Culture Advertising

Culture and Advertising Executions: A Comparison of Selected Characteristics of Korean and US Television Commercials
Gordon E. Miracle Michigan State University, USA Kyu Yeol Chang Pepperdine University, USA, and Charles R. Taylor Villanova University, USA
Introduction This article focuses on important questions of creative strategy relative to how soon, how long and how often to present the brand, company name and product in commercials. A review of the literature reveals that no comparative studies across international markets have dealt with all these variables. For example, in the US it is a frequent practice to show the brand, company or product early and often (Stewart and Furse, 1986). But is this approach also used in foreign markets? This research offers a basis for answers to this kind of question with regard to Korean and US advertising. It also offers potential explanations for the impact of cultural differences on Korean and US television advertising. Specifically, the following two research questions are addressed: (1) Are there significant differences in Korean and US television advertising with respect to the timing and counting variables identified in Table I? (2) Are the differences and similarities in advertising in accordance with what the cultural variables identified in this article lead us to expect? Background There are many possible creative executions that might be compared, but most are difficult to measure objectively. However, Stewart and Furse (1986) have identified and empirically studied ten timing and counting variables in a study of US television commercials (see Table I).
This research was supported by the Hoso Bunka Foundation (Tokyo), The Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (Seoul), ASI Market Research, Inc., (Tokyo), the Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation (Tokyo), and Youngshin Academy (Seoul).

Culture and Advertising Executions

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Received February Revised June September April 1991 1991 1991 1992

International

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