Cross cultural advertising assignment

Culture has certainly a great importance, plays an effective role on people’s behavior and influences particularly their perceptions towards advertisements and since there is a large diversity of cultures around the world, the idea of making a universal advertisement is unrealistic. Past studies have shown that culture changes people’s perceptions and influences their willingness to consume. What is used in advertisements, whatever their type was, is only what is believed to have an impact on people’s behavior.

Research have demonstrated that appeals and values used in advertisements across cultures change (Dahl, 2004). As cited in Dahl (2004), research by Caillat and Mueller or Albers-Millers and Gelb have underlined the fact that appeals used in advertising are related to cultural dimensions. In fact, what might have an effect in a specific cultural context might have the opposite effect in another context. Since advertisements are meant to promote a particular product through some values, it is logical that they change depending on the values they need to use.

Depending on the targeted population and its cultural values, people’s perceptions change. Values are acquired socially and thus they differ socially. Since advertisements target people from different societies, they must adapt themselves to the values of everyone. In the Arabic society in general, an advertisements with an implicit or explicit allusion to sexuality for instance will not be accepted. A study made by Al-Olayan and Karande cited in Dahl (2004) shows an interesting comparison between the US and the Arab world.

According to the results of this study, the main differences between the Arab World and the US in terms of advertisements are the information cues and information about price given in the ads, which are more important in the US advertisement. Sometimes, perceptions towards advertisements differ even within the same society. Shiffman and Callow (2002) and Dahl (2004) found that consumers from high-context communication systems use fewer information cues per advertisement than people from low-contexts and this even within a single society.

The Moroccan society is still attached to its tradition. Hence, advertisers have to take into consideration the viewer’s point of view considering that the success of the advertisement depends on it. As opposed to most of the Western societies, Morocco is an example of a Collectivist society. As it has been illustrated in their research, Zhang and Gelb, cited in Dahl (2004), examined how the Chinese collectivist society reacts to diverse types of advertisements. They made an experiment that resulted in interesting findings.

They exposed a sample composed of subjects of the Chinese population to an advertisement which conveys individualistic values and another which conveys collectivist values. The advertisements were both about the same product and the conclusion was that “ Chinese consumers respond more favorably to a collectivistic than to an individualistic appeal” (Dahl, 2004, p20). Since the Moroccan society is a collectivist society as well, the previously cited findings can evidently be applied to it. Furthermore, the Moroccan values emphasize more on the familial side as well as the ethical one.

Thus, the Moroccan population presents an interesting diversity, especially considering the fact that upper and lower classes are radically different in their reaction to advertisements. Successful advertisers generally adapt their campaign depending on the social class targeted and not only on the Moroccan culture as a whole. The differences inside the same society are too different to allow them to make an advertisement that would be appreciated in the whole population. Advertisement is one of the most important business aspects nowadays.

It relies mainly on influencing people’s behavior in order to push them to buy a specific product. Advertising companies around the world make huge effort to promote their product in as many countries as possible. Modern research underlines the fact that to reach these objectives, advertisers need to take into consideration the characteristic of each single culture. As shown in Dahl’s (2004) research, the societies are too different in their values and behavior to accept Levitt’s idea of standardized advertisement.