Culture & advertisements: the case of the mobile phones

Résumé du document

The mobile phone market has proved to be a fast growing market all over the world. During the 90s, companies began an aggressive strategy to reach the whole society. Now in most developed countries the penetration rate (percentage of people that own a mobile phone divided the whole population) is over 70%, and in some nations, such as Spain and Italy, there are more cellular phones than inhabitants. In most of these countries almost every adult has a phone, that's why companies direct their new campaigns to young consumers, especially teenagers. This paper will focus on three markets, the French, the Chilean, and the Dutch. All of these nations have a high rate of mobile penetration, over 75%, and companies have aggressive campaigns to capture the few inhabitants that still haven't got the product. For the Netherlands and France it is not surprising to realize that cellular phones are widely spread in the society, with a penetration rate of 81% and 75% respectively. The Chilean case is somehow surprising and completely a different to the scenario in the rest of Latin America. This country has one of the most open economies in the world, and many companies have entered the market offering low rates. These firms also profit from the trade agreements with the European Union, the United States, and Asia, which allow them to import new models for very competitive prices.

Extraits

[...] He also stated that Latin cultures usually have a lower trust level than the Saxon societies. Fukuyama's point makes sense once mobile advertisements are analyzed in detail. In the Latin countries (France and Chile), less people are willing to engage in a transaction, that's why most of the population have prepaid phones. Companies realize this and offer extremely low fares to those who sign a contract. For example one of the French ads encouraged consumers to be distrustful by showing a young couple were the groom just realized he married a travesty. [...]

[...] For example, one ad portrayed a “samurai”-mother crushing his son, as he was constantly phoning. you don't wanna be crushed by your mum, take a prepaid!” concludes the advertisement. So authority is still highlighted. As regarding marriage, it also lost its sacred aspect as an other advertisement for a prepaid phone warned “think before being engaged” with the following illustration: a man marrying a woman who turns out to be a transsexual. Still, institutions are respected, as in both cases, the institution is not portrayed as being negative or old fashioned. [...]

[...] Once companies create the demand by identifying attractive elements for potential consumers they profit from them and turn the “fictitious demand” into a daily necessity. This is the reason why advertisements differ between cultures, because companies in their utility approach get the more benefit for them as they can. Globalization it's still a phenomenon only to a short extend. Markets are getting increasingly focused, and even though the same product can be found in several nations its use and utility differs among countries. [...]

[...] For instance, the Chilean case is the most obvious one. Indeed, making fun about religion and the Catholic Church is not taboo anymore. For example, one of the advertisements portrayed a woman receiving a call during the religious service. That couldn't be accepted just 20 years ago. The ad also reflects a certain feminisation of society as women are present in the ads, behaving independently, driving cars and so on. At the same time, the society could be seen as one in transition as machismo is dominant in several of the numerous advertisements we studied. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, as in the other two countries, young generations are the core target of mobile phone companies. This underlines a shift in terms of income power as teenagers have now a lot of money to spend. Contrary to their parents, they are not especially suspicious toward new technologies. Besides, an other cultural change, which is highlighted in the advertisements, is immigration. Of course, this only applies to the two Western countries studied, the Netherlands and France. Those societies are now countries of massive immigration, and the companies have to take it into account. [...]