Association of National Advertisers, Inc.

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Web: www.ana.net June 2003

The Intrigues and Challenges of Global

Advertising
Remember the three C's when marketing on a global scale
Suresh Kumar
Johnson & Johnson

Advertisers have to make their case to consumers in 30 seconds, the duration of a typical ad on
television. While we are very familiar with this in our sound-bite-driven society, it poses many
challenges when introducing new products, services, or concepts into global markets.

Japan is an interesting case in point. The average Japanese commercial is a 15-second spot and
almost always employs an endorser to 'hook' consumers. This is in a society where brands are closely
associated with personalities, making the cost of advertising more than twice than that of a similar
spot in the U.S. An atmosphere is created where the endorser is constantly competing with the
message and the brand!

Or consider the language challenge in Indonesia: The script is English although the grammar is quite
basic. Plurals are written as squares of the singular; for example, for men, you'd write 'man2.' But in
speech, for a plural, you simply repeat the singular; that is, men will be spoken as 'man man.' I once
gave a two-minute speech in Jakarta, which took double that time to translate.

Getting your global message through is a challenge – doing so succinctly can feel like an
impossibility. And doing so amicably will be an even greater challenge. Your internal team in
Greater China may argue endlessly with Hong Kong and Taiwan over the script, as the language
requirements are different in each place.

Welcome to the global communication challenge (GCC). I will explore it with you through what I
call – GCC=2C3.

In which C3= Content, Cost, and Compliance – the critical elements.

But also in which C3= Constant Course Correction – the ultimate reality!

Now I can almost hear some of you say that television is no longer the only medium and competes
with several others including electronic media. But if sound bites on TV pose a challenge, the 'bits
and bytes' that enable Web advertising can be even more confounding. Often your wonderful ad
takes forever to load, if it does at all, as the bandwidth and the hardware you are familiar with is not
affordable, or just not available, in all markets. So let us take a global walk through the three C's.

CONTENT

Clearly, the most important element of advertising is the content or message. This is also the area in
which there have been the most horrendous bloopers! Here are a few gems, starting with the most
basic. The brand.
Branding: Most have heard about GM's Nova. The car with the name that translated as 'will not go'
in Spanish. But have you heard of a toothpaste called Ace in India, marketed in a province where
people could only pronounce it as Arse? Colgate now markets their Darkie Toothpaste in Hong
Kong as Darlie in order to be politically correct.

Product Description: Savlon Antiseptic coined the cutesy term 'soothpaste' as a descriptor of the
product, only to discover that this term happened to be a common profanity in some markets. A
range of products from bath soaps and talcum powders were positioned on a 'deodorant' platform.
The trouble was that there wasn't, and still isn't, an equivalent for deodorant in some Indian
languages (India has 18 major languages, not dialects, each spoken by over a million people). The
print ad that intended to say 'the only deodorant soap in India' translated in one of the languages as
'the only soap that removes the stink of India.'

RELEVANCE AND HERITAGE

Halls Cough drops are sold as a candy in Latin America, Asia, and in non-Anglophone Europe, but
marketed as a cough drop in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. For years, Halls has been the brand leader
in Thailand where it is positioned as the candy that provides 'an instant cool hit of gratification.' This
was communicated in television commercials through a mnemonic device that showed the candy
dissolving in the throat like a refreshingly cool waterfall. Then, a global commercial was produced,
which instead used a skating penguin that 'whacked' the consumer to provide the 'cool hit' an attempt
at consumer engagement through humor and drama. The commercial did extraordinarily well in
Latin America where, similar to Thailand, Halls was positioned as a refreshing candy and was the
brand leader. The message was unsuccessful, however, back in Thailand, where research revealed
that consumers were not very familiar with penguins. They simply failed to see the relevance of 'that
bird.' In addition, 'whacking the consumer' which appealed to Latin consumers, was a 'no-no' in the
polite Thai culture where touching or hitting someone on the head is offensive. The brand persona,
image, and heritage were all closely associated with the waterfall, the absence of which distanced the
consumer from their favorite brand.

Acceptable or Offensive-Copy, color, et al.? Analogies, colloquialisms, and humor – particularly

edgy humor – do not travel well. On the other hand, commercials with 'recognizable' animals and
babies often resonate with consumers everywhere. It is critical to understand cultures to understand
what is acceptable and what is not. This goes beyond words and metaphors, to symbols, archetypes,
and even colors. For example: black connotes premium in some societies while being inauspicious in
China and Hong Kong.

Script and Fonts: One of the most successful detergent print ads was the classic 'before and after'
demonstration. The ad showed three panels: The first one on the left showed a dirty shirt going into a
bucket containing water and detergent, the second panel showed the dirt dissolving in the detergent,
and the third panel showed a clean shirt emerging from the bucket. The ad ran with disastrous results
in the Middle East. The reason being that Arabic is read from right to left -the ad conveyed that clean
clothes emerged dirty upon using this detergent.

Comparative Advertising: This tactic is not permitted in several countries including Japan, yet the
teaser ads for Tylenol was able to attract significant attention, while staying within the rules of
permissibility. Yes, there is room for creativity. You can be bold without being stupid!

The key to getting communication content right is obviously understanding the consumer –
predispositions and attitudes, beliefs and behavior, rituals and conventions, and purchase and use
patterns. In dealing with 'multi-country advertising' – because that is what 'global' advertising really
is, we need to guard against 'home country arrogance' and prevent 'not invented here (NIH)'
syndrome. Stereotyping can be dangerous, and using a foreign commercial dubbed in local language
a travesty on the consumer. Professor Levitt said it best:
'The world's tastes are not becoming globally homogenized, but instead are becoming globally
customized.' The trick then is to customize consumer communications. Global advertising is not
trivial stuff nor is it for the fainthearted penny pinchers. It calls for consumer insights from ongoing
market research, to the testing of commercials. Don't let anyone tell you that testing is not affordable
in smaller markets or that image ads cannot be tested. Incorporating appropriate consumer feedback
early on is an investment that saves a lot of grief later, and protects many a brand. If you do not
believe that, you run the risk of confirming the understanding of Helmut Maucher, the erstwhile
chairman of Nestle, who said, 'Globalism is a buzz word for average marketing, because global
advertising is slight off the mark in each country.'

COST

Global marketing and advertising begins with the answer to the question, 'Why are we doing this?'
Most say that this is for long-term brand and business building, but the vast majority engages in it for
cost efficiencies. Without honesty, candor, and understanding of the objective across the marketing
teams at the country, regional, and global levels, there can be no ownership or success.

Here are a few realities that profoundly impact outcomes:

Domestic U.S. markets are multiple times bigger than smaller international markets, but global
market growth rates are higher. By definition, therefore, global markets constitute a future play. Are
you in it for the long term?

z Smaller markets inevitably mean smaller advertising budgets. Against this background,
multinational companies rarely invest at the requisite levels, or at competitive levels to local
companies.
z The expectation of entering and competing in new markets with minimal investment is
unrealistic and the equivalent of running a 100-meter dash with your feet tied together.
z The later to market the entry (lag time between the first entrant and the new entrant), the more
entrenched the current competition will be and the higher the investment required.
z Media tends to be concentrated – even monopolistic – with little negotiating room. Nowhere is
this truer than Latin America, where Televisa in Mexico, and Globo in Brazil, dominate the
space, and set the price they want.
z By definition, global markets mean transactions in multiple currencies and probable exchange
risks.
z Media inflation in the U.S. is low. Yet elsewhere, where there is economic growth, media
inflation significantly outpaces overall inflation.
z Global is not cheap. It is better not to expand globally than to launch a brand without adequate
support. This way, at least a trademark is not killed, although it continues to hibernate in
storage.

Going global is a collaborative approach with local, regional, and global marketers and agencies on
the same team. A crystal-clear understanding of realities, and realistic expectations of what it takes
to win market share is the foundation of any global effort. Candor and fair play is pivotal. Staying
the course a prerequisite. Agencies must have the courage to provide threshold and investment limits
and to recommend against advertising should these not be available.

Let us now assume that we are undertaking global advertising for realizing cost efficiencies.
Immediately, several opportunities become evident. Take TV production as an example. Where an
average cost for a 30-second commercial is $350M in the U.S., it is closer to $250M in the Czech
Republic or South Africa, and only around $100M in Chile. A favorable foreign exchange rate may
make producing offshore attractive, and talent and union negotiations result in minimal residuals.
The production values are commensurate and acceptable. On the client side, the production
apportioned over more geography permits more countries to engage and promote their brands
through advertising. More markets can be enrolled in the effort, if the starting premise is delivering
an acceptable commercial at a cost lower than what the affiliate would have to pay on their own.
Everyone knows this to be the case, and is willing to adjust – all for one and one for all.

COMPLIANCE

People, Leadership and Structure: Global marketing and advertising is as much a frame of mind as it
is an experience. It needs the commitment and sponsorship of the CEO, a long-term orientation,
adequate resources, and a global team that has authority and is held accountable for results. The
global team must be made up of a diverse and talented pool of leaders from different functions,
ethnicities, and experiences. It is an inclusive process that most often fails because it becomes an
exclusive club where membership has its benefits – the chosen, anointed few that do all the heavy
lifting and are in transit through global before their careers soar. Global is a destination, a
commitment for a sustained period in time, not a transition phase. Global efforts also fail if the
structure becomes exclusionary – a fledgling international group neither integrated into the
mainstream nor with the requisite resources, mandate, or sponsor to create a strong core group.
While not being a symbolic gesture, symbolism is very important in the early stages. Philip Morris
(Altria now), as global as any, was predominantly a local company in the 1960s until CEO Joe
Cullman moved his number one executive George Weissman from Domestic to International – from
running 99 percent of the company to running less than 1 percent. But from then on, International
was a huge and integral part of Philip Morris.

PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE

Dabbling in global marketing must be discouraged and anyone practicing global in a cavalier 'flavor
of the month' manner must be taken to task. Nothing damages the brand more and destroys customer
goodwill than an 'on again, off again' orientation to global marketing and global advertising. Global
cannot be a hobby; it is a long-term commitment.

PLACE

Where should global advertising be developed? Choose a location as carefully as you choose the
people you hire. There is nothing that suggests that New York or London offices develop better copy
than offices in Singapore or Sydney. Sure, the flagship offices have great (and often very expensive)
talent. But the reason for their choice of location appears to be proximity to the home office of the
client more than anything else. If the reason for global advertising is cost economics, the U.S. may
not be the best choice. I have seen it done in different ways. One global agency briefed seven
creative teams, and the one that won out was based in Scandinavia. This sent a very strong message:
Creativity has no bounds, and the best work can come from anywhere in the world.

PROCESS

Perhaps the least understood and the most important facilitator to globalization, global marketing,
and global advertising, is process. After much trial and error, we arrived on a process that worked.

I have enjoyed this global journey – the twists and turns, the tribulations and pains, the screaming
matches and the challenges. I have gained much, and am richer for the experience of marketing
across multiple countries. Global raises the bar; it does not lower the river. If you look consciously
for differences between country markets, you will find them. By the same token, if you look for
similarities, you will find them as well. It is what you do with this knowledge that counts. The same
26-year-old English girl will wear clothes made in Malaysia, cosmetics from France, and eat Chinese
food served by a Portuguese waiter in Italy. At the same time she will look to her mother for advice
on how to feed her infant child.
There have been several lessons, including the obvious ones – involve, enroll, encourage, empower,
be open, make sure everyone understands why we are doing this, and always ensure that the process
is followed. But, beyond all this, there is a profound, enduring lesson. Never take anything for
granted. The world never stands still, and something, somewhere is always changing. Constant
course correction and adapting to change is the ultimate reality of globalization.

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