1. Introduction:

Marketing is a mandatory resource for an organization to create and deliver value to customers and is related to the activities that interconnect the organization to its market environment in the aspects of utilization, purchasing, sales, or influence on the produced output. One of the explicit functions of marketing is vested in the persuasion of customers so that they could purchase the products alongside serving the reminder function. Therefore, it is observed that marketing could be used to a formidable extent in changing customer behavior (Centeno & Wang, 2017).

Cultural differences can be accounted as notable factors that can exert differing impacts of using celebrities for brand endorsement on customer behavior. The changing needs of customers and varying market trends have to be monitored in unison with the inherent aspect of cultural values among customers for developing productive marketing solutions. The following report focuses on the case of an advertisement and its implications in two different market environments (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017).

The report would be highlighted with a description of the selected advertisement and the concerned advertisement environment. Thereafter, a comparison with another country’s advertisement environment would provide insights into differences and similarities along with appropriate justification for the same.

2. Description of the ad:

The advertisement selected for this report is the Super Bowl commercial of Soda Stream featuring actress Scarlett Johansson. The advertisement was banned by FOX and many reasons have been speculated among which Scarlett Johansson’s role as a celebrity is also accounted for (YouTube, 2018). The reason for the ban on the ad was highlighted in the form of a critical remark on market giants of aerated beverages i.e. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

The CEO of Soda Stream, Daniel Birnbaum, agreed to remove the offensive comment from the advertisement without any other alternatives. Another Super Bowl commercial of Soda Stream faced the same fate when it was rejected by CBS on the grounds of explicit offense to other big players in the soda market (YouTube, 2018). Therefore, it can be observed that the advertisement was banned in the US due to the submissiveness of the media to the market giants. Furthermore, the underlying impact of Scarlet’s presence as a celebrity in the endorsement could be considered as a reason for the setbacks encountered by Soda Stream in its ad.

3. Different environment:

The implications of the selected advertisement could be identified in the case of a different advertising environment which could be identified in the case of China. The comparison with the new advertising environment could be realized through the use of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to obtain similarities and differences (Escalas & Bettman, 2017). As per Rice, Kuo & Rast (2016), the comparison would also be used to anticipate the impact of Soda Stream’s advertisement on consumer behavior in the different environments (Rice, Kuo & Rast, 2016).

The advertisement environment in China is characterized by a higher power distance than the US environment. Therefore, global branding could be used as a promising perspective for the feasibility of the advertisement in China. The presence of Scarlett Johannson could also be appealing to the Chinese advertising environment owing to the global recognition of Scarlett Johannson for her work in cinema.

On the other hand, the US market environment is characterized by a lower power distance index that emphasizes equality which leads to a limited focus on celebrity presence in brand endorsements. The aspect of individualism would also play a considerable influence on determining the implications of the advertisement in China’s advertising environment (Huth, 2016).

The advertisement would be directed toward the family solution for aerated beverages that can be compliant with the collectivist culture in China. The presence of the celebrity would help obtain a directed presence in the family and communities through the presence of a global celebrity in the advertisement. On the other hand, Kowalczyk & Pounders said that the impact of the advertisement on building trust and relationships among the target audience could also be identified based on the celebrity’s comment on the superiority of the brand as compared to market giants (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016).

The advertisement environment in China is similar to the US environment in the cultural dimension of masculinity wherein the presence of the celebrity would be directed towards satisfying the brand positioning needs in the market. The advertisement would also be reflective of potential implications towards the element of difference in terms of uncertainty avoidance (Li, 2018). The element of conflict in the high uncertainty avoidance culture in the US advertising environment could be accounted as a profound reason for threats to productivity of the advertisement of Soda Stream as it conflicted with the market giants Coke and PepsiCo (Moraes, 2016). On the other hand, China’s low uncertainty avoidance would indicate a different impact of the advertisement as consumers would be increasingly accepting of the change depicted by the ad. Low uncertainty avoidance cultures like China could also perceive the conflict as an element of humor which could imply higher acceptance of the ad in the Chinese advertising environment (Jin & Phua, 2014).

4. Conclusion:

The report presented a critical assessment of a selected television commercial presented by Soda Stream featuring a celebrity i.e. Scarlett Johannson. The description of the ad was supported by highlighted reasons for its failure in the US advertising environment followed by the identification of the potential impact of the ad in a different advertising environment. It can be concluded that the advertisement environment depicts differences in terms of power index, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance while masculinity is the dimension of similarity. The Chinese advertising environment is favorable for advertisements that are characterized by humor, offer community value and global branding. These aspects could be identified in the selected ad of Soda Stream featuring Scarlett Johannson.

The presence of the celebrity is liable for developing trust and relationships in a collectivist society such as China which increases the probability of effective realization of the reminder function of advertising. Furthermore, the limited threats from conflicts with the competition in the Chinese advertisement environment are reflective of notable opportunities for the advertisement to obtain recognition without skipping the content that emphasizes market giants such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. Similarities could also be identified in the two advertisement environments on the grounds of masculinity evident in both cultures. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of celebrity endorsement could deliver unique outcomes in different marketing environments based on dimensions of national culture that can render varying trends in consumer purchasing behavior.

5. References

Centeno, D. and Wang, J.J., 2017. Celebrities as human brands: An inquiry on stakeholder-actor co-creation of brand identities. Journal of Business Research, 74, pp.133-138.

Safarova, E. and Rushworth, C., 2017. Exploring the credibility of online celebrities’ Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, pp.1-7.

Escalas, J.E. and Bettman, J.R., 2017. Connecting with celebrities: how consumers appropriate celebrity meanings for a sense of belonging. Journal of Advertising, 46(2), pp.297-308.

Huth, R., 2016. Web celebrities in the age of social media: fashion bloggers & the creation of their brands.

Kowalczyk, C.M. and Pounders, K.R., 2016. Transforming celebrities through social media: the role of authenticity and emotional attachment. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 25(4), pp.345-356.

Li, R., 2018, January. The Secret of Internet Celebrities: A Qualitative Study of Online Opinion Leaders on Weibo. In Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Jin, S.A.A. and Phua, J., 2014. Following celebrities’ tweets about brands: The impact of twitter-based electronic word-of-mouth on consumers’ source credibility perception, buying intention, and social identification with celebrities. Journal of Advertising, 43(2), pp.181-195.

Moraes, M., 2016. Entertainment celebrity human brands: the complex role of celebrities’ attributes and consumer-celebrity relationships upon consumers’ aspirations and buying behavior (Doctoral dissertation, Murdoch University).

Rice, D., Kuo, A. and Rast, R., 2016. Peripheral Endorsement: How Perceptual Congruence With Celebrities Can Benefit Brands. ACR North American Advances.

YouTube. (2018). Scarlett Johansson’s sexy SodaStream Super Bowl commercial banned by FOX!. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Du_mzY_CZk [Accessed 10 Mar. 2018].