Cross Cultural Advertising: How Culture Impacts Global Marketing Campaigns

Why Cultural Differences Matter in Global Advertising

“Culture is like dropping an Alka-Seltzer into a glass – you don’t see it, but somehow it does something.”
Hans Magnus Enzensberger

In global marketing, that “something” can determine whether an advertising campaign succeeds or fails. And that’s why cross cultural training is important. 

Cross cultural advertising plays a critical role in how messages are understood, received, and acted upon across different markets. When brands enter new regions, cultural differences influence everything from language and communication style to values, symbols, and imagery.

This article explores how culture impacts advertising across global markets, highlighting real examples, common mistakes, and practical insights to help you create campaigns that resonate with international audiences.

How Culture Impacts Advertising Across Global Markets

When advertising professionals don’t take this seriously, things can go very wrong.  We’ll share a great example of a cultural blunder in advertising in just a little while, but first, it’s important to understand the influences of culture in a little more detail.

When interacting within our native cultures, culture acts as a framework of shared understanding.

However, when interacting with different cultures, this shared framework no longer applies, which results in cultural differences.

Know your target audience! This clever ad from Gulf Air uses different regional men’s headwear to connect with theirs.

Image by Lars Plougmann on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Understanding Cultural Differences in Advertising

‘Culturally competent’ people minimise the negative impact of cultural differences by re-establishing common frameworks for people from different cultures to interact within.

In culturally-savvy international businesses, cultural insights are routinely applied across all business functions – whether HR, team building, foreign trade, cross cultural negotiations, or website design.

For obvious reasons, such cultural intelligence is critical to effective cross-cultural advertising – particularly since materials are typically distributed within the public domain, risking company reputation.

Since services and products are usually designed and marketed for a domestic audience, when the same product is then marketed at an international audience, the domestic advertising campaign will, in most cases, be ineffective.

The poster (see above, left) advertising the movie, Hollywood Buddha, led to protests across the Buddhist world, including Thailand and Sri Lanka. Any idea why? Find out why in our article, How Lack of Cultural Sensitivity in Business Leads to Costly Mistakes

Challenges of Advertising Across Cultures

The essence of successful advertising is convincing people that a product is meant for them. By purchasing it, they will receive some benefit, whether lifestyle, status, convenience, or financial.

However, when an advertising campaign is taken abroad, the target audience typically has different values and perceptions as to what enhances status or what constitutes convenience. As such, these differences make the original advertising campaign defunct.

It is therefore critical to any cross-cultural, global, or international advertising campaign that a thorough understanding of the target culture is acquired.

Let’s examine a few examples of cultural differences in advertising to see why.

Language and Translation in Cross Cultural Advertising

It may seem somewhat obvious to state that language is key to effective cross-cultural advertising. However, the fact that companies persistently fail to check the linguistic implications of company or product names and slogans demonstrates that such issues are not being properly addressed.

The advertising world is littered with examples of linguistic advertising and marketing blunders.

Of the more comical was Ford’s introduction of the ‘Pinto’ in Brazil. After seeing sales fail, they soon realised that this was due to the fact that Brazilians did not want to be seen driving a car, meaning ‘tiny male genitals’.

Language must also be analysed for its cultural suitability.

For example, the slogan employed by the computer games manufacturer, EA Sports, “Challenge Everything,” raises grumbles of disapproval in religious or hierarchical societies where harmonious relationships are maintained through the values of respect and non-confrontation. The idea of challenging everything goes against the grain of respecting others and protecting relationships. As such, it’s frowned upon.

It is imperative, therefore, that language be examined carefully in any international or cross-cultural advertising campaign.

Communication Styles in Global Advertising

Understanding the way in which other cultures communicate allows the advertising campaign to speak to the potential customer in a way they understand and appreciate.

For example, communication styles can be explicit or implicit.

• An explicit communicator (e.g. USA) assumes the listener is unaware of background information or related issues to the topic of discussion and therefore provides it themselves.
• Implicit communicators (e.g. Japan) assume the listener is well informed on the subject and minimise information relayed on the premise that the listener will understand from implication.

An explicit communicator would find an implicit communication style vague, whereas an implicit communicator would find an explicit communication style exaggerated.

It’s important to communicate in a way that appeals to the target audience.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Colours, Symbols and Images in Different Cultures

Even the simplest and most taken-for-granted aspects of advertising need to be inspected under a cross-cultural microscope. Colours, numbers, symbols, and images do not all translate well across cultures.

In some countries, there are lucky colours, such as red and gold in Chinese business culture, and unlucky colours, such as black in Japan.

Some colours have certain significance; green is considered a special colour in Islam, and some colours have tribal associations in parts of Africa.

Some hotels in the USA or UK do not have a room 13 or a 13th floor! Similarly, Nippon Airways in Japan does not have the seat numbers 4 or 9.

If there are numbers with negative connotations abroad, presenting or packaging products in those numbers when advertising should be avoided.

Images should also be culturally sensitive.

Whereas it is common to see pictures of women in bikinis on advertising posters on the metro in Japan (such as the one below), such images would cause outrage in the Middle East.

Photo by Dick Thomas Johnson on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

How Cultural Values Influence Advertising

When advertising abroad, the cultural values underpinning the society must be analysed carefully.

Questions that should be asked about the target country or culture include:

• Is there a religion that is practised by the majority of the people?
• Is the society collectivist or individualist?
• Is it family-oriented?
• Is it hierarchical?
• Is there a dominant political or economic ideology?
• Is it a multicultural or monocultural country?

All of these will impact an advertising campaign if left unexamined.

For example, advertising that focuses on individual success, independence, and stresses the word “I” would be received negatively in countries where teamwork is considered a positive quality.

Rebelliousness or lack of respect for authority should always be avoided in family-oriented or hierarchical societies.

Often, the world of advertising can show us a lot about a culture’s values.  In this advertisement for a new shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the advertisers roll out a series of messages and visuals designed to appeal to the Japanese tourist market.
Can you spot the main values they are focusing on?

Key Takeaways for Cross Cultural Advertising Success

By way of conclusion, we can see that the principles of advertising run through to cross cultural advertising too.

That is – know your market, what is attractive to your target audience, and what motivates them.

Advertising across cultures is simply about using common sense and analyzing how the different elements of an advertising campaign are impacted by culture and modifying them to best speak to the target audience.

Main image adapted version of original by F Delventhal on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)