Cross-cultural advertising in Europe

An empirical survey of television advertising in France and the UK

Jeryl Whitelock
Senior Lecturer in International Marketing, Department of Business Studies, University of Salford, UK, and

Cross-cultural advertising in Europe 257

Jean-Christophe Rey
Marketing consultant, London, UK
Introduction This paper aims to add a further dimension to the debate on the standardisation of cross-cultural advertising by evaluating television advertisements in two European countries, France and the UK. Standardisation of international advertising has been the subject of discussion for some forty years, but it is not the intention of this paper to present a detailed review of the literature on the growth of, advantages of and reasons for standardised international advertising, since this has been covered elsewhere (see, for example, Agarwal, 1995; Whitelock and Chung, 1989). Europe has long been suggested to be a possible theatre for standardised advertising (Elinder, 1965), since levels of economic development are similar, advertising industry infrastructures are relatively homogeneous and the development of the European Union is facilitating a harmonisation of laws and regulations. These similarities suggest a growing homogeneity of consumer attitudes within Europe as markets globalise (Levitt, 1983). Wolfe (1991) has identified three types of Euro-consumers: euro-masses, euro-niches and locals. However, the concept of Euro-consumers is still in its infancy and whilst highly visible pan-European brands exist, they represent only a minority of all brands sold (Brochand and Lendrevie, 1993; Whitelock et al., 1995). Nevertheless, differences in advertising regulations are apparent between the two countries under study. In France, for instance, comparative advertising is banned since it is regarded as a denigration of competitive brands. The underlying belief is that the role of advertising is to inform the audience about the benefits of the product and not to put down competitive brands. On the other hand, comparative advertising is permitted and even encouraged in the UK, as it is believed to facilitate consumer information and choice, as well as enhance competition between brands (Usunier, 1993). Similarly, legislation concerning the use of children in advertising also varies across countries. In France, for instance, a child is not allowed to promote a

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product but may be shown in a commercial or a film actually consuming the product. Equally, the importance of culture in the process of interpreting advertisements cannot be ignored (Lenormand, 1964; Usunier, 1994). Television advertisements often depict characters, whether in a daily life situation or in an unusual situation, and by doing so, associate the product with a specific context. The choice of characters and the situation in which they are shown is a very delicate process, which becomes even more so in an international context since the idea that the viewers are likely to associate with a specific setting will vary according to their own cultural references. France and the UK were selected for study for two major reasons: (1) They have a similar population, are at a similar stage of economic development and have similar living standards, thus a common advertising theme and execution might be feasible. (2) Despite their both belonging to the European Union, previous research has suggested that France and the UK are particularly dissimilar in cultural and historical terms (Brochand and Lendrevie 1993; Hofstede, 1980; Laurent, 1983), a factor which suggests that, if the arguments against standardised advertising are to be accepted, standardisation of advertising is unlikely to be possible. In addition, the authors are fluent in both French and English and could ensure access to the data required. Methodology for the study The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) to ascertain how far products advertised on television in both France and the UK employ standardised advertisements; (2) to identify those products which appear to favour a standardised advertising approach; (3) to identify those elements of advertisements which appear to be susceptible to standardisation; and (4) to evaluate the underlying reasons for differences in advertisements for products which are advertised in both countries. To meet these objectives a survey of television advertisements in France and the UK was undertaken during the first six months of 1995. The sample of advertisements was drawn from all the French television channels: TF1, France 2, France 3, Canal +, La Cinq, and M6 and from the two British channels which broadcast commercials at the time: ITV and Channel 4. As far as Canal + is concerned, only advertisements broadcast during the uncoded programmes were selected in order to avoid bias. According to Mdiamtrie figures, most of Canal + viewers during coded programmes belong to the upper classes, due to the high price of this channel. Therefore, advertisements broadcast during this period of time may not be representative of French commercials as a whole.

From 1 January to 30 June 1995, 452 British and 411 French advertisements were recorded . As in Manstead and McCulloughs (1981) study all repeated advertisements (154 in the British sample, 92 in the French one) were discounted. The total number of independent advertisements coded was: UK 298, France 319. Coding procedure The first step consisted in classifying the advertisements according to product category. The following categories, used by Gilly (1988), were selected: food, snacks, soft drinks; personal and beauty care; automobile and accessories; restaurants and retail outlets; drugs and medicines; household appliances/furnishings; institutional/public service; alcoholic beverages; pet food and related products; household cleaning agents; clothing; finance and property; other. Two product categories, however, cannot be advertised on television under current French advertising law: retail outlets and alcoholic beverages. These two categories account for a relatively high percentage of total advertising shares in the UK. Sainsburys, with 15.56m, and Safeway, with 13.15m, ranked respectively number two and three in terms of television advertising expenditures in 1994. Guinness, number one advertiser in its category, spent 9.37m in advertising in 1994, an estimated 65 percent of which was television commercials (The Campaign Report, 1995). These two categories were however excluded from the British sample for consistency. There were nine commercials for retail chains and eight for alcoholic drinks in the British sample. Therefore, the final number of coded advertisements was: France 319, UK 281. The advertisements were then examined using the process of content analysis, a research technique for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication (Berelson, 1952). Content analysis was first designed, in the 1930s, to allow students of journalism to analyse the content of American newspapers. Its use has, however, widened since and, recently, it has been used as a marketing tool (Wheeler, 1988). This method appears not to have been used in studies of international television

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advertisements in Europe. It has been used, however, in a different context, to analyse specific aspects of television advertising, such as the role of women (Gilly, 1988; Livingstone and Green, 1986; Manstead and McCulloch, 1981) or the information content of commercials (Martenson, 1987). As far as empirical studies on standardisation of advertising are concerned, content analysis has already been used in surveys aimed at analysing the standardisation of printed advertisements across Europe (see, for example, Whitelock and Chung, 1989). Advertisements were separated into three categories: (1) purely national products using national advertisements; (2) international products using national advertisements; (3) international products using international advertisements. International products are here defined as products which are sold in France and in the UK. Since products that are advertised on television are usually high profile, due to the cost of this medium, finding out whether they were sold in both countries was an easy task for most of the products involved. Visits to supermarkets, consultation of consumer magazines and product catalogues were the main methods used to check the geographical reach of the few products with which the authors were not familiar. A sample of television advertisements broadcast in France and the UK over a period of six months were recorded. International advertisements were then classified in two categories: fully standardised and partially standardised, taking into account the following elements in advertisements: characters; length; music; screen captions/demonstration on screen; scenic background; slogan; text. The content of standardised advertisements on the one hand and customised or only partially standardised advertisements for international products on the other, was then analysed in an attempt to identify whether a different pattern of advertising was emerging in each country. If that were the case, it would provide evidence that cultural expectations towards advertising prevent advertisers from adopting a standardised approach to international advertising. The content of the samples was coded using Simons (1970) ten-point classification system (see Appendix 1). However, after watching both the French and British advertisements several times it was felt that a second coding, including social and creative dimensions was needed. The classification of advertising styles devised by Cathelat and

Ebguy (1988), from the French Agency Eurocom (now EURO-RSCG) appeared to take these dimensions into account. Therefore it was used as a complementary analysis (see Appendix 2). As noted by Martenson (1987), neither the coding of information content nor the evaluation of the advertising spirit was an easy task as some commercials use different concepts and styles simultaneously. Consequently, a further dimension, viewer benefits, was also analysed since it is an important aspect of advertising. The model developed by Young and Rubicam New York (in Martenson, 1987) was applied to the sample of British and French commercials broadcast, in an attempt to identify patterns in each country on the viewer benefit dimension. This model provides information on both explicit communication (what was said and shown in the advertisement) and implicit communication (what was felt and experienced beyond what was said and shown). According to this model, the four major dimensions of viewer reward are: (1) entertainment; (2) empathy; (3) useful news; (4) viewer respect. Findings of the study 1. Analysis of the sample In the final sample, 281 British and 319 French commercials were analysed. The first step consisted in coding the advertisements according to the product categories. Table I presents the breakdown by product category. The results of this survey show a similarity in the breakdown per product category between France and UK. However, it must be born in mind that two

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France number Food, snack, soft drinks Personal and beauty care Automobile and accessories Restaurant and hotels Drugs and medicine Household appliances, furnishing Institutional, public services Pet food and related products Household cleaning agents Clothing Finance and property Others Total 107 52 34 6 9 11 7 7 19 15 22 30 319

% 34 16 11 2 3 3 2 2 6 5 7 9 100

UK number 97 41 22 8 8 6 9 11 15 11 27 26 281

% 34 15 8 3 3 2 3 4 5 4 10 9 100

Table I. Distribution of product across product category

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product categories have been excluded from the British sample since they are banned from television advertising in France: retailers and alcoholic drinks. Out of 298 commercials in the UK, there were nine commercials for retailers and eight for alcoholic drinks, giving a total for analysis of 281. The relative importance of food, snacks and soft drinks advertising in both countries is clear: around one third of the total sample. This result is likely to influence the findings since food is regarded as the product category for which it is most difficult to adopt a standardised marketing approach (Rijkeins, 1992). 2. Findings on standardisation Table II gives a breakdown of products sold nationally and internationally in both countries. It also shows the percentage of products using international commercials. These results show a major difference between the two countries. Purely national products account for 60 percent of the British sample, whereas they account only for 43 percent of the French sample. In both cases this is still a high percentage, thus confirming Brochand and Lendrevies (1993) findings on the predominance of national brands. Both countries have almost the same percentage of international products using international advertising: around 15 percent. However the percentage of those which use national commercials is by far higher in France (43 percent), than in the UK (24 percent). Taking into account only internationally sold products, it can be seen from Table III that the percentage of products using customised advertisements is by far higher in France (74 percent) than in the UK (58 percent). In other words, almost half of the international products sold in the UK that advertise on television, use international commercials.
France number National products International products/national advertisements International products/international advertisements Total 136 136 47 319 UK number 168 66 47 281

% 43 43 14 100

% 60 24 16 100

Table II. Breakdown by market and advertising reach

France number Table III. International products and advertising strategies International products/national advertisements International products/international advertisements Total 136 47 183

% 74 26 100

UK number 66 47 113

% 58 42 100

International advertisements were then separated into two groups according to whether they were fully standardised or only partially standardised. The results are given in Table IV. Almost half of the international advertisements were fully standardised according to the algorithm developed by the authors. An example of a fully standardised advertisement is given in Figure 1 to illustrate this point.
number Partially standardised advertisements Fully standardised advertisements Total 25 22 47 % 53 47 100

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Table IV. Breakdown of international commercials according to the degree of standardisation

MICROSOFT OFFICE FRANCE Characters: Length: Music: Setting: no character involved 30 unidentified train station UK same same same same

Text: mans voice over: Lentreprise est le moteur de la socit. Sans elle, il ny aurait pas demplois, pas de produits, pas de concurrence, pas de progrs. Lentreprise est le moteur de la socit. Voyons o a vous conduira. Voyons o a nous conduira tous. Voici le logiciel qui vous fera aller de lavant. Screen Captions: entreprise moteur socit pas de produits pas de progrs entreprise moteur vous conduira nous conduira tous Microsoft O voulez-vous aller? Slogan: O voulez-vous aller?

Business is the engine of society. Without it there would be no jobs, no products, no competition, no advancements. Business is the engine of society. See how far it takes you. See how far it takes us all. This software can move you forward. business engine society no products no advancements business engine takes you takes us all Microsoft Where do you want to go? Where do you want to go?

Figure 1. Example of a 100 per cent standardised commercial

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As can be seen, the French and the British advertisements are absolutely identical. The French text is a literal translation of the English one. This is clearly an example of complete standardisation of advertising. However, in the opinion of the authors, a minor change in the text or in the slogan does not in itself indicate non-standardisation, as in LOrals commercial for Plnitude (Figure 2). For instance in the English text Complexe anti-radicaux libres has not been translated, the figures 54 percent and 71 percent have not been included (only in the screen captions) and, as a legal requirement, the French advertisement has given more information on the tests results (25 percent de la population teste) than the British one. Innovation des Laboratoires de LOral has been translated as New from LOral which is its direct equivalent in English, since innovation, in English, has a more technological connotation than in French. The authors consider that these modifications are not significant and have included this advertisement in the fully standardised category since exactly the same commercial clip is used. In fact, very few commercials were 100 percent identical but as long as the differences noted were minor, they were classified as fully standardised. The companies using fully standardised advertisements according to this definition are listed in Table V. It is interesting to note that, during the six months of the study, some of the companies used fully standardised, partially standardised and purely national commercials. Renault, for instance, used its standardised commercial called Bears for the Renault 5 Campus, some partially standardised advertisements labelled Wedding proposal and Friends for the Laguna, and some purely national ones, entitled Nicole in the UK and Rugby or Naomi Campbell in France, for the Clio. LOral and Kelloggs are other examples of companies who use the three approaches to international advertising simultaneously. It is also interesting to note that the products for which standardised advertising has been used appear to be targeted either at what Wolfe (1991) designates Euro-niches: young consumers (Jam TE, Renault 5 Campus, Levis and Lee Coopers jeans, Fiat Punto, Disneyland Paris); executives (IBM, Olivetti, Microsoft Office); healthy eaters (Special K); or are part of a recent trend, such as snack food (Mars, Ferrero Rocher) as hypothesised by Whitelock (1987) and Quelch and Hoff (1986). Nearly all of the fully standardised advertisements had voice-overs and no direct communication from the characters to the viewer was noticed. Table VI shows that the proportion of standardised advertisements with a voice-over is by far higher than the proportion of purely national advertisements with a voice-over. Among standardised advertisements, fully standardised ones use a voice-over more often than partially standardised (82 percent against 68 percent). Voice-overs allow dubbing problems to be avoided. The only fully standardised commercials which did not use a voice-over were IBMs commercials which used subtitles and kept the original language of the

PLENITUDE DE LOREAL FRANCE Characters: Length: Music: Setting: model-type woman 30 unidentified office UK same same same same

Cross-cultural advertising in Europe 265

Text of the commercial: womans voice-over: Moi, je vis avec mon temps. Pour une peau toujours plus jeune jai dcouvert Plnitude Excell A3 aux triples acides de fruits. mans voice-over: Innovation des laboratoires de LOral le triple acide de Fruit dExcell A3 chasse les cellules ternes et rvle une peau nouvelle. Son complexe anti-radicaux libres combat le vieillissement, son filtre protge des rayons UV. Excell A3, un rsultat prouv, une peau plus lisse jusqu 54%, un teint plus clatant jusqu 71%. womans voice-over: Jamais ma peau na t aussi jeune. mans voice-over: Nouveau Plnitude Excell A3 de LOral retarde les effets du vieillissement. Screen Captions: Nouveau (in red label) Triple Acide de Fruits l. Triple Acide de Fruits REVELE 2. Complexe ARL Complexe ARL COMBAT 3. Filtre UV Filtre UV PROTEGE Plus lisse + 54% (25% de la population teste) Plus clatant + 71% (25% de la population teste) RETARDE LES EFFETS DU VIEILLISSEMENTS Slogan: Retarde les effets du vieillissement

I move with the times. To reveal younger looking skin I found Plnitude Excell A3 with triple AHA fruit acids. New from LOral Excell A3 remove dull skin cells and reveal more radiant skin. Excell A3 combats the signs of aging. Its UVB filter protects the skin. Tests prove with Excell A3 the skin is smoother, and visibly more radiant. My skin looks so much younger. New Plnitude Excell A3 from LOral delays the signs of aging. New (in red label) Triple AHA Fruit Acids 1. Triple AHA Fruit Acids REVEAL 2. Excell A3 Excell A3 COMBATS 3. UVB Filter UVB Filter PROTECTS Up to 54% smoother Up to 71% more radiant DELAYS THE SIGNS OF AGING Delays the signs of aging (literal translation)

N.B. Sentences or words which are not translated literally have been underlined and are written in italics.

Figure 2. Example of commercial considered as 100 per cent standardised

characters in order to demonstrate the worldwide appeal of the product. The voice-over in Ray-Bans commercial was kept in its original American English in both countries with subtitles in France to emphasise the American origin

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Company Electronics IBM Olivetti Microsoft Aklaim Beauty and personal care LOreal/Garnier Colgate Palmolive Elida Gibbs Food, snacks and soft drinks Ferrero Kelloggs Unisabi Cars and accessories Renault Fiat Michelin Clothing Lee Cooper Levis

Product/service advertised

Corporate advertising (3 advertisements) Corporate advertising Office software (2 advertisements) Jam TE (video game for Sega/Nintendo) Plenitude Colgate total (2 advertisements) Organics Shampoos Rocher Kelloggs Special K Mars Renault 5 Campus Fiat Punto Michelin Energy Corporate Advertising Corporate Advertising/501 (2 advertisements) Sindy Corporate Advertising

Table V. Companies and products Others using fully standardised advertisements Ray Ban (sunglasses)

of the product and its trendiness. Ferreros commercial was the only one which was dubbed. Twenty-five advertisements were found to be partially standardised between France and the UK. Table VII lists the companies and products using this approach. Considerable differences in the degree of standardisation were noticeable, however. The number of elements of the copy which were standardised varied, as shown in Table VIII.

Total Fully standardised 22 Partially standardised 25 Table VI. Purely national Frequency of voice-overs France 272 in advertisements UK 234

Voice-over only n % 18 17 124 92 82 68 46 39

Voice-over and dialogues Foreign language n % n % 1 8 148 142 0.5 32 54 61 4 0 1 0 17.5 0 0 0

Company Beauty and personal care LOreal/Garnier Procter and Gamble Gilette Kimberly Clark Food, snacks and soft drinks Pernod Ricard Wriggleys Coca-Cola Cars and accessories Renault Medicines and drugs Crookes Household cleaning agents Johnson Home appliances Flymo Pet food and related products Waltham Whiskas Others SNCF/British Railways (transport) Eurotunnel (Transport) MB (toy)

Product/service advertised

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Studio Line, Neutralia, Synergie Tampax Sensor XI Kotex Orangina (3 advertisements) Wriggleys Extra Coca-Cola (2 advertisements) Renault Laguna (2 advertisements) Strepsil Touch & Fresh Round Up Flymo Lawnmower Sheba Whiskas Canned Food Eurostar Channel Tunnel MB Twister Shout & Shoot My Little Pet Shop

Table VII. Companies and products using partially standardised advertisements

Number of standardised elements 1 2 3 4 5 Total

Number of ads 1 5 10 7 2 25

Percentage 4 20 40 28 8 100

Cumulated number 1 6 16 23 25 25

Cumulated percentage 4 24 64 92 100 100

Table VIII. Number of elements of the copy which are standardised in partially standardised advertisements

Most of the partially standardised advertisements had only three or fewer standardised elements. Out of seven elements analysed in this survey, 40 percent of the examples showed only three standardised elements. Only two advertisements had five standardised elements and none had six or more.

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Elements of the copy which are more commonly standardised were identified and are given in Table IX. The most commonly standardised element was scenic background (96 percent). Only one commercial among the 25 belonging to this category used a different scenic background for French television and British television. This finding seems to contradict Hite and Frasers (1988) findings that scenic background is commonly changed to meet local standards and expectations. Twenty-two advertisements out of 25 involved characters, 18 of which (81 percent) showed the same characters in France and the UK. The less standardised items are the slogan (30 percent) and the text (9 percent). These two elements are in fact inexpensive to alter, especially in the case when a voice-over is used. Slogans are known to be one of the most difficult items to standardise since they are supposed to be eye-catching. It is therefore difficult to render the same strength in two different languages through literal translation. That extent of standardisation varies greatly is indicated by three examples (Figures 3, 4, 5). In Figure 3, it can be seen that the commercials have been slightly modified between France and the UK. For instance, the commercials are of different length and the two texts differ significantly. However, it can be argued that the basic message in each text remains the same. Neither the characters nor the scenic background have been altered. In fact, the French commercial appears to be a condensed version of the British one and the modifications seem to have been made so that the new text would fit within a shorter time. Figure 4, Johnsons Touch and Fresh, shows further modifications, although it is still possible to talk of a standardised commercial, as it is visibly the same commercial clip. The French one, being longer, is comprised of more images than the British one. The music has also been altered since the French commercial is based on a song. The texts are quite different and the brand name itself has been modified, Brise in France and Glade in the UK. The name of the product which appears on the screen is the same in both countries, Touch and Fresh, but the French voice-over clearly says Touche fraiche (fresh Touch) instead of Touch and Fresh.
Total Characters Length Music Screen captions/demonstration on screen Scenic background Slogan Text 22 25 25 18 25 20 25 number 18 10 15 9 24 6 3 % 82 40 60 50 96 30 12

Table IX. Elements of the partially standardised commercials which have been found to be more commonly standardised

KOTEX FRANCE Characters: Length: Music: Setting: Text of the commercial: womans voice-over: Kotex vous connait bien, Kotex understands how it feels to be a woman, Thats why we created new Kotex Ultra. The Kotex Stay Dry System absorbs quickly and locks practically, everything away. No wonder Ultra Thin keeps you drier, although it is so thin. For security and confidence new Kotex Ultra Thin and the complete range of Kotex protection. Kotex understands. Two model-type young women 20 unidentified party and gym UK same 30 same same

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alors Kotex a cr la nouvelle serviette Kotex Ultra, avec son voile protection sec exclusif vous ne pouvez pas tre plus au sec. et en plus, elle est tellement mince. Nouvelle Kotex Ultra pour une protection meilleure que jamais.

Kotex vous connait bien.

Demonstration on Screen: The British advertisement includes a demonstration of how Kotex Stay Dry System works whereas the French advertisement does not. Slogan: Kotex vous connait bien. (Kotex knows you well)

Kotex understands.

Figure 3. Example of slightly modified commercial

The next example, Le Shuttle (Figure 5), shows even greater modification, illustrating the degree of variation among partially standardised advertisements. This commercial is probably on the borderline of what can be defined as a standardised advertisement. The length of the British commercial is double that of the French one and the British advertisement has no text at all whereas the French one has very extensive text. However, it can still be regarded as a partially standardised advertisement since the scenic backgrounds are similar and some of the characters are identical. It is visibly the same commercial clip but more images have been incorporated into the British version. The difference of strategy between the UK and France, in this case, can probably be explained by the size of the market in each country. The number of potential users is higher in the UK than in France, hence higher advertising expenditures are justifiable.

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JOHNSONS TOUCH & FRESH FRANCE Characters: Length: Music: Setting: no character involved product shown in detail 20 unidentified living room UK same same 10 different same living room

Text: womans voice over: Enfin un arosol dsodorisant qui dure des heures. Le nouveau Touche Fraiche de Brise. song: Brise Touche Fraiche dure longtemps! Brise Touche Fraiche dure des heures! womans voice over: Brise Touche Fraiche dune seule touche parfume des heures sans retombe humide. En plus, il est rechargeable. Touche Fraiche de Brise. parfume des heures. Screen Captions: Une touche, parfume des heures.

/ Introducing the new Touch & Fresh from Glade. /

It has a fine mist that goes up and stays up for hours. / New Touch & Fresh from Glade /
/ / /

Figure 4. Example of significantly modified commercial

Demonstration: How to refill it. Slogan: Une touche, parfume des heures!

3. Findings on French and British advertising styles The results of the analysis of purely national or only partially standardised advertisements according to Simons classification system (1970) are given in Table X. On the whole, the information content in French and British advertisements appears to be rather similar. In both countries the four most common contents are information, argument, motivation with psychological appeal and brand familiarisation. However, in order of importance, these four categories vary slightly between the two countries. Information is ahead of any other aspect of content in the UK with 23 percent of the sample analysed, whereas it accounts for only 14 percent of the French sample. In France, advertisers rely more on motivation with psychological appeal (26 percent of the French sample), whereas in the UK this strategy comes only fourth, with 17 percent. This difference illustrates the influence of Seguelas[1] doctrine on the French advertising scene. Argument and brand familiarisation represent around 20 percent each of both samples. Other categories of content play a less significant role, with a maximum of 6 percent of the sample for habit starting, for example, in both countries.

LE SHUTTLE FRANCE Characters: family of four female cashier cartoon characters (seafish) 35 unidentified Le Shuttle / (music only) UK same family same cashier more cartoon characters 110 different same

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Length: Music: Setting:

Text: boys voice-over: Samedi on est parti en voiture Calais: on est arriv au tunnel. Il y avait des gens trs marrants. On a pris les billets. On a pris le train avec la voiture. Le train, cest le Shuttle, la navette dEurotunnel. Il sest mis rouler: dedans, on sest bien amus. Et, au bout de 35 minutes on est sorti du Shuttle. Voil, on tait en Angleterre. mans voice over: Le Shultle, prenez le quand a vous prend.

There is a new and easy way to cross the Channel.

Pour un billet achet avant le 30 Avril, un billet gratuit.

Appeler le 36 68 56 57 Screen Captions: Slogan: / /

For your new Le Shuttle brochure, call 0990 700 800 or see your travel agent.

There is a new and easy way to cross the Channel.

Figure 5. Example of greatly modified commercial

Content Information Argument Motivation with psychological appeal Repeated assertion Command Brand familiarisation Symbolic association Imitation Obligation Habit starting Total

France number % 44 59 78 4 12 60 6 14 2 18 297 15 20 26 1 4 20 2 5 1 6 100

UK number 60 57 45 6 5 55 4 7 2 16 257 % 23 22 17 3 2 21 2 3 1 6 100

Table X. Information content in French and British advertisements

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The results of the Cathelat and Ebguys analysis criteria (1988) on advertising style are summarised in Table XI. The comparison of advertising style between France and the UK presents less similarity than the content of advertisements described above. In the French sample, the most common advertising style was egotistical with 22 percent, then comes funny with 16 percent and catalogue with 15 percent. In the British sample, on the other hand, funny is the prevailing advertising style with 27 percent, followed by catalogue with 22 percent. Practical is in third position with 13 percent. The results confirm, as expected, Bonnals (1990) findings on advertising expectations in these countries. Her survey shows that British viewers expect not only honest but also entertaining advertising. The French also expect to be entertained by advertisers, thus justifying the rank of funny in this survey, but value the beauty and dreamlike dimensions of advertisements above all, which explains the importance of the egotistical advertising spirit in the French sample. These findings are in line with Seguelas theory on the role of advertising. The findings on viewer benefits, according to Young and Rubicam New Yorks model (in Martenson, 1987), also indicate this difference between the two countries, as can be seen from Table XII.

Advertising style Ontological Egotistical Esoteric Catalogue Dramatic Funny Practical Social positioning Hedonistic Total

France number % 21 64 21 46 39 49 25 17 15 297 7 22 7 15 13 16 8 6 6 100

UK number 8 31 27 57 28 69 33 0 4 257 % 3 12 10 22 11 27 13 0 2 100

Table XI. Advertising style in France and the UK

Viewer benefit Entertainment Empathy Useful news Respect Total

France number % 53 81 119 44 297 18 27 40 15 100

UK number 63 46 126 22 257 % 25 17 49 9 100

Table XII. Viewer benefit in French and British advertisements

In both countries the most common viewer benefit has been identified as useful news (49 percent in the UK and 40 percent in France), but results relating to the other viewer benefits are not similar. In accordance with the findings on advertising style, entertainment ranks second in the UK, whereas empathy occupies this rank in France with 27 percent, almost ten points ahead of entertainment. This again underlines the fact that, for national and partially standardised advertisements, even when the content of the message appears to be similar in France and the UK, the way in which the information is carried to the viewer differs significantly from one country to another. Conclusions Of the 281 British commercials which were analysed in this study, 113 (40 percent) promoted internationally sold products. As far as the French commercials are concerned, there were 183 commercials out of 319 (57 percent) advertising international products. Among these commercials, 47 standardised commercials were identified, 22 were fully standardised and 25 were partially standardised. However, standardised commercials represent only 15 percent of the commercials taped during the six-month period although international products account for almost half of the products advertised on television. Purely national brands still account for 60 percent of British and 40 percent of French advertisers using television as a communication vehicle. Among products which are sold in both countries, around 65 percent use commercials which are specific to only one of the above countries. These results confirm that, even on a regional basis, the standardised approach to advertising is limited to a few brands. It seems that most advertisers still feel that local idiosyncrasies call for customisation, at least partially, of advertisements. It is also clear that around half the brands advertised in a standardised way emanate from US companies, a finding which supports Whitelock et al.s (1995) study of pan-European brands. A large percentage of the products advertised through standardised advertisements were aimed at specific segments, usually those which are seen as being more homogeneous across borders. Most of the others were products that have been introduced in the last few years or have witnessed a recent development and, hence, are not linked to any cultural more. Clearly, where a cross-cultural or global segment can be identified, e.g. youth, then it can be the target of global brands advertised using global advertising. Among the standardised advertisements identified in the sample, 47 percent were fully standardised and 53 percent were only partially standardised. There were no significant differences between companies or product categories using fully or partially standardised advertisements. Some companies have been found to use different approaches for different products. The elements which were found to be most commonly standardised were the scenic background and the characters. These are two elements which are

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difficult to alter in a cost effective way. The less commonly standardised elements were the text and the slogan. This is not surprising since these can easily be altered in order to respond to local expectations and in quite a cost effective way. Text and slogan can be even more easily modified due to the fact that most international commercials use a voice-over. A detailed analysis of purely national and non fully standardised advertisements has brought to light significant differences in advertising style between France and the UK. The content of the advertising message has been found to be similar in both countries, with information, argument, motivation with psychological appeal and brand familiarisation being the most commonly used in the advertisements analysed, but the method used to convey it appears to be different. UK advertisers use humour more often than their French counterparts, who use dreamlike advertisements, emphasising the luxurious aspect of the product, its social benefits or even its love affair with customers. UK advertisers who do not use humour have been found to create advertisements with straightforward information, using a catalogue like style, thus describing the features of the products using unadorned facts. These results are in accordance with Bonnals (1990) findings about viewers expectations. British viewers want honest, witty and funny advertising whereas French viewers like a more artistic commercial which will make them dream. These fundamental differences in viewers expectations and, hence, in advertising styles might explain, at least partially, why the vast majority of international marketers still use national advertisements in France and the UK despite advertising infrastructures being relatively comparable in both countries. For French and UK advertisers the implications are clear these two countries appear to be too culturally dissimilar to allow much scope for standardised advertising. Finally, it must be added that the findings of the present survey are limited to the evaluation of advertisements from France and the UK over a relatively short period of time. A study over a larger time period would allow for a better understanding of the extent of the standardisation of advertising, whilst the inclusion of additional countries in the research would provide a wider context for understanding this issue.
Note 1. Jacques Seguela is one of the founders of the advertising agency RSCG, which has now been merged with another French agency, Eurocom, to form the European number one communication group EURO-RSCG. Seguela is considered the guru of the French advertising industry and his ideas about the role of advertising as a means of stimulating viewers dreams has deeply influenced French advertising. References Agarwal, M. (1995), Review of a 40-year debate in international advertising, International Marketing Review, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 26-48.

Berelson, B. (1952), Attitudes to advertising in six European countries, Admap, December, pp. 19-23. Bonnal, F. (1990), Attitudes to advertising in six European countries, Admap , December, pp. 19-23. Brochand, B. and Lendrevie, J. (1993), Le Publicitor, Dalloz, Paris. Cathelat, B. and Egbuy, R. (1988), Styles de Pub , Les Editions dOrganisations, Paris, pp. 22, 26. Elinder, E. (1965), How international can advertising be?, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 29, pp. 7-11. Hite, R.E. and Fraser, C. (1988), International advertising strategies of multinational corporations, Journal of Advertising, August-September, pp. 9-17. Hofstede, G. (1980), Cultures Consequences, Sage, Beverley Hills, CA. Gilly, M.C. (1988), Sex roles in advertising: a comparison of television advertisements in Australia, Mexico and the United States, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 52, pp. 75-85. Laurent, A. (1983), The cultural diversity of Western conceptions of management, International Studies of Management and Organization , Vol. XII Nos. 1-2, pp 75-96; in In Search of Appropriate Methodology: From Outside the Peoples Republic of China Looking in, Adler, N.J., Campbell, N. and Laurent, A. (1989), Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. XX No. 1, p. 69. Lenormand, J.M. (1964), Is Europe ripe for the integration of advertising?, The International Advertiser, 4 March. Levitt, T. (1983), The globalization of markets, Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 92-102. Livingstone, S. and Green, G. (1986), Television advertisements and the portrayal of gender, British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 25, pp. 149-54. Manstead, A.S.R. and McCulloch, C. (1981), Sex-role stereotyping in British television advertisements, British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 20, pp. 171-80. Martenson, R.(1987), Advertising strategies and content in American and Swedish advertising: a comparative analysis in cross-cultural research, International Journal of Advertising, June, pp. 133-34. Quelch, J.A. and Hoff, E.J. (1986), Customizing global marketing, Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 59-68. Rijkeins, R. (1992), European Advertising Strategies, Cassel, London. Simon, J.L. (1970), Issues in the Economics of Advertising, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL. The Campaign Report (1995), Campaign, 28 April. Usunier, J.-C. (1993), International Marketing: A Cultural Approach, Prentice-Hall, New York, NY. Wheeler, D. (1988), Content analysis: an analytical technique for international marketing research, International Marketing Review, Winter. Whitelock, J. (1987), Global marketing and the case for international product standardisation, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 21, 9, pp. 32-44. Whitelock, J. and Chung, D. (1989), Cross-cultural advertising: an emprical study, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 8, pp. 291-310. Whitelock, J., Roberts, C. and Blakeley, J. (1995), Reality of the Eurobrand; an empirical analysis, Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 77-96. Wolfe, A. (1991), The single European market: national or Eurobrands?, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 49-58. Appendix 1. Simons classification system 01. Information Presentation of unadorned facts, without explanation or arguments, merely news about the product concerned.

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02. Argument

Relating of facts (reason why) in some detail to the desired purchase; copy especially important; logical playing on established desires in presenting excuses to buy. 03. Motivation with Explicit statement of how the product will benefit the customer; use of psychological emotion and appeals to self-interest in creating desires not previously appeals readily apparent; especially for you framework. 04. Repeated Hard-sell repetition of one basic piece of information; often a generality assertion unsupported by factual proof. 05. Command A non-logical reminder (either hard sell or soft sell) is used and reinforced by an authoritative figure. 06. Brand Friendly, conversational feeling; few or no selling facts, but suggesting a familiarisation loyalty to and trustworthiness of the advertiser. 07. Symbolic Subtle presentation of a single piece of information; linking the product to a association place, event, person or symbol (any positive connotation); product, in general, not featured. 08. Imitation Testimonial, by celebrity, by hidden camera participant or by individual(s) unknown but with whom viewers can readily identify (or whom they respect because of specified characteristics). 09. Obligation Free offer of a gift or information, or a touching sentiment; some attempt to make the viewer feel grateful. 10. Habit-starting Offer of a sample or reduced price to initiate a regular practice or routine; product usually featured. Appendix 2: Cathelet and Ebguys advertising styles 01. Ontological The advertiser appears as a technician, and puts forward his/her know-how to valorise the product. 02. Egotistical The classy aspect of the product is emphasised, in general, by underlining the noble roots of the advertiser. 03. Esoterical The bizarre and artistic dimension of both the product and the advertiser are emphasised, usually by using snob characters. 04. Catalogue The product is the main element of focus. Its features are described in detail and without any frill. 05. Dramatic The social role of the object is the main element, this social role is emphasised by a dramatic setting (example: current Persils commercial: a recent graduate is going to take an interview and realises that his shirt is not clean, Persil solves the problem and he gets the job). 06. Funny The product is associated with a ludicrous dimension, detached from any actual situation. 07. Practical The commercial underlines the benefits of the products in the daily life of customers. 08. Social The product gains a social role by being shown as a must for the happy positioning few, social recognition for the future owner is emphasised. 09. Hedonistic The commercial shows the product and its users as inseparable, almost in love with each other.