Universal themes for global advertising

One of the expected advantages of globalisation – global positioning and advertising – has not proved to be attainable on the scale anticipated. Even where it has been possible to position a product or service on an international basis, real difficulties have been encountered with cross-border advertising.

There are two reasons for this. First, the communications infrastructure and technology are not the same in all countries. For example, toll-free telephone numbers are widely used for direct response marketing, but these are not available in all countries.

Similarly, e-mail and Internet addresses are increasingly popular, but the level of access to personal computers varies widely between countries Where literacy is low, broadcast media are more popular than print, and where income levels are low, radio plays a more important role.

The second reason again relates to cultural differences between countries. Although there are some potential advantages from standardised advertising, most professionals believe that advertising is the most difficult marketing element to standardise, and that culture is all-pervasive.

Culture is believed to influence advertising in four ways: choice of the advertising theme; connotation of words and symbols; interpretation of pictorial conventions; and media selection. In the context of consumer behaviour, some products are more culture-bound than others.

So it is easier to standardise the advertising of products that touch on universal emotional themes, such as beauty, love and fear, and which transcend cultural boundaries. Therefore, standardised advertising can be used for perfume but not for women’s clothing, which is highly culture-specific

Relationship Marketing

Marketing as the process of managing the mix of product, price, place and promotion was well suited to the era of mass production. As market-place power shifted from the supplier to the customer, however, the philosophy of marketing as a series of transactions was seen to be inadequate.

A more personalised approach was needed, to reflect this shift in power, and relationship marketing was born. Its advocates claim that it represents a new marketing paradigm. This is not entirely correct – there are many marketing transactions that are not suited to a relationship approach – but in the key areas of business-to-business and consumer marketing the relationship approach has transformed marketing practice.

Within consumer markets, we have seen a massive growth since the early 1990s of relationship-inducing tactics such as loyalty schemes, customer care/opinion/help lines, forums on corporate websites, targeted mail, corporate magazines, and owners’ clubs. The growth has been so extensive for many of these tactics that in the UK some corporate magazines exceed the circulation figures of many established magazine titles.

Many people belong to at least one loyalty scheme and most major retailers run some form of loyalty scheme. Although such schemes are not a new concept, their scale and prevalence have increased dramatically in just a few years across several industries.

There are several aims to such schemes, one of which is to increase the attractiveness of being loyal to an organisation. To achieve this, customers are rewarded for their loyalty and the information they provide about their lifestyles and purchasing habits. Unlike ad hoc sales promotions, where customers tend to revert to their pre-promotion behaviour, these schemes aim to ‘lock’ customers in.

Increasing repeat purchase loyalty can allow the formation of closer relationships with customers as the firm becomes more knowledgeable about consumer needs and wants. This can ultimately lead to increased customer satisfaction and reduced costs for the organisation. Additional benefits to organisations include protection from competition by the scheme acting as another barrier to entry to the market and an increased certainty of future income through loyalty, which may have shareholder value.

Debate within the UK marketing press has speculated about the consequences of supermarkets withdrawing their loyalty schemes. Some commentators have suggested that if one of the two largest retailers withdrew their schemes they would face loss of market share. An opposing opinion is that the huge cost of running the schemes would be removed and savings passed directly on to consumers, which would have a more profound effect on loyalty in the current value-conscious market. Loyalty schemes cost millions to implement and so present a financial barrier for new entrants to the market or smaller organisations.

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Content last updated: 31/01/2006

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