International Advertising: A Research Agenda

Abstract

The advertising community has long recognized that there are important international issues which are closely linked to communication decisions. For instance, in the first twenty years of publication, the Journal of Advertising (JA) published 29 articles on the topic of international advertising; thus, more than 16% of all articles directly addressed global issues. Of these 29 articles, seven concentrated on European advertising; five described advertising in Asia (including 3 articles which focused on Japan); and four addressed communication issues in developing nations (including Brazil). At least eleven articles discussed global issues in general, without concentrating on a particular country or pair of countries. At a very early point in the academic literature, it was recognized that advertising practices and results differ across cultures. For example, more than thirty years ago, Stridsberg (1962) argued that marketing experiences and strategies may not transfer so easily across European borders. Specifically, he argued that there is no reason to assume that Belgian consumers should behave like other Europeans in general. At the same time, academics and managers realized that markets were developing in some industries and that communications media had the potential to reach across national borders. In 1961, Elinder proposed that a European-style of advertising was developing that is, a which could be popular and successful in many European countries at once. In addition, Elinder predicted that a uniform world style of advertising would soon develop. Levitt (1983) expanded upon this argument and proposed that the globalization of advertising strategy serves to achieve economies of scale which in turn lead to a reduction of costs and prices.