James Reardon, Chip Miller, Bram Foubert, Irena Vida, and Liza Rybina
Executive Summary
This study investigates the efficacy of antismoking messages for teenagers in nine countries. Teen smoking is a global problem. Marketing groups have been asked to find messages that will help prevent teens from beginning smoking. However, this is not an easy task. It is often assumed that teenagers are a global segment and that they act similarly to marketing stimuli. Nonetheless, there is evidence that culture has a significant effect on teenage behavior and that a global ad campaign would not be successful.
This study tests various antismoking advertisements on teenagers around the world. Reardon and colleagues manipulate the messages in the advertisements to change the valence of the outcome (positive or negative) and the level of intensity of the outcome (high or low). The study indicates that teens in different countries react in a dissimilar way to the ad messages. Therefore, a universal appeal would be less than successful for this presumed segment. Reardon and colleagues find that uncertainty avoidance was an important determinant in how the teens responded to the advertisements. Negative advertisements were best for those with high uncertainty avoidance, and vice versa.
For advertising creators and public policy groups, the outcomes of this study imply that different advertisements that reflect the character of the audience must be created. Teens from countries with high uncertainty avoidance need advertisements that are opposite those of teens from low uncertainty avoidance, or the advertisements’ effectiveness will be less than optimal. Thus, ad valence and intensity should be varied to correspond to audience needs.
Reardon and colleagues collected data from more than 2300 high school students in nine countries. They represented five language groups, two religious groups, and several income strata. Ad messages referred to outcomes of sickness or death (negative) or a healthier, longer life (positive). Reardon and colleagues tested the survey results with LISREL to determine how they affected teens’ willingness not to smoke. Managers and public policy officials should not consider teens a homogeneous global segment (as the European Union does); rather, they should account for the cultural background of each country and modify antismoking advertisements accordingly.
Biography
James Reardon received a BS and MBA from the University of Montana and a PhD from the University of North Texas. He is currently Professor of Marketing at the University of Northern Colorado. His publications have appeared in Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Marketing Education, and Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, among others. His research interests include global, direct, and social marketing issues.
Chip Miller received a BA, MA, and MBA from the University of Kansas and a PhD from the University of Washington. He is currently a Professor of Marketing at Drake University. His publications have appeared in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, European Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Management, among others. His research interests include global marketing and consumer information processing.
Bram Foubert holds a PhD in Applied Economic Sciences (2004) from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His research interests lie predominantly in the area of retailing and consumer response modeling. His current research focuses on promotion and advertising effectiveness.
Irena Vida received her PhD from the University of Tennessee,– Knoxville (1997). Her research efforts focus on application of consumer behavior theories and models in cross-cultural settings and on strategic issues in international business and marketing. She has been involved in teaching and/or consulting with various domestic and international companies in the past five years, mostly in the fast-moving-consumer goods area and in retailing and pharmaceutical industries. Her publications have appeared in various journals, such as the Journal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, European Journal of Marketing, International Business Review, and Economic and Business Review.
Liza Rybina received a BS from the Kazak State University and an MBA from the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research. She took postgraduate courses at the London Business School and participated in the Junior Faculty Development Program at the University of Northern Colorado. She is Senior Lecturer in Management and Marketing at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research. She has been involved in management consulting projects in Russia and has consulted for Kazakhstani companies on marketing and sales management. Her research interests include sport marketing, social marketing, business ethics, and business education.
Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2006
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