CROSSCULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN ADVERTISING CREATIVE STRATEGY: A LACUNIAN ANALYSIS OF AUTO COMMERCIALS

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• CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN ADVERTISING
  CREATIVE STRATEGY A LACUNIAN ANALYSIS OF AUTO
  COMMERCIALS IN AMERICA AND GERMANY

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ABSTRACT

• This study addresses the standardization and
  adaptation of advertising campaigns in the
  context of the auto industry and their televised
  campaigns in America and Germany. It sets out to
  investigate how lacuna theory can be used to show
  that advertisements reflect a specific cultural
  communication and they are interpreted by a
  specific cultural understanding. Lacuna theory
  will be used to see the perceptions of auto
  commercials by Germans and Americans to see if
  differences in cultural communication and
  cultural understanding exist in advertising
  creative strategies. The study will find out how
  these differences, if present, can be identified
  and understood so that advertising creatives can
  begin to either implement standardized
  commercials that are functional for the auto
  industry in Germany and America or else adapt
  their campaigns to better target consumers in
  each country.

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Language and Culture

• My paper deals with language (verbal and
  non-verbal) and culture (German and American).
  According to Samovar, Porter, and Stefani (1998)
  our language serves as a guide to how we perceive
  reality, Word usage and meaning are learned, and
  all cultures and co-cultures have special
  experiences that frame usage and meaning. (146)
  We cannot be separated our language from our
  culture. It is a shared set of symbols that are
  understood by a large group of people. Symbols
  and sound vary from culture to culture, as well
  as the rules for using the symbols (phonology,
  grammar, syntax, and intonation). Samovar,
  Porter, and Stefani (1998) believe that as the
  global village evolves there will be a greater
  emphasis put on the importance of international
  communication and language translation.

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The Question of Standardization

• Since the 1960s when advertising standardization
  was first being discussed (Elinder, 1961 Fatt,
  1964), the question of whether companies would or
  would not be able to promote products in other
  lands using the same advertising message strategy
  has not been fully answered. Many scholars tend
  to forward the opinion that standardization can
  work to a certain extent. These individuals
  suggest that some aspects of the advertising
  campaign can be standardized yet other aspects
  should be adapted to meet the given market
  conditions (Light, 1990 Peebles et al., 1977
  Quelch and Hoff, 1986). Opponents to
  standardization state that advertising strategies
  should be adapted to other markets because the
  cultural differences as well as the economical
  and legal conditions are too large to conquer
  with a single advertising campaign (Kotleer,
  1986).

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The Continuum Concept

• Nikolasos Papavassilious and Vlasis
  Stathakopoulos (1997) take what they call the
  continuum concept into consideration, meaning
  that international advertising decisions
  concerning the creative advertising strategy and
  tactics can be viewed as a continuum which
  stretches between two polar ends, one being that
  of standardization the other of adaptation. The
  researchers explain their understanding of the
  concept, The continuum concept suggests that
  international advertising decisions must be
  either standardized or not standardized. If they
  are not standardized, then they must be adapted,
  and hence one needs to determine which
  adaptations are most appropriate in different
  situations.

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Standardization vs. Adaptation

• Papavassilious and Stathakopoulos identify three
  sets of variables which are directly related to
  international advertising strategy.
• Local
• Intrinsic
• Firm

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Local Variables

• The cultural environment to which one belongs
  becomes a centering point for the development of
  the individual. He or she evaluates, comprehends,
  behaves, and perceives the world according to
  sets of beliefs, values, and attitudes, which
  arose, and perhaps were even encouraged, by way
  of the interaction of the individual in the given
  social environment over time.

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Advertising Studies

• Graham et. al. (1993) while studying how the host
  culture influences a firms marketing strategies,
  found that German and Japanese companies adapt
  their advertising strategies, to different
  degrees, in order to meet the cultural
  requirements of their foreign markets.
• Mueller (1987) found out just how important
  cultural values can be as they relate to
  advertising message appeals. The researcher found
  that Japanese magazines often forward more
  soft-sell appeals and status appeals, and less
  rational appeals. They also show more respect for
  elders in their magazines.
• Hong et al. (1987) also found that status appeals
  are stressed in Japanese advertisements while the
  emphasis of individual determinism plays a major
  role in American advertisements.

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Cultural Similarities

• Boote (1982) completed an empirical comparative
  study of the value structures in the UK, Germany,
  and France.
• Mueller (1991) found that a standardized approach
  was more common between America and Germany than
  America and Japan. This was due to the fact that
  a concentration on individual gratification
  exists in the USA which a contrary emphasis on
  group norms exists in Japan.
• The French, for instance, rely on far less
  television and print advertising for information
  in regard to new products than Americans (Green
  Langeard, 1975). The French also subscribe to
  less magazines, thus special advertising
  strategies, ones that differ greatly from
  American advertising strategies, must be taken in
  France, simply because media habits differ.

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Lacuna Theory

• Lacuna theory will provide the theoretical
  foundation for the study. The lacuna model was
  originally discovered by J.A. Sorokin and used
  within the framework of Russian
  ethnopsycholinguistics. The lacuna concept was
  referred to in the 19th century by Russian
  linguistics but lacuna theory did not become a
  central concept for Russian intercultural
  communication studies until the 1970s and 1980s
  (Schroeder, 1995).

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Types of Lacunae

• Cultural Lacunae
• Subjective Lacunae
• Lacunae of Communicative Activity
• Lacunae Related to Cultural Space
• Pragmatic Lacunae
• Textual Lacunae

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An Overview of the Study

• Sixty-five American college students from a small
  liberal arts institution, Muskingum College (New
  Concord, Ohio), were asked to imagine that they
  were working for an advertising research firm
  that was working upon a campaign where they would
  have to either standardize their advertisements
  or adapt them. The students were taking classes
  in either public speaking or mass communication.
  Their ages ranged from 18 to 22.

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Question 1

• Briefly compare the German car commercials with
  American car commercials. What do you notice as
  being different or strange about the German
  car commercials?

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Question 2

• Notice carefully the production techniques
  (music, lighting, sound, camera angles, and
  shots, editing) used in the creation of the
  American car commercials. Do you find these
  techniques to be somewhat unusual? (i.e., does
  the pacing seem too fast or too slow?)

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Question 3

• Do you recognize any of the characters in any of
  the commercials? Do you find the gestures, facial
  expressions, make-up, or body language of the
  characters to be different from that of the
  facial expressions, make-up, or body language of
  the characters to be different from that of the
  characters seen on American commercials? If yes,
  please explain your answer.

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Question 4

• Do the values that are being associated with the
  product in the German car commercials differ from
  the values that are being associated with the
  product in the German car commercials differ from
  the values that are associated with the product
  in America? Give an example of how the
  association is the same or different.

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Question 5

• Which commercials seem to be more entertaining,
  the German car commercials or the American car
  commercials, or do they seem pretty much the same?

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Question 6

• Is there a difference in the type of language
  used in the commercials (i.e., the way the car is
  described, formal, slang this is relying
  heavily on the translation)

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Question 7

• Do the German commercials contain more emotional
  appeals or more rational appeals? Is this
  situation the same in regard to the American
  commercials

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Question 8

• Would most of the German car commercials function
  properly in America if they were correctly
  translated and dubbed? Please explain your answer.

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Thank you for your time and cooperation.