Cultural Evolution and Advertising Strategies : Which future for TV commercials?

This thesis deals with TV advertising strategies, namely adaptation and standardization, and with the impact of cultural homogenization on these strategies. Indeed, globalization generates the convergence of world cultures and especially of young Europeans’ cultures. This relative convergence in people’s habits, behaviour and values could allow advertisers to use more standardized advertisements without losing too much impact on the consumer. The use of standardized advertisements is interesting to create a uniform brand image, appeal to cross-border segments and, of course, make economies of scale. This thesis surveys young Europeans, represented by Swedes and Belgians, to examine their degree of cultural homogenization, i.e., if they are culturally similar enough for standardization to be effective on this group. Moreover, it compares the impact of both adapted and standardized commercials on this young European audience. This study comes to two main findings. First, the young Swedish and Belgian cultures have similarities, which standardized commercials can exploit, but also differences. This shows that we can speak about cultures’ convergence but not about a complete homogenization. Second, standardization seems to be effective - as effective as adaptation - in its appeal to young Swedes and Belgians. This shows that, given its advantages, standardization is certainly the most adequate method for targeting a young European audience. The findings for Sweden and Belgium should be valid for the whole EU. The thesis also discusses the generalization of the findings to the rest of the world and other age ranges as well as the future of commercials