GLOBAL REACH AND LOCAL TOUCH - ACHIEVING CULTURAL FITNESS IN TV-ADVERTISING

Economic and technological forces continue to move the world closer to a single marketplace with an increasing demand for universal brand na mes, multilingual packaging, and uniform advertising across nations. T here is a growing need on the part of global marketers to communicate effectively with people from a wide variety of cultures. Although the conventional wisdom suggests that transnational advertising must be se nsitive to local conditions, there are no available guidelines to assi st the practitioner in discriminating between advertising which is cul turally fit and that which is not. International advertisers have to c ontinually face a number of crucial questions: What kind of advertisin g might work best in each culture or market environment? What are the most important aspects of a local market that should be considered for preparing optimum advertising for the market? What kind of advertisin g should be avoided in each situation? Why do advertising messages loo k the way they do in the United States and in other countries? What pr oduct categories might be advertised similarly in different markets? I n an effort to explore the above questions, this study will identify a set of cultural and market-related factors that are likely to shape t elevision advertising messages. Based upon these factors, the study wi ll develop a global model that provides specific directions for select ing advertising creative strategies, levels of informativeness and sty les that are most likely to fit cultures and market environments in 23 countries around the world.