Consumer Perceptions of Advertising Standardization: A Cross-Country Study of Different Advertising Categories
Abstract
Despite comprehensive discussion about standardization versus adaptation of international advertising, questions regarding how to quantify the degree of advertising standardization remain. Existing approaches take an advertiser’s or marketer’s perspective. However, this one-sided perspective is insufficient for global media, which increasingly confront consumers with advertising from outside their home country. Advertising standardization can prevent image confusion when target groups view different advertisements for the same product. We present a methodology to measure the degree of advertising standardization that incorporates consumers’ perspective. Results indicate that consumers’ perceptions of standardization differ among advertising categories, whereas country-specific differences are minor.