Literature Review:
The rise of worldwide advertisement matches the development of the worldwide market growth, and understanding social contrasts is regularly viewed as an essential for effective global promotions (Zhao, 2017). International advertisement is considered as one of effective marketing strategy. However, these advertisement promotions should be tailored to local culture to increase the effectiveness of the promotion campaign. Concerning to global environment and with the growing influx of a variety of means of communication and varying consumer patterns, the term ‘cross-cultural’ has become more relevant in the world of today which has transformed into a global village. Here’s what it means:
Cross-culture is an idea that perpetuates bridging of various mindsets, ideas, and lifestyles to connect people of various nationalities, ethnicities, and different parts of the world to new ideas, new environments, and new preferences. (Kopp, 2020)
Therefore, the present study tailored to investigate the influence of advergame in cross culture setting.
- Consumer behavior across cross culture
It is critical to note that human behaviour and culture have capacity to exert influence on consumer patters, therefore, marketers cannot neglect the significance of culture in marketing strategies as emphasized by various studies (Baek and Yu, 2009; Ji, and McNeal 2001). Marketing companies and their policy makers are now urgently required to make more efforts to appreciate their target consumer culture if they want their polices to be more effective and result oriented. In this regard, any advertisement which are not in line with the target culture are less likely to meet their targets which then would result in the waste of resources, time and energy because cultures, as noted in McCarthy’s study (1994), differ from each other as each culture has its unique cultural and social contexts. If cultural question is not taken into account, it can have an adverse impact on financial might and reputation of a particular company. To meet cultural demands of the targeted audience it is imperative to conduct a cross-cultural research in order to understand the requirements of a specific society before launching advertisement campaign. Such research will give a firm ground to any company and its policy to stand on without putting its financial and reputational stakes at risk (Khaled, et al., 2006).
There has been an ongoing debate as to what culture actually means and over the years, various approaches to define culture have been employed based on the mental attitude and behaviour of a specific people. On the other hand, the advertising industry appears as an important part in any society. It acts as the main source of information for the consumers about products or services. However, these information are aligned with culture of consumers. According to the Annual Global Advertising Forecast report, research entity Magna Global, has reviewed the big brand budgets and cyclical events such as the Olympic Games and U.S. presidential election drive 2016’s global advertising revenue growth to $493 billion. The winning pattern of globalization in the commercial market brings a long-standing discussion about standardized versus localized advertising. Analysts have distinguished a few key drivers of standardization in promoting for tackling different culture’s consumers. For instance, Al-Juhiam (2008) demonstrate that these days shoppers have gotten more homogeneous, and essential human necessities have additionally gotten more general than previously, subsequently standardized approaches in advertising efforts can be utilized to in a worldwide setting. In particular, independence, which underlines individual requirements and functional benefits, is a powerful cultural indicator of the universal needs. Furthermore, according to Al-Jarrah (2012), advertising emerges in the space of individualism, and individualism is the prevailing appeal regardless of culture. This is consistent with Pineda’s (2015) finding that American and Spanish newspaper advertisements tend to emphasize individualistic appeals, and individualistic values have spread throughout advertising discourse. In their study of advertising appeal effectiveness in Poland and the United States, Lepkowska-White and her colleagues (2013) also find that marketers can standardize advertising appeals since a functional advertising appeal is most popular in both countries regardless of product type.
- Advergame influence consumer behavior
The advergames address another promoting idea that utilizes Internet innovation to execute viral advertising efforts. Notwithstanding the capability of this intelligent promoting strategy, not very many intellectual studies have been started to explore the qualities of advergames, and their impact on purchasers’ discernments and conduct. Notwithstanding the all-inclusive requirements of customers, the union of worldwide culture is another facilitator of standardization in advertising. Gould (2014) research study shows how international cultures converge into one culture and how advertising changes the world’s cultures.
They are intelligent games that are created around a brand, an item, or a character related with a brand or an item (Sucu, 2020). Marking a brand is integrated into the actual game through either affiliated or definite strategies – implying that a game can be utilized to illustrate the utilization of an item or to relate the item with an action or a way of life. The need to foster new Internet promoting devices emerged from the fast decrease in the viability of rich media publicizing in the late 1990s (Chen and Ringel 2001, Yuan et al. 1998). The interest in advergames has considerably expanded in the most recent 5 years, due to their seen benefits (FreshGames 2002, WebResource 2004) which are:
- minimal expense promoting in opposite to other advertisement channels, like TV and radio;
- one can communicate significant individual data about their demographic, profile, needs, behavior furthermore, preferences;
- client retention: the normal time spent in an advergame is 7 to 30 minutes, which can’t be
accomplished on account of a traditional Television commercial;
- and viral marketing – 81% of the players will email their companions to attempt a decent game.
The information shows the enormous potential of advergames (Rodgers 2004, Sennott 2004). It is anticipated that advergaming will turn into a norm part of intuitive publicizing, as consumer become more irritated with customary advertisements. One of the fundamental difficulties of online advertisers is the improvement of viable advergames. In an exception studies dedicated to advergaming technique, Chen and Ringel (2001) give a few rules to the turn of events of successful internet gaming efforts, which are established on the standards of site advancement (Lazar 2000) and advertising methodologies:
- advergaming should be created to a pattern detail which empowers it to actually work on standard programs, working frameworks and equipment;
- advergaming works inside the setting of a media crusade by which clients are driven from one medium to another (e.g., from TV commercials or printed material to web based games);
- statistical surveying objectives ought to be integrated into the intuitive climate with the end goal that solicitations for data from players give important data;
- advergames are best when designated at those probably going to appreciate web based game playing (i.e., long term olds); and games ought to be kept straightforward, as mind boggling games may prevent proceeded with cooperation.
The position of items or brand names in motion pictures or TV programs is a generally old strategy, however studies as to impact on buyer discernments and conduct are uncertain (Gould et al. 2000, Russell 2002). The advergames present a couple of unmistakable qualities that can ultimately improve their advertising impact:
- the advergames are chosen by the player himself/ herself, and are not constrained upon a reluctant watcher;
- the player associates with advergames taking on an dynamic position, in examination with the latent mentality of the TV crowd;
- advergames urge players to share the gaming experience with their companions or family.
According to a promoting perspective, the advergames endeavor to catch the consideration of players, and open them to static or dynamic portrayals of brands, items or administrations, to adjust their behavior and conduct (Bargain 2005). This idea is utilized by a psychological state in which consideration is profoundly focused on a specific cycle and environmental information is screened out, the person experiencing a harmonious flow of its present perception (Wanick et al., 2018).
- Advergame and cross culture
Gould’s (2014) contention that advertising begins according to a Western viewpoint is upheld by different examinations, and the impact of Western culture on promoting standardization has drawn analysts’ consideration. In their work tracing all the way back to the mid-1990s, Ramaprasad and Hasegawa (1990) examine 410 Japanese TV advertisements and track down that the plugs connect properties of Western images as far as characters and language. A larger part of the Japanese ads utilize spoken and composed English, and about a 6th utilizes western music and non-Japanese characters. Similarly, when it comes to celebrity endorsement, Morimoto and Chang (2009) note that the use of Western models is prominent in advertisements carried in both Japanese and global magazines (Wanick et al., 2018).
In the previous decade, a number of research focused on exploring the influence of culture on diverse cultures. Nevertheless, the bulk of these studies have focused on the United States, which symbolizes the West culture. Whereas, little attention has given to the Arab world in reference to uncovering the connection between culture and impacts on the society.
Comparison wise, there are no recorded research in the literature that systematically compared the Arab culture with the British culture with the purpose of discovering the differences and similarities of the two civilizations. In particular, we lack comprehension of the elements, identities, and affects that constitute the two cultures.
The Arab World comprises of 22 nations spanning over North Africa and Middle East. These nations share one language, one religion (more than 90 percent are Muslims), cultural value and customs (Barakat, 1993). In addition, there are more than 380 million residents currently in the Arab World, and this figure is predicted to reach 435 million by 2030. Whilst Arab nations do share similarities, there are obviously significant disparities across the Arab countries notably in reference to the degree of cultural acceptability of certain activities such as the wearing code. The societies in North Africa are more comparable to western cultures than Middle East societies are to western civilizations.
The vast market in the Arab World gives a significant opportunity for firms and organizations throughout the World to locate a location for investment, particularly amid the present global economic crisis (Mahajan, 2012). It is thus necessary for those organizations and organizations, who contemplate to create contacts and build economic partnerships with the Arab World, to grasp the culture and dynamics of this area. Simply because underestimating a specific culture and its cornerstones may significantly affect the performance and profitability of enterprises and initiatives. By understanding the culture of other nations, Comprehending the culture of others also explains and answers a wide range of questions like why many projects, companies and programmes are successful in some areas and unsuccessful in others, and why people look at programmes or software’s from different angles, and why for example transfer technology meets much resistance from other societies and cultures. Studies have indicated that the most significant determinant on the response of how individuals behave is the culture and the conceptions that govern that specific culture (Samuel. 2016)
The researcher identify the culture of Saudi Arabia and British through the lens of the 6-D Model. The degree to which the less powerful members of organizations and groups within a society anticipate and accept that power is unequally distributed. In Saudi Arabia, hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, compared to the UK. Therefore, KSA has a 95% power distance. A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that society will be driven by competition, achievement, and success, with success being defined by the winner or best in their field.
The score of 25% of KSA shows that Saudi Arabia is a collectivist society. This is reflected in a deep, long-term devotion to the member ‘group’, whether it’s a family, extended family, or extended partnerships. Loyalty in a collectivist society is vital and overrides most other social laws and regulations. A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that society will be driven by competition, achievement, and success, with success being defined by the winner or best in their field. Saudi Arabia scores 80 on this dimension and hence has a tendency to avoid ambiguity. Countries showing high uncertainty avoidance maintain rigorous standards of belief and practice and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas. In these cultures, there is an emotional need for rules (even if the rules never appear to function), time is money, individuals have an inner drive to be busy and work hard, accuracy and punctuality are the standard, innovation may be rejected, and security is a key aspect of individual motivation. The normative nature of Saudi Arabian society can be seen in its low score of 36 on the long-term objective. People in such societies have a strong concern with establishing the absolute truth; they are normative in their thinking (Hofstede, 1980). They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results.Hofstede, et al, 2008 and other researchers have developed other models for the dimensions of national culture, such as: Schwartz, 1992, Hall 1990, Trompenaars, 1993, etc.
| S.no | Authors | Dimensions | Arab | UK |
| 01 | G. Hofstede, 1980,1988 | -Power distance -Uncertainty avoidance -Individualism/ collectivism -Masculinity/ femininity | – More Long power Distance -High avoidance of uncertainty -collectivism -Masulinity (more) | -Less long distance power -Individualism Masculinity (less) |
| 02 | Edward T. Hall 1981. 1990 | -Space -Monochronism/ polychronism -Performance orientation – Uncertainty avoidance – Humane orientation -Institutional collectivism | -Strong Particularism – Strong polychronism (P-time) – Relationship orientation – High avoidance of uncertainty – Humane orientation -Tribal collectivism | – Moral Particularism -Performance orientation – High avoidance of uncertainty -Institutional collectivism |
| 03 | Globe Project, House et al., 2004 | -In-group collectivism / Family collectivism – Assertiveness – Gender egalitarianism – Future orientation | – In-group collectivism – Receptiveness – Gender Discrimination -Past orientation | -Family collectivism – Assertiveness -Equality -Future orientation |
| 04 | R. Gesteland, 1999 | -Formal vs. informal – Expressive vs. reserved – Monochronic vs. Polychronic -Universalism vs. Particularism -Neutral vs. Emotional | – Informal orientation – Expressive culture – Polychronic – Particularism -Emotional | -Formal -Expressive – Polychronic |
| 05 | Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1997, Trompenaars and Woolliams 2003 | Specific vs. Diffuse -Achievement vs. Ascription -Time management – Internal vs. external control | – Diffusion oriented -Externally control | -Acheivement Time management |
The results of Hofstede’s (1984; 2001) show that the power distance score for Saudi Arabia is 95, which is considerably higher when projected against the PDI score of the UK, which is 35. Chiefs make decisions and issue orders in the Arab world, which are then delegated to subordinates to carry out. Arab countries are authoritarian in nature, where chiefs are responsible for making decisions, and whatever they decide is right and should not be challenged by others. As such, the subordinates cannot function without the prior knowledge and agreement of their chiefs, or else the consequences are often not favorable. The decision-making process in the Arab world is much centralized and usually depends on one key figure (AlSheddi, 2020). This decision-making process reveals how people think and act, as well as how power is delegated within an Arab World chain of command. On the other hand, managers or supervisors in the UK can make a decision, usually after negotiating with subordinates and taking into account various opinions and perspectives (Aljahdali and Poet, 2013). This consequently makes the decision process less centralized, enabling the supervisor to receive the necessary support to achieve his duties. Engaging employees also provides new ideas to reach a well-rounded decision. In effect, responsibility is shared between the supervisor or first manager and the employees. Moreover, in the west, openness and fairness allow an employee to complain to the manager in case of disturbance or disagreement about a particular decision, and this is usually taken into consideration and studied. This interaction and positive criticism are often two healthy elements in the decision-making process.
The advergame market in Saudi Arabia is undergoing a fast upheaval. Until recently, advergame in Saudi Arabia were quite unclear; consumers had hardly any exposure to such advertisements. In fact, barely two decades ago, even popular news and entertainment channels were using advergame content. However, the situation has changed now. Saudi Arabia has the largest market. Saudi Arabia accounts for roughly 40% of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) advertising and marketing. These modifications occur for two key reasons. Firstly, with increasing deregulation in the economy, the Saudi market is viewed as the most appealing and lucrative in the area, and secondly, with a relatively high per-capita income and a market-oriented economy, Saudi Arabia has become a prime target for producers of consumer goods.
The market size, defined by revenue, of the Digital Advertising Agencies sector is £14.0bn in 2022 (IBISWorld-Industry Market Research, Reports, and Statistics, 2022). The market size of the Digital Advertising Agencies industry in the UK has grown by 9.2% per year on average between 2017 and 2022.
Although the traditional ways of advertising are still applicable, businesses have started taking advantage of modern methods and platforms of advertising (Radesky et al., 2020). Studies show that companies mention the inefficiency of traditional advertising methods, the high cost associated with these traditional methods (Hernandez and Minor, 2011), and the associated limitations in terms of location and scope of users, which have nowadays made marketers look for alternative and complementary methods for effective advertising (Van Reijmersdal et al., 2015). One of the newest marketing tactics that has received considerable interest and developed as a dynamic medium for marketers is advergames (Lee and Cho, 2020). While diverse kinds of advertising, such as newspaper ads and banners, can be easily forgotten by customers, advergames can engage them for a long time. Although playing computer games was historically regarded as one of teenagers’ interests, these games have presently become one of the main pastimes of a wide variety of audiences with diverse demographic features (Choi, 2019) to the extent that researchers predict that marketing operations will experience new hurdles to suit the needs and ambitions of this generation (Bellman et al., 2014).
There have been numerous studies that look at advertisements as an effective brand communication tool. So far, they have so far focused largely on the positive relationship between the brand message and the advertisement; increased purchase intentions as a result of a positive attitude towards the game (Shamadasani, Stanaland, and Tan, 2001); and the connection between players and game attitude.
Both countries are using advertising techniques to promote their brands.2021; Hanbazazah et al., 2021; conducted the study in Saudi Arabia to investigate the consumer attitude towards online advertising. They conclude that there is a significant relationship between attitudes toward advertising and brand image, entertainment, and customer engagement. This supported the previous studies’ findings, which found a high association between the attitude and in-game ads (Folkvord et al., 2015). This was the first study found on product placement in-games, which explored the use of digital games context to place products in them. The study investigated consumers’ feelings about game placement and found that consumers accepted the products and had a general positive attitude toward placement in games.
Another study figured out that consumers enjoy attracting new media, especially for hedonic purposes. Games offer a kind of learning process. It enhances the experience by continuous repetition of the favorable attitudes. Involvement in games can make consumers believe the stated message with classical condition exposures and affect consumer recall, attitudes, and other brand outcomes (Folkvord et al., 2015; Cauberghe & De Pelsmacker, 2010).
One of the fundamental challenges in international marketing and advertising is whether consumers from different nations will become more and more alike, or whether the distinctions will remain steady, or perhaps even increase. The question is mirrored at a decisional level by the dilemma of the uniformity (globalization) of marketing and advertising tactics or, in contrast, their cultural adaptation to the paradigms and patterns exhibited by every single country/region. The last two decades saw a profusion of cross-cultural studies, research, and analysis of advertising, consumer behavior, and organizational behavior that attempted to support one method or the other (Sauciuc, 2002).
Global advertisements would be successful only in a setting of cultural and behavioral convergence between the countries where they are delivered; opposing conditions would lead to failure. Dahl (2004) did research regarding cross-cultural advertising in order to discover what we know about the links between culture and commercials. He concluded that the standardization of advertising across culture is not valid nowadays.
Past studies have demonstrated that advertisements for one culture do not work in different cultures (Hung & Belk, 2007; Jones, 2000). Kansal (2012) discovered that some material in commercials can be standardized, offering a universal appeal to communication approach. The appeals employed in advertising are related only across a few dimensions of culture. Nevertheless, cultural values play a crucial role in advertising methods. An advertisement must, therefore, customize its strategy to the sensibilities of each distinct culture.
Advertising reflects and shapes our cultural values, and, therefore, it cannot be ignored when designing effective advertising. Cultural value is a significant element that widely influences behavior. Cultural values dictate the conduct of human beings and are a continual factor that drives motivation. Value is also believed to be a main aspect of someone’s personality, yet it is learnt via experiences that are subsequently shared both personally and socially. According to this viewpoint, it was demonstrated to be a concept that unites culture, social structure, and personality and serves as a standard for people’s decision, belief, attitude, and behavior (Wanick et al., 2018).
Cross-cultural awareness tries to minimize the negative impact of cross-cultural differences by developing common frameworks for people from various cultures to interact within. There are various aspects of cross-cultural differences in advergame that should be examined in order to successfully incorporate traits that complement the values, traditions, and perceptions of the target market, whether locally or abroad. They are applied in areas such as language, communication style, visuals, and cultural values.
Recently, cultural aspects of using technology to persuade and their underlying benefits have gained momentum due to their extensive world-wide reach. It has also witnessed tremendous advantages in terms of revenue generation and a deeper impact of some of the huge companies in the world. It is because of the fact, which various studies have found as mentioned earlier, that the cultural perspective of a target audience, if duly taken into account after a thorough research, brings astonishingly positive and effective results of using technology persuasively.
These studies show that there are cultural differences in the cross culture advertising and advertisers deploy different countries adopt different strategies towards advergame. However, there are challenges in the cross cultural studies and it seems that studies have not be representative. Most of the studies are from the developing or developed countries Such as Asian and North America counties were explored to a greater extent. However, developing or emergent economies in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle Eastern countries, and both Latin America and Africa have not been explored much from the cross-cultural context.
Gaps highlight that study needs to be taken further to address more theoretical reflections and new theoretical tool to address the cross cultural studies especially in context of distinctive cross culture countries. Another big challenges is to study cross- cultural advergame taking social and regulatory issues. As according to different cultural context these values also shows heterogeneity and unfortunately, these issues have attracted very less attention of the researchers on the cross -cultural advergame. There is no research conducted on two distinctive culture.
In order to close this research gap, my cross-cultural study aims to provide empirical evidence illuminating the effects of culture on consumer-advergame engagement in Saudi Arabia and the UK. Although, in the cross-cultural literature, many cultural dimensions have been extensively examined for delineating cultural variations, such as individualism versus collectivism, time orientation, high versus low-context communication, preference of communication styles and the content of advergame in different cultures, yet the way culture drives consumer-advergame-engagement behavior in different countries has not been systematically explored. This research is aimed at bridging this gap in the context of two different cultures: Saudi Arabia and the UK.
