Keyword Concepts: factors that influence advertising

Advertising: Of all the promotional mix elements, advertising is the one with the greatest similarities worldwide. The reason is that most advertising everywhere is based on American practices. The trend towards global marketing and economies of scale have prompted many firms to stress the standardization of advertising procedures.

The factors that influence advertising are: the type of product, availability of media and the foreign environmental forces.

1) Type of product: buyers of industrial goods and luxury products act on the same way worldwide, thus the standardization approach may be applied in these cases. This enables manufacturers of capital goods to market these goods worldwide with very little modification in the various markets. Firms such as Coca-Cola, Avon, and Levi Strauss use this international approach successfully.

2) Availability of media: Even when the campaign message is standardized, advertisers may find they cannot use the same media mix in all countries.

3) Foreign environmental forces: Like variations in the media availability, the foreign environmental forces act as deterrents to international standardization. Amongst the most influential of these forces are the socio-cultural forces. A basic cultural decision for the marketer is whether to position the product as foreign or local, and which way to go depends on the country, the type of product, and the targeted market. Close to these forces are the legal constraints applied in the local country. There are laws affecting media availability and also limitations on the type of products that can be advertised. For example some countries apply a special tax on advertising on certain media.

Javier Cristobal

CEO

IOL Enterprises Inc.

http://www.iolenterprises.com