ABSTRACT

A Study on Korean Advertisers' Attitudes toward The Strategy of International Advertisement : With emphasis on Standardization and Localization Strategies

Yeom, Sung Won
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication The Graduate School of Sung Kyun Kwan University

As the enterprises go beyond domestic market and enter into oversea market to obtain a steady growth for a new profit, a important issue become how to advertise internationally. That is, the enterprise should choose its advertisement strategy between international standardization of all the markets including domestic one localization reflecting diverse foreign local situations.

The strategic choice issue of international advertisement between standardization and localization has been a on-going debate for 30 years since E. Elinder Claimed the possibility of standardization in Europe in 1960, and it recently become a newly emerging issue in Korean advertisement sector with the arrival of the era of the oversea expansion and satellite broadcasting.

Particularly as the advertisement on satellite broadcasting that was expected to influence the standardization by the standardization supporters in the dispute over standardization and localization of international advertisement expected can get an easy access to the consumers in various countries by its ability to cross over national borders with its technical element of electronic spill-over, not only the multi-national companies(MNCs), but also domestic companies that have not expanded oversea yet can incease the opportunity to advertise internationally and make the companies and their products know to the potential purchasers in the neighboring nations. Various debates over standardization and localization of international advertisement, therefore, will emerge as the advertisement on satellite broadcasting becomes active in the near future.

The existing studies about standardization and localization of international, advertisement lacks systematic approaches. Excessively focusing on abstract concepts. Not only comprehensive comparison study between domestic and foreign advertisements of the MNCs, but also the attitudinal study about international advertisement strategies of international of international advertisers that has been not seriously considered as a major variable in international advertisement in spite of importance of their strategic attititudes have not been done.

This study, therefore, researches the types of international advertisements with content, analysis to compare and analyze the MNCs' international advertisements aired satellite broadcasting stations in Northeast Asia, and the attitudes of Korean advertisers'strategies toward international advertisement with Q-methodology with recognition of importance of the advertisers'attitudes regarding international advertisement strategies.

The research results of the questions raised by this study are summarized as follows:

Question 1. What are the types of the MNCs' International advertisements on satellite broadcasting in Northeast Asia ?

The study of the types of the MNCs' advertisements shows that the American MNCs' domestic and foreign advertisements are similar to or exactly alike each other, but the Asian MNCs' ones are different.

Particularly, The Korean MNCs have placed their Northeast Asian satellite broadcasting advertisements produced separately and differently from their domestic advertisements.

Question 2. What are the attitudinal types of Korean advertisers on international advertisement strategies and what are the characteristics of these types ?

Out of the 55 respondents, 22 are type 1, 17 are type 2, and 16 are type 3, when they are divided into 3 categories whose total explained variance is 43.68% through factor matrix.

If both questions with positive and negative answers analyzed to study the characteristics of the type 1, this type of Korean advertisers are prone to support the international: advertisement strategies which reflect the circumstances of certain markets and they especially consider social cultural context in international advertisement. They, therefore, do not think it is recommendable to produce international advertisement as same as domestic one, under the assumption of targeting toward one world market.

Type 1 can be called <social culture-localization type>, because it emphasizes social cultural factors in determining international advertisement strategies, supporting localization and disapproving standardization of international advertisement.

If both questions with positive and negative answers are comprehensively analyzed to study the characteristics of the type 2, this type of Korean advertisers think it is recommendable to place the international advertisement identical with domestic one in other to improve commonly shared company image, and particularly they pay a great' attention to the looks of companies. They, therefore, do not think it is recommendable to produce separate advertisement targeting toward local foreign markets.

Type 2 can be called <company-standardization type>, because it emphasizes the conditions of companies. supporting standardization and disapproving localization of international advertisement.

If both questions with positive and negative answers are analyzed to deal with the characteristics of the type 3, this type of Korean advertisers consider it is recommendable to advertise internationally, considering the conditions of foreign markets and particularly paying a great attention to social cultural situations. However, they do not think it is recommendable either simply to produce international advertisement identical with domestic one or to produce it, targeting toward foreign markets.

Type 3 can be named <social culture-compromise type>, because it emphasizes most on social cultural factors. supporting compromise strategy but disapproving both standardization and localization of international advertisement.

Question 3. What is the similarity among the attitudes about international advertisement of Korean advertisers ?

Korean advertisers in determining their international advertisement strategies show strong disapproval of standardization of international advertisement and support for localization, while considering the company conditions and different social culture backgrounds of foreign markets rather than characteristics of products.

The conclusion of this that Korean advertisers. Who pay a great attention to the company conditions and social circumstances of foreign markets than characteristics of products support mostly <social culture-localization type> among 3 different types described in the above, and commonly show disapproval of standardization strategy and favoring localization toward foreign market.

Particularly, Korean advertisers disapprove international advertisement reflecting universal value. such as respect for peace, and reproving vice and reward virtue. These Korean advertisers' negative attitude toward standardization directly contradict the ones of other countries who are supporting standardization based on their belief that universal values appealing to consumers of foreign market can standardization of international advertisement more possible.

The characteristics of Korean advertisers supporting international advertisement can be found in the survey of the types of international advertisement placed on the North Asian satellite broadcasting Korean MNCs' international advertisements on satellite broadcasting," not like foreign MNCs' ones, show localization.

Furthermore, in a persuasive approach of their advertisement, Korean MNCs are advertising in a way similar to their domestic advertisement, using ego-defense mechanism persuasive approach or classic conditioning persuasive approach, and concentrating on image to highlight the fact that their products are made from their own countries and emphasize superior quality of their products. On the other hand, Korean companies emphasize on introduction of their parent companies rather than the products, using the message learning persuasive approach and placing different advertisements from domestic ones. This is a major different in using persuasive approaches between foreign and Korean MNCs.

The difference seems to come from the fact that MNCs consider Northeast Asian consumers differently from domestic consumers, even though their parent companies are located in this region, while other foreign MNCs, particularly, American MNCs treat those consumers of Northeast Asia as same as they do their domestic consumers. And the approach of American MNCs seems to be possible, under the assumption of high reputation attached to American MNCs in the Northeast Asia region.

However, it seemed to be proper for international advertisement of Korean companies on satellite broadcasting to take a standardization mode like other foreign MNCs' international advertisement. That is, since satellite broadcasting system is to advertise for consumers of various countries, due to the technical characteristics of satellite broadcasting system, it would be more recommendable to take standardization strategy than to waste money unnecessarily producing advertisements separately from now on.

On the other hand, this study intends to propose 4 ways for the effective international advertisements of Korean companies in the future, based on the problems of international advertisements found in the course of conducting this study.

First, specialist in international advertisement should be brought up. According to the study, no attitudinal co-relationship can be found between advertisers who are dealing with international advertisement and those who. is not. This means there are no attitudinal differences between those who are in charge of international advertisements and those who are not. Therefore, education or re-education should be provided to bring up international advertisement specialists.

Second, targets of international advertisement should be firmly established prior to international advertisement. That is, whether it is for enhancing the image of enterprises or for introducing products should be clarified. Targets of Korean international advertisement for Korean companies were unclear. according to the research of types of international advertisement on satellite broadcasting and since all the introduction of company image, characteristics of the products and other possible contents are contained in one advertisement, we come to be doubtful if it is strong enough to be persuasive for foreign consumers. Therefore, targets of international advertisement should be firmly established prior to international advertisement. Korean companies are not well known to foreign consumers, compared to other foreign MNCs, it would be wise to set the target in advance for enhancing the company image.

Third, information related with international advertisement should be collected for successful international advertisement. International advertisement, not like domestic one, is for foreign consumers with completely different cultural background and to achieve successful international advertisement, information about foreign cultural characteristics, consumption characteristics of foreign consumers should be collected in advance. The biggest barrier in international advertisement, as well perceived in the discussion of international advertisement strategies covered in this study is the circumstance of foreign markets and consumer's characteristics. Therefore, to make international advertisement successful, international advertisement related information should be collected continuously.

Fourth, budget for international advertisements expenditure should be increased ideas are very important in advertisement. But, if there are no facilities available to utilize the ideas specifically, world-wide utilization of good ideas are not possible. Moreover, as is covered in this thesis, international advertisement are the opportunity to use good ideas internationally. Therefore, production money should be invested in international advertisements to reflect good ideas on the international advertisements.