TV
Commercials in Denmark and the United States: A cross-cultural comparison
Marianne Figge, University of Southern Denmark, Odense
Abstract
This paper includes Denmark as a primary focus of cross-cultural
advertising research. A sample of 90
Danish and 99 U.S. television commercials were content analyzed. Value appeals
were found to be relatively similar, while executional styles differed between
Danish and U.S. commercials. However, advertising practices appeared
sufficiently similar that it should be
possible to standardize campaigns for
the two markets.
Introduction
As the world of goods becomes increasingly global, the issue of
standardization or adaptation of marketing is of utmost importance to
international companies (Douglas and Wind, 1987; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1987; Jain,
1989, Papavassiliou and Stathakopoulos, 1997).
Advertising may be one of the most difficult aspects of the marketing
mix to standardize, because advertising is strongly culture-bound, dependent on
cultural factors such as language, values, lifestyle, communication style, and
media habits (Harris, 1984; Sandler and Shani, 1992; De Mooij, 1998). Even in cultures that are
perceived as relatively close, such as the United States and Great Britain, significant
differences in advertising have been demonstrated (Weinberger and Spotts,
1989a; Weinberger and Spotts, 1989b; Katz and Lee, 1992; Bradley et al., 1994;
Caillat and Mueller, 1996). As a major advertising
nation, the United States is included in most cross-cultural advertising
studies; thus it becomes a benchmark for analysis. Denmark, on the other hand,
is very rarely studied in this context. While other Nordic countries,
particularly Sweden, are represented in international advertising studies
(Martenson, 1987; Wiles et al., 1996), Denmark has only been
included in a few studies of multiple countries, mostly in the form of
secondary data (Synodinos et al., 1989; Zandpour et al., 1994; De Mooij, 1998).
The objective of the present study is to contribute to the body of
cross-cultural advertising research by including Denmark as a primary focus of
analysis, and by providing a comparison of television commercials in the United
States and Denmark.
Denmark and the United States are alike in that both are Western,
industrialized nations with a high standard of living, and both cultures are
highly individualistic (Hofstede, 1984; Triandis, 1998). However, there are also
considerable differences between the two nations. In addition to differences
such as history, political system, and sheer size and influence of each nation,
there are cultural differences which may affect consumer behavior and
advertising. For example, Americans are often characterized by placing a high
value on status, success, achievement, and competition. American children are
encouraged to be number one, students usually know their class rank, and awards
for various accomplishments are common. There is a general emphasis on winning,
having a career, making money and displaying status through possessions. This
is captured in the American dream of the individual who raises from poverty by
using skills and hard work to become wealthy and influential (e.g., Stewart,
1972; Boorstin, 1973; Hall and Hall, 1990). A very different attitude is
prevalent in Denmark. People skills, cooperation and equality are valued higher
than success and status. In schools, the ideal is a mid-level of performance,
where most students can participate. Competition and achievement are not
encouraged, and the process is considered more important than the results. It
is bad taste to flaunt success, or attempt to be better than others. There is a
tendency to favor the the average, the middle-of-the road, rather than the
special or the great (Himmelstrup, 1992; Řstergĺrd, 1992; Hastrup, 1995;
Strange, 1996). Politically, this is reflected in a welfare society based on a
notion of solidarity and equality, in contrast to the political system in the
US, which tends to favor personal initiative and provide only minimal help for
the less fortunate (Triandis, 1995).
Such cultural differences also affect consumer behavior and
advertising. For example, U.S. consumers may show more interest in displaying
wealth and succes, and advertising appeals to status and achievement, as well
as celebrity endorsements, may be used frequently. Danish ads, on the other
hand, may be expected to reflect softer values such as relationships and
enjoyment, and to feature "ordinary people" rather than celebrities.
Furthermore, it may be expected that Danish advertisements display a soft,
indirect selling approach while aggressive, direct approaches are more common
in the U.S. (Hofstede et al., 1998).
This leads to the following hypotheses:
H1: U.S. commercials will appeal to values of status, success, and achievement more frequently than Danish commercials
H2: Danish commercials will appeal to values of relationship and
enjoyment more often than U.S. commercials
H3: U.S. commercials will use celebrity endorsement more often than Danish commercials
H4: U.S. commercials will use direct approaches such as straight announcer, direct response, and product information more often than Danish commercials
H5: Danish commercials will use approaches featuring "ordinary people" (e.g., slice-of-life, testimonial) more often than U.S. commercials
H6: Danish commercials will use indirect, symbolic approaches (e.g., visual/image, dramatization) more often than U.S. commercials.
Selection and Coding of Commercials
The commercials in the sample were randomly selected from videotapes of
primetime television in Denmark and the United States during two weeks of April
and May, 1998. Danish commercials were taped from the TV2, the only commercial
channel in Denmark that are available to all television households, and is
broadcast form Denmark. U.S. commercials were taped from the four major
American networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. After repeats were deleted from the
sample, a total of 99 U.S. commercials and 90 Danish commercials were included
in the analysis. Commercials were coded by native coders in each country. The
coding included country, length (in seconds), language, product category, value,
and executional strategy. Coders were
instructed to identify one main value and one main strategy for each
commercial. All variables except length were dummy coded (Zandpour et al,
1992), and chi square analyses were performed. The X2 values indicate differences in the frequencies of
each variable in relation to country.
Description of Values and Executional Strategy
The main units of analysis in this study are values and executional
strategy. Values are manifestations of the content, theme, or appeal, the
"what is said" of the ad. The study of values in advertising was
pioneered by Pollay, who has identified a comprehensive list of values manifest
in US advertising during the 20th century (Pollay, 1983; Pollay, 1984, Belk and
Pollay, 1985). Pollay's list of values was
modified and shortened by Cheng and Schweitzer (1996) for the purpose of
comparing values in U.S. and Chinese TV commercials. The list used in this
study contains 23 values and is based on Cheng and Schweitzer (see Appendix,
Table A).
Executional strategy describes
the communication style or approach, the "how it is said" of the ad.
An exhaustive list of possible strategies does not exist, and deciding which
strategies to include is largely a matter of the desired level of detail,
analytical goals, and specific characteristics of the actual sample. This study
uses a list of 16 strategies, which is compiled from several advertising
textbooks and academic papers (Laskey et al., 1989; Burton, 1990; Nelson, 1994), and modified to fit the
present data set and goals (see Appendix, Table B).
Language
All commercials in the U.S. sample were in
English. In Denmark, 82% of ads were in Danish, 10% were in English, and the
rest were in another language, or a mix of languages (Table 2).
|
|
Denmark (n = 90) |
U.S. (n = 99) |
||
|
Length (seconds) |
frequency |
% |
frequency |
% |
|
10 |
6 |
6.7 |
|
|
|
15 |
13 |
14.4 |
21 |
21.2 |
|
20 |
15 |
16.7 |
|
|
|
25 |
8 |
8.9 |
|
|
|
30 |
38 |
42.2 |
78 |
78.8 |
|
35 |
4 |
4.4 |
|
|
|
40 |
2 |
2.2 |
|
|
|
45 |
2 |
2.2 |
|
|
|
50 |
1 |
1.1 |
|
|
|
60 |
1 |
1.1 |
|
|
TABLE 2
Language of Danish and U.S.
Commercials
|
|
Denmark (n = 90) |
U.S. (n = 99) |
|
||
|
Language |
Frequency |
% |
Frequency |
% |
X2 valuesa (df = 1) |
|
English |
9 |
10 |
99 |
100 |
155.935*** |
|
Danish |
74 |
82.2 |
0 |
0 |
133.779*** |
|
Other |
7 |
7.8 |
0 |
0 |
7.996** |
aX2 values indicate the
frequency of each language by country
** = p < .01, *** = p < .001
Product Category
The most common category in both countries was
food and beverages, covering 23.3% of the Danish commercials and 26.3% of the
US commercials (Table 3). In Denmark, this was followed by entertainment and
tourism (20%), while the rest of the categories were distributed fairly evenly
around 8-10%, except autos which only represented 3% of the Danish
commercials. Two categories were more
common in Denmark than in the U.S., namely furnishings/home decoration (p < .01) and department/grocery stores (p < .05). In the U.S., personal care & clothes (21%), and
autos (19%) were the most frequent categories after food and beverages, and
both were significantly more common than in Denmark (p < .05; p < .01).
Values
Just a few values were common in each country,
and there was considerable overlap in the most popular values between countries
(Table 4). In Denmark, the most common values were enjoyment (16.7%), quality
(14.4%) and economy (13.3%), followed by family and friends (6.7%), and
convenience (6.7%). In the US, the most common value was also enjoyment
(25.3%), followed by beauty (13.1%), quality (11.1%), adventure (7.1%)
TABLE 3
Frequencies of Product
Categories in Danish and U.S. Television Commercials
|
|
Denmark (n = 90) |
U.S. (n = 99) |
|
||
|
Product categories |
Frequency |
% |
Frequencies |
% |
X2 valuesa
(df = 1) |
|
Food & beverages |
21 |
23.3 |
26 |
26.3 |
.217 |
|
Personal care & clothes |
9 |
10 |
21 |
21.2 |
4.438* |
|
Phones, PCs |
8 |
8.9 |
7 |
7.1 |
.213 |
|
Furnishings & home decoration |
7 |
7.8 |
0 |
0 |
7.996** |
|
Entertainment & travel |
18 |
20 |
12 |
12.1 |
2.191 |
|
Auto |
3 |
3.3 |
19 |
19.2 |
11.527** |
|
Services |
9 |
10 |
4 |
4 |
2.614 |
|
Department or grocery stores |
8 |
8.9 |
2 |
2 |
4.438* |
|
Miscellaneous |
7 |
7.8 |
8 |
8.1 |
.006 |
aX2 values indicate the
differences in the frequencies of each product category by country.
* p < .05, ** p. < 01
and convenience (6.1%). Among the most dominant values, only one was
significantly different between countries. This value was "beauty,"
which was used more often (p <
.01) in the U.S. than in Denmark. The value of beauty is also related to the
product category of personal care and clothes (correlation coefficient = .688, p < .001), which is more common (p < .05) in the U.S. than in Denmark.
The only other significant difference between the values manifest in the two
countries was in the case of "status," which appeared more often in
Danish (p < .05) than in U.S.
commercials.
Drama and product information were the most common strategies both in
Denmark and the U.S. (Table 5). Drama was the executional style in 20% of the
U.S. commercials and 22% of the Danish commercials, and product information was
used by 18.9% of commercials in Denmark and 17.2% in the U.S. In Denmark, this
was followed by slice of life (15.6%) and visual/image (13.3%). Both slice of
life (p < .001) and visual/image (p < .05) were used significantly more
often in Denmark. A company spokesperson-approach was also used significantly
more often in Denmark ( p < .05).
In the US, the most popular strategies after drama and product information were
straight announcer (17.2%), and celebrity endorsement (16.2%). Both straight
announcer (p < .05) and celebrity
endorsement (p < .01).were used
significantly more often in the U.S. than in Denmark.
The results of this study indicate that there are some differences
between advertising in Denmark and the United States, though not always in the
expected direction. The differences appear to exist mainly in format and executional
style rather than content.
Length
U.S. commercials in this sample adhered to a much more standardized
format than did Danish commercials. All the U.S. commercials in the sample were
either 15 or 30 seconds long, while the Danish commercials varied from 10 to 60
seconds, with every 5-second interval in-between represented. This does not
pose a problem for U.S. advertisers operating in Denmark, but Danish
advertisers attempting to standardize advertising for the U.S. market should be
aware of this formal constraint.
Language
While English was the only language that appeared in U.S. commercials,
languages other than Danish were represented in 17.8% of the Danish
commercials, with English being the most common. This finding indicate that it
is possible, at least in some cases, to use English-language commercials as a
standardized approach in both countries.
Product Category
While food and beverages was the most common product category in both
countries, there was considerable variation across other categories.
Advertisers should be aware of this difference in competitive clutter, as it
might affect creative decisions. For example, U.S. automobile advertisers, who
are used to a very competitive advertising environment in the U.S., would meet
very few competitors should they choose to advertise in Danish television.
Commercials that are particularly designed to break through the competitive
clutter may thus not be necessary, or desirable, in the Danish market.
TABLE 4
Frequencies of Values
in Danish and U.S. Television Commercials
|
|
Denmark (n = 90) |
U.S.
(n = 99) |
|
||
|
Value |
Frequencies |
% |
Frequencies |
% |
X2
valuesa (df = 1) |
|
Adventure |
5 |
5.6 |
7 |
7.1 |
.182 |
|
Beauty |
2 |
2.2 |
13 |
13.1 |
7.678** |
|
Conformity |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.914 |
|
Convenience |
6 |
6.7 |
6 |
6.1 |
.029 |
|
Curiosity |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1.838 |
|
Cutting edge |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.914 |
|
Economy |
12 |
13.3 |
10 |
10.1 |
.479 |
|
Efficiency |
5 |
5.6 |
3 |
3 |
|