4.1 Communication and Culture

"Culture is a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioural norms and basic assumptions and values that are shared by a group of people, and that influence each member's behaviour and his/her interpretations of the meaning of other people's behaviour" (Spencer-Oatey, 2000). The concept of "culture" and business has been extensively researched (Hall, 1983; Hofstede, 1980; 1983; 1991; 1998), both how it affects interpersonal communication, as well as in more general terms: such as culture influences business practices, consumer choice and behaviour ( Hofstede, 1991; 1998; Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1993, 1997 ).

Two models have been extensively used in the business world: Hofstede's 5 Dimensions (1980; 1983, 1991) and Hall's perception of time and high-context/low-context models (1983; 1989). A number of other, sometimes more detailed, models are available (Chinese Culture Connection, 1987; Fiske, 1991; Schwarz, 1994). These models clarify and support Hall's and Hofstede's dimensions, and can mostly be related back to the Hofstede dimensions (Smith and Bond, 1998). Hofstede (1991), differentiates between five cultural dimensions:

Individualism/Collectivism Individualist cultures typically emphasise the goals of the individual, individual initiative and achievement, more dominantly than collectivist societies, which are more concerned with collective goals and the group as a whole. In business, individualist societies rely more heavily on facts and figures to determine the optimum outcome, whereas collectivist societies put a greater emphasis on personal relationships and group harmony. This Hofstede dimensions is largely seen as connected with Hall's High-context/Low-context dimension.

Femininity/Masculinity Masculine cultures typically favour assertive, competitive and tough attitudes, whereas feminine cultures are expected to emphasise caring and tender attitudes. Typically, masculine societies offer higher rewards and favour a challenging and competitive environment, whereas in feminine societies the emphasis is more on good relationships and co-operation.

Uncertainty Avoidance The degree of risk aversion in a society is central to this dimension. Countries that score low in uncertainty avoidance typically favour taking risks, trying new ways and using novel approaches. Societies that score high however tend to put greater emphasis on the "tried and tested" methods, are unlikely to take on high risks and are generally considered to be averse to ambiguity.

Power Distance This dimension is concerned with the respect for authority, hierarchy and status. The respect for authority and status are typically more dominant in high power distance countries than low power distance countries, where decisions from the top can (and should) usually be questioned and are typically based on reasoning and factual information. In extremely high power distance countries, the respect for authority figures, such as teachers, superior managers and parents, is generally so high, that their decisions are not questionable and have to be obeyed, regardless of whether or not these decisions make any sense to the recipient.

Polychronic / Monochronic This dimension described by Hall and Hall (1989) is mainly concerned with the perception of time: Time is either perceived as linear and a hard guideline (monochronic), and it is only possible to handle one thing at a time, which requires full attention. In polychronic cultures time is seen as soft guideline, allowing for great flexibility and tasks are handled as they occur, often resulting in several tasks being handled at the same time.

4.2 Advertising and Culture

With the increase in international marketing research in recent years, an increasing number of scholars have shown interest in cross-cultural advertising research. In survey, Saminee and Jeong (1994), reported on a total of 24 cross-cultural studies in advertising for the period of 1980 to 1992. In their survey, the overwhelming majority of studies (21 out of 24) studied advertising in the US compared to at least another nation, whereas the second most studied country was Japan, with only 7 studies. The UK was included in 4 studies, Germany in 2 and the Netherlands in no study.

Few studies examined countries because they were perceived as culturally similar (e.g. Mueller and Caillat, 1996). The majority selected the countries because they were culturally dissimilar (e.g. Katz and Lee, 1992; Culter and Javalgi, 1992; Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996).

Most of the studies published have paired two or more countries and examined the differences. The majority of the studies used either two or three countries, and only a few have extended their studies beyond this number (e.g. Zandpour, Campos and Catalano, 1994; Albers-Miller, 1996; Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996). Some of these studies used research questions and resulting hypothesis loosely based cross-cultural theories, such as Hall (e.g. Biswass, Olsen and Carlet, 1992; Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996) in combination with economic and other data, or strictly based on cross-cultural theories, such as Hofstede (Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996). Other studies have used country specific information, such as predominantly economic information (e.g. Tansey, Hyman and Zinkhan, 1990; Culter and Javalgi, 1992; Mueller and Caillat, 1996; Tse, Belk and Zhou, 1989; Wiles, Wiles and Tjernlund, 1996). A large number of the studies looked at advertising in general, without a directed research question, however, some studies were particularly interested in a limited number of societal phenomena, such as gender roles and work ethics (e.g. Gilly, 1988; Tansey, Hyman, Zinkhan and Chowdhury, 1997). Resulting from this, current research can be broadly classified in three categories:

4.2.1 Sociological research

Sociological research is mainly interested in examining a certain aspect of social life, as it is portrayed in advertising in two or more countries. Often, this type of research tries to characterise a culture’s (or country’s) social attitudes towards a certain aspect of society by examining advertising content for the values that are reflected in the content. As suggested above, this type of research usually does not claim to explain the differences in advertising, but does try to explain the differences in the societies by content analysing the advertising. Here are two examples of this type of research: one focuses on the decline of work ethics in the U.K. and the US, the other research examines gender roles in US, Mexican and Australian television commercials.

Sex Roles in Advertising: A Comparison of Television Advertisements in Australia, Mexico and the United States (Gilly, 1988)

Gilly examined the differences of gender roles as portrayed by television commercials in Australia, Mexico and the United States of America, by studying to extent to which stereotypes were present in the commercials (i.e. to what extent the portrayed characters differed from the actual demographic variables of that country). In the study, a sample of 12 hours of programming was videotaped in Los Angeles, Monterrey and Brisbane from the major network with the highest viewer ratings at the times (8:00 AM — 4.00 PM on Tuesdays and 7.00 PM — 11 PM on Wednesdays). This yielded a total of 617 commercials: 275 US, 204 Mexican and 138 Australian commercials. One bilingual coder was used to code all the commercials for product type, product user, voice over and setting. Equally, each character was analysed for gender, age, marital status, employment (work situation, non-work situation, no indication), occupation (or work position), spokes person role, credibility (product user/authority), help (receiving or giving help), advice (receiving or giving), role ( partner, parent, homemaker, worker, celebrity, interviewer, other), physical activity and frustration. Gilly found some significant differences in the settings in which male and female characters were portrayed in the US commercials: "Women were more likely portrayed in the home, a store, or outdoors whereas men were more likely to appear in work settings." No differences were found between Mexican and Australian commercials. Female voiceovers were used in 12% of the commercials in all countries. In all three countries, females portrayed in the commercial were generally younger than the demographic of that country. Gilly concludes, that overall the Australian commercials exhibit the least differences between men and women (" though still exhibit some sex role difference, [the commercials] are superior to the US ads in terms of overall equality of the sexes"). The US commercials varied to a greater extent, where females were more often portrayed as receivers of help, males more often portrayed as authority figures etc. Mexican commercials tended to have even more gender role differences, though Gilly comments: " from a country perceived so much more traditional than our own [the US], sex role stereotyping is not much greater than that in the US ads."

As can be seen from the above examples sociological research focuses exclusively on one defined societal phenomenon and tries to review this with the help of advertising images/messages. This type of research is also often used to illustrate the relationship between culture and advertising/media messages, given the often a priori assumption that advertising content is itself reflective of culture (Samiee and Jeong, 1994). As this type of research mainly examines one isolated area of interest, it can not and usually does not claim to illustrate a certain leaning towards themes and advertising appeals dominant in any one country overall.

4.2.2 Ethnology inspired research

This type of research is somewhat more general than the sociological research into advertising. Generally a broad selection of advertisements are examined for the presence of defined clues, appeals or values. Generally the presence (or absence) of these is then explained with some ethnology inspired research (such as historic and economic data, societal characteristics). This type of research clearly gives a more complete picture of advertising strategies in a country — however it is often difficult to theorise out of the obtained data a somewhat more global formula for the presence of advertising appeals in a given culture. Data obtained from this type of research could be described as descriptive of the advertising used in the countries studied.

A selection of often-cited studies from this category is given below. This selection illustrates the range of cultures, as well as the range of different values, appeals and clues that have been examined over time. The first example (Wiles, Wiles and Tjernlund, 1996), examining the US and Sweden, is based purely on economic and social data, and gives no importance to cross-cultural theory. The second and third examples (Caillat and Mueller, 1996; Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996), examining the UK and the US, and China and the US derive some of their research questions from cross-cultural theory (Hall), however overwhelmingly examine the advertising with a background of economical, historical and ethnological data and observations.

The Ideology of Advertising: The United States and Sweden (Wiles, Wiles and Tjernlund, 1996)

In this study, the authors examine the differences and similarities of printed advertising in the US and Sweden. The findings were also contrasted with a content analysis of advertisements published some 20 years earlier in the US, trying to establish if there has been a significant shift in values portrayed. The ads were collected from the 10 highest paid (SIC.- that is the way they say it exactly, without any clarification) circulation magazines, and only half page ads and more were considered. In total, 269 US American and 275 Swedish ads were included in the study, coded by five coders from both countries for appeals such as youthfulness, racial distribution, body shape, levels of undress depicted, leisure activities, housework and childcare activities, individuals and relationships and product categories. Overall Wiles et al. conclude, that there are very little differences in all of these variables. Ads in both countries depict people overwhelmingly as youthful, and more slender body types were represented in ads than can be found in the general population. Overall, the authors conclude that "advertisers identify life with leisure […], private life is what matters, mainly life as individuals and to a lesser extent as couples or families; youth and a slender body are the "ideal"; and life is best when there are no racial differences". Also the authors conclude, that overall the values portrayed are identical to those found in the US 20 years ago.

The Influence of Culture on American and British Advertising (Caillat and Mueller, 1996)
This study is one of the most cited and reviewed studies in this category. Caillat and Mueller compare British and American beer advertising, hence reducing the comparison to only one specific product type and allowing greater focus on the cultural variables. Caillat and Mueller also view beer as "one of the more culturally bound" products. Caillat and Mueller assume, ethnologically, that Britain and the US are similar countries; based on the common language and cultural heritage, advanced economic state of the two countries, the economic policies during the 1980s, economic co-operation as well as similar advertising spending. The study tries to counter the well known argument by Theodore Levitt, that a standardised advertising approach can be used for most products by demonstrating the different advertising values used in the two countries.
In the study, Caillat and Mueller examined a total of 62 television commercials, made by domestic companies for broadcast on their domestic market television (UK or US respectively). The samples consisted of 24 commercials for 12 US American brands and 38 commercials for 19 British brands. These commercials were consequently examined for their cultural values, rhetorical style, advertising appeals and the occasion for product usage. Caillat and Mueller define individualism/independence, modernity/newness and achievement as American cultural values, while they associate affiliation, tradition/history and eccentricity as British cultural values. They also categorised direct speech as American style, while indirect speech was associated with British culture. The commercials were also examined for the dominant advertising appeal out of a list of eight primary appeals as defined by Beckman and Gilson (1987): rational, emotional, negative, positive, humour, fear, sex and patriotism. Finally, the commercials were examined for the context in which the product was used. According to Caillat and Mueller, the British commercials were more likely to present beer drinking as a common occurrence, where as American commercials would depict beer drinking in a "special occasion" setting.

The samples were coded by the two researchers and recoded by a graduate student for intercoder reliability. The results supported the hypothesises set by Caillat and Mueller. American advertising showed significantly more "American cultural values", whereas the British commercials displayed overwhelmingly British cultural values.

Cultural values found in the commercials:

Equally, nearly all of the samples US commercials (91.7%) used direct speech, whereas 97.4% of the British commercials used indirect speech. Caillat and Mueller also found, that the dominant primary advertising appeal was emotional/sex for the US (78.9% as compared to only 8.1% in the UK for that appeal), whereas humour dominated in the UK (91.9% as compared to only 21.1% in the US). Equally, the UK commercials tended to show beer consumption as a common or regular activity (83.8% in the UK, 14.3% in the US), whereas the US commercials tended to depict a special occasion as the setting for beer consumption (85.7% compared to 16.2% in the UK).

Cultural Values Reflected in Chinese and U.S. Television Commercials (Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996)
This study is one of the most complete studies of television commercials. It compares a large number of prime time commercials for all types of product categories from the major networks in the US (616 commercials) with commercials from Chinese television stations (486 commercials). The commercials were coded using a procedure developed by Cheng, using Pollay’s (1983) typology of cultural values in advertising. Cheng and Schweitzer used two pairs of coders. Cheng and Schweitzer treated traditional values, such as family and tradition, as being eastern values, while progressive values (such as modern) were linked to American culture. In their findings, the dominant values reflected in Chinese commercials were found to be "family", "technology" and "tradition", whereas US advertising dominantly reflected "enjoyment"’ "individualism" and "economy". Common two both cultures were the values "modern" and "youth". Cheng and Schweitzer point out, that Western values were most frequently used in commercials for imported products. Additionally, Cheng and Schweitzer point out that values portrayed in commercials differs for product categories. For example, the value "family" is used in both the U.S. as well as in China in commercials for medicine.

4.2.3 Cross-cultural psychology inspired research

Compared to the former types of research, this type of research aims to make, at least to a certain extent, predictions about cultural variable variation across cultures by linking research findings to "intercultural dimensions" research, such as Hofstede's culture dimensions.

Three unique studies fall into this category. Zandpour, Campos, Catalano et.al. (1994) examined advertising strategies and style, and in 1996 Albers-Millers and Gelb made a first attempt to establish some hypothesis on predicting advertising values in different cultures in relation to cultural dimensions.

Albers-Miller and Gelb were the first to attempt to measure the extent to which cultural dimensions are reflected in advertising appeals (and values). They used a list of 42 common advertising appeals published by Pollay (1983) — the same list as used in part by Cheng and Schweitzer and Caillat and Mueller. Out of the 42 appeals, 12 appeals are argued to have no relation to any of the dimensions and were eliminated. Subsequently the relationships between the appeals and the cultural dimensions were hypothesised (for example: Relative frequency of self-respect appeals is correlated positively with country scores on the individualism dimension). As not all product categories were advertised equally among the countries, Albers-Miller and Gelb selected advertising only in four categories to be included in their research: office equipment, financial services, clothing and accessories, and travel services. Following this, around 200 advertisements in all four categories were taken from the main business publications of Chile, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan, India, Israel, Mexico, United States, France, Finland and South Africa were collected, and coded using the 30 appeals identified as being culture related.

As a result, 10 of the 30 hypothesised relationships could be positively supported. These are:

Five of eight appeals for Hofstede’s power distance

Three of eight appeals for uncertainty avoidance

Two of six appeals for masculinity

None of the appeals for individualism.

Because of the relatively small sample size, outliners in the data were subsequently removed. This yielded a further 8 supported relationships. In detail there were:

Three additional appeals for individualism (total 3)

One additional appeal for power distance ( total 6)

Two for uncertainty avoidance (total 5)

Two for masculinity (total 4)

Albers-Miller and Gelb concluded from their findings, that advertising appeals may be related in a non-random way, i.e. that advertising values may well vary inline with the cultural dimensions as described by Hofstede.