Chapter 7

The International Market

Environment for Brand

Promotion

7-1

1. Identify types of audience research that

contribute to understanding cultural barriers to

effective communication.

2. Describe challenges that complicate integrated

marketing communication in international

settings.

3. Compare the basic types of agencies that can

assist in brand promotion around the world.

4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of

globalized versus localized promotional

campaigns.

7-2

Communicating across Cultures

• All of us wear cultural blinders, so we must overcome substantial barriers in trying

to communicate with people from other countries. This is a major problem for

international marketers as they seek to promote their brands around the world.

• International marketers must overcome two biases: ethnocentrism and self-

reference criterion (SFC).

• To overcome these blind spots and avoid errors in advertising planning, marketers

need to conduct cross-cultural audience analysis.

• Such analyses involve evaluation in the target countries of:

• economic conditions—less-developed countries, newly industrialized

countries, and highly industrialized countries

• demographic characteristics—the demographic dividend

• values –individualism vs. collectivism

• customs and rituals—perpetuate a culture to the point of being ―invisible‖

to native participants

• product use and preferences—often specific to a culture, may depend on

rituals and customs

7-3

Communicating across Cultures, Continued

7-4

Exhibit 7.1 Wide Differences in Wealth

Communicating across Cultures, Continued

7-5

Challenges of International

Brand Promotion

• Worldwide marketers face three distinctive challenges in

executing their campaigns: creative, media, and regulations.

• The creative challenge derives from differences in

experience and meaning among cultures. Even picturing

can be problematic—the images featured in an ad may be

translated differently from one country to the next.

• Media availability, media coverage, and media costs vary

dramatically around the world. Global television networks

and direct broadcast by satellite (DBS) are helping

marketers to overcome these media issues.

• The amount and nature of advertising regulations vary

dramatically from country to country, sometimes forcing a

complete reformulation of a promotional campaign.

7-6

Challenges of International Brand Promotion, Continued

7-7

In this ad, Sears tells girls that its stores have everything they need to be shining stars at their

high school prom. The ad ran in Spanish-speaking countries throughout South America, but the

high school prom is a more common ritual in North America. Can a teen in Santiago spark to

the offer of a formal prom dress when she has no cultural context for interpreting the meaning

of ―prom‖? Not likely.

Challenges of International Brand Promotion, Continued

7-8

Ad Agencies for International

Marketing

• Advertising agencies offer marketers the expertise needed to develop

and execute brand promotion campaigns in international markets.

• Marketers can choose to work with global agencies, an international

affiliate of the agency they use in their home country, or local agencies

in the targeted market.

• Each of these agency types brings different advantages and

disadvantages on evaluative dimensions such as:

• geographic proximity

• economies of scale

• political leverage

• awareness of the client’s strategy

• knowledge of the local culture

7-9

Ad Agencies for International Marketing, Continued

7-10

Exhibit 7.2 Take Your Pick

Globalized versus Localized

Campaigns

• A final concern for international brand promotion entails the degree of

customization a marketer should attempt in campaigns designed to cross national

boundaries.

• Globalized campaigns involve little customization among countries, whereas

localized campaigns feature heavy customization for each market.

• Standardized messages bring cost savings and create a common brand image

worldwide, but they may miss the mark with consumers in different nations.

• As consumers around the world become more similar, globalized campaigns may

become more prevalent. Several trends are facilitating the creation of a global

consumer:

• Global communications provide standardized messages and homogenize

viewers. Common experiences and exposure on the Internet reinforces

shared values globally.

• Teenagers and youth culture in many countries share similar values and

lifestyles and thus make a natural target for globalized campaigns.

• Demographic and lifestyle trends are becoming common across multiple

cultures: more working women, more single-person households, increasing

divorce rates, and fewer children per household.

• The Americanization of consumption values around the world, greatly due to

the exportation of U.S. pop culture, has helped create a standardized global

audience. However, there is some backlash against this effect.

7-11

Globalized versus Localized Campaigns, Continued

7-12

You don’t need to speak Czech to appreciate the

intent of this ad. As with any Nokio product, it’s all

about ―connecting people‖ (especially young people).