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Advertising strategies have greatly changed in the past 10 years as globalization spreads to every corner of the world. Companies with high local prestige now attach large importance on expanding their overseas markets with the hope of receiving great returns. Problems often arise in advertising when cultural differences are disregarded. Often culture is overlooked as simply expanding the brand name in foreign markets becomes the major obsession of the manager. This blog will briefly discuss major issues associated with international advertising and will also provide possible solutions.
The biggest problem for companies when they try to advertise globally is the different regulations within countries. For example, Germany does not allow companies to compare their products with their competitors in advertisements; while large food stores are not permitted to advertise in France. This makes it hard for companies to enter a foreign market due to the limited freedoms in advertising. Rules and regulations constrain companies from expressing their ideas and features of their products.
In 2012, the Woldwide Press Freedom index indicated that democracies had more freedom in publicizing than republics. Northern European nations such as Finland, Norway, and Estonia ranked as the top 3 in the index. This is good news for companies that want to expand their markets in Europe. However, today world development focuses on the republics and emerging markets. Therefore, the results of the index is not good for companies overall if they would like to have an even larger share in emerging markets. I believe the best solution to overcome the challenges of limited advertising freedom is for companies to partner with local advertising companies in new markets. This would also companies to make specific advertising strategies based on the culture of that country.
There are also some other issues companies should consider when they try to conduct business in a foreign country, such as cost, linguistic limitation, cultural diversity, and so on. In order to advertise efficiently worldwide, the best way is to review successful advertising cases and develop a special advertising strategy based on the conditions. Check out the globalEDGE newsletter to receive more information about international advertising!
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