| This dissertation examined how individualism-collectivism, a core dimension of cultural variability, is reflected in the advertising appeals in two countries (the U.S. and Korea) that have been shown to differ on this dimension. It also investigated the relative effectiveness of culture-relevant and culture-irrelevant advertising in the two countries. A content analysis demonstrated that advertisements in the U.S. utilized individualistic appeals to a greater extent, and collectivistic appeals to a lesser extent, than did Korean advertisements. These differences emerged strongly among high involvement products, but much less so among low involvement products. These differences also emerged strongly among collectivistic products, but less so among individualistic products.Experiment One provided compelling evidence that in the U.S., individualistic advertisements were more effective than collectivistic advertisements, whereas, in Korea, collectivistic advertisements were more persuasive than individualistic advertisements. However, as was true in the content analysis, the pattern was not uniform across involvement levels and individualistic versus collectivistic product categories.In the U.S., culture-relevant (individualistic) advertisements were consistently more persuasive than culture-irrelevant (collectivistic) advertisements, regardless of involvement level and product category. In Korea, on the other hand, culture-relevant (collectivistic) advertisements were more effective than culture-irrelevant (individualistic) advertisements only when subjects were highly involved or the advertised products were classified as collectivistic.Experiment Two, based on Korean data, investigated the individualism-collectivism construct within a culture by employing a personality factor, idiocentrism-allocentrism, that conceptually replicates this cultural difference. The results of this study were consistent with Experiment One in suggesting that, overall, idiocentric individuals tended to show a preference for individualistic advertisements, whereas allocentric individuals tended to show a preference for collectivistic advertisements. However, the data of idiocentric persons suggested that their preferences between advertising appeals were not only affected by their individualistic personality, but also by their collectivistic (Korean) culture. |
