7.1 Initial Stage

In the first six months I explored various angles of analysing corporate communication for their intercultural component, and explored different communication instruments for their viability. I also familiarised my self with existing research in this area, and conducted various literature searches on the topic.

I also attended the University research methodology seminar (September-November 1998), and familiarised myself with various different research methods.

After further literature searches I identified the communication instrument that seemed the most appropriate for analysis (television commercials), as there has been some work on the subject matter, however little systematic work in both culturally close and European countries. A preliminary theoretical framework for analysis was developed, based on the Pollay list of advertising appeals.

7.2 Data Collection and initial analysis

Following the initial stage, I collected television commercials according to the procedure explained in section 6, and trained and instructed the coders to code the material collected. For each country around 2200 commercials were recorded. After elimination of duplicate commercials, 597 commercials remained from the UK, 546 from the Netherlands and 460from Germany.

So far, I identified the dominant advertising appeals for each of the three countries, the results of which are given in the table below.

A preliminary analysis of these results suggests that there are quite significant differences in the appeals used in television commercials in the three countries - as well as certain similarities. Not surprisingly perhaps, "effective" is the most dominant appeal in all countries, given that commercials in Western Europe generally tend to reason that a product is "effective" as defined by Pollay. However, the frequency of this appeal occurring is somewhat higher in Germany (50.9%) as compared to the UK (43.2%). Other appeals differ quite considerably in their use: Some striking examples are the use of nature/natural in Germany (17.5%) as opposed to only 3.8% of UK advertising. Equally Dutch commercials favour enjoyment and relaxation appeals, whereas German commercials focus more on health (possibly related to nature) and friendship. Productivity is another frequently used appeal in German advertising, and less often identified in the UK and the Netherlands.

However, there are also some appeals that are used in all three, or two, of the countries with the same, or a similar, frequency. An example of these appeals is "Independence" in the UK and the Netherlands (10.4 and 10.6%).

These, and other observed differences, suggest that advertisers in all three countries use different certain different, as well as certain similar, appeals to market their products and services. As appeals try to match, at least to some extent, consumer values, the differences in appeals suggest that, although geographically close, economically united and generally regarded as culturally close, the difference in consumer values is significant.

The data used above is however drawn from all commercials, regardless of their product category. This may distort the picture quite significantly - as generally certain products from one category will be overwhelmingly associated to certain specific appeals. An example for this would include beer commercials - that use very different appeals to sell in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, or telephone companies - which use virtually identical appeals in all three countries. (I will show examples for these). It therefore seems sensible to not only focus on the appeals in all commercials as a whole - but also to split the results back up into product categories, and analyse these individually.

Further it seems viable to not only focus on the pure presence or absence of an appeal, but to also focus on the context in which this appeal is used. This would be, on the one side, the product it is associated to, and on the other side, the information that is provided and how this information is provided.

This raises the question if and how a more profound analysis of the data can be made. Resulting from the previous research, I suggest to include two further tools for analysis: The Resnick Stern System - which counts the information cues, and the Simons Creative Strategies method of analysis. These may well help to complete the picture - as they provide vital additional information regarding the context in which the appeals are used.