Tesi: Communicating across cultures: dis/similarities between American and Italian adverts of Coca Cola

U S B A M

NIVERSITÀ DEGLI TUDI DI ARI LDO ORO

DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE DELLA FORMAZIONE,

PSICOLOGIA, COMUNICAZIONE

CORSO DI LAUREA DI II LIVELLO IN

DELLA COMUNICAZIONE PUBBLICA, SOCIALE E

SCIENZE D’IMPRESA

270/04

D.M.

T ESI DI LAUREA IN

ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATION :

COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES

/

DIS SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AMERICAN AND

-

ITALIAN ADVERTS OF COCA COLA

Relatrice: Laureanda:

Chiar.ma Prof.ssa Annarita Taronna Alessandra Bottalico

Matricola: 736996

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1. UNDERSTANDING THE CULTURAL RELATIVITY

1.1 What is culture? 8

1.2 The Process of Culturalization 13

1.3 Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture 15

1.4 Globalization and Glocalization of Culture 20

1.5 Multiculturalism 26

1.6 Cultural Generalizations and Stereotypes 32

CHAPTER 2. COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES

2.1 Communication: definition and meaning 34

2.2 High-Context vs. Low-Context Cultures 35

2.3 Multicultural, Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Communication 39

2.4 The Interplay of Languages: ELF (English As Lingua Franca) 41

2.5 BELF (Business English As Lingua Franca) 45

2.6 Code-Switching and Code-Mixing 51

CHAPTER 3. BUSINESS AND MARKETING COMMUNICATION ACROSS

CULTURES

3.1 The Impact of Culture on Business 55

3.2 International Business 60

3.3 Business and Marketing Communication 62

3.4 Cross-Cultural Advertising 66

3.5 The use of Language in Cross-Cultural Marketing: do not get lost in 73

translation!

3.6 The Evolution of Advertising 76

CHAPTER 4. CASE STUDY: DIS/SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AMERICAN AND

ITALIAN ADVERTS OF COCA-COLA

4.1 History of Coca-Cola: an overview 81

4.2 Research and Methodology 83

4.3 Research Results: Comparison of Topics 85

4.4 Research Results: The use of English in Italian adverts of Coca-Cola 95

4.5 Limitations 101

102

CONCLUSION 105

BIBLIOGRAPHY 109

WEBLIOGRAPHY 2

Introduction

The main purpose of my work of thesis is to underline how important is

having a cultural awareness in order to run successfully an international

business communication across cultures, focusing on particular on the

business external marketing communication, specifically advertising.

Advertising is a complex phenomenon due to the various meanings its

messages can assume related to the strong influence of the context in which it

develops. Factors such as social, cultural and artistic elements, language,

customs, different legislative systems, political and socio-economic events

play a crucial role in both creating and perceiving advertising messages.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the influence of culture in

global marketing and advertising and many recent studies underline the need

to adapt branding and communication strategies to consumer culture. The

study of how culture is used in international advertising necessarily follows

the increasingly debated global-local dilemma: is it better either to

standardize advertising for efficiency reasons or adapt it to local uses and

consumer motivation to be effective?

When a message is conveyed within a society where its members know and

share the same rules, norms and language, there is no problem for the correct

and comprehensive understanding of the message. However, advertising

becomes challenging when the same message has to be conveyed across

borders hence outside the society that generated it. It is common to believe

that translating from one linguistic code to another is enough to make

intercultural communication. What happens, in this case, is simply an

exchange between linguistic codes (interlingual translation). Nevertheless,

this type of translation is not enough to ensure an effective and successful

communication. It seems clear then that most companies face nowadays the

demanding challenge to fulfil their main function: communicate the same

message and convey it through means and methods that fit better a particular

target and culture. Communication is therefore only effective when it is

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consistent with the messages it sends and respects and adapts to the linguistic

and cultural needs of the society to which it is addressed.

In the first chapter I analyze what culture is and its main aspects, giving a

definition of it according to the perspective of different authors.

Understanding cultural relativity and developing a cultural awareness is the

starting point for business to grow a good intercultural competence. We are

all the same, but we are also all different. Our peculiarities coming from our

cultural values are essential and need to be taken into account if we want to

create bonds with who is culturally different from us. Culture is acquired,

learned, and shared and not genetically transmitted. The processes by which

individuals acquire culture are enculturation, acculturation and assimilation.

These three contribute to the liquidity of culture and its dynamism.

In this context, Hofstede’s theory model is therefore essential in order to have

the possibility to detect the main aspects of a culture and make comparisons.

It allows us to understand why people act and behave differently in different

countries, communities or societies as well. However, as Hofstede himself

said, this is just a model and not correspond to a certain truth. This due to the

fact that societies within countries are getting more and more complex

because of globalization. This phenomenon has started in ‘60s but it is still in

progress as a consequence of the improvement of technologies that allows

individuals to move faster and reach whatever part in the world, connecting

with people from other countries without difficulties. Two other processes

linked to the globalization are the glocalization of culture and

multiculturalism. In this merging of cultures generalization and stereotypes

remain two crucial aspects to understand how cultures see each other.

While connecting with people across their own country borders, individuals

should be able to develop and use a form of communication that reduces at

minimum all the possible cultural blunders. In the second chapter,

communicating across cultures is the main theme. Intercultural competence is

strictly associated to a good communicative competence. As Erin Meyer,

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professor of INSEAD, states there are eight different scales that can help to

map the world’s cultures and the communicating scale is one of them. Meyer

mentions Hall’s theory about high-context vs. low-context culture and the way

people communicate differently accordingly to the context they come from.

However, what happens when individuals from two different linguistic

backgrounds meet each other? As already mentioned, language is one of the

crucial aspects of culture and it is where the culture is encoded. That is where

ELF (English as Lingua Franca) comes in. English as a lingua franca is the use of

the English language as a global means of intercommunication that can be

understood by speakers of different linguistic background. It is not exclusive

and as a global language it can also be used by English native speakers. In

business encounters, it takes the name of BELF, Business English as a Lingua

Franca. The “B” before ELF emphasizes the context in which it is used. Using

either ELF or BELF can be understood as a form of bilingualism or

multilingualism (when people speak more than two languages). When people

can speak more than one language phenomena such as code-switching and

code-mixing happen quite frequently. It is important to acknowledge these

two phenomena because we often find them even in advertisements.

Moreover, it must not be forgot that Anglo-Americanism have become part of

the vocabulary first language of non-native. For example, in Italian we use a

lot of Anglo-Americanism, even for those words we can easily translate.

Words such as management, business, feedback, meeting and so on, are

constantly used in everyday Italian language.

Hence, in the third chapter I focused on how culture affects business

communication, in particular advertising. Organizations are influenced by

both national culture and organizational culture. Especially in international

business, multinational companies, while managing employees coming from

different cultural backgrounds, should be able to develop a strong

organizational culture that overrides all the internal differences, still by

respecting everyone. A good advice on how to respect and understand

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diversity comes from Professor Meyer. The scale developed by Erin Meyer

includes eight variables such as evaluating, communicating, scheduling,

persuading, leading, deciding, disagreeing and trusting. These eight scales

added to Hofstede’s theory and Hall’s can help business in managing diversity

hence running a successful communication across borders.

Business communication can be both internal and external. This latter

includes marketing communication. A company cannot but communicate.

Even actions and decisions are part of the communication of a company.

Advertising is part of the marketing mix strategy, specifically of the

promotion. According to the specific country norms and culture, the national

language, stereotypes and all the other meaningful cultural aspects listed so

far, brands must choose the right advertising strategy between

standardization, adaptation or glocalization. In this context I remark the use of

the language as a crucial component towards which companies should pay

attention in order to avoid mistakes and blunders, hence losing their

credibility. Moreover, although some countries are closely attached to their

culture and prefer the advertisements to be translated in their national

language, international business prefer not to translate everything in the

message. Indeed, most often the payoff remains in the same language of the

business’s country of origin. For instance, we all know the payoff “Nokia,

connecting people” and whereas the rest of the message in the national

commercial is translated in Italian, the payoff is still written and spoken in

English. The use of English gives the brand a global image making it classy,

while consumers feel themselves as cosmopolitans and part of a global

society. Furthermore, the channels through which a company can advertise

have increased. From the traditional billboard to social networks, marketing is

getting increasingly integrated and complex.

In chapter 4, I analyzed the glocalization strategy of Coca-Cola by looking

closely at the way Coca-Cola adverts on its social media, specifically on

Instagram during a period that goes from 2019 to 2022. My intention was to

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detect whether cultural clues were present or not in adverts and how much

they make the brand seem more local while remaining global. I also

investigated what role the language plays in adverts outside the country

where the brand originated from and whether the message is translated

completely into Italian, or it keeps some English words or sentences and

which topic those are related to.

The bottle of Coca-Cola is easily recognizable by its shape even without logo

on it and even if we see just a drawing of it. But how is it possible? How have

Coca-Cola become so popular all over the world? Coca-Cola’s marketing

strategy is based on being present everywhere reducing the distance between

the brand and consumers, communicating a sense of familiarity and

sympathy. In its advertising campaigns, Coca-Cola has always been able to

grasp the importance of emotions, thus becoming the most consumed

beverage in the family, during parties, while at the movie theater, and so on.

The way Coca-Cola present itself to consumers has been fundamental for its

success. The Coca-Cola case reveals the importance of a coherent

communication that at the same time can adapt to evolution and social

changes, without forgetting values and promises on which the brand has

always been based. 7

Chapter 1. Understanding The Cultural Relativity

1.1 What is Culture?

Culture is a broad and incredibly complex concept: several academics,

interested on this subject, gave different definitions of it trying to describe the

nature and all the characteristics culture is made up with; but the term also

can be used to describe different types of culture such as political culture,

organizational culture, national culture, family culture, traditional culture,

folks’ culture etc., along with the intellectual and artistic activity such as

music, literature, painting and sculpture.

From this perspective culture can be so considered a mix of several factors

that defines the characteristics of a specific context and has a huge influence

on people, society, marketing, communication, and business. However, it

must be considered that culture rapidly changes due to the admixture with

other cultures and populations, favored by the globalization and the

development of technology that allows people from all over the world to

interact with each other. Over time culture is never as it was before. As Dawn

Burton says in his book ‘Cross-cultural Marketing’ (2009), culture is

indeterminant and therefore not fully predictable.

In his book ‘Culture, communications and diversity’ (2020), Delli Poggi gives an

anthropological point of view about the concept of culture, quoting Edward

Brunette Tylor, an English anthropologist, the founder of cultural

anthropology: “Culture [...] is that complex whole which includes knowledge,

belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired

by man as a member of society”. From this point of view, culture is a social

outcome: it is not natural and biological. It can be considered as the lifestyle

of individuals, groups, populations, and nations. It is the heritage of the

collective meanings of a human group. 8

The psychologist and linguist Spencer-Oatey in her book ‘Culturally speaking:

Culture, communication and politeness theory’ (2008) defines culture as a set

of values, beliefs, knowledge, norms, language, behaviors, and material

objects shared by a community and transmitted socially from one generation

to another, hence culture is not acquired biologically. It also affects the way

we interpret other people’s behavior and their actions.

Culture is “[…] a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to

life, beliefs, policies, procedures and behavioral conventions that are

shared by a group of people, and that influence (but do not determine)

each member’s behavior and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of

other people’s behavior.” (Spencer-Oatey, 2008)

Starting from these two definitions above, it can be said that culture fulfills

various functions. Firstly, it has an adaptive and regulatory function making

it easy for the people of a group to relate to each other and be cohesive;

secondly, it determines the identity of a group and the sense of belonging.

It reflects a community or nation ideology. The concept of ideology is

strictly related to culture, and it can be defined as a set of ideas and beliefs

that shows the worldview of a community.

Each culture is defined by a precise system of values that is important to

know in order to understand why people act in a certain way (Olivero &

Russo, 2013): culture shapes personalities, affects perception, and influence

behavior. This makes culture a vital and important determining factor of

how the community reacts, responds, and grows. Culture plays a major role

in the lives of everyone in the society (Painter, 2022).

Our culture determines the structure of our thinking, which influences our

perceptions. Judgment skills, preconceived notions, attitude, and emotions

are closely linked with our culture. For instance, people who belong to

cultures that promote individualism tend to look at only the main aspects of

a situation, while those of a culture that promotes collectivism tend to

consider even the minor details. Our culture also affects the way we socially 9

interact. The standards of personal space, for example, are also defined by

culture. When we communicate, we usually keep a certain distance from

the others which is largely influenced by the culture we belong to. Gestures,

body language, the way we show emotions, everything is related to our

cultural norms.

Summing up, culture is in every aspect of an individual’s life, and it is related

to the context the individual was born and raised. Cultural context inevitably

and unconsciously influences people and determines their actions. This means

that culture also shapes us as consumers and the way we perceive the

advertising related to a specific product. There is a reason why we cannot find

the same brand in every country, and not all the products are sold in the same

way or with the same flavors (thinking about food for example) all over the

world.

As a result, the understanding of the meaning and nature of culture is vital in

the marketing field to develop the right strategy. Nevertheless, what is most

important for marketing and communication is acknowledging National

cultures with their own values, myths, costumes and rituals.

“Since different cultures have different values, consumers have different

buying habits. Marketing strategies should reflect the culture that is being

targeted. The strategy should show the product or service as reinforcing

the beliefs, values and customs of the targeted culture. Failing to do so can

result in lost sales and opportunities.” (Niosi, 2021)

In this context it is appropriate to explain what national culture is. “National

Culture” is the term we use to refer to a group of people who have been

brought up within a given country. These individuals are linked to each other

by sharing certain expectations of how things should be done and values

around these expectations. (Hofstede Insights, 2021).

Cross-cultural marketing usually analyzes the responses of individuals in one

country and compares them with another. The differences in costumers’

behavior are attributes to national cultural differences. Nevertheless, it can be

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said to be always true because cultures are interconnected and exchange<