ADVERTISING AGENCIES IN AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

Advertising Agencies in an economic downturn

Advertising agencies in an economic downturn

Introduction

Research has documented that the Japanese have traditionally valued indirect and intuitive communications, whereas Americans have tended to value direct, exact and unambiguous communications (Mueller 1987, 59). Based on advertisements that appeared in Japan during the 1980s, Mueller (1987) suggested that the nature of Japanese advertising was very different from that of American advertising. Her content analysis found that Japanese advertising was far less direct and informative than American-style advertising, and that Japanese ads instead conveyed mood International Journal of Advertising, 30(2), pp. 205-232 and atmosphere through a beautiful scene, or the development of an emotional story or verse. In short, emotion was emphasized over clear-cut product-related appeals. Japanese ads were characterized as 'soft sell', while American advertising was positioned as 'hard sell'. Her findings were corroborated by a number of cross-cultural advertising researchers. However, a replication of Mueller's (1987) study found that ads appearing in Japan in 2005 were significantly more likely to employ product merit and hard sell appeals than earlier ads . This suggests a significant shift in advertising content over a nearly three-decade period; a period that included what has been termed Japan's 'lost decade', the ten-year span during the 1990s when economic turmoil overshadowed Japanese society(Lazer 1985, 81). But, while content analysis enables the detection of changes in manifest content, it does not allow the researcher to identify the 'true' causes of such changes.

There is some evidence, primarily from trade journals, that economic downturns have an impact on advertising. For example, Interbrand suggests: 'In a recession, it becomes even more critical for companies to aggressively and tirelessly create a compelling case for their brands. The brand must be perceived as truly special, clearly differentiated, and have attributes that are unique enough to create a strong and lasting value proposition for its customers. Otherwise, consumers will just choose not to buy' . An Adweek poll, targeting those in advertising and marketing positions, asked the question 'What is the most effective tone for advertising during a recession.?' Picking from a menu of five choices, respondents gave an outright majority of the vote (52%) to 'a focus on value'. 'Empathetic realism' was a distant runner-up at 15% (World Federation of Advertisers 2009a). Clearly, practitioners are suggesting the need to tailor the content of commercial communications in order to succeed in a recession. However, there are virtually no published scholarly investigations - qualitative or quantitative - that address the relationship between economic conditions and advertising practices(Taylor 2005, 16). The economic upheaval that Japan experienced during the 1990s provides an excellent opportunity to examine the potential impact of a recession on advertising planning and execution.

The significance of the study

This study makes several important contributions to the literature. First, the paper responds to Taylor's (2005) call for researchers to expand their analysis of culture's impact on advertising and to work towards developing empirically tested theoretical frameworks for advancing international advertising research(Prieler 2010, ...