Abstract:
In his article “The Globalization of Markets” (1983) Theodore Levitt argues that, due to the development of tourism, transport and mass communication, the world has become more homogenized and that cultures are converging. He theorises the standardization of marketing activities, among which advertising takes place, to meet the tastes and desires of similar consumers across the world. Many researchers criticize this approach, asserting that advertising is closely related to culture and must adapt to meet the customer’s needs. Over the years the debate among scholars whether it is better to standardize or localize marketing activities in different markets has continued without coming to an agreement. This paper aims to look at the influence of culture in advertising and tries to understand why more and more companies, also those that are considered global businesses, are localizing their strategies. The first part is an introduction to the world of culture and special attention is paid to the theories of Edward T. Hall and Geert Hofstede, presented to depict the characteristics that distinguish one culture from another. The second part of the papers covers the strategies that companies and brands adopt in order to address different targets. The two main strategies, based on different cultural approaches, are standardization, inspired by the theory of globalization by Theodore Levitt, and adaptation, inspired by Hofstede’s theories. A third strategy, which consists in the fusion of the two previous ones, can be found and it is called glocalization. The last part of the paper is about the analysis of some case studies. There are examples of standardization taken from international advertising campaigns by Swarovski, Breil, Carrera and Nespresso, and examples of adaptation taken from advertising campaigns for the brands Ikea, Philadelphia and Fiat 500.
