The means‐end cognitions of web advertising: a cross‐cultural comparison
| Published date | 28 September 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011084573 |
| Date | 28 September 2010 |
| Pages | 686-703 |
| Author | Chen‐Su Fu,Wann‐Yih Wu |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The means-end cognitions of web
advertising: a cross-cultural
comparison
Chen-Su Fu
Department of Business Administration,
National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan, and
Wann-Yih Wu
Chinese Culture University, Taipei City, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – The paper, based on the concepts of means-end chain (MEC) theory and high versus
low-context cultures, aims to understand whether the differentiation of culture connotations is directly
reflected in the design of web advertisements and whether the text content of web ads is a reliable
indicator of different context cultures (e.g. implicit and explicit).
Design/methodology/approach – Changing consumer attitudes toward the use of credit provides
huge business opportunities for credit card issuers. Obviously, credit card issuers have continued their
efforts to persuade large numbers of people to obtain and use the cards. Credit cards can thus be
considered a successful intercultural marketing case of product internationalisation. Therefore, this
paper used web ads for credit cards as research subjects. This paper adopts MEC theory and the
distinction between high- and low-context cultures to identify whether the cultural context directly
affects the design and content of web advertisements.
Findings – Through examining the advertising copy of credit card web sites, this study found that
the higher the cultural context, the more complicated the cognitive attribute-consequence-value
structures of web ad design. Thus, web design analysis reveals that marketers living in countries with
high-context cultures normally communicate indirectly with their target audience, leading to highly
complex attribute-consequence-value linkage structures with many layers.
Originality/value – This is the first study to integrate the concepts of MEC theory and high versus
low-context cultures for understanding the impact of culture on web advertising. By understanding
the differentiation of web ad designs across various cultures it is possible to provide marketers with
valuable insights for developing advertising strategies in global markets.
Keywords Advertising,Culture, Worldwide web, Credit cards
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Globalisation and the increasing popularity of the internet mean that the internet is
becoming a powerful marketing tool for converting innovation to economic value for
business. In particular, the online borderless nature of the internet raises the possibility
of product exposure in the global market. Multinational corporations that adopt the
internet as an advertising medium need to consider the different cultural contexts in
different countries when designing suitable text content for advertisements on web
pages. The distinction between high- and low-context, originally proposed by Hall
(1976a) has since been widely adopted to examine communication styles across
cultures, and to convey information about in and out-groups (Wu
¨rtz, 2005). Generally,
high-context cultures tend to use indirect, non-confrontational and vague expressions,
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OIR
34,5
686
Refereed article received
8 June 2009
Approved for publication
26 April 2010
Online Information Review
Vol. 34 No. 5, 2010
pp. 686-703
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684521011084573
relying on the receiver’s ability to apprehend the meaning from the context; whereas
low-context cultures tend to utilise direct, confrontational and unambiguous langu age,
ensuring that the receivers obtain the information exactly as it was provided (Usunier
and Lee, 2005). Copeland and Griggs (1985) concluded that communication through
explicit statements in speech or text occurs mainly in low-context cultures, such as
those of German-speaking Switzerland, G ermany, Scandinavia and the USA.
Conversely, Japan, China, the Arab countries and Greece have high-context cultures
because they communicate through implicit statements. Additionally, the contrast
between high- and low-context cultures exists not just in the differentiation of message
communication (implicit versus explicit) but also in how people conduct their daily
lives. Thus, a person’s speech, responsibility for organisational error, space, time,
negotiations and competitive bidding all relate to the cultural context (Keegan, 1999).
In other words, culture can cause listeners and readers to have different interpretations
of the same text and speech, depending on their previous experiences. Hence marketers
who convey product information via the internet need to fully understand the
distinction between high- and low-context cultures across various countries, in order to
design effective global marketing strategies.
Many approaches have been designed to formulate effective advertising strategies.
In the marketing literature the predominant method of examining the text content of
advertisements perceived by consumers is means-end chain (MEC) analysis (Lin, 2009;
Lin and Wang, 2008; Lin et al., 2006; Reynolds and Olson, 2001). According to MEC
theory, product attributes are ways of obtaining consumer desires, through the
consequences on consumption experience (Gutman, 1982). A product’s attributes (A),
consequences (C) and values (V) are assumed to be linked hierarchically. This structure
is deeply embedded in the minds of consumers. Marketers can reveal the cognitive
hierarchies of consumers through laddering. Therefore, marketers can design
effective text content for ads to satisfy consumers’ value demands by understanding
the cognitive hierarchies.
Although MEC analysis has been widely used in various fields such as market
segmentation (Hofstede et al., 1999), advertising strategies (Binet and Field, 2009) and
cross-cultural strategies (Mattila, 1999; Valette-Florence, 1998) it has rarely been applied
to reveal the cultural impact on web advertising of high versus low-context cultures.
Hence this study is based on MEC theory and the distinction between high- and
low-context cultures and aims to:
.demonstrate how web advertisements can be examined using MEC theory to
reveal cultural differences in web advertisement design;
.identify whether the cultural context directly affects the design and content of
web advertisements; and
.understand the differences between web ad designs across various cultures and
provide marketers with valuable insights for developing web advertising
strategies in global markets.
This study begins with briefly elucidating the concept of MEC theory and high versus
low-context culture. Next the data collection and research procedure are provided.
Finally the authors present the results, discuss the findings and draw implications for
future research.
Cognitions of
web advertising
687
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