Advertising adaptation: The impact of local culture on strategies implemented by multinational companies

Globalization has lowered the barriers between countries, allowing to reduce both geographical and cultural distance. With this convergence of distances and rapid access to information, a phenomenon of transnational culture has emerged, enabling multinational companies to standardize their communication. However, cultural specificities still remain, and brands must find new strategies to communicate effectively with a global, but culturally different audience. This study analyzes the adaptation of international advertising to local cultures. It aims to understand how international companies communicate with different cultures and how they adapt to them. This thesis begins with a reflection on the notions of advertising and culture before defining the relationship between both, to see culture limitations and influences. This study is based on a content analysis of 102 television messages broadcast in various countries by multinational companies. The advertising message of these TV commercials has been studied to determine the adaptation strategy used, as well as to verify the influence of certain factors such as product types and industry.The results suggest that to counter language problems, international brands will favor non-verbal advertising characterized by an absence of dialogue and predominant use of visual aspect. As for the number of characters illustrated, the results do not allow to establish a relationship with the individuality index of the country where the advertisement is broadcast although it tends to apply for country with low individuality index. Moreover, there seems to be an influence of product types and industry on the advertising message when companies adapt them, but the under-representation of the sample for each product type and industry does not allow us to confirm the nature of this influence.Through the analysis of international advertisements, this thesis highlights the cultural challenge faced by international brands when adapting advertising campaigns.