STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

Strategic Planning Process

Strategic Planning Process

Introduction

The scope of this paper is to present a literature review and critique of the standardization debate in international advertising strategy. This debate has been going on for more than four decades without a resolution. Advocates of standardization claim that global market segments are emerging and that advertising not only can, but also should be standardized across markets. The major benefits from standardization are economies of scale in the advertising function and consistent brand image. Advocates of adaptation claim that the difference between cultures is so vast that standardization is not possible and that standardization results in lost competitive advantage and lower sales. However, to adapt advertising each market increases costs and decreases possibilities to create synergies across markets.

Standardization of advertising

One can take a very strict approach and claim that an advertisement must be identical across markets to qualify as standardized. However, this strict definition is not very practical since almost no advertisements would qualify as standardized; for instance, this definition would exclude advertisements in which only the language has been adapted. All promotional efforts must be adapted to some degree even if that only means a translation into the local language (Harvey, 1993). Onkvisit and Shaw (1990) suggest that, strictly speaking, an advertisement is global only if it is virtually unchanged in all countries except for translation.

There is also a possibility that some elements of the advertising process can be standardized while others must be adapted. For instance, a corporation must adhere to local regulations that may prohibit some elements from being standardized while the process to make the advertisement may be standardized. From this discussion it is clear that there are two key issues related to the definition of standardized advertising.

What elements must be standardized for an advertisement to qualify as standardized?

What parts of the advertising process can be standardized?

Standardized advertisement

There are several papers that investigate the features of a standardized advertisement. In a student survey it was found that the most important variable was the usage of the same picture followed by general layout, advertising topic and language (Backhaus et al., 2001). However, the other three variables played only a minor role compared to the picture. Furthermore, the view on what qualified an advertisement as standardized was almost congruent for the examined countries (Germany, The Netherlands and France). The visual component of print advertisements in five countries was studied by Cutler et al. (1992). Their conclusion was that there are more differences than similarities among countries and that advertising managers should be cautious in standardizing. They also found that there was no significant difference in advertising practices for the visual component for developed and developing countries. Harris and Attour (2003) found that visual elements were more likely to be standardized than the copy elements.

Harris and Attour (2003) state that “standardization” is a flexible policy that can be adapted to a range of circumstances and differing market conditions. Hite and Fraser (1988) use a very vague definition of ...