AN ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION-CONTENT IN STANDARDIZED VS SPECIALIZED MULTINATIONAL ADVERTISEMENTS

Print and television advertisements for a variety of American products appearing in the U.S., Germany and Japan are analyzed to explore differences in the informational content of standardized vs. specialized approaches to multinational advertising. Overall, highly standardized messages were found to contain significantly fewer consumer information cues than highly specialized messages. This trend was found to hold true, regardless of product category. The more standardized the message being transferred, whether for a high or low involvement purchase item, the lower the level of consumer information contained within the commercial message. © 1991, Academy of International Business.