Saturday, March 1, 2008

Internet Advertising for Eastern and Western Markets

Internet advertising receives a lot of attention from multinational advertisers who seek to reach as much of their target audience as possible through one medium. International corporations understand the importance and effectiveness of differentiating advertising tactics towards different national markets, adapting strategies so that they speak more directly to a specific culture. These international advertisers do not necessarily have to target markets on a country-by-country basis but perhaps differentiate marketing techniques between Eastern and Western markets. A study which compared two groups of nations, sought to uncover the difference between global brands advertising techniques in targeting local markets. The two groups involved in the study were Eastern and Western nations. The Easter nations consisted of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The Western group included Japan, Korea, and China. The study revealed a highly noticeable difference in the visual content of website advertising used by global brands to target these separate markets.

This study raises a lot of questions about the strategies global corporations should execute. Internet marketing, having gained such international popularity among advertisers, proves very effective and direct in targeting a vast number of consumers. As a result of having such unrestricted extension, capable of accessing such percentage of a target audience, the issue becomes whether or not more specialized advertising is required, reaching different market segments with more individualized messages. International businesses must consider if standardized international advertising is ineffective for their brand, although many find that market segmentation is highly effective in relation to differentiating cultures and national markets.

A style exists among Eastern nations which stems from our similar cultural values, and backgrounds, forming a particular way that this audience prefers to be advertised towards. The Eastern style includes a preference for internet advertising that focuses of audience lifestyles, brand images, and mood-creating symbols. A less literal message is warranted and more symbolic meaning is desired. Direct and aggressive website visuals would not be the best way to target the Eastern group because they are highly involved consumers, they are very responsive to the added meaning of a product or brand. They are very receptive to advertisements that involve celebrities because of the added meaning a celebrity portrays-a certain level of importance.

Concerning the Western nations, they too have a preference when it comes to the way in which they want advertisers to target them. They want website advertisement visuals that explicitly display brand name and company logo, along with lengthy product information. These consumers are not looking for the symbolic added feature-they want to know the facts about the product. These countries like direct communication of brand names and information because it is a common cultural form of communication. This style is specific to Western groups, and differs from the communication style of Eastern groups.

International advertisers should investigate whether this specialized market segmentation is necessarily for their brands. If they conduct proper market research on their international markets, they will probably discover that advertising visuals should reflect the communication style of the targeted national market in order to be effective.


[Daechun, An. "Advertising visuals in global brands' local websites: a
six-country comparison." International Journal of Advertising 26.3 (2007):
303-332. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Ithaca Coll. Lib., Ithaca, NY. 1
Mar. 2008 login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=26246061&site=ehost-live>.]

1 comment:

Kim Gregson said...

interesting posts - but the 2nd one is based on a years old article with no current connection. ANd both of these are articles from academic, not trade, journals

4 out of 10 points