The globalization and saturation of local markets lead to increased international activities of companies. In this context marketers are forced to advertise globally and to decide between standardization and differentiation of their advertisements, i.e. to either use one single idea all over the world or to make adaptations for local preferences. Besides knowing the pros and cons of these approaches, it is essential that advertisers are familiar with different cultures. Otherwise the advertisement runs the risk of being misunderstood or in the worst case to offend cultural fundamentals. In her book Mirjana Milenkovic examines the specifics of different national cultures and their implications for global advertising. Describing the various local restrictions and obstacles international advertisers have to deal with, the challenge of global advertising becomes clear. The perception of advertising is greatly influenced by the respective culture and its members' understanding of reality. On the basis of Hofstede's Five Dimensions, cultures and their characteristics are described. The reader learns about the behavior in different cultures and how cultural backgrounds impact buying decisions. With numerous practical illustrations Global Advertising in a Cultural Context gives an insight into the specifics of worldwide advertising and the challenge of both approaches in strategy and execution in front of the cultural background. This book gives recommendations for successful global advertising on the basis of six different advertising approaches and their suitability to overcome cultural differences.

3.4.5 Culture and Global Advertising Execution To standardize advertising execution means to use identical design elements. The biggest obstacle in standardizing the execution is the language, verbal as well as nonverbal. Words expressing values and initiating emotions in one country can express completely other values and emotions in other countries. This explains the difficulty of translating advertising copy into languages other than the one in which it is conceived” (De Mooij, 1998, p.47). But the challenge around standardization of verbal elements is not only the dubbing and subtitling. Standardization of verbal elements in the sense of speech and writing means also to fit the peculiarities of a language, the thoughts influenced by the language as well as the educational differences between diverse target groups. Language is an image building element for companies. A confident handling with the language helps to build confidence and credibility by the target group. If a company uses its home country language in an advertisement in other countries without translation, it runs the risk that the core message will be misunderstood or even not understood at all (Kreutzer, 1990). The use of the same language everywhere is only promising if the target group is oriented internationally and at least knows the basics of the language (De Mooij, 1998). Although standardization of verbal elements seems to be easier, in countries with the same” language, an unexamined adoption due to different accents can lead to failure as well (Kreutzer, 1990). One example is the accident of a major paper towel producer. He used his U.S. slogan: There is no finer napkin for the dinner table” also in England. The problem was that napkin” means actually diaper in England. This example shows that even if the English language is classified as the lingua franca, thus as the language that is […] widely used beyond the population of its native speakers” (Lingua Franca, 2008) it must be considered that American English and British English are not the same. In some cases Americans even do not understand the British accent at all (De Mooij/Keegan, 1991). But even translations and back translations can not guarantee that the original message will be communicated as it was intended (Kreutzer, 1990). […] [T]he most effective translation for advertising proposes is not likely to be the most literal one” (Mueller, 1996, p.154). Words and expressions used in advertising express the core values of a culture which often cannot be translated” (De Mooij, 1998, p.218). One example for a bad translation is the slogan of Pepsi in the 1960’s, that sounds in the original form: Come alive, you’re in the Pepsi Generation”. For the German market it was translated in: Come alive out of the grave” (Mueller, 1996). Sometimes it is necessary to play” with the language to get the right communicative accent,what leads to a longer-term anchorage at the target group. A back translation helps to check if no loss of meaning and no interpretation problems exist. It is culture-bound, if something can be communicated by only few words or many words. Some words are so culturally significant that a translation is even impossible. Especially if a TV commercial has a lengthy copy an adaptation will be difficult, because the length of the spoken words vary from language to language. […] [The] translation of an English text into French requires on average, a 15 per cent increase in time if it is translated into German this figure rises to 50 per cent” (De Mooij/Keegan, 1991, p145). If a dubbed advertisement will be accepted depends on whether the viewers are used to dubbed programs or not. In countries where subtitling is common the viewers can be high irritated by dubbed commercials (De Mooij, 1998). The communication style of a culture has direct implications for international advertisers. It has a great impact on how much signs and symbols are used and if an advertisement is understood by the target group. Whereas marketers in low-context cultures use hard-facts to persuade the buying public, they use more soft-sells in high-context cultures. People from low-context cultures would hardly understand advertising messages executed for high-context cultures as. Figure 9 on the next page illustrates a Japanese advertisement for mayonnaise. It shows only a huge tree in the middle of the picture. The information about the actual product and brand is placed at the end of the ad. This advertisement would not be understood by people from low-context cultures. A tree would never be associated with mayonnaise and it has to little data and facts to recognize at first view what it is about (Mueller, 1996).

• Advertising

• Culture

• Standardization

• Differentiation

• Werbung

• Standardisierung

• Hofstede

Mirjana Milenkovic, Diplomarbeit, BWL-Studium an der TU Bergakademie Freiberg in Freiberg. Abschluss 2008 als Diplom-Kauffrau.