Printed advertising in the Czech Republic and in France: homogeneous or heterogeneous practices? Christian Dianoux University of Metz - France Jana Kettnerová & Zdenek Linhart Czech University of Agriculture in Prague INTRODUCTION LITERATURE REVIEW HYPOTHESIS

The debate on the standardization  The debate on the standardization was born in the 60s  The authors thought that the evolution of societies would bring a bigger convergence level between countries and would have a tendency to eliminate cultural barriers by permitting the emergence of standardized international communication (Elinder, 1965)

The debate on the standardization  Nowadays the trend of standardization remains strong, and some authors have put forward that even though it is not always effective, it permits to hope significant economies of scale and to diffuse the same brand positioning around the world (Agrawal, 1995)

The debate on the standardization  However, despite this trend, we can observe that the complete standardization is still far  In fact, a survey on the practices of multinational American and European companies (Harris, 1994) has shown that there is a very large spectrum of practices from the adaptation to standardisation. This spectrum can be considered as a sort of continuum in which all the states were represented: -adaptation of the visual, the text, or the claim -adaptation according to the supports -adaptation according to the markets

The necessary adaptation  In such a context, we think that the famous expression of « Think Global, act local » (Wind and Douglas, 1986) is still right nowadays because some differences stay between Eastern and Western European countries and notably between the Czech Republic and France

Example of Differences

The research question  So we can hypothesize that advertisers keep some adaptations in their local creative strategies  And we can assume that : we will probably see some differences in the ad contents between the Czech Republic and France

The double interest of this research  Knowledge of the practice of the advertisers can help standardize ads. -> Solberg (2002) has shown that the level of standardization is significantly affected by the knowledge of the local market  Comparisons concerning European countries are fewer (Walliser and Moreau, 2000), and those concerning the comparisons of Eastern, Central and Western Europe are fewer still

Printed advertising in the Czech Republic and in France: homogeneous or heterogeneous practices? METHODOLOGY Jana Kettnerová Czech University of Agriculture in Prague Zdenek Linhart Czech University of Agriculture Christian Dianoux University of Metz - France

Categories of magazines Business Men Seniors Teenagers Women  Each of the 5 categories is represented by the 2 most distributed magazines  2 magazines common for Czech Republic and France were found in 2 categories

French and Czech magazines

Information collected about magazines observers Title Periodicity Date (evaluated issue) Price (€) Number of pages of magazine Number of printed issues of the evaluated magazine Circulation Ad rates CPT (€) Surname First name Age Sex Level of studies

Sources of collected information - magazines  For the diffusion: data (2004) of ABCCR for the Czech Republic and OJD for France  The price of the publicity ads: Internet sites in 2005 (the standard basis used was the normal page in four colours)  The prices in the Czech and French currencies were calculated on the basis of 30 Crowns = 1 Euro

Evaluation of ads  There was a briefing with students experienced in marketing before evaluation  Each ad (magazine) was evaluated by 3 students  All ads have been looked at whatever their format (only the minor ads such as house sales, personal objects, job offers, etc. have been excluded)  Homogeneity of judgements: The criteria that were kept were those that had a minimum of two convergent opinions. Dispersion of less than three points between extremes on a 10 point scale, an average was calculated.  Finally 557 ads (309 Czech and 268 French) were used for the evaluation (ø 29 ads per magazine)

The observation gridgrid  The observation grid can divided into three headings proposed by Okazaki (2004): General information (type and amount of information) Creative strategy (image) Cultural values reflected by the message

Examples of the grid content  Information (Resnik and Stern, 1977)  quality, performance, availability, warranty, special offer, etc.  If presence of people (type of person) or animal  If information relative to the technicalities of the products, price, colors, …  Creative strategy (Leogn and al., 1998)  If information is symbolic  If advertisement proposes a promotional offer  If presence of at least one celebrity  Nudity, sex appeal, etc.  Cultural values (Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996)  If ad is based on the efficiency of the product  If ad shows the importance of social status  If ad evokes the values of tenderness, family values

Printed advertising in the Czech Republic and France: homogeneous or heterogeneous practices? RESULTS Jana Kettnerová Czech University of Agriculture Christian Dianoux University of Metz - France Zdenek Linhart Czech University of Agriculture in Prague

Symbols and explanations  Figures do not take into account the size of the publicities if the size is not mentioned explicitly  Symbols are listed below table  Discussion follows after presentation of tables

Table 2. : Publicities from 20 journals (%), total 577 – part 1 Product CategoryCZFTotal Food and Cleaning Products 5,26,05,5 Cosmetics, Health and Hygiene 19,723,921,7 Clothing-Textiles10,712,311,4 Computers, Hifi-sound- image-Telephones 101,56,1 Automobile, Motorcycles3,98,25,9

Table 2. : Publicities from 20 journals (%), total 577 – part 2 Product CategoryCZFTotal Books, Magazines, DVDs10,45,28,0 Other products6,812,09,2 Banks and Insurance4,26,75,4 Telecommunications4,56,35,4 Tourism and Transport3,24,94,0 Entertainment9,14,97,1 Other services12,38,310,4

Table 3: Size of publicities (%) (N=577)Less than one page One page or more Total Czech Republic 53,746,3100 France15,384,7100 The dependence is very significant. Chi² = 92,11, ddl = 1, p.c. = 0,00

Table 4: International comparison (%) – part 1 (N=577)FCz Black and white25* Comparison24* Minority race77 Elderly person113* Children169* *- when the difference is at least 95% significant (Chi² test )

Table 4: International comparison (%) – part 2 (N=577)FCz Photograph8085 Product shown7775 Price shown2131* Description5255 Symbolic3644* *- when the difference is at least 95% significant (Chi² test )

Table 5: Other items of French and Czech Publicity – part 1 (N=577 except for (1) N=361)FCz Indoor Environment7788* Photo or drawing of at least one animal6,46,2 Photo or drawing of at least one person (1)6663 Female Presence (1)7875 Use of a celebrity (1)1619 *significant difference of at least 95% (Chi² test)

Table 5: Other items of French and Czech Publicity – part 2 (N=577 except for (1) N=361)FCz Use of Nudity (1)3,42,9 Text of at least four lines5559 Only the brand name1211 Testimony of one person6,26,8 Promotional offer1518 Information with at least 6 characteristics 1327*

Printed advertising in the Czech Republic and France: homogeneous or heterogeneous practices? CONCLUSIONS Zdenek Linhart Czech University of Agriculture in Prague Jana Kettnerová Czech University of Agriculture Christian Dianoux University of Metz - France

Standardisation vs. Adaptation  Expectation: Knowledge of the practice of the advertisers helps to standardize ads  Result 1: Share of text and pictures is almost the same  Style differs: France use more nudity, elderly persons, and children by larger formats; Czechs exhibit the price  Conclusion: Consumer habits seems adapt faster then habits of advertisers. True?

Comparisons of Eastern, Central and Western Europe  The biggest Hofstede’s differences are: -- power distance - Slovakia has 87, Czech 78, France 68, Poland Long vs. short term orientation of Czechs is 29 compared to Hungarians 59  Our conclusion: --Students adapt faster then former state employees, for example. -- Advertisers shouldn’t forget price and symbolicism.

Thank you for your attention ! ! ! Christian Dianoux University of Metz France Jana Kettnerová & Zdenek Linhart Czech University of Agriculture in Prague