes the wait for a position on the advertising stage takes a while, and they have to wait, which can particularly be negative especially if marketing a product for a particular season, I. E. Christmas. This shows the reliance of marketers on having to do some market research before they go into ‘unknown’ territories. This will in turn help in the development in their marketing strategies, where they can achieve their goal in persuading a customer to buy a particular brand or product. Political Issues. This is critical to organizations, as they could end up facing legal action or more if they disobey laws and regulations on advertising set by countries. Some countries for example, in 2002, Tobacco advertising was banned in the ELK, and in 2005, this was spread to the whole of Europe, where tobacco advertising was banned in the print media, radio and the internet. Tobacco companies would have to refrain from using those Edie types, but would have to revert to cinemas, billboards or merchandising.
There are also certain countries where it is against the law to criticism your competition in your adverts, so organization would need to be aware if these laws are in place. Politics is important in the practice of International Marketing as it could ensure a company’s well-being with the country they are advertising in. They could also refrain from facing legal action, which normally comes with the problem of having to pay hefty fines. They could also be banned from showcasing future adverts or even banning the product as a whole.
Customization is probably more effective as a whole in International Marketing. The practice of International Marketing is about ‘marketing across international frontiers’ so when we think ‘international’, we have to consider factors such as culture, religion, language and politics. This is due to the fact that the world is not so homogeneous as we like to think, and even though we may have similar traits, there are some differences which on a whole could mean the difference of whether a marketing strategy works or fails. Conclusion Standardization of advertising is therefore very difficult to carry out.
It may seem the better option in terms of saving money on advertisements, but on the long -run it may have an reverse effect as sometimes there are legal restrictions that require changes in the copy or make certain media unavailable, but mostly due to the difference in language, culture, politics or distribution Systems. However, customization should be done with caution. Company sees should ensure that their marketing strategies are properly reviewed and they could seek help from large multinational agencies such as Chitchats & Chitchats or McCann-Erickson.
Advertising is linked to one of the segments of the marketing mix (up’s) which is promotion. This is probably the most important segment of it as it is the image of the organization which is put at focus. International Marketing is about expanding the marketing mix into the international stage, so companies do have to consider whether to stick to their current marketing by way of standardizing or consider the factors that come into to place byway of customizing. The practice of International Marketing is all about looking at these factors, and contemplating whether to consider them in their marketing strategies.