The Influence of Product's Use Condition in Matching Advertismen Appeals across Cultures

Abstract

This paper is extending the findings of Yong Zhang and Betsy D. Gelbs Matching Advertising Appeals to Culture: The Influence of Products Use Conditions, by comparing The United States with South Korea, rather than with China. The research is intended to investigate the values expressed in advertising as well as within the cultures while also including product use condition (socially visible and private use). The results yield both Korean and American participants enjoy advertisement appeals that are congruent with the values of their respective countries. However, in the products use condition both participants from the United States and South Korea showed a convergence towards appeals in certain contexts. The South Korean participants enjoyed the individualistic ads more when the product was privately used and the American participants enjoyed the collectivistic ads more when they were in a social context.