International Advertising Blog Summary: Industry Trends

A primary trend I have discovered through execution of this blog involves companies taking their business abroad in order to help the declining sales of their domestic brands. For instance, Starbuck’s, due to its recent struggle with attracting new customers in US stores, decided to use this strategy of building its brand internationally to counter its weakening domestic sales. Similarly, Triar Co., the parent company of Arby’s, bought out Wendy’s International in hopes of saving its failing business. Triar sought to recreate the International fast food chain’s brand image through a new international advertising campaign that would increase sales abroad. Both Starbuck’s and Triar were able to capitalize on the development of international advertising strategies that provided greater opportunities in foreign markets. This trend stems from the belief that it is more valuable to place a brand in a new market and test its success abroad rather than to reposition an existing brand within an already established market in hopes of gaining market share as a result of the new brand image.

Other companies choose to expand in international markets to boost their sales in general. The Wall Street Journal took its business to Great Britain to jump at the opportunity of benefiting from the London market. London readers represent a great potential market for the newspaper, as well as presenting an additional opportunity for the already established market to receive their news several hours earlier online. GlaxoSmithKline, a leading pharmaceutical company, has also been capitalizing on this idea of expanding internationally to increase market share potential. Glaxo, like the Wall Street Journal, focused advertising efforts on foreign markets, particularly new emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East.

Existing within the desire to expand business to international countries, companies seek to penetrate one foreign market in particular: China. The Chinese market has become extremely attractive to international businesses, resulting in a multitude of advertising efforts focusing directly on this new emerging top market. Many American advertising efforts have migrated towards the Chinese market since it is the largest, and therefore the most appealing for prospective businesses. From Kraft to Reebok, companies are discovering the advantages of marketing towards this massive and diverse group of consumers. Kraft realized that its Oreo cookie, while remaining popular in the United States, was becoming more successful in the Chinese market, due to the slight variations made in the formulation of the cookie itself. Reebok realized that more direct advertisements, with less symbolic aspects, generated the most success when working with the Chinese markets.

With the growing trend of targeting the Chinese market, companies have increasingly been performing market research in order to define the proper market on which to concentrate. With the size of the China being so great, the individual target markets throughout the country are very diverse, and not all brands can benefit to the same degree when advertising to this vast market as a whole. While businesses have realized the need to invent separate advertising campaigns for varying Chinese markets within the country, these companies have also realized the need for culturally tailored advertisements, differing from the strategies used to target western cultures. The trend has been to create more direct advertisements that focus on the brand name and the visual of the product. Western cultures appreciate advertisements with symbolic meaning and underlying themes, an advertising strategy that does not prove successful among Eastern cultures. Overall, whether practicing global marketing tactics or developing specifically tailored campaigns for the varying Chinese markets, companies are seeking to increase brand exposure through product diffusion within the largest and most successful international market.

Another trend existing among international advetisers is to target brands specifically towards a female audience. Reebok, with the launching of their new global campaign, targeted a new line of sneakers directly at the female market. Also taking up this strategy, a Russian vodka producer, Damskaya, positions its alcoholic beverage directly towards women, hoping to gain the business of the neglected female market. This trend represents a change in the way cultures are defining and accepting gender roles, internationally. Campaigns with such as a focus on women will continue to grow as cultures continue to grow and redefine their stereotypes of female and male gender roles.

A recent surge of advertising efforts have been employed that position products as environmentally sustainable, through tactics of green marketing. SunChips made use of this advertising strategy in their campaign, similar to those efforts of many domestic and global brands alike. This intrigue with protecting the environment, works to present companies as socially responsible, which will continue to be an increasingly popular marketing strategy among advertisers.

International advertising efforts are becoming more and more prevalent as businesses continue to realize the opportunities that exist abroad in new emerging markets. China will grow to become the largest market on the map, soon overcoming the success and power that the United States has established and maintained for so long. The themes of advertising campaigns will continue to become more accepting of targeting female audiences with more than household products, as women in many cultures show growth in becoming more dominant consumers. In addition to these international advertising trends, the global efforts being put forth to save the environment are gaining increasing support all over the world, and advertisers will continue to capitalize on this concept. In understanding the views and roles of international audiences, advertising campaigns can more successfully target particular cultures, sexes, and issues. These trends in international advertising are in no threat of declining, showing the importance of recognizing them so that one can properly reign success in this rapidly growing industry.