The relationship between culture and advertising appeals for services

This paper contributes to our limited knowledge of international service advertising. It first compares the type of advertising appeals utilised in service advertisements in both France and the UK. Second, it explores whether the cultural dimensions of the two countries are related to the type of appeals being utilised by using the work of Albers-Miller (1996 Albers-Miller, N.D. 1996. Designing cross-cultural advertising research: A closer look at paired comparisons. International Marketing Review, 13(5): 59–75. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) who posited links between the advertising appeals identified by Pollay (1983 Pollay, R.W. 1983. “Measuring the cultural values manifest in advertising”. In Current issues and research in advertising, Edited by: Leigh, J.H. and Martin, C.R. Jr. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Division of Research. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and individual cultural dimensions utilised in Hofstede's (2001 Hofstede, G. 2001. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviours, institutions and organisations across nations, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. [Google Scholar]) framework. Such an exploration has been undertaken for business advertising appeals previously but not consumer services. The results indicate first that English advertisements use more rational appeals than French advertisements, as predicted, but that both countries use more emotional appeals than rational for both utilitarian and experiential services. Second, that France, identified as having a higher Uncertainty-Avoidance dimension, makes greater use of the appeals linked with that dimension.