Cultural Influences on Perceptions of Standardisation of Advertising

Despite the long-term discussions about standardisation and adaptation of international advertising, problems of how to measure and evaluate the degree of advertising standardisation still exist. Most of the current approaches view this matter from the marketers' and companies' perspective. This study examines and investigates the degree of standardisation of advertising campaigns from both the companies' and the consumers' viewpoint and is based on international research. A methodology is presented to assess the degree of standardisation by conducting an extensive case study using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Consumers from three different countries around the world (USA, United Kingdom and Greece) were asked to give their personal views by completing online questionnaires in order to evaluate the different perceptual values of consumers from each specific country concerning standardised or adapted advertising. The analysis should help shed light on the international advertising industry and should be particularly useful to professionals in the Marketing Communications and Advertising fields.