IMPACT OF INDIVIDUAL CULTURAL DIFFERENCES ON TV COMMERCIALS’ EFFECTIVENESS

Abstract

Every nation has its own way of living, traditions, values, and norms. The cultural practices vary among the countries all over the world. The advertisement itself, the messages conveyed and the actors performing in it depend on the cultural characteristics of the country. The development level of the countries may have an impact on the cultural values of individuals; hence on the consumption behavior and marketing applications. Individual cultural differences may call for certain adaptations in the messages, content, and style of the advertisements for a certain target group. Depending on this view, this research tries to analyze the effects of individual differences on the advertising effectiveness in an emerging country, Turkey.The effectiveness of each advertisement was measured in terms of the persuasiveness and liking. Furthermore, individual cultural differences were analyzed on two dimensions of masculinity and power distance, which were introduced by Hofstede (1983). All the masculinity statements were grouped under one factor whereas power distance statements were grouped under two subdimensions namely “trust for subordinates” and “obedience to authority”. The masculinity scale was found to create significant difference in the effectiveness of the advertisements. However, the power distance did not create any difference between the effectiveness levels. Individual cultural traits did not create any difference in the effectiveness of advertisements except in ads which carry masculine cues (called ‘masculine ads’ throughout the text). If the ad carried masculine cues, then, feminine individuals evaluated effectiveness of masculine ads significantly lower than did the masculine individuals.

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