Advertising is an important carrier of cultural communication. In today's era of globalization and integration, cross-cultural advertising communication has become an important channel for cultural exchanges in different regions, which has accelerated the exchange and communication between different cultures in the world. In this process, how multinational companies adapt to the new cultural environment and realize effective information dissemination has become a new topic. The author learned through consulting the information that both China and foreign enterprises are influenced by cultural differences to a certain extent, and failure cases abound. So, how to carry out effective cross-cultural communication activities? How to create a new advertising communication paradigm and what are the rules of cross-cultural communication? From the perspective of cross-cultural advertising communication, this paper analyzes and summarizes the advertising communication strategies adopted by Snickers brand under Mars Group in China market, and finds out its cultural values in China market communication. Of course, due to the need of research, this paper will briefly analyze Snickers' advertising communication strategy in markets outside China, and analyze its global strategy from a macro perspective. The author hopes that through the analysis of the advertising cross-cultural communication strategy of this global brand, it can inspire how China enterprises "go global" to carry out advertising communication.
Keywords: localization and standardization of Snickers cross-cultural advertising
Multinational enterprises are one of the important manifestations of global economic integration, and both China and other countries outside China are actively exploring overseas markets. When exploring overseas markets, opportunities and challenges coexist. Most world-famous brands entered the China market in the 1990s. While rapidly occupying China's huge market, they constantly experienced the phenomenon of "acclimatization" caused by cultural differences, such as Nippon Paint's "falling dragon" and Toyota's "lion's knees". What should multinational enterprises do in the face of fierce cultural conflicts? What should we do about the China market?
Influenced by the ancient Confucian cultural tradition and Chinese character culture, China consumers have formed a completely different way of thinking, behavioral characteristics and living habits from western consumers. When foreign brands carry out advertising communication activities in China market, if they can't fully consider the cultural characteristics of China market and blindly add western theories to China market, they will eventually lead to the failure of communication activities due to the lack of "meaningful space for communication". With the in-depth study of cross-cultural advertising communication and the lessons of a series of unsuccessful "cross-cultural advertising communication" activities, modern multinational enterprises have been able to make full use of cross-cultural advertising communication theory to guide the actual advertising communication activities. The Snickers brand under Mars Group is an outstanding representative of successful cross-cultural advertising communication activities. Taking this brand as an example, this paper analyzes and summarizes its advertising communication strategy in China market and studies the general theoretical rules of cross-cultural communication.
(A) brand internationalization and cross-cultural communication
The inevitable result of economic globalization is the internationalization of brands. Nowadays, the eastern and western economies are integrated, people's daily communication is increasingly frequent, and the brand spreads more widely. Fundamentally speaking, brand internationalization is the spreading process of brand culture in the international market, and its purpose is to build brand assets in the international market, rather than simply achieving sales growth goals. In the process of brand internationalization, enterprises are facing the international market. Under the guidance of consumer demand-oriented strategy, they must solve the problems of consumers' cognition, evaluation and acceptance. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate various marketing means and methods to establish a strong and unique association from product quality, corporate image, origin and other aspects. Through the research on the internationalization of Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Uniqlo and other international brands, the author finds that enterprises adopt more adaptive adjustment strategies in the process of brand internationalization, rather than starting to formulate new marketing strategies. This involves the problem of cross-cultural advertising communication. Generally speaking, enterprises will be restricted by many external factors in their international operation, such as national laws and regulations, cultural customs and trade protectionism. These hard or soft factors may have an impact on the marketing methods of enterprises. Therefore, in the process of international marketing, it is very important to fully understand and respect local culture.
Judging from the development trend of internationalization of multinational companies, multinational companies have chosen two ways to realize brand internationalization. One is to establish a unified global brand, such as SONY, Siemens, Panasonic and other enterprises; The second is to adopt the "multi-brand" strategy, which is suitable for fast-moving consumer goods and daily necessities. For example, the products of Mars Group in the United States adopt the "multi-brand" strategy, such as rainbow candy and snickers, which are independent of each other and develop independently, but they all follow the overall brand concept of Mars Group.
"Yanzi Chunqiu" has a cloud: "Oranges born in Huainan are oranges, while those born in Huaibei are oranges. The leaves and disciples are similar, but the taste is different. So what is it? The soil and water are different. " When the environment changes, the nature of things will also change. Similarly, for brand internationalization, cross-cultural communication is an inevitable problem to be overcome, which determines whether the brand is "dead" or "alive" in this market field. So how should we understand cross-cultural advertising communication?
Chen Pei Ai, a professor of communication at Xiamen University, thinks that "cross-cultural advertising communication is the movement of advertising information between different cultural domains" 1, and the inevitable result of economic globalization is cross-cultural advertising communication. Among them, the process of information flow is inevitably influenced by its environment, including the mother environment of information and the environment of new entry areas. The most important problem that cross-cultural advertising communication needs to overcome is the cultural differences in different regions. Such as the cultural differences between China and western countries. In the process of development, China consumers have gradually formed completely different values, unique thinking modes and ideas from the West, which will be reflected in their consumption behavior. In the process of brand internationalization, we should fully respect and consider the psychological needs, customs and cultural elements of local audiences, so that advertisements and brands can truly adapt to different cultural environments and achieve the purpose of expanding the market. In this respect, the American Mars Group is a successful model.
M& is one of the largest food producers in the world and a global leader in chocolate, pet care, candy and other industries. It owns Dove, Snickers, M&; M Chocolate Bean, Baolu, Weijia and many other international brands. The advertising and marketing activities of these international brands are also flourishing. The advertisements of each category of products can span five continents and four oceans and penetrate into major countries with different cultures, and the brand emotions conveyed by them skillfully eliminate the psychological barriers of consumers under different cultural backgrounds. After all, no one can refuse good things to happen.
Snickers is the main brand of energy chocolate owned by Mars Group. It was listed in the United States since 1930, and has grown into a giant in the world chocolate family after decades. In 1993, Snickers entered China and officially opened up the China market. Its product positioning is energy chocolate, and "movement", "energy" and "sweeping hunger" are the specific descriptions of its product positioning. Snickers in the global market to carry out brand and product communication, closely around this positioning, now, Snickers has become synonymous with "sports" and "energy". Snickers' advertising and marketing communication activities are strong when they enter the markets of various countries. While overcoming cultural barriers, they play their brand characteristics and perfectly meet the needs of consumers. How did Snickers do it?
(B) brand communication globalization and localization of a wonderful unity
"Globalization strategy, localization implementation" is the * * * knowledge reached by major brands in the process of internationalization, and Snickers is no exception. Snickers' advertising works run through the brand core values of sports, fashion and energy and the main theme of "sweeping away hunger and being yourself". Although there is a main theme, Snickers does not stick to the old rules. It is ever-changing on the same basis, dealing with young people in different markets and showing the innovative spirit and creativity of brand marketing, which stems from the perfect integration of Snickers and different cultures. The following is a detailed demonstration of how Snickers brand communication activities achieve a wonderful combination of globalization and localization with specific cases.
(1) Consistency of global creative strategies
Economic globalization includes global marketing strategies, and enterprises should make unified plans to achieve global product sales in the same way. Advertising globalization refers to the use of consistent advertising communication methods in markets around the world to achieve global marketing strategies. Snickers chose the strategic global advertising theme "Hunger" in cross-cultural communication, and positioned itself as "conquering human hunger". At the same time, Snickers took "less hunger and being yourself" as the brand appeal, and the advertising tonality was unified as "sports" and "funny". Whether it is "hungry" or "sports" or "funny", it belongs to the universal truth of human nature. Who doesn't mess around with humorous content when he is not hungry? Snickers' advertisements are friendly and acceptable to most young people, and the overall strategy has a cross-cultural tolerance.
In addition, the key to the success of global brands is to "find a brand story that is applicable globally". Snickers team and BBDO, its global advertising agency, found through a lot of investigations that people don't behave like themselves when they are hungry, thus forming an environmental threat. This insight into consumers' sense of belonging made creative people determine the advertising creative theme of "Who are you when you are hungry", and through the exaggerated comparison of hungry people before and after eating Snickers in video advertisements, they expressed the brand appeal of "Sweeping Hunger and Being Yourself" and demanded different in the world. This "global economic thought" enables Snickers to enjoy good ideas on a global scale, forcing the brand to maintain a global unified image and characteristics.
(2) Localization of creative strategy execution
Localization means that when international brands enter countries or regions with different cultural backgrounds, they intuitively use local cultural elements to strengthen communication with consumers and close their feelings with them. Localization is related to consumers' sense of identity with national culture, and each country has its own unique culture. When an international brand enters a country or region for advertising performance and dissemination, its advertising strategy, expression form and brand image should adopt differentiated strategies to cater to local traditional cultural characteristics and aesthetic tastes. When Snickers enter a new market area, they should strictly follow the global unified strategies such as promotion and marketing, brand and creativity, and consider combining local specific consumption habits, cultural background and thinking habits to ensure the effective and correct communication of brand information and cultivate consumers' awareness and loyalty to the brand. In order to successfully open the China market, expand its brand awareness and market share, and strengthen communication with consumers, Snickers consciously introduced intuitive and influential China local cultural elements when implementing its advertising strategy in China.
20 1 1 year, an advertisement about snickers quickly spread all over the country. In the advertisement, a group of energetic young people are having a fierce football match, but it is the weak "Lin Daiyu" who can act as the goalkeeper. When the opponent's ball hits the goal, Lin Daiyu fainted on the road like a weak willow. A player with a hot temper came, "Dude, dare to be empty again?" ！” Then another handsome boy appeared and handed Lin Daiyu a Snickers chocolate bar. In an instant, Lin Daiyu became a young boy full of energy. The viral spread of the advertisement made Snickers quickly spread all over the country. This commercial takes advantage of China audience's understanding of Lin Daiyu's weak image in classical literature, highlighting Snickers' product positioning that enables consumers to "be themselves", and enhancing the marketing power of commodities and the memory value of consumers. Then, in 20 12, three advertising films with the same creative expression were released, namely, the first episode: Korean female prisoners are sad to urge them to be hungry for hugs, the second episode: irascible chartered women are hungry and shake the audience, and the third episode: lazy pigs and eight quit to get bored by BS, as 20/kloc-0. In 20 13, Luo Jiaying, a Hong Kong actor, was invited to star in "The Hungry Tang Priest", and the ending sentence "only you" evoked many happy memories. At the same time, open up the "Hungry Goods Satellite TV" program-invite comedians such as Jia Ling and Xiaoxing Yi, who have the role of opinion leaders in China and are in line with the brand concept; In 20 14, a series of video advertisements of "Hungry Fans Training Camp" were released by taking advantage of the World Cup. As always, the humorous routines were the same, and even the roles were the same as those of the previous year-Pig Bajie, the rented woman, the Korean drama girl and Lin Daiyu.
At the same time, on August 4, 2012004, Snickers released a video advertisement of "Bean Piece" starring Mr. Bean, a British leading comedian. In the advertisement, Mr. Bean followed the Wulin master to climb the cliff, but unexpectedly he was in poor condition because he was "hungry", and fell into the enemy camp for a while, so he made a "hungry fist" in a cruel way, brothers. The presentation of advertising pictures and excellent production techniques can be compared with the top martial arts films in China. Subsequently, the public relations company planned a series of public relations activities to create a hot topic of "Bean's first trip to China", such as promoting Bean's "Hungry Boxing" to seize the commanding heights of entertainment marketing. The commercial film not only conforms to the international positioning of Snickers brand and its global advertising creative strategy in terms of character selection, scene setting, music production and martial arts element setting, but also takes into account the cultural background of local consumers in China and the resulting advertising viewing demand.
In 20 15, Snickers released "nickname package" in the American market, and this activity continued the consistent "You are"
Not you when you are hungry "(you are not hungry when you are hungry)" Hunger Marketing "campaign, The package is printed with "Dramatic, Sleepy, Spacey, Loopy, Cranky, Curmudgeon, Goofball, Snippy" and other 2 1. In addition to writing all the side effects caused by hunger on the packaging, they also don't forget to make sentences with these words to express a central idea: "friend, you are hungry." When you are hungry, you are not you, and you have become XX! " . When this marketing activity was implemented in China, it was consistent with other markets in creative content and distribution channels, but it was localized in creative expression. This series of commercial films invited Rulu, who plays the role of Chinese Princess in Empresses in the Palace, to be transformed into "Chinese Mammy", which is full of unique elements of Qing Dynasty in China and Chinese humor.
From "Lin Daiyu" to "Rong Mammy", Snickers' advertisements in China market basically contain fictional characters in China literature, film and television works and the unique cultural characteristics of China people. While focusing on the slogan of "Sweeping Hunger", they combine China elements and use humorous style to shape their own brand image. It can be said that the China cultural characteristics used by Snickers in the marketing promotion of China market are its communication strategy and strategic core. Advertising, Judging from the final sales results, the localization strategy of Snickers in China market is undoubtedly successful.
Of course, Mars Group's advertising can achieve the goal of being strong in the global market, and kill the enemy at the sight of the enemy. Strong marketing strategy and flexible localization strategy are its secret weapons to win. Snickers' global road follows Mars' marketing philosophy, not only localizing in China market, but also advertising in Africa market is unique.
In 2008, American TBWA Advertising Company produced a print advertisement "Feast" for Snickers Company to put in the African market (as shown in Figure-1, Figure -2).
(Figure-1) (Figure -2)
The print advertisement in figure 1 shows that the lion on the grassland ate the explorer, and the explorer had snickers on him. The whole print works showed, "Do you think you are delicious? It's not! The ultimate goal of animals is Snickers snickers chocolate in your belly! " The creative content of this series of other print advertisements follows this creative idea. We can see that this series of print advertisements used explorers, the original ecological ocean, desert, grassland, lions, sharks, bears and other elements, and organically combined all the elements to achieve the purpose of brand presentation. Whether the lion is an exclusive animal that is common in African countries or an explorer-a frequent visitor in Africa, a magical continent to be civilized, the advertisement respects and considers the psychological needs, customs, cultural background and other factors of the local market audience from the creative strategy to the creative expression, thus establishing a wide and good interactive relationship with consumers and laying the foundation for the subsequent auxiliary marketing activities.
Conclusion: The localized advertising strategy and multi-pronged marketing activities make the sales of Snickers in China market soar. In the global market of Snickers, the China market is in the top 10 position, which proves the correctness of its advertising strategy of "thinking globally and expressing locally". For Snickers, the unity of brand cross-cultural communication strategy is not an empty word, because behind the strategy is an in-depth investigation, accurate analysis and efficient implementation of the business environment, consumer status and cultural background of each market. This may be something that many China enterprises who want to make a difference in overseas markets really deserve to learn.
Notes:
[1] Chen Pei-ai. Cross-cultural communication strategy of advertising [J]. Southeast Academic, 2004, (12)
[2] Lin Lang. Creativity on the tip of the tongue [J]. China Advertising, 20 13( 1):92
[3] Chen Peiai. Selected World Advertising Cases [M]. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 2008: 155
[4]David Taylor. Snickers apply the global "economic thought" [J]. New Marketing, 2012: 34
[5] Ruan Yuanbin, Dai Shifu. Managers [J].2004(8):37
[6] Chen Peiai, Selected World Advertising Cases [M]. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 2008: 156