Reflections of Culture: An Analysis of Korean Advertising Appeals from 1980 s to 2010 s

Transcription

1 Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(40), DOI: /ijst/016/v9i40/10344, October 016 ISSN (Print) : ISSN (Online) : Reflections of Culture: An Analysis of Korean Advertising Appeals from 1980 s to 010 s Sangpil Han 1, Yun-Seul Choi * and Seung-Yeob Yu 1 Department of Advertising, Hanyang University, South Korea; sphan@hanyang.ac.kr Department of Advertising, Namseoul University, South Korea; yunseul7@gmail.com, ysyeob@hanmail.net Abstract Objectives: The objective of this paper was to investigate the modernization of cultural values in Korean culture during its transition into a more westernized society in the past 30 years. Methods/Statistical analysis: A longitudinal content analysis of 30 ads analyzed how cultural values in Korean magazine advertising messages have changed as Korea has developed from a traditional to an industrial country. Findings: During this period, the study shows, modern advertising claims (individualistic advertising message claims, materialistic advertising message claims, future claims) became increasingly used, whereas traditional advertising (collectivistic advertising message claims, humanistic advertising message claims, past claims) became decreasingly appeared in Korean magazine advertisements. This study suggests that the usage of Korean advertising message mirrors the cultural dynamics and economical changes of Korea. Improvements/Applications: Findings of the research showed that convergence toward modern-western cultural values is a meaningful subject to investigate in the study of persuasive communications and culture. Keywords: Advertising strategy, Advertising, Content analysis, Persuasion and culture, Persuasive communication 1. Introduction The purpose of many existing studies in cross-cultural advertising has mainly focused on cultural comparative examinations 1 3. The major prerequisite of this research was that advertising is culture-bound, and that advertising message in different countries will emphasize different cultural backgrounds. In found that Korean magazine advertisements use more collectivistic claims than US magazine advertisements, whereas US magazine advertisements emphasize more individualistic than Korean magazine advertisements 4. This study also showed that the effectiveness of individualistic and collectivistic was dissimilar in the two cultures. In Korea, advertisements that stressed collectivistic were more effective than advertisements that emphasized individualistic. The reverse result was found in the US. This study demonstrated that cultural was mirrored in the usage and impact of different types of culture-bound advertising claims. In also found that subjects in US answered more favorably to ego-oriented advertising claims (example, being unique is important, satisfaction for me. And the enjoyment of the self expression) than group-oriented advertising claims (example, the happiness of my family, sharing the joy of happiness, and in-group happiness over my own happiness ) 5. However, participants in China responded favorably to group-oriented advertising than egooriented advertising. In investigated the cultural differences affecting the frequency of advertising claims in US and China which are culturally diverse countries. This study used content analysis of the food advertisements in two countries 6. This research found advertisements in China used more frequently ornamental, community, sharing, group, family value than advertisements in US, whereas advertisements in US stressed more frequently individualistic, independence, self- than advertisements in China. The authors of this study implied that even in global and digital markets, advertising contents mirror the dominant cultural ori- *Author for correspondence

2 Reflections of Culture: An Analysis of Korean Advertising Appeals from 1980 s to 010 s entation in respect culture. However, cultural values and norms change over time in a society. The advertising message is susceptible and subject to reflections in cultural values. The objective of this paper was to examine the modernization of cultural values in Korean culture during its transition into a more westernized society in the past 30 years. The country has undergone rapid societal and cultural transition as well as economic development in a given year. After surveying around the world, Korea is categorized as collectivistic and traditional culture, but the country continues to move gradually toward a more individualistic and westernized society. In the past 30 years, Korean cultural values have changed from tradition, collectivism, and humanism to modernity, individualism, and materialism. The Korean economy has grown rapidly in the past fifty years. The personal income of Korean people has increased from $60 in 1950s, $100 in 1960s, $1,000 in 1970s, $10,000 in 000s, and $5,000 in 015. The main industries of Korea in 1960s and 1970s were fishing, agriculture, and forestry, whereas the main industries of Korea in recent years are high-tech industries such as semiconductor, IT and automobile. Economic growths, along with urbanization, education, influence of western cultures, and the impact of global and digital markets, have put this country to be more affected by westernizing spirits. Korean cultural values have been incessantly affected by western cultures and by outer forces, mainly from North America and European countries. During the last 50 years, Korean advertising environments has gradually changed. The assertion of this research is that advertising messages in Korea have shaded off gradually to mirror an enhanced interest with western and modern cultural values. This longitudinal content analysis of Korean magazine advertisements investigated changes in the extent to which Korean advertising messages mirror its own inherent eastern and traditional cultural values (collectivism, past, and humanism) versus western and modern cultural values (individualism, future, and materialism). Three categories of cultural values serve the conceptual foundation for the present study: individualism versus collectivism, materialism versus humanism, and future versus past. The individualism versus collectivism dimension regarded as a main concept to an understanding of cultural dimensions 7. Materialism versus humanism category was also the central focus in previous studies in persuasive communications and culture 8. Future versus past was extensively studied as one of the important factors in the area of cross-cultural persuasive communication research 9. These three cultural dimensions were the important factors in earlier advertising content analyses of cross-cultural values in persuasive communication research 10. Individualism and collectivism dimension was widely acknowledged in cross-cultural comparative studies. Individualism and collectivism was recognized as relationship among the group and the individual that prevalent in a culture 11. In individualistic societies, values emphasizing personal benefit are preferred over group well-being, and personal goals are more important than group goals. In collectivistic societies, in contrast, values involved in group are preferred over individual goals. Materialism and humanism is another important crosscultural comparative dimension that many research has focused on the studies of persuasive communications. Materialism is a personal in which he or she has an interest to place material possessions an important purpose of his or her life 1. Individuals in Western culture have tendency to have more material possessions. On the other hand, individuals in Eastern culture have less desire to possess material commodities. They have a stronger tendency in spiritual life and humane values than in possessing material possessions. Although individuals in various cultures have the tendency to evaluate importance of future and past, there are some variations from one culture to another culture. Westerners prefer to have an interest in future oriented attitude such as planning and investing in the future, whereas Easterners favor to maintain past oriented values such as traditions and customs 13. Therefore, future oriented advertising are more favorable in Western cultures than in Eastern cultures, and the reverse is true for past oriented advertising. The research in the area of cross cultures shown that East Asian countries are traditional-eastern culture, whereas US and European countries are classified as modern-western culture. It is hypothesized that: Hypothesis 1: Korean news magazine advertisements have been used collectivistic claims with decreasing frequency and individualistic claims with increasing frequency since the 1980s. Hypothesis : Korean news magazine advertisements have been used humanism claims with decreasing frequency and materialism claims with increasing frequency since the 1980s. Hypothesis 3: Korean news magazine advertisements have been used past claims with decreasing Indian Journal of Science and Technology

3 Sangpil Han, Yun-Seul Choi and Seung-Yeob Yu frequency and future claims with increasing frequency since the 1980s.. Method.1 Sample of News Magazine Advertising More than 100 news magazines in Korea were identified published without interruption since 1980s. Among these periodical news publications, one of the most subscribed magazines was selected for this content analysis. A total of 30 news magazine advertisements were analyzed for the study. They were collected from news magazines published every ten years from 1980s to 010s. For each sample year, both March and September s issues were selected in the content analysis to guarantee that the ads selected for sample were reliable comparison across the years in accordance with the types of services and products that appeared in the content analysis. Table 1 summarizes the number of sample advertisements used in the content analysis. Table 1. Number of sample advertisements by years Number of newspaper advertisements. Coding 1980s 1990s 000s 010s A coding manual for the study was developed on the basis of the conceptual framework. The main cultural categories are individualism versus collectivism, and materialism versus humanism. The guideline of the coding scheme was developed on factors determined by previous research on persuasion and culture. The advertisements were coded by two independent coders, who were ignorant of the research purpose. They were extensively trained by the researchers for one week to enhance their coding agreements. They exercised their coding on 50 magazine advertisements. Two coders independently evaluated each advertisement on the two cultural dimensions. In order to calculate rater reliability, Cohen s kappa coefficient was computed and coder agreements of at least 8% for each coding scheme were fulfilled. The inter-coder reliability coefficient figures were k =.85 for individualistic-collectivistic, k =.84 for materialism-humanism, and k =.76 for futurepast. In addition, test-retest coder reliability was calculated by replicating one of two coders rating one month after the first coding was performed. Test-retest coder reliability of at least 80% for each coder was achieved, which was acceptable in content analysis of advertising research. Table shows the inter-coder reliability coefficient values. Table. Cohen s kappa coefficient values for the study Individualisticcollectivistic Materialismhumanism Future-past 3. Results 1980s 1990s 000s 010s Total 8% 86% 84% 84% 84% 80% 84% 86% 90% 85% 80% 76% 74% 74% 76% H1 predicts that Korean magazine advertisements have been used collectivistic claims with decreasing frequency and individualistic claims with increasing frequency since the 1980s. Table 3 summarizes the frequency of Korean advertising that claimed individualistic versus collectivistic in recent years. A chi-square analysis clearly shows that there was a statistically meaningful change in the use of individualistic versus collectivistic in Korean advertisements between the 1980s and the 010s (chi-square = 69.3, p <.001). Hypothesis 1 is supported. H predicts that Korean magazine advertisements have been used humanism claims with decreasing frequency and materialism claims with increasing frequency since the 1980s. Table 4 shows that there was a statistically significant change in the usage of future versus past advertising between the 1980s and the 010s in Korean advertising claims (chi-square = 6.7, p <.001). Hypothesis 3 is also supported. H3 predicts that Korean magazine advertisements have been used past claims with decreasing frequency and future claims with increasing frequency since the 1980s. Table 5 shows that there was a statistically significant change in the usage of materialism versus humanism advertising between the 1980s and the Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3

4 Reflections of Culture: An Analysis of Korean Advertising Appeals from 1980 s to 010 s 010s in Korean advertising claims (chi-square = 7.8, p <.001). Hypothesis is also supported. Table 3. Percentage of Korean ads using individualistic and collectivistic values Value 1980s 1990s 000s 010s Individualistic Collectivistic 3 (40.00%) 30 (37.50%) 43 (53.75%) 6 (3.50%) 45 (56.5%) (7.5%) %) 18 (.50%) Table 4. Percentage of Korean ads using materialism and humanism values Value 1980s 1990s 000s 010s Future Past 6 (3.5%) 0 (5.0%) 8 (35.0%) 1 (15.0%) 34 (4.5%) 5 (6.5%) 33 (41.5%) (.5%) Table 5. Percentage of Korean ads using materialism and humanism values Value 1980s 1990s 000s 010s Materialism Humanism 49 (61.5%) 15 (18.75%) 51 (63.75%) 13 (16.5%) 5 (65.00%) 10 (1.50%) 54 (67.50%) 8 (10.00%) 4. Conclusions and Discussions Content analysis as a research methodology that uses a set of procedures to make valid deductions from selected targets has been used widely in cross-cultural research 14. In 15 author examined the content of legends and children s novels from diverse countries and found that there was a strong economic development about thirty years later when there were many outcome themes in legends and children s novels. In 16 author implemented a crosscultural analysis of advertising in the United States and Japan. The authors performed content analysis on representative Japanese and U.S. magazines. They found that Japanese magazine advertisements were generally more rational than US advertisements, although the emphasis on specific message varies among cultures. This research utilizes content analysis to study how cultural values reflected in Korean magazine advertising contents have changed in the past 30 years as this country has grown from a traditional-agrarian to a modern-high tech society. The overall results of this research demonstrated that Korean magazine advertisements employed modern cultural values than traditional cultural values as advertising claims in the past 30 years. With regards to concreate cultural value emphasized in advertisements, more Korean advertisements used to individualistic values than collectivistic values, and more Korean advertisements appealed materialism values than humanism values. Future values were more emphasized than past values in Korean magazine advertisements. More significantly, the findings showed that an apparent transition in the utilization of traditional cultural values and modern cultural values in Korean advertisements 17 from 1980s to 010s. Individualistic and collectivistic were equally used in the 1980s, whereas individualistic were predominant in the 1990s, 000s, and 010s. In the areas of materialism versus humanism and future versus past, more modern cultural values were used than traditional cultural values through the studied period. However, the frequency of uses showed that the change in Korean advertisement messages matches up to the cultural and economic shifts in Korea in the past 30 years. The usage of Korean advertising message mirrors the cultural dynamics and economical changes of Korea in that period. Findings of the current research clearly showed that convergence toward modern-western cultural values is a meaningful subject to investigate in the study of persuasive communications and culture. The present research contributes to the growing base of academic achievement regarding the relationship between culture and persuasive communications. Some limitations of this research are as follows. First, this study only examined three cultural values reflected in Korean advertising messages over time that are collectivism-individualism, humanism-materialism, and past and future. Content analysis of other cultural dimensions that are revealed in cross-cultural variability studies, such as performance, power distance, high and low context, uncertainty avoidance, and time, may also be valuable. Second, the time span of this content analysis of Korean magazine advertise- 4 Indian Journal of Science and Technology

5 Sangpil Han, Yun-Seul Choi and Seung-Yeob Yu ments only covers the past 30 years. Because the coverage of time period may influence results of content analysis in a culture, further research is needed a longer interval of time span than this study. Third, this study examined only news magazine advertisements. Since only one medium may not represent the whole media, it is recommended to include television advertisements, newspaper advertisements, and outdoor advertisements in future research in order to enhance the generalizability of the content analysis in advertising 18. Finally, it is recommended to extend the number of countries in analyzing cultural values reflected in advertisements. This research investigated the advertising messages in only one country. To increase the power of the study, further research may include other countries to examine the role of culture in the process of advertising and persuasion processes. 5. References 1. Cui G, Yang X, Wang H, Liu H. Culturally incongruent messages in international advertising. International Journal of Advertising. 01; 31(): Teng L, Ye N, Yu Y, Wu X. Effects of culturally verbal and visual congruency/incongruency across cultures in a competitive advertising context. Journal of Business Research. 014 Mar; 67(3): Okazaki S, Mueller B, Diehl S. A multi-country examination of hard-sell and soft-sell advertising: Comparing global consumer positioning in holistic and analytic thinking cultures. Journal of Advertising Research. 014 Jan; 53(3): Han S, Shavitt S. Persuasion and culture: Advertising in individualistic and collectivistic societies. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Jul; 30(4): Zhang Y, Gelb B. Matching advertising to the culture: The influence of products uses conditions. Journal of Advertising. 1996; 5(3): Cheong Y, Kim K, Zheng L. Advertising as a reflection of culture: A cross-cultural analysis of food advertising in China and US. Asian Journal of Communication. 010 Mar; 0(1): De Mooij M. On the misuse and misinterpretation of dimensions of national culture. International Marketing Review. 013; 30(3): Belk R, Pollay R. Images of ourselves: The good life in twentieth century advertising. Journal of Consumer Research Mar; 11(4): Czarmecka B, Dahl S, Eagle L. Is food advertising culture-bound: Contradictory results from three European countries. Journal of Customer Behavior. 013; 1(- 3): Jiang J, Wei R. Influences of culture and market convergence on the international advertising strategies of multinational corporations in North America. Europe and Asia, International Marketing Review. 01; 9(6): Hofstede G. Culture s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. nd ed. Sage Publications; 003 Feb. 1. Richins M. Possessions, materialism, and other-directedness in the expression of self, in Consumer value. Routledge; p House R. Culture, leadership, and organizations, The GLOBE Study of 6 Societies. 3 rd ed. Sage Publications Inc; 004 Apr. 14. Brislin R. Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials. In Handbook of Cross-cultural Psychology. Allyn and Bacon, Inc p McClelland D. The achieving society. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co The Journal of Economic History. 011 Mar; 3(1): Madden C. Analysis of information content in U.S. and Japanese magazine advertising, Journal of Advertising May; 15(3): Kim M, Han S. Which company is the best for green advertising. Indian Journal of Science and Technology. 015 Apr; 8(57): Kim Y, Han S. The integration effects of product types, mobile advertising appeal types, and temporal distance. Indian Journal of Science and Technology. 015 Apr; 8(S7): Indian Journal of Science and Technology 5