About AMA

Executive Summary
Banner advertising is an international phenomenon, and the market for it is growing quickly worldwide. For multinational companies, it is relevant to determine the extent to which banner advertising should be standardized or adapted to attain maximum effectiveness in international markets. Because of its global character and application of standardized formats across cultures, banner advertising is more likely to have a standardized multinational communication strategy. However, the following question arises: Do cultural differences regarding banner advertising effectiveness exist that favor an adaptation approach, and if so, in what particular way?

Möller and Eisend attempt to answer this question and to examine whether advertising effectiveness in terms of attitudes and behavior toward banner advertising depends on individual- or national-level cultural variables or both. By analyzing the need for cultural adaptation, the article contributes to the extensive debate on international promotion standardization that has focused on traditional forms of marketing communication to date.

The authors develop and test a framework on the impact of national-level cultural variables and sociodemographic variables on banner advertising effectiveness. They analyze online survey data from 7775 respondents from 34 countries using hierarchical linear modeling and also analyze click-through rates from 2192 users from 26 countries. The findings show that banner advertising effectiveness in terms of attitudes toward banner advertising and intention to click on banner advertisements varies along Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity. In particular, consumers from individualist countries show less acceptance of banner advertising than those from collectivist countries. The acceptance of Web banner advertising is related to the consumers’ click behavior. Individual-level variables contribute only marginally to explain banner advertising effectiveness, which strengthens the significance of the direct effects of national-level cultural variables. The findings suggest that marketers should view banner advertising, though largely standardized when targeting a global audience, as a culture-specific issue. Moreover, from a method point of view, the authors show how online surveys on Web sites that are frequented by an international audience provide avenues for research in international marketing.

Biography
Jana Möller is Doctoral Student at Freie University Berlin, Germany. Her research focuses on marketing planning and consumer behavior. Her research has been published in Marketing Letters.

Martin Eisend is Professor of Marketing at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. He earned a doctoral degree at Freie University Berlin, Germany. His research activities center on marketing communication and methods of empirical generalization. His research has been published in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Marketing Letters, Journal of Advertising, and other journals.

Journal of International Marketing, Volume 18, Number 2, June 2010
View Table of Contents.

Member Comments (0):

To rate or comment on articles, you must be a logged in AMA member. Click here to join