Global brand advertisements and the representation of localization in the example of Turkey

Abstract

In the present-day world, globalization has increased the intensity of international competition, transforming the world into a single market. The concept of global advertisements, which gained importance parallel to globalization, is nowadays losing its status as the sole valid advertisement strategy for companies conducting business at a global level. The primary reason for this is the increasingly intense competition environment created by the entry of many new actors into the global and local markets, which has led global businesses to pay greater attention to the cultural variables of their target markets rather than just their economic variables.Culture represents all of the material and spiritual elements associated with a society, and can vary considerably from one society to another; in this context, culture is increasingly becoming the focus point of marketing and advertisements in the present-day world. One consequence of this new approach has been the entry of the concept of “glocal†into the advertisement literature.

To summarize, the concept of “glocal†involves the creation advertisements that bear the characteristic and local cultural features of the country where they are broadcast, while also closely adhering to a general global concept and goal.

This study focuses particularly on the representation of localization elements and prevailing ideologies in global brand advertisements in Turkey, a country that harbors a highly diverse multitude of different lifestyles, cultural backgrounds and traditions. This study evaluates local advertisement campaigns in Turkey for certain global brands according to their overall preferences and/or differences with respect to the local cultural elements they harbor and represent, and the ideological background for these preferences. This evaluationwas performed based on several advertisement examples/cases examined through semiological analysis methods.

Keywords: Culture, Advertisements, cultural differences, Global Advertisement, Glocal Advertisement, Representation, Ideology.