Media Essay: Cross-cultural advertising analysis

Cross-Cultural Advertising Analysis
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Introduction
Doing business in the current age of globalization usually calls for an all-round awareness about everything. Globalization has ensured that people of diverse cultures or walks of life meet up in various places to conduct business. To this end, therefore, it is quite important for businesses to come up with such an approach that captures all the diversity. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory provides a framework used in understanding the differences in culture across different countries. Understanding the cultural dimensions is often critical for companies committed to conducting business abroad and would help comprehend how natural culture impacts the business setting. Usually, cultural communication influences various aspects, such as communication between individuals, and would also affect people’s ability to establish connections and interact. Besides, the culture is determined as the mind’s collective programming, and it helps differentiate between different groups of individuals. The need for international advertising requires that companies and businesses comprehend cultural differences in target countries and promote adverts’ effectiveness. Therefore, proper implementation of advertising appeals should be based on the local culture to maximize their impacts.
The paper will be based on the fashion industry. Additionally, the film adverts selected include “2020 Chinese New Year” by Adidas’ and “You Only HBL Once” by Nike.
Figure 1: Adidas: 2020 Chinese New Year (Haomai, 2020).
Figure 2: Nike: You Only HBL Once (Wieden + Kennedy, 2018).
The two adverts have been shown how fashion products from the two countries can be utilized in different types of sports activities and exercises. However, the creativity of the two ads has been expressed through the effective use of the globalized approach. For instance, in the Adidas’ advert, different factors have been considered to promote the Chinese culture; these include the venue where the ad was recorded; it has Chinese art designs. Most importantly, the individuals involved in the art are also performing kung fu skills, which are common among the Chinese people. Additionally, the Nike ad uses the Chinese language; this is critical because it is targeted towards Chinese people, and it would have better persuasion. Further, Nike’s ad also uses subtitles, which are critical for helping target individuals who may not be conversant with the Chinese language. As can be seen, there is an elaborate and concerted effort by the company to really reach out to the Chinese populace and to endear itself to them as much as possible.
The advertisements may be analyzed using different Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, such as individualism versus collectivism. Individualism involves the realization that an individual becomes the main focus of the society and is the only approach people can use to achieve their aims. On the other side, collectivism is founded on a rigid social framework that differentiates in and out-groups. In collectivism, people have collective interests, and people protect themselves through forming close team relationships (Yang, 2018). In other terms, individualism focuses on the ability of an individual to only take care of oneself, while collectivism focuses on the ability of a group of people or even a community to take care of themselves as one single unit.
China would score higher on collectivism, and successful advertisements targeting Chinese markets should effectively represent people as part of the team. The Chinese are a highly collectivist group, as they normally act or make decisions based on the good of the larger society rather than just themselves. The collectivism is clearly demonstrated in the Adidas advert, where the position of every individual included in the ad is part of the entire group. Every individual in the Adidas ad has a role that contributes to the overall goal of the advert. While some individuals are involved in the dances and other play activities, other persons are cheering.
In collectivism, people sacrifice their lives to pursue a common goal that benefits all other members. Since the ad emphasizes the collectivistic benefits, then it is possible that it would gain acceptance among the Chinese population, and this would eventually increase the sales of Adidas products. Adidas has worked so carefully on the ad because it has an awareness of the collective nature of the Chinese society, as opposed to the American one, which usually tends to lean towards individualism. In order to capture such a market, businesses need to appear to be sharing similar ideals as well.
Additionally, the Nike advert has also support collectivism. The advertisement includes basketball players who are collectively involved in training activities and other related exercises. Additionally, the advert shows that in order to record individual success, then people have to learn to work together. Besides, the statement “Go all out with our brothers for one more day” demonstrates collectivism, where individual players are depicted as an integral part of the basketball team. Furthermore, the Nike ad promotes conformity and group achievement. In this case, the advert would be effective in supporting in convincing Chinese based customers to buy Nike products.  
The dimension of masculinity versus femininity would help determine the distribution of roles between men and women. According to Hofstede...