Right appeals for the 'right self': connectedness–separateness self-schema and cross-cultural persuasion

Abstract

While culture is often used as a segmentation variable, it may not be used as a surrogate for individual consumer in particular cultures. It is important to identify the underlying mechanism that explains the observed cross-cultural similarities and differences of consumer behaviour and to conduct international advertising research based on theoretically valid frameworks. The present paper presents the connectedness-separateness (C-S) self-schema theory based on psychological and anthropological research streams. It is argued that consumers from different cultures tend to have different construals of the self, which in turn influence their cognition, emotion, motivation and behaviour. It is proposed that cross-cultural differences in consumer responses to different advertising appeals may be explained by consumer C-S self-schema, rather than cultural orientation per se . The C-S construct can also be employed to segment the world market across cultures as well as within a culture. A series of propositions is developed by relating cross-cultural differences in self-construal to the effective design of cross-cultural advertising themes and executions.