Cultural influences in the creation of an effective marketing communication. Analysis of international advertising campaigns

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Introduction 
 
The thesis has the purpose to analyze how culture, - that is, all the values, rituals, 
symbols and heroes of a nation,- influences and determinates the creation of marketing 
communication of enterprises and advertising agencies on markets, with particular 
reference to advertising.  
Culture concept has had a long evolution and it has a high social relevance, because it is 
shared by the community and it influences individual behaviours, if culture influences 
people s behaviour, it can influence the purchase behaviour too. The purchase decision 
process is influenced by a wide range of factors, and some of these are under control of 
the enterprise (marketing mix) while some of them are not controlled by the enterprise. 
Culture is not under an enterprise control, and it influences the purchase process 
through psychological and socio-cultural factors. The knowledge of such factors is 
fundamental to create an efficient segmentation process of the market and the 
differentiation of the products offer toward marketing mix. Communication is all the 
activities which promote an enterprise, a product or a service to the target. Advertising 
is one of the instruments of the marketing communication and its effectiveness on 
international markets needs a careful planning of advertising campaigns, and it must 
also consider the comparison with different cultures. Culture is important in this 
planning process at different levels, in particular in the definition of the message content 
and in the choice of  the most efficient communication instruments in order to achieve 
the communication aims.  
In brief, the values, symbols and language comprehension of different societies is a 
fundamental element in the planning of the communication process.   
The thesis is made up of three parts, the first and the second are theoretical and the third 
presents two case studies. The first chapter introduces the culture concept and how it 
influences the behaviour of people in different societies.  The second chapter analyzes 
the influence of culture on the consumer purchase decision process toward 
psychological and socio-cultural factors. The knowledge of these factors is fundamental 
in order to develop an efficient communication process. With reference to the 
advertising communication and to the process phases, the influence of culture on the 
advertising message definition is analysed, that is the coherence of the message as 
regards the target culture.  
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The instrument is the socio-semiotic, it explains and understands many social 
phenomena, and they include advertising too.  
The third chapter presents two case studies. The first exemplifies an Italian enterprise 
that works and offers its products at an international level. The main purpose is to 
understand how the enterprise performs its communication on foreign markets, and if it 
adapts advertising messages to the culture of the different countries. The second case 
refers to a foreign advertising agency, VMB Express which is located in Brazil, and it 
realizes advertising campaigns for various sectors its own country. The purpose is to 
understand how the agency adopts advertising communication from other nations to 
Brazilian culture. This second case includes the analysis of advertisements that are 
created by the agency, but also some Italian advertisements; therefore it is possible to 
understand if they are modified in function to the target culture and in which way. The 
instrument of analysis of such advertisements is the semiotic.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER I 
INFLUENCE OF CULTURE IN SOCIETY 
 
 
1.1 Definition and origins of culture 
 
Culture is an abused, polysemous and ambiguous word in its scientific and common 
use. This modern conception is the result of an evolution due to history as well as to 
society, in which culture is developed. In 1973, Clifford Geertz, famous American 
anthropologist, gave a definition of culture and it is very present also 
nowadays."Culture is an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in 
symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of 
which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes 
toward life" (Geertz C.1973, p. 89). This definition says that there is a close relationship 
between biological and cultural evolution, and culture has got a very important role in 
the behavior and the organization of a society. Furthermore, culture is considered as a 
group of symbols, and they form the identity of a community. Therefore, if you wish to 
understand different cultures, you have to analyze the individuals of that community, 
what they do and what their aim is. (Cimmino L., Santambrogio A. 2004).  
Below the evolution of the word  culture  is reported in order to analyze characteristics 
and parts of his modern conception. 
The term  culture  comes from the Latin verb colere (to till), and it indicated the work 
of the lands. Field, uncultivated and barren, could become cultivated, and this word was 
used by Ancient Romans for the first time. Then Cicero, in the work Tusculanae 
(2,5,13), and Horace developed a new meaning in the figurative sense. Fields such as 
the human mind could become cultured with education and philosophy. As a matter of 
the fact Cicero, in his work (2,5,13), compared the culture of the mind with philosophy 
(Prezzolini, 1957).  
This new connotation of the word  culture  became very important in the XIII century, 
because it was considered as something that could improve and refine the human mind, 
but it could also purify the intellect by mistake, superstition and biases, which impeded 
the achievement of the truth (Sciolla 2002). 
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In the Nineteenth century, Matthew Arnold, a poet and critic, said that  culture is the 
best of what was thought and known in art, literature and philosophy . It contrasted the 
negative aspects of industrialization. Culture was the study of perfection, and it had the 
ability to create a more human civilization, giving beauty and light. Moreover, culture 
could be considered as the educational potential which permitted the connection among 
knowledge, behaviour and beauty. Until this point, human sciences thought that culture 
was something of far away from the everyday life and society (Arnold M. Culture and 
Anarchy 1869). 
Only at the end of XIX Century, a new conception of culture was developed, afterwards 
studies in sociological and anthropological fields. It was different from the abstract and 
absolute ideal of the Enlightenment. 
In the Romanticism period, culture became a relative idea, that is, a homogeneous group 
of traditions, moral dispositions and intellectual achievements that represented the 
deeper and authentic spirit of a nation (Sciolla 2002). Following this new meaning of 
culture, it became a collective phenomenon and affirmed that humanity was composed 
by different cultures. For this reason the different ways of thinking and behaving 
distinguished a group or category of people from another (Hofstede 1991). 
In 1871 Edward Burnett Tylor gave the first official modern definition of culture: 
"Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole 
which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities 
and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Tylor E. 1871 p.4). 
It arises quite clearly from this definition that culture and civilization was used as 
interchangeable terms. Tylor analyzed this concept in ethnographic terms, such as the 
study of different people. In addition, it was very important for the definition to 
underline that culture is learned by living in a society, and as a consequence it was not 
something innate. 
That definition showed the main features, which could be found also in the next 
definitions (Sciolla 2002). 
1. Culture is learned. It arises from the social environment where individuals live and 
so it is either a biological phenomenon or something connected with the personality 
of  individual. Human nature is an innate factor of the human being; personality is a 
combination between innate factors and learned factors: it comes from the experience 
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of the single individual and the culture of the society where the individual lives. 
Figure 1 shows the relationship among personality, culture and human nature. That is 
why culture is a typically human phenomenon, so it distinguishes man from animal 
because of the variability of his traditions (Sciolla 2002). 
 
     Figure 1- Three levels of uniqueness in human mental programming 
 
 
 
              Specific to individual             inherited and learned 
 
  
     Specific to group or        Learned 
     category 
 
  
  Universal             Inherited 
 
 
Source: Hofstede G, 1991, p. 6 
 
2. Culture is an all integrated. Culture represents everything that was learned and 
created by the members of a community. For this reason, mental representations, 
models of behavior, common rules, institutions such as family, relatives, political 
organization and economic systems are elements of culture. 
3. Culture is shared. A phenomenon is cultural when it is shared with a social group. 
Starting from the modern idea of culture, it is possible to define his elements: values, 
rituals, heroes and symbols (Figure 2). In the manifestation of culture they have 
different positions. In fact, values represent the deepest part of the onion diagram, 
rituals and heroes are in the middle and the most superficial area is occupied by 
symbols. 
 
 
CULTURE 
 
 
HUMAN NATURE 
 
PERSONAL