In Iran photographs of David Beckham where blacked out on billboards in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in what appears to be a backlash against western cultural influence despite Beckham's seemingly global appeal. Reuters quoted a source familiar with the advertising campaign as saying the commercials were deemed "too suggestive". Men are banned from wearing shorts in public in Iran, although football matches are screened on television. () .In this instance the backlash against the product (football) was not against the endorser, rather it was against what he represented: western cultural influence. It was acceptable to view Beckham playing football in the privacy of the audience‘s homes, but to have him plastered on billboards were all could see became too invasive. This should form the basis of a sound discussion on celebrity endorsements, for it is the understanding of cultural idiom, values, tastes and preference that influence the success of any celebrity when used in a cross cultural context.
Celebrity endorsement should therefore be closely related to the cultural context in which the images of celebrities are formed and linked with particular products. Deciding on the appropriate celebrity endorser is inevitably an important but particularly difficult task for advertisers. In western countries practitioners agree that the celebrity attributes and the fit with the product are sufficient in selecting an endorser (Tag 2001: Shanklin 1994). However as indicated earlier the perceived importance and actual use of selection criteria used may differ from country to country .Differences in the cultural environments may influence who and how celebrity endorsers are used. There are those who would argue that these differences are no longer pertinent as consumer tastes and preferences have become similar on a global scale. (Levitt 1983) They further postulate that if a celebrity with international recognition is used then the barriers of cultural differences can be overcome. (Kaikati: 1987, Erdogan) This is a difficult declaration to accept, after all as already revealed, even internationally iconic figures such as Beckham have failed to achieve the same success in the Asian or American markets . In China for example, Beckham has actively endorsed Addidas and Vodafone. Yet his endorsement deals are eclipsed by local athlete such as Liu Xiang (www.chinatoday.com). Such evidence naturally leads to the divergence or convergence debate in differing political , economic and cultural environments .(Hoofsted 1984 ).
What becomes apparent is that advertisers should not assume that the same adverting techniques can be used with equal effectiveness in different countries. In essence a clear understanding of how celebrity advertisement works should determine the need to standardise or adapt campaigns relating to different cultures .There is therefore a need to outline the effects of source credibility and attractiveness, match up hypothesis and meaning transfer.
How advertising works
Meaning movement and the endorsement process (McCracken 1989:315)
Celebrity endorsements are effective because of the meanings they carry and convey to the endorsed product, this transfer of meanings largely consists of 3 stages.
STAGE 1
An advertiser decides on cultural meanings such gender, status and lifestyle that they need the product to express. They then select a person or object that can be associated with these cultural meanings and is able to transfer them to the audience.
STAGE 2
Delivery of these meanings to the product through creative advertising execution.
STAGE 3
The cultural meanings should now be automatically transferred from the product to the consumer.
Analysis of Meaning transfer
McCracken explains that any person, celebrity or non-celebrity can transfer meanings to the products and to the consumers, however he emphasises that, ‘celebrities deliver meanings in extra subtlety, depth and power’. The transfer of meaning model is an opportunity to revisit or expand on how celebrity works in cross cultural context and how this can be improved. Although the first part of McCracken model is quite precise, the second part needs further expansion and the model misses essential ingredients necessary in the understanding of the transfer of meaning. Creative strategy is important because it highlights how the endorser will be used tactically in the adverting campaign. Critical strategies such as humour, sex and fear all form crucial aspects of creative execution that need to be embraced. In this respect it is necessary to first look at the product and relate this to cultural aspirations and then ultimately adjust the endorser’s execution or presentation of the message to suit the national or cultural appeal. It would be folly for example to have endorsement in China based on the Beckham sex appeal as often seen in the U.K. because of the more conservative Chinese culture which frowns upon open display of sexual images.
In this regard Addidas appears to have paid particular attention to this as they not only designed two different football boots for the Chinese and U.K markets, but endorsed them with uniquely different creative strategy. The “predator” boots were creatively related to the Chinese Dragon which symbolizes power, excellence and vitality. It overcomes obstacles until success is his. It is energetic, decisive, optimistic, intelligent and ambitious. Its benevolence signifies greatness, goodness and blessings. () such creative execution is intricately related to fundamental Confucian cultural values and has enabled the endorsement to enjoy great success throughout Asia. In contrast, the same boot, branded the “predator pulse” in the U.K targets inspirational footballers who strive to follow in the footsteps of their role model. It is a classy, sexy version of the Chinese brand and is supported by a compatible, creative and positioning strategy . Addidas launched the boot in Sedgwick, Beckham’s hometown. ( ) .Rohjeck collaborates and agrees that celebrities humanise desire (Rojek: 2001). Williamson expands on the need to highlight creative execution by pointing out that, ‘meaning is transferred unconsciously, with the celebrity signifying deeply embedded associations’ (Williamson 2000).
In theory MaCraken’s model is helpful in showing the transfer of meaning between the audience and the endorsers, it fails, however, to suggest clear ways on how this can be achieved and leaves the practitioner to his devices on how best to suit creative strategy with the endorser in vastly differing cultures. Although Beckham has done this through Addidas in China, there are still many failures such as the Iranian debacle. This should be a point of focus for future research.
Credibility
There is a general consensus that an individual will accept a message if it is given from a source she believes to be well informed , intelligent and capable of transmitting valid massages (Hovland et al 1953:21). The same author identified two dimensions that represent the spokesperson’s credibility. These are trustworthiness and integrity.
Trustworthiness is considered along with honesty, integrity and believability of the endorser as perceived by the target audience ( Erdogan , Baker and Tagg, 2001). This theory offers a sound rule of thumb in how communication works. At a basic level this can be supported by people’s acceptance of news material on television and newspapers as facts because of the perceived integrity of the source.
In celebrity endorsements, likewise, credibility is a major issue. The use of celebrities such as Beckham to promote Addidas brands is heavily reliant on his credibility as a successful sportsperson who the audience perceive as knowledgeable and expert at his profession. In a cross cultural context however the issues change. Credibility is still affected by the basic essentials of trust and expertise, however this is not always linked to integrity as suggested and if it is, the measures of integrity are subjective and elusive. One wonders how Calvin brooks a.k.a “SNOOP DOGG” is able to feature in adverts such as DaimlerChrysler and whether such endorsements would work for the Chinese markets or even British markets .After all, this is a self confessed gangster and pimp and who commands a massive following. His rap culture has violent and immoral undertones and yet he is one of the biggest endorsers in America and sells number one records throughout the world. (Hein: 2005) Snoop himself collaborates and notes that in America hip hop culture is a major part of music, sports and business. He adds, “I'm seeing hip-hop now in all the commercials because it's what's driving people to the store. Even if you don't like the product you'll get it because Snoop represents that”(Hein :2005).
Hovland’s findings have also been challenged by O’Mahony and Meenaghan who suggest that although both trustworthiness likeably, and attractiveness played an important role, it was expertise which had an impact on purchase decision. (O’mahony and Meenaghan 1997). On the contrary, (Friedman 1976) argued that despite credibility advertisements with endorsers have more effect on the believability and consumers intent to purchase than those without . It is evidently clear that credibility plays an important role in the endorsers effectiveness because, as Shimp (2003) states, ‘ people who are trustworthy and perceived as knowledgeable about the product category are best able to convince others to undertake a particular course of action’. Many examples of celebrity endorsing products related to their profession support this claim. Beckham has been an ardent endorser of sports products and has enjoyed relative success although there are also many examples where he has endorsed many successful products such as Gillett or Vodafone which have very little to do with sport. However, before even considering credibility it should also be highlighted that all adverts with endorsers have a positive effect on believability and on consumer intention to purchase - regardless of credibility or type of endorser (Friedman, et al 1976). Moreover those ads that used a high credibility source in comparative advertising campaigns had a positive impact on purchase intention. Nonetheless Natarajan and Chawla (1997) discovered that ads with celebrities were considered more credible that those without.
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Attractiveness
The attractiveness model proposes that the effectiveness of a message depends on the source’s physical attractiveness, likeability, familiarity and similarity to the recipient of the message. (Shimp 2003:297) Evidence suggests that attractiveness is an important factor and this is reinforced by the empirical use of celebrity endorsers in the first who are general seen as physically attractive (Ohanion 1990:41). Without doubt the rapid rate at which fans adopt the new Beckham hairstyle supports this and highlights his effectiveness in appealing to target audience aspirations.
A study conducted by Zhou (2004) found that these western appeals worked on high involvement goods and although the local culture’s concept of beauty is different, the inspirational aspect became so vital that such ads are quite successful as long as western models are used. Following on the concept of attractiveness and the need to use western models, current evidence emerging in China demonstrates the adaptable use of a foreign celebrity known as Dashan . Canadian by birth, this lanky Ottawa is relatively unknown in Canada however he is now renowned as the first westerner to perform the ancient Chinese art of xiangsheng, or comedic dialogue. Roswell, 39, is prospering in a society where TV performers work for minimal pay, earning his keep through lucrative advertising endorsement .( ) The Dashan character provides Rowswell with a decent income and has enabled him to carry the personal satisfaction that his efforts may chip away at the Great Wall of cultural misunderstanding between China and the West. He collaborates and notes "I try to bring to the Chinese a new image of foreigners that flies in the face of the stereotypes most have grown up with,"( ). This is a dynamic example of the use of foreigners in endorsements and shows how attractiveness , credibility and match up can be suited to a differing cultural context
Unfortunately physical attractiveness is a difficult concept to define. The old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is applicable here. (Benoy 1982:15) .This leads one to the admission that different cultures will ultimately perceive physical attractiveness in a different way and individuals who would be considered attractive in one country may be considered unattractive in another. (Rhodes, Zebrowitz: 1997) A clear example would be the depiction of beautiful women in the west. Generally, evidence suggest that women who are tall elegant and slim are regarded as beautiful. In contrast, Africans consider fullness of figure as vital while height is not as important. One would therefore assume that western models would have no appeal in these cultures .Evidence suggest otherwise , most depiction of models in multinational firms in China have western views of beauty.
Despite David Beckham‘s seemingly global appeal, there are instances when his endorsements have been received in bad taste as happened in Iran (some cultures attach less importance to physical beauty than others). Research reveals that collectivistic cultures attach less significance to physical attractiveness while individualism is directly related to stereotyping and physical attractiveness. This therefore explains why Beckham as an endorser in China is eclipsed by Luo Xian ( ) who is regarded as being more attractive. Furthermore, Erdogan, et al. (2001) found that trustworthiness and expertise were more important for technical products. Thus it would be reasonable to conclude that the concept of physical attractive is more essential when considering endorsements of non technical products.
In general, physically attractive endorsers are seen as more effective than less attractive endorsers in terms of creating favourable impressions towards the advertised brands and products (Shimp 2003). It can be seen from the evidence presented that attractiveness, likeability and personality are more related to attention getting whereas expertise is closely related to intention to purchase .What is clear is that celebrities are a more attractive and credible source in advertising, consequently these factors should have a bearing on how celebrities are used in a cross cultural context as these dimensions are affected by culture.
Dimensions of culture
High vs. low context
Culture has been shown to be one of the most obvious and frequently used orientations for showing differences between Asian and western societies (Cho et al. 1999; Kim, Pan, and Park 1998). In the advertising context such differences are highlighted by the differing communication facets. These dimensions suggest two kinds of communication types. A high context communication is one in which most of the information is already available in the physical context or within the person’s frame of reference. Whereas a low context communication is just the opposite, in that the mass of the information is emphasised in the explicit code. In high-context cultures (China), messages are conveyed in an abstract, implicit, and indirect manner.
In contrast, communication in low-context cultures is more straightforward, explicit, and direct. Western countries such as the United States are characterized as low-context cultures whereas, Asian cultures such as Japan and Korea exhibit a high-context communication style. (Chow et al. 1999; Hall 1976). This point is important because it raises questions about whether an endorser can be truly global and use similar appeals and endorsement techniques between different countries, evidence gathered so far and practical examples show that there is a crucial need to adapt at least the communication style of the host country.
It is fair to conclude that in low context cultures celebrity endorsements are often information orientated and follow a central route to persuasion. Conversely, in high context cultures advertising tends to be more emotional, symbolic and should follow a peripheral route to persuasion.
Individualism vs. collectivism
Another common cultural dimension is to compare individualistic versus collective societies. Originating from Hoofsted’s work in 1984 this concept shows how different values are appreciated across cultures. Individualistic societies such as the UK show high realisation, independence and high levels of competition characteristic of western societies. In contrast, collective societies emphasise interdependence , harmony , family , group oriented goals and low levels of competition .(hofstede 1984) These concepts also influence advertising and celebrity endorsements . Advertising in individualistic countries often emphasises independence, uniqueness and success of individuals. In contrast, collective cultures use endorsements that show the cultural values of interdependence, integrity group goals and concern for others. In this respect employing celebrities to endorse products seems to be more fitting to collectivistic cultures because celebrities transfer symbolic meanings and this is an integral part of high context culture communications.
Conclusions
This paper has clarified the meaning of celebrities and endorsements. We have further expanded by including how one becomes a celebrity and deviated from the norm by showing that one does not necessarily have to be successful in a particular arena to qualify as a celebrity. This study has therefore highlighted the importance of media (such as television) in the making of celebrities. There is a suggestion that celebrities can be purposefully built and used in the endorsement process. Particular examples relating to popular Big brother television series have been cited to prove this.
The study has shown that culture inevitably influences the content and style of advertising across countries. Celebrity endorsement provides a frame of reference with the product for consumers. Advertising techniques will naturally vary across different countries. Given the financial implications of cross country advertising it is important to assess these differences. The report has clearly demonstrated the need for this through practical examples that relate to the need for adaptation toward local audiences in the celebrity endorsement process. Comparing such differences has added depth and clarity to understanding comparisons involving the study cultures that vary on the major constructs with sufficient functional similarities such as China and the U.K (Berry 1980).
Celebrity endorsements have been analysed from three important aspects credibility, attractiveness and meaning transfer. It has also been clearly shown that credibility is not as important a factor as suggested by literature. The rap culture example is clear testimony that even seemingly unconvincing celebrity endorser’s can still successfully promote consumer products. It can be concluded that, although credibility does influence the success of the endorsement process, it is not a deciding factor. Moreover advertisers can take advantage of such endorsers and attempt to match them to target audience cultural values, however extreme.
Attractiveness has been shown to be a unique concept that allows and enables the penetration of celebrity endorsement into the cluttered media space. Attractive celebrities have been shown to be quite effective. However this paper has noted the different interpretations of beauty across the cultures. These do not seem to significantly affect the use of such celebrity endorsees in different countries. In fact it would seem that there is a growing convergence towards the western definition of beauty and that these can be used to inspire target audiences in other countries. There is little doubt that the, “Dashan ” example offers new insights into how both the transfer of meaning , credibility and attractiveness can be incorporated in cross cultural celebrity endorsements . Careful pre-test of celebrity endorsements should be carried out in such markets before the endorsement strategy is fully implemented.
The match up hypothesis has been shown to be outdated and inadequate in explaining the success of celebrity endorser who has promoted products that are either outside their area of expertise, rival competing brands or products that have little fit with their characteristics. Although this theory must inevitably be used as a baseline, It seems possible in international advertising to venture in product endorsements that may have little fit with the endorser and take advantage of other aspects such as credibility and attractiveness instead.
Although the first part of McCracken model is quite precise, the second part needs further expansion and the model misses essentially ingredients necessary in the understanding of the transfer of meaning. In this respect it is necessary to first look at the product and relate it to cultural aspirations and then ultimately adjusts the endorser execution or presentation of the product to suit the national or cultural appeals. It would be folly for example, to have endorsement in China based on the Beckham sex appeal as often seen in the U.K.
The importances of cultural considerations have been carefully appraised and should complement the implementation and understanding how advertising works. We can reach the logical conclusion that Chinese audiences are more likely to conform to group norms and more likely to follow pre-dominant trends , unlike their western counterparts . Ultimately, this essay has shown that cross cultural celebrity endorsement is still a relatively new area of research. In addition, there is inconsistency in how celebrities are used at an international level. It is also unlikely that international celebrity endorsements can succeed without relative adaptation of both the product, the message and the endorser to suit prevailing cultural considerations in the host country. The degree and extent of adaptation will differ depending on the psychic distance between the endorse and the target audience.
Limitations
Given the mentioned importance of cross cultural similarities and differences, findings of this study do not provide answers regarding how often celebrities are used in the two differing cultures. Neither is it clarified as to how far celebrity endorsers can be extended in different countries. Such answers can be derived from a more substantial content analysis rather than a qualitative report. There is also a need to research the extent of public glamorisation between cultures, and how personal characteristics may influence this. Although this paper attempted to demonstrate the differing endorsements strategies between countries, it fails to provide enough examples largely due to its qualitative nature. Advertising practitioners need to know more than just when to use a celebrity endorser. They should also be clear on how to use endorsers. It may be necessary to examine how this can be done indifferent countries.
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