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Matching Advertising Appeals to Culture: TheInfluence of Products' Use ConditionsYong Zhang and Betsy D. Gelb
In an empirical study, the authors investigated the effects of different advertising appeals used in the UnitedStates and China. The study focused on the match between values expressed in advertising and values in eachof the two cultures, and included the influence of product use condition (socially visible use vs. use in a privatesetting). Results indicate that although culturally congruent appeals were more effective in general, productuse condition moderated the effectiveness of culturally incongruent advertising appeals. Specifically, thesubjects' reactions to the appeal were more positive when the appeal matched the product use condition thanwhen the appeal did not match either the culture or the product use condition. Managerial implications arediscussed.
Yong Zhang (Ph.D., University ofHouston) is Assistant Professor ofMarketing and InternationalBusinesB, Department of Marketingand International Business, Frank G.Zarb School of Business, HofstraUniversity.
Betsy D. Gelb (Ph.D., University ofHouston) is Professor of Marketing,Department of Marketing, College ofBusiness Administration, Universityof Houston.
The authors express their sincerethanks to Mr. Ning Zhang of theIndustrial and Commercial Bank ofChina, and Dr. Bo-Xue Zhang ofBeijing Medical University for theirassistance in part of the datacollection.
Journal of Advertising,Volume XXV, Number 3Fall 1996
Understanding cultural differences is often considered a prerequisite forsuccessful international advertising (Keegan 1989). The reasoning is thatconsumers grow up in a particular culture and become accustomed to thatculture's value systems, beliefs, and perception processes. Consequently,they respond to advertising messages that are congruent with their culture,rewarding advertisers who understand that culture and tailor ads to reflectits values (Boddewyn, Soehl, and Pieard 1986; Buzzell 1968; Harris 1984;Homik 1980).
Is such tailoring worth the incremental cost? That question has elicitedseveral decades of heated discussions ahout the wisdom of standardizationor adaptation (see Elinder 1961; Fatt 1967; Donnelly 1970; Levitt 1983;Onkvisit and Shaw 1987). International advertisers have become particu-larly interested in what circumstances require culturally congruent adver-tising (i.e., advertising that conforms to the norms of a particular culture)versus a more uniform global approach (Jain 1989). Although a standard-ized approach in advertising has been acknowledged to be more suitable forindustrial and high technology products than for consumer products (Bakker1977; Boddewyn, Soehl, and Pieard 1986), relatively little is known aboutdifferences between various consumer products and, in particular, how theway a product is used might affect the best advertising approach.
We investigated product use conditions and their impact on the effective-ness of different advertising appeals across contrasting cultures. Specifi-cally, we explored the effectiveness of advertising appeals matched to cul-ture in the United States and China for an advertised product used in aprivate setting versus one used in a socially visible setting. The UnitedStates and China were chosen to provide maximum cultural contrast.
Advertising in China
For decades after 1949, advertising in China seemed to be an oxymoron.Particularly during the so-called "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1975,advertising was labeled as evil, deceptive, and reflective of capitalistic deca-dence. No advertising was allowed or needed, because the Chinese economywas managed through Soviet-style "five-year plans."
However, remarkable changes have taken place since 1978 when the
30 The Journal of Advertising
"open-door policy" was adopted. China has evolvedfrom an egalitarian orthodox Marxist state to a morepragmatic "socialist market economy" oriented towardeconomic development and modernization. Increas-ingly, like their Western counterparts, Chinese man-agers now face productivity and marketing concernsas China continues to move away from a centrallyplanned economy. Meanwhile, China has come a longway from having no advertising at all to having acontemporary advertising infrastructure with all mod-em media in use (Tse, Belk, and Zhou 1989). Forexample, in terms of print media, about 8,0CX) differ-ent periodicals are currently published in China, manyof which carry a variety of consumer advertisements(Lou 1995). As per capita income has risen, advertis-ing spending has skyrocketed. From 1985 to 1992advertising expenditure's proportion of gross domes-tic product more than tripled from 0.07% to 0.23%(Karp 1994). As a result, advertising has become oneof China's fastest-growing industries {Tefft 1994). Withthe current annual advertising spending growth rate,China is expected to become one of the world's top 10advertising markets within a few years (Parton 1994).Many U.S. and Japanese advertising agencies, there-fore, have entered the Chinese market either to servetheir present clients that have expanded to China orto pursue new opportunities with local firms.
Despite its rapid growth, the Chinese advertisingindustry has yet to reach the levels of sophisticationfound in most Western countries. For example, therelative "newness* of the advertising industry meansgreat difficulties in assessing advertising effective-ness in China (Lohtia, Johnston, and Aab 1994). Tele-vision audience measures and newspaper and maga-zine readership data are almost nonexistent. There-fore, it is difficult for advertisers to assess consumermedia habits, which may be very different from thosein other parts of the world. Many advertisements areinformational and unsophisticated in style. In addi-tion, although a wide variety of media options areavailable, both consumer and industrial products (suchas large trucks, construction machinery, etc.) are ad-vertised through mass media, indicating either a lackof sophistication in media planning or simply a lackof specific media to target certain groups.
As mass advertising becomes a reality for manyAmerican companies operating in China, understand-ing cultural differences between the United Statesand China and the impact of such differences on theeffectiveness of advertising appeals will be increas-ingly important to those companies. However, littleempirical research has examined the cultural differ-
ences between the two countries. Samiee and Jeong(1994) reviewed cross-cultural advertising studiespublished in 18 major periodicals between 1980 and1992 and found that only one study pertained to Chinaand none compared China with the United States.Our study was undertaken in part to address thisdeficiency.
Theoretical Background
Cultural Values and AdvertisingAppeals
Hofstede (1980, p.19) has defined culture as "theinteractive aggregate of common characteristics thatinfluences a group's response to its environm,ent,"and has referred to culture as the "collective pro-gramming of the mind which distinguishes the mem-bers of one group or category of people from those ofanother" (1991, p. 5). According to some researchers,fundamental cultural differences can be identified byexamining the culturally generalizable aspects of val-ues (e.g., Munson and Mclntyre 1979). Advertisersheed such differences because values are of centralconcern in understanding consumer behavior (Carman1978; Rosenberg 1956; Vinson, Scott, and Lamont1977).
Although culture is a complex, multifaceted con-struct, one of its most basic dimensions is the valueplaced on individualism versus collectivism, an as-pect of culture employed in many studies (see Kim etal. 1994). The core meaning of individualism is givingpriority to personal goals over the goals of the in-group; that of collectivism is the reverse (Triandis1989a, 1989b). For example, in individualistic cul-tures such as those in some European countries andNorth America, individuals prefer independent rela-tionships to each other and individual goals take pre-cedence over group goals. In contrast, people in Asia,Africa, and Latin America have an interdependentrelationship with one another within a collectivityand group goals take precedence over individual goals.The individualism-collectivism dichotomy essentiallyreflects basic value emphases at the cultural level —the priorities or preferences, present in cultures orexpressed by individuals, for particular goals ratherthan for others (Kluckhohn 1951; Rokeach 1973;Schwartz 1990).
Researchers have argued that the difference in theindividualism-collectivism dimension represents aprime distinction between Chinese and American cul-tures (e.g., Chan 1986; Ho 1979). In fact, China is
Fall 1996 31
typically considered to exemplify a coUectivistic cul-ture. Chinese society has historically emphasized fam-ily, social interests, and collective actions, anddeemphasized personal goals and accomplishments(Li 1978; Oh 1976). Contrary to the American indi-vidualistic lifestyle and resentment of conformity, theChinese way of life has traditionally stressed interde-pendence and conformity. Despite the recent emer-gence of some consumer enclaves that have embracedsuch values as conspicuous consumption, conformitystill tends to govern interpersonal relationships inChinese society, and continues to have social andcultural approval (Hsu 1981).
The United States, in contrast, is known for its"rugged individualism," the belief that each person isan entity separate from others and the group and, assuch, is endowed with natural rights (Spence 1985).American individualism means not only that one isself-sufficient as a matter of fact, but also that onemust strive toward self-sufficiency as an ideal: eachindividual controls his or her own destiny withouthelp from others (Hsu 1983). Thus, individualism isconsidered central to the American character (Spence1985), and American values that encourage individualachievement and the attainment of material prosper-ity are rooted in that concept. It is also evidenced intheories of ego and moral development postulatingthat the highest stage a person can attain is one ofautonomy, which is above acceptance of and confor-mity to society's standards (e.g., Loevinger 1976).
Such cultural values, norms, and characteristicsare embedded in advertising appeals, the specific ap-proaches advertisers use to communicate how theirproducts will satisfy customer needs (Arens and Bovee1994). The appeals are typically carried in the illus-tration and headlines of the ad and are supportedand reinforced by the ad copy. Researchers have ar-gued that cultural values are the core of advertisingmessages and typical advertisements endorse, glam-orize, and inevitably reinforce cultural values (Pollayand Gallagher 1990). Evidence indicates that differ-ent cultures Beem to emphasize different advertisingappeals. For example, Japanese ads have been foundto contain more emotional and fewer comparativeappeals than American ads (Hong, Muderrisoglu, andZinkhan 1987). Ads in China have been found to con-tain more utilitarian appeals that focus on state ofbeing and promise a better life (Tse, Belk, and Zhou1989).
Of course, neither the United States nor China is aculturally homogeneous society. Multiculturalism inthe United States is well docxmiented, and China has
56 nationalities, many with their own distinctive cul-tural values and belief systems. However, the largestnationality, the Han, constitutes more than 90% ofthe total population, most of whom share Confucianvalues and virtues that emphasize family and collec-tivity. Although disparity in economic developmentacross the different regions of China may have re-sulted in a multicultural environment even withinthe Han nationality, ample evidence shows that cul-ture has great inertia and cultural change is slow(Triandis et al. 1988). In societies with long tradi-tions, emphasis on collectivism changes very slowly,as evidenced by the traditional Chinese cultures foundtoday in Taiwan and Hong Kong despite their eco-nomic divergence from China.
To the extent that advertising does reflect culturaldifferences and there are clear differences betweenChinese and American cultures, one would predictgreatest success in each culture for culturally congru-ent appeals, that is, appeals that conform to prevail-ing cultural values and norms (such as those illus-trating group benefits in China or those illustratingindividual benefits in the United States). Similarly,the effectiveness of a particular appeal should differbetween cultures that do not share the same valuesand norms.
The preceding considerations suggested two hypoth-eses.
Hla: In the United States, a culturally con-gruent individualistic appeal elicits morepositive responses than a culturally in-congruent coUectivistic appeal.
Hlb: In China, a culturally congruent coUec-tivistic appeal elicits more positive re-sponses than a culturally incongruent in-dividualistic appeal.
Products' Use Condition as aModerator
In certain situations, advertising appeal and cul-ture may not match for several reasons. An adver-tiser may follow a global, standardized approach, andthe advertising appeals employed may not reflect theprevailing cultural values of a particular country. Forexample, an individualistic appeal may be used in aeolleetivistic culture vice versa. Moreover, an indi-vidual in the audience for an ad may not be a part ofthe prevailing culture for which the ad was designedfor. Some researchers hold that for the individual-ism-collectivism dimension of culture, the differencebetween two cultures' orientation is a matter of de-
32 The Journal of Advertising
gree rather than bipolar and dichotomous (e.g.,Schwartz 1990). Also, although the terms "individu-alism" and "collectivism" are used to characterize cul-tures and societies, not everyone within a particularculture conforms to the cultural norais (Triandis etal. 1985); there are idiocentric individuals in collec-tivistic cultures and allocentric individuals in indi-vidualistic cultures (Triandis 1989). Beyond thesepsychological tendencies, there are also many in-groups in individualistic cultures (e.g., family, cowork-ers, clube, etc.) and much of the hehavior of individu-als belonging to such groups is consistent with thegroups' norms, although the relationship between theindividuals and the group is less stable than that in acollectivistic culture (Triandis 1989). Similarly, indi-vidualistic values may be present within collectivisticcultures.
The preceding discussion offers an explanation fora seeming contradiction: an appeal that does not matcha culture may not necessarily produce inferior resultsat all times. Advertising effectiveness may be moder-ated by other factors such as product characteristics.For example, in the United States certain products(such as feeling versus thinking products accordingto the FCB Grid) are particularly suited for certainadvertising appeals such as humor (Weinberger andCampbell 1990/1991). In their study of the effective-ness of different advertising appeals, Johar and Sirgy(1991) pointed out that the effectiveness of value-expressive as opposed to utilitarian appeals is a func-tion of such product-related factors as product differ-entiation, life cycle, scarcity, and conspicuousness andof such consumer-related factoid as involvement, priorknowledge, and self-monitoring. Hence, the effective-ness of a culturally incongruent advertising appealmay be moderated by a variety of factors.
That view is consistent with theories on the object-based function of attitude. According to Shavitt (1990),the purpose an object serves may substantially influ-ence the functions of attitudes toward the object. Someobjects (such as a toothbrush) mainly serve a per-sonal purpose because they are used mostly in pri-vate and do not have social meaning (i.e., the socialprojection of self through the display of the object).Other objects, such as a car or camera, often serve asocial purpose of self-projection and status communi-cation although they can also serve a personal pur-pose such as providing transportation or taking pic-tures.
Closely related to the purpose of an object is itsmeaning to the consxuner. Researchers have arguedthat consumers own objects for the value they pro-vide (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton
1981; Furby 1978; Richins 1994). Such a value ofpossession is rooted in the objects' meanings to theconsumer, according to Richins (1994), which may beeither public (i.e., meanings assigned to an object bymembers of society at large) or private (i.e., personaland subjective meanings of an object held by an indi-vidual). In a similar vein, other researchers have dem-onstrated that consumption visibility significantlyinfluences consumers' expectations of social approval(e.g.. Fisher and Price 1992).
Hence, we expect that a consumer's need to con-form to cultural values and norms when evaluatingproducts may depend on how the products are used(the product use condition). A toothbrush need notreflect the prevailing collectivist societal value theway a camera would in a collectivistic culture, giventhat the latter is used in public and serves a socialpurpose and the former does not. An appeal that em-phasizes individual benefits (individualistic appeal)therefore may be effective in promoting the tooth-brush in a predominantly collectivistic culture. In aparallel way, a socially visible product such as a cam-era need not reflect a society's level of individualismto the extent that would be expected for a product forprivate use. An appeal that highlights the social ben-efits of the product (collectivistic appeal) may workwell for such a product in a predominantly individu-alistic culture.
Further, we expect this influence of product usecondition to be more evident for a culturally incon-gruent advertising appeal than for a culturally con-gruent appeal. Stated differently, moderation by prod-uct use condition when a culturally congruent adver-tising appeal is used would be less obvious because ofthe predominance of the culturally congruent appeal,as argued previously. However, when a culturallyincongruent appeal is used, product use conditionwould become more salient. Hence, when a culturallyincongruent advertising appeal matches the product'suse condition, the ad would be more effective thanone in which a culturally incongruent advertising ap-peal matches neither the culture nor the product'suse condition.
The preceding considerations suggested the follow-ing hypotheses.
H2: Product use condition moderates the ef-fectiveness of culturally-incongruent ad-vertising appeals.
H2a: In the United States, a culturally incon-gruent collectivistic appeal elicits morepositive responses for a socially visibleproduct than for a product used in pri-vate.
Fall 1996 33
Table 1Sample Profile
SampleCharacteristics
GenderMaleFemale
AgeMeanSD
Race/NationalitiesCaucasianBlackHispanicAsian
HanHuiOthers
Employed
Full-time Students
United States
47.4%52.6%
23.74.6
65.8%11.3%7.5%
16.2%
36.3%
54.0%
China
58.7%41.3%
21.53.2
91.3%3.8%5.0%
23.0%
78.0%
H2b: In China, a culturally incongruent indi-vidualistic appeal elicits more positiveresponses for a product used in privatethan for a socially visible product.
Method
Design of the Experiment
An experiment was designed to test the hypoth-eses. Subjects were 160 students, 80 in each country;93 were men and 67 were women. They were enrolledin undergraduate and graduate business classes in alarge university in southern China and a large uni-versity in the northeastern United States (see Table1 for sample profiles). Both are comprehensive uni-versities in major metropolitan areas with diversecultural and economic activities.
Three independent variables were used in the ex-periment: 1) country (the United States and China),2) advertising appeals (collectivistic versus individu-
alistic), and 3) product use conditions (socially visibleversus privately used). The first two were between-subjects variables. Students in each country were se-lected randomly to receive an individualistic or col-lectivist appeal in each of the test ads they saw. Forthe third variable, product use condition, a within-subject design was devised to provide control of ex-traneous influences and thus increase the power ofthe test. The within-subject design also affordedgreater efficiency in the use of subjects, an issue ofparticular concern given the high cost of conductingcross-cultural studies. Hence, the study had a 2 X 2 X2 factorial design.
Products. A 35mm camera was selected as the so-cially visible product. It was given a fictional brandname to remove influences due to prior brand evalua-tion and knowledge. A camera was selected becauseof university students' general familiarity with theproduct class in both countries; in a pretest conductedin both countries prior to the study, all students ownedor operated some t T e of camera. Many types of cam-eras are widely advertised in consumer magazines inChina. Foreign cameras accounted for 57% of the to-tal camera sales in 1995 (Yan 1995a). With the rapidimprovement in standard of living, cameras and otherconsumer electronic products have been in high de-mand (Yan 1995b). Domestic camera sales in 1995exceeded 8 million units, and surveys indicate thatmore than 85% of all households in major cities owncameras (Rao 1995). The sales growth rates in largeand mid-sized cities for the next few years are esti-mated to be about 12 to 15% annually (Rao 1995). Inselecting the type of camera for the ad, we took intoaccount the obvious disparity in purchasing powerbetween the two countries; a simple point-and-shoottype was featured because it was in common use inboth countries. The print ads for the camera, whichdiffered only in appeal employed, were constructed toimitate actual ads in photography magazines (seeFigure 1) and were in color.
The other product chosen was a toothbrush, on thebasis that it is used most often in private. It was usedwidely by and equally familiar to the subjects in bothcountries. Undoubtedly, the levels of dental care dif-fer considerably between the two countries. However,data obtained from China's National Committee forOral Health and the Department of Prevention andDental Hygiene, Beijing Medical University, indicatethat toothbrush use rate is high among urban dwell-ers (80%) (Zhang 1995). In certain population groups(such as students), the use rate is close to 100% (Niu,Niu, and Chen 1995). Given the widespread use of
34 The Journal of Advertising
Figure 1Experimental Stimuli: A Socially Visibie Product with Coilectivistic Appeal
S FUN, YOU \ F GOT T HE PJCiUiUG TO PROVE !T
Share the Moments of Joy and Happinessth Your Friends and Family!
Fall 1996 35
dental products and the huge potential, Americancompanies such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Oral-B Laboratories have becomemajor players in the Chinese oral care product mar-ket (Zhang 1995b). The toothbrush ad, again withvariation only in the appeal employed, was developedto resemble real ads in consumer magazines (see Fig-xire 2 for a Chinese version of the ad).
The ad copy, size, and layout for both products weremade identical to control for potential confounds. Onlythe picture of the product and the fictional brandname were varied to correspond to the product. Ex-amination of the magazine ads used in the two coun-tries revealed that the layout and artwork were fairlysimilar, although generally the print quality of theU.S. ads was better than that of the Chinese ads.
Advertising Appeals. As in previous research, thetwo advertising appeals were manipulated by vary-ing the headline copy of the ads. The headline copywas solicited from pretest subjects in a focus-groupsetting (sample size = 13). The moderator opened thefocus-group session by welcoming the subjects to thesession, then discussed culture's influence on adver-tising in general and why people are interested insuch influences. Some of the major cultural differ-ences in the individualism-collectivism dimensionwere subsequently identified and discussed. After theinitial warm-up discussions, the subjects were in-structed to list verbal themes that would reflect ei-ther coUectivistic appeals or individualistic appeals.The four dimensions of individualism/collectivismidentified by Triandis et al. (1986) were used as aguide in generating the advertising slogans. The ap-peals emerging from the discussions that most closelyconformed to the dimensions were subjected to fur-ther discussion and chosen as the exemplar appeals.The appeals were unanimously considered by the ini-tial focus group subjects to be either collectivistic orindividualistic. After several iterative rounds of pre-testing with separate groups (total sample size = 34)in which both American-bom and Chinese-bom col-lege students evaluated and discussed the appealtypes, the final individualistic appeal copy read, "Comeand indulge in the joy of self-expression" for the cam-era ad and "Reach out for the pleasure of brushing"for the toothbrush ad. Both headlines illustrated selfdirection and hedonism, values closely associated withindividualistic cultures (Schwartz 1990; Triandis etal. 1986). The final collectivistic appeal copy read,"Share the moments of happiness with your friendsand family" for the camera ad and "Everybody likesthe brand name Flexbrush" for the toothbrush ad.
Both headlines reflected family/in-group orientationand social conformity, value orientations predomi-nant in collectivistic cultures (Triandis et al. 1986).
The back-translation technique was used in trans-lating the copy (Brislin 1980; Douglas and Craig 1983).Specifically, the copy was first translated into Chi-nese by a native Chinese who knew both languagesand then back-translated into English by two otherbilingual persons to ensure the accuracy of the trans-lation. The translated copy was further examined andmodified by one of the principal investigators who isproficient in both languages. A pragmatic translation(Casagrande 1954) approach was followed in the trans-lation of the brand names and other elements of theads, whereas an aesthetic-poetic/ethnographic trans-lation approach was followed in the translation of theheadline copy. The translated copy was further pre-tested with both Chinese and U.S. college students toensure the effectiveness of the perceived appeal type(Brislin 1980, p. 431). The pretest subjects (totalsample size = 24) were recruited to participate in anadvertising study. They were given copies of the adsand were asked to indicate whether they understoodthe material and whether the copy had either indi-vidualistic appeal or collectivistic appeal. They allindicated that they understood the material and cor-rectly identified the ad copy. Table 2 contains thetranslated headline copy.
Filler ads from both Chinese and U. S. magazineschosen by a panel of judges were used to disguise thepurpose of the study. The advertisements were com-piled into a magazine-like booklet and appeared inthe following sequence: filler ad 1, experimental ad 1(socially visible product with individualistic appeaVprivately used product with collectivistic appeal), fillerad 2, experimental ad 2 (privately used product withindividualistic appeal/socially visible product withcollectivistic appeal), and filler ad 3. The order of theproducts was alternated in the experimental ads toeliminate any sequence effect due to the order of pre-sentation.
Procedure and Dependent Variables
Subjects were recruited to participate in a studyostensibly investigating how people read printed ma-terials. The students completed the task in groups offive to 10. They were instructed to be as natural aspossible in reading the materials presented to them.After the subjects finished reading the experimentalmaterials, they completed a questionnaire containingseveral scales on which they indicated their responses
The Journal of Advertising
Figure 2Experimental Stimuli: A Privately Used Product with Individualistic Appeal
Fall 1996 37
Table 2Translation of Ad Copy Headlines
Product Individualistic Appeal Collectivistic Appeal
Camera "Come and Indulge in the Joyof Self Expression!"
"Share the Moments of Joy andHappiness with Your Friendsand Family!"
Toothbrush "Reach Out for the Pleasureof Brushing!"
"Everybody Likes the Brand NameFlexbrush!"
to the ads and the products. All the dependent mea-sures were adapted from previous studies.
Attitude toward the Ad. Ad attitude (Ag ) was mea-sured with a 4-item, 9-point semantic differential scale(unpleasant-pleasant, unlikable-likable, not irritat-ing-irritating, and not interesting-interesting, withthe third item reverse-scaled). Semantic differentialscales have been characterized as "pancultural" scalessuitable for measuring similar traits in cross-culturalstudies (Osgood, May, and Miron 1975). Such scaleshave been demonstrated to capture concepts and di-mensions used to evaluate stimuli—either objects orsubjects—and to account for major proportions of thevariation in responses. An average of the multipleratings served as the measure of A^^. Because thestudy had one within-subject factor, each subject re-sponded separately to the two product types.
Attitude toward the Brand. Brand attitude (Aj j.)was measured with a 3-item scale (bad-good, not nice-nice, and unlikable-likable). Again, the mean score ofthe ratings was used as the dependent measure of theconstruct. All semantic differential scales used forboth Ag^ and A^j. had a range from -4 to 4 with zerobeing the central point.
Product Choice. To measure choice behavior, sub-jects were given a choice of three different brands ineach product category. They were informed that theywould receive for their participation in the study twocoupons good toward the purchase of one brand ineach product category. They were asked to place an"X" next to the brand name of the chosen productslisted on the questionnaire. Subjects* choices werecoded as 1 if the advertised brand was chosen and 0otherwise (see Table 3).
Several ancillary measures also were taken to check
for potential biases in responses. Demographic datawere requested and product familiarity was measuredwith a scale ranging from -4 to 4 to detect differencesin subjects' familiarity with each product across thetwo countries. A question to assess demand charac-teristics asked the subjects what they felt was thetrue purpose of the study. The questionnaire wastranslated into Chinese with a procedure similar tothat used in ad copy translation.
Because the objective of our study was to investi-gate the main effect of different appeals and the in-teractive effect of moderation by product use condi-tion, we used analysis of variance to test the proposedhypotheses. Choice data were analyzed with logisticregression.
Results
To reduce potential problems due to different re-sponse styles (Chun, Campbell, and Yoo 1974) of sub-jects in the two countries, all scaled responses werestandardized before they were subjected to analyses.Such a standardization procedure removes locationand scale attributes from the data, thereby helping toreduce possible distortion due to potential extremeresponses style differences. The standardized vari-ables had a mean of zero and a standard deviation ofone. Table 4 contains the cell means of the variables.
As a preliminary step, we assessed measurementreliability by calculating coefficient alpha for the scaledmeasures. It was quite high (averaged A^^ scoresacross product type: .92; averaged Aj j. measures: .88).We found no statistically significant difference in theproduct familiarity measure between subjects in thetwo countries for either product (Fs < 1). No subject
38 The Journal of Advertising
Table 3Measures
Dependent Variables
Ad attitude(semantic differential)
Brand attitude(semantic differential)
Choice behavior(binary responses)
Unpleasant - PleasantUnlikable - LikableNot irritating - Irritating (reverse scaled)Not interesting - Interesting
Bad - GoodNot nice - NiceUniikable - Likable
Choice of advertised brand 1Choice of other brands 0
Ancillary Measures
Demographics
Product familiarity
Experimental demand
AgeGender, etc.
Unfamiliar - Familiar
The purpose of the study
guessed the true purpose of the experiment, and re-sponses did not differ by gender.
Prior to testing the specific hypotheses, we con-ducted a full-factor omnibus repeated-measuresMANOVA with Ag j measures on the two products asthe dependent variables and country and appeal typeas the independent variables. As noted previously,country and appeal type were between-subjects fac-tors and product was a with in-subject factor; signifi-cant interactions would suggest the presence of apotential moderation effect. The results revealed asignificant between-subjects country by appeal inter-action (see Table 5 for a summary of the results) anda product by appeal two-way interaction. Also signifi-cant was the product by country interaction. No othereffects were significant. These interactions suggested
that possible moderation was occurring, as had beenpredicted.
Similarly, we conducted a full-factor procedure withAjjj. as the dependent variable. Results revealed asignificant country by appeal interaction and signifi-cant product by appeal interaction. No other effectswere significant. We further analyzed these resultsto test each specific hypothesis.
Tests ofHla and Hlb
The significant country by appeal interaction in theoverall analysis provided initial evidence that theappeals differed in effectiveness between the two cul-tures. To test Hla and Hlb, further analyses wereconducted on the between-subjects factor appeal type
Fall 1996 39
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•ocCO
with averaged A^ j scores across product as the de-pendent variable within the country factor.
The results show a significant appeal main effect {F= 8.52, p < .01) among U.S. subjects, U.S. subjectspreferred an individualistic appeal; the averagedscores across product for the U. S, respondents are-.20 (eollectivistic appeal) versus .23 (individualisticappeal). Results from Chinese subjects show the op-posite pattern (F = 19.21, p < .001) with a signifi-cantly higher score for the coilectivistic appeal. Themean scores are .30 (coilectivistic appeal) versus -.32(individualistic appeal). The country by appeal inter-action with A^^ in the initial and followup analysesis illustrated in Figure 3, panel A.
Results on A^^ scores also show a significant ap-peal effect (F = 7.53, p < .01) among U.S. subjects.The averaged scores across product for the U.S. sub-jects are -.21 (coilectivistic appeal) versus .26 (indi-vidualistic appeal). Scores for the Chinese subjectsshow a different pattern (see Figure 3, panel B), witha significantly higher score (F = 14.48, p < .001) asso-ciated with the coilectivistic appeal (.24) rather thanthe individualistic appeal (-.22). These results clearlysupport Hla and Hlb, that a culturally congruentappeal is associated with more favorable attitudes.
Test ofH2, H2a, and H2b
The significant product by appeal interaction foundin the initial multivariate analysis provided prelimi-nary evidence supporting H2, that product use condi-tion moderates the effectiveness of advertising ap-peals. Further analyses were conducted with datafrom respondents in each country; ANOVAs were car-ried out within each appeal type subsequently to testfor the moderating effect of product use condition ineach country. These analyses were conducted sepa-rately for Ag(j and A^ j. scores.
Ad Attitude. The analyses of data from U.S, sub-jects show a significant product by appeal interaction(F = 9.16, d,f. = 1/78, p < .01) and an appeal maineffect (F = 8.52, p < .01). As a follow up, a repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted within each appealtype. A product main effect is significant for the cul-turally incongruent coilectivistic appeal (F = 17.13,d.f. = 1/39, p < .001), with a mean A^^ of --46 for thetoothbrush (privately used product) versus .06 for thecamera (socially visible product). As expected, how-ever, no significant A^^ difference between the twoproducts is found for U.S. subjects exposed to theculturally congruent individualistic appeal (see Fig-ure 2, panel A), and both values are higher than thoseassociated with the coilectivistic appeal.
40
Measure Sources
Table 5Results of Initial Analyses
d.f.
The Journal of Advertising
of Data
F-Value p-Value
Ad attitude
Brandattitude
Country (C)Appeal (A)Product (P)CXACXPAXPC X A X P
Country (C)Appeal (A)Product (P)CXACXPAXPCXAXP
11
1/1561
1/1561/1561/156
11
1/1561
1/1561/1561/156
0.060.960.02
26.544.39
30.941.77
0.260.110.00
20.663.31
25.010.04
0.800.320.980.0010.030.0010.18
0.600.730.980.0010.070.0010.84
Therefore, the results support H2a. The modera-tion was salient with the culturally incongruent eol-lectivistic appeal. When appeal matched product, theAg^ score (.06) was higher than that observed for thedouble-mismatch case (-.46): a collectivistic appealinappropriate for both a privately used toothbrushand the individualistic U.S. culture. The seore in thedouble-mismatch case lowered the overall score ofthe collectivistic appeal, contributing to the appealmain effect.
Analysis of the Chinese responses also show a sig-nificant product by appeal effect (F = 23.22, d.f. = 1/78, p < .001) and a significant appeal main effect (F =19.28, p < .001). As expected, for the culturally con-gruent collectivistic appeal, the product effect is notsignificant. However, for the culturally incongruentindividualistic appeal, the product effect is signifi-cant (means .05 versus -.70, F = 22.62, d.f. = 1/39, p <.001). The lower score elicited by the double mis-match of individualistic appeal with the socially vis-ible product and collectivist culture (-.70) contributedto the low score of the overall individualistic appealin the main effect. Figure 4, panel B is a plot of themeans.
Brand Attitude. The results on A^j. are consistentwith those on A^^j. For the U.S. subjects, the resultsshow a significant product by appeal interaction (F =13.16, d.f. = 1/78. p < .001) and appeal main effect (F= 7.53, p < .01). Analyses within appeal type show
that collectivistic appeal had a significant producteffect (p < .01, means: -.43 for privately used productvs. .03 for socially visible product), whereas the indi-vidualistic appeal did not. The combination of collec-tivistic appeal with privately used product substan-tially lowered the scores, contributing to the appealtype main effect (see Figure 4, panel C) and againsupporting the hypothesis that a culturally incongru-ent appeal to collectivism is least effective when (a)the appeal does not match the culture Eind (b) theappeal also does not match the product (a product notused for social purposes).
Results among the Chinese subjects are in the ex-pected direction, indicating a product by appeal in-teraction (F= 11.85, d.f. = 1/78, p < .001) and a mainappeal effect (F= 14.48,p < .001). Follow-up analyseswithin appeal types show that the collectivistic ap-peal had an nonsignificant product effect, whereasthe individualistic appeal had a significant producteffect (F = 9.05, d.f. = 1/39, p < .01, mean -.08 fortoothbrush vs. -.52 for camera). The main effect ap-pears to be caused mainly by the lower score for thecamera ad with an individualistic appeal (-.52), ashypothesized.
Product Choice
In analyzing the choice data with logistic regres-sion procedures, we used brand choice as the crite-
Fall 1996 41
Figure 3Test of Hla and H1b: Country by Appeal Interaction
AdAttitude
- .5
Individualistic
Individualistic.23
- 20
.30
Collectivistic
United States China
(A)
BranchAttitude
5
Q
5
.26
-.21
Individualistic
Collectivistic
.24
"•---.., - . 2 2
United States China
(B)
rion variable and country, appeal type, product, andthe interactions between them as the predictor vari-ables. The logistic regression results failed to showthe country by appeal interaction predicted hy Hlaand Hlb (Wald y^ = .03), but did provide some sup-port for the hypotheses about product and appealinteraction (x^ = 3.20, p < .05).
To investigate the product by appeal interaction,we fitted two logistic models within each level of theproduct factor. For the toothbrush data, the modelreveals a significant appeal main effect (x^ = 7.03, p <.01, see Table 6). Examination of the cell frequenciesindicates that choice probability for the advertisedproduct was higher with the individualistic appealthan with the collectivistic appeal for both Americansubjects (probability .65 vs. .37) and Chinese subjects(probability .60 vs. ,30), For U.S. respondents, indi-vidualistic appeals would be expected to be most ef-fective. For Chinese respondents, individualistic ap-peals would be expected to trail collectivistic appealsin effectiveness. However, the results show that indi-vidualistic appeals worked better for the privatelyused product in both countries, thus supporting thenotion that product use condition may influence ad-vertising effectiveness.
For the data on the camera, the model show a sig-nificant country by appeal interaction (x^ = 4.97, p <.05; see Table 6), We examined cell frequencies tounderstand the nature of the interaction. Chinesesubjects were more likely to choose the advertisedcamera with a collectivistic appeal (choice probability.63) than to choose the same product with an indi-vidualistic appeal (choice probability ,30), as wouldbe expected. However, U. S. subjects did not exhibitthe same pattern of choice behavior; the proportionschoosing the advertised camera were almost identi-cal, regardless of advertising appeal (.43 vs, .45), Fig-ure 5 shows results for this socially visible product.
In sum, the product choice data do not exhibit astrong pattern as in the case of A^ j and A^,^ withrespect to the interaction effect between country andadvertising appeals. However, the results show anappeal main effect favoring the individualistic appealfor the privately used product in both countries. Thisfinding is consistent with our reasoning that productuse condition does have some effect beyond culturalinfluence. The results for the socially visible camerashow that U. S. subjects were indifferent between thetwo appeals. Therefore, the choice data provide onlylimited support for the hypotheses.
42 The Journal of Advertising
Figure 4Test of H2: Product by Appeal Interaction
AdAtti tude
.5
- . 5
.31
•13 J _ ^Socially
Privately
Visible
• .06
^ ^ -.46Used
Indiv. Collect.(A) United States
BrandAttitude
- .5
.31
.15 __^Socially
Privately
Visible
^ .03
^ \ - . 4 3Used
Indiv. Collect.(C) Uriited States
AdAttitude
- . 5
Privately Used
.50
.10
.05
-.70 / Socially Visible
Indiv. Collect.(B) China
BrandAttitude
- . 5
-.08
-.52
Privately
y^ Socially
Used
Visible
• • ^ * *
^ .14
Indiv. Collect.(D) China
Discussion
Findings and Implications
Our finding that disproportionately favorable out-comes were associated with a match between adver-tising appeal and cultural values supports the ideathat cultural congruence brings about more favorableattitudes. Therefore, matching advertising appeals toculture is advisable for advertisers, especially in thecase of sharply contrasting cultures, such as those of
the United States and China. Rapid economic changestaking place in China have created a huge marketwith numerous opportunities for U.S. businesses(Bamathan, Engardio, and Einhom 1993). Our re-sults suggest that an advertiser who takes such amarket seriously will seek to align message with cul-ture.
We also addressed the role of product use conditionin situations where appeal and culture do not match.Our results indicate that when the appeal matchesthe product use condition, employing a culturally in-
Fall 1996 43
Table 6Results of Logistic Regression Analyses
Variable d.f.
Parameter Estimates
Full Mode
.84-.34
-1.25'-.55.12
-.471.15"2.06
Toothbrush
.85-.34
-1.25-
.12
Camera
.30-.81-.10
1.46'
InterceptCountry (C)Appeal (A)Product (P)CXACXPAXPC X A X P
"p<.05.
congnient advertising appeal may not be a problem.This finding may have important implications forfirms that strive to standardize their global advertis-ing appeals.
Essentially, standardization of advertising is basedon the premise that needs and wants of people arebasically the same everywhere and that a carefullyconceived and executed appeal can strike comm.onresponsive ehords in consumers in different countries(Peebles 1978). Researchers have long noted productcharacteristics and argued that standardization ismore feasible for industrial products than for con-sumer products (Boddewyn, Soehl, and Heard 1986),and that among consumer products, durable prod-ucts may afford greater opportunity for standardiza-tion than nondurable products because the latter re-quire more adjustment to unique local tastes, habits,and customs (Douglas and Urban 1977; Hovell andWalters 1972).
Our findings add to these perspectives by providingempirical evidence that product use condition is a keyelement in determining the feasibility of standardiz-ing advertising appeals. As we demonstrated, adver-tising standardization is feasible if a product is usedin a consumption situation that matches the appealin the ad. Cultxtre matters, but advertisers need notassume that its influence on responses to advertisingappeals is independent of other factors.
On the basis of our findings, what advice might beoffered specifically to firms marketing products inChina? The results suggest that Chinese consumersrespond more favorably to a coUeetivistic than to an
individualistic appeal. Yet, in adapting to the Chi-nese culture, a firm may also consider factors thatmay provide bases for cost-effective standardized ap-proaches in advertising. Product use situation can beone such factor. It is particularly meaningful in viewof the vast size of the Chinese m^arket and the poten-tial costs of having to adapt to various regional mar-kets. A standardized approach may afford severalimportant advantages, such as economy of scale andmore uniform product images. When product use con-ditions match a planned appeal, a standardized ap-proach is certainly possible. Note, however, that giventhe nature of the products used in our study, theresults are probably more reflective of the needs ofthe urban than of rural consumers in China. Despiterapid improvements in the standard of living, differ-ent areas may have greatly different consumer prod-uct needs.
The willingness of Chinese subjects to select thetoothbrush with an individualistic appeal is interest-ing. The anonymity of toothbrush usage enable themto act on a desire to break from the collectivism thatpervades their public lives. Possibly appeals counterto the cultural norm will attract buyers—if the prod-uct is used in private and the culturally incongruentappeal at least matches the product, as in the case ofan individualistic appeal for a toothbrush.
The choice data are less than consistent with othermeasures. One problem may be the coupon-use mea-sure; although often used to capture behavioral in-tention, coupon interest is at least open to question asan operationalization of purchase measure. In any
44 The Journal of Advertising
Figure 5Choice Probabiiities for The Socially
Visible Product
Probability
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.45
- - ^><
0.43
Collectlvlslic
Ind iv idual is t ic"" - -^
0-63
0.30
United States China
case, the fact that the hypotheses are better sup-ported by attitudinal data than by choice data re-flects the commonly acknowledged gap between atti-tudes and behavior. If attitudes toward ad and brandwere entirely predictive of brand choice, there wouldbe no need for separate measures—but researchershave no such illusions.
Limitations and Future Research
As is true of laboratory studies, our research haslimitations. First, as a cross-cultural study, it mayhave had biases due to extreme response style differ-ences between respondents in the two cultures. Suchpotential biases suggest caution in interpreting theresults. Second, no manipulation check was under-taken with the actual subjects of the experiment, andsuch verification would increase confidence in theresults. Third, methodologically, because the appealsused in the study reflect different dimensions of indi-vidualism and collectivism, ideally the appeals shouldbe crossed with both types of products. The practicaldifficulty of finding appeals that apply simultaneouslyto both products without losing realism, as well aathe resultant sample size inflation, prevented us fromdoing so. Future studies should have a fuller designto test the influence of culture. Fourth, as only two
products were used in the study, caution is warrantedin generalization to other products. Also, we relied ondirect observation and available use rate informationin choosing the products for the study. Given theconcerns about the quality of data emanating fromdeveloping and historically planned economies, it isalways advisable to be cautious about such statistics.Finally our study examined only one among manycultural differences between the United States andChina—although that difference is widely acknowl-edged to be a major one. The study should not beconsidered a direct test of one of the dimensions ofculture (e.g., Hofstede 1980) in isolation. It did notaddress the interplay and influence of other dimen-sions. Certainly, the two cultures differ in many ways,and the manifestation of such cultural differencescan be subtle and can influence responses to advertis-ing.
Suggestions for further research clearly includestudies sim^ilar to ours employing other cultural val-ues. In addition to individualism and collectivism,Hofstede (1980) sees cultures placing more or lessvalue on what he calls "masculinity," "power distance,"and "uncertainty avoidance." Recently, he added afifth dimension of cultural difference, "long-temyshort-term orientation," reflecting cultural traits such asthrift (saving) and perseverance (Hofstede 1994). Test-ing culturally congruent versus incongruent adver-tising that varies on these dimensions could be use-ful. The more we understand about the impact ofculture on the effectiveness of advertising, the morevalue advertisers obtain from each advertising dol-lar—and each cross-cultural study.
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