International advertising: how do culture and globalisation affect management decision-making
At first sight the effects of 'culture' appear to obstruct standardisation of international advertising whereas 'globalisation' policies seem to endorse it. In answering the question in its title, this thesis analyses the problem as faced in marketing management, and breaks new ground by: ORIGINAL WORK: - De-mystifying the concept of globalisation: distinguishing between business policy and marketing/advertising implications and separating doctrines of globalisation from those of economies of scale and standardisation. -Identifying elements of culture which necessitate different strategic approaches in marketing/advertising. -Developing a theory for dealing with culture and globalisation in international advertising. -Delineating the effects of culture on British and Dutch marketing and advertising management, confirming the validity of Hofstede's clustering, revising Dunn's priorities for creative strategy transfer, and rejecting Lee's Self-Reference-Criterion (for this population). MAIN FINDINGS: The thesis demonstrates that culture and globalisation are phenomena of different orders: globalisation only being relevant indirectly. Culture has a pervasive relevance, both for the consumer and for the manager, whose decision-making style is influenced; managers nonetheless agree in their professional judgements. International advertising requires target orientation, concept alignment, top management endorsement, and the optimal use of scarce talent and ideas; cultural differences remain and two important tools to overcome them are identified: 1. The Cultural Brand-Target Universal: developing the brand/corporate identity as a cultural universal, exclusive to the company 2. The Competence and Empathy Factor: requiring professional management, at HQ and locally to have competence and empathy. The thesis also shows the significance of both cultural differences and unifying factors, when capitalising on the opportunities of the Single European Market of 1992. METHODOLOGY: The 'Millar Methodology' implies a process of grounded theory development through four rounds of evidence: evaluation of literature, experience, exploratory interviews (Part 1) and fieldwork, which repeats previous research and examines original issues (Part 2). Implications for theory, research and practice are drawn (Part 3) and model development parallels the process throughout. The work concentrates on fmcg in W.Europe and includes a comprehensive bibliography.
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