Cultural influence in Advertising

A Comparative analysis between Telenor TV

Advertisements in Sweden and Pakistan

ADEELA MAJID

Master of Communication Thesis

Report No. 2013:088

ISSN: 1651-4769

University of Gothenburg
Department of Applied Information Technology
Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2013
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Abstract

The research investigates to the question “How Swedish and Pakistani Television
advertisements differ from each other on basis of cultural differences; are there any
similarities?”. The study elucidates the reflection of cultural values in Television
advertisements of Telenor Sweden and Pakistan by following deductive case study approach.
The study analyzes the visual contents of five television advertisements for each country
along with verbal styles of communications for highlighting the attributes and characters
relating to predefined theories of Culture, Advertising and Communication.

The study reflects differences as well as similarities between Sweden and Pakistani
advertisements on basis of cultural values and also divergence in values presented in
advertisements from their national cultures. The study reveals that many values which are
strongly related to Swedish Culture are also highlighted in Pakistani advertisements and vice
versa. Pakistani advertisements can be more assumed to be using cultural values for
communicating advertising message to audience as compared to Sweden.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..……….6
1.1 Background……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6
1.2 Problem Discussion……………………….……………………………………………………………………………………….7
1.3 Purpose of the Study……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8
1.4 Limitations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8
1.5 Research Question………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8

2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………9
2.1 Marketing & advertising….…………………………………………………………………………………………………….9
2.2 Buyer’s Behaviors & advertising…………………………………………………………………………………………….9
2.3 Defining Cultures…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
2.4 Consumer Behaviors & culture…………………………………………………………………………………………….11
2.5 Marketing communication across cultures…………………………………………………………………………..13
2.6 Verbal Communication styles across culture………………………………………………………………………..14
2.7 Advertisement across cultures…………………………………………………………………………………………….15
2.8 Hofstede Cultural dimensions and advertising…………………………………………………………………….15

3. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………..19
3.1 Data Collection & sample selection…………………………………………………………………………………… 19
3.2 Data Analysis……….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………20
3.3 Validity & Reliability………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…23
3.4 Ethical Issues……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….24

4. Results…………..………………………………………………………………………..25
4.1 Description of Television advertisements…………………………………………………………………………….25
4.1.1 Television Advertisements of Sweden…………………………..……………………………………………...25
4.1.2 Television Advertisements of Pakistan…………………………………………………………………………..29

5. Analysis……………..…………………………….……………………………………..32
5.1 Analysis of Swedish advertisement…..……………………………………………………………………………….…32
5.2 Analysis of Pakistani advertisement………………………………………………………………………………..……34
5.3 Comparison of Cultures in advertisement……………………………………………………………………………37

6. Findings & Conclusion………………………………………………………………….40

6.1 Differences between advertisements of Sweden and Pakistan……………………………………………40
6.2 Similarities between advertisements of Sweden and Pakistan………………………………………..…..41
6.3 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..42
6.4 Future research……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………42

7. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………….45
8. References……………………………………………………………………………….50

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1. INTRODUCTION.

The chapter will introduce the background of researched area which will be leading to
discussion of the problem. Purpose of the study is discussed later along with research
question.

1.1 Background

The trend of extending local companies globally has been drastically increasing during recent
economical developments however the phenomena is considered to take origin in the
eighteenth Century and the major boom towards globalization started after second world war
(Mueller: 2011). Companies need to introduce their product/services in global markets to
peruse and convince consumers by communicating the main features of product/services and
advertising serves the basic purpose of communicating message effectively across the globe.

As the world is moving towards globalizations therefore many researchers and publications
argue that products should be standardized across world along with standardization in
advertising, which will in return decrease the influence of national cultures in advertisements
However on the other hand large number of authors and researchers including Geert Hofstede
and Markie de Mooij believe that national culture plays very important role in building
perception, thinking and behaviors of consumers.

The message can be communicated more effectively by incorporating cultural values in

advertisements instead of standardizing the advertisements across global market and
communication plays effective role in interacting consumer through advertising. According to
De Mooij “if we want to know how advertising works across cultures, we’ll first have to learn
how communication works” (De Mooij 2010:97). In advertising communication process, the
basic purpose is to inform and persuade the customer about the product. It is also important
for business units to know about the liking, disliking, and preferences by the customer
(Mukesh, Ranju: 2009).

Markie de Mooij conducted several researches to correlate Hofstede’s cultural model in

global advertising. In one of recent publications “the Hofstede Model, application to global
branding and advertising strategy and research(2010)”, she worked with Geert Hofstede and
presented the model for understanding cultural values of consumers across global markets and
highlighted several behaviors which correlate with Hofstde’s cultural dimensions and
reflected in television advertisements through different elements and attributes. For example
Hofstede defined the Power distance as “extent to which less powerful members of society
accept and expect that power is distributed unequally” therefore everyone in large power
distant culture is holding his/her rightful place in society and this aspect is mostly reflected in
advertisements through showing respect, luxury articles, and fashion items to appeal social
status needs. (Mooij: Hofstede, 2010).

Media plays a major role in communicating advertising message across the audience, ignoring
the media strategies can lead to delivering of great advertising message delivered in front of
wrong audience. Media selection by strong media plan can lead to creation of powerful
impact on the audience. While comparing three major media for marketing communication
i.e. television, radio and magazine, television media provides greater impact than others by

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combining sight and sounds with addition of offering more creative breadths (Kelly &
Jugenheimer:2008). US alone in 2011 spent around 71.8 billion dollars for television
advertisement with 283 million viewers in first quarter of 2012 (Brent Gleeson: Forbes 2013).

Swedish and Pakistani advertisements have not been explored much in past in terms of
comparison; the reason could be less interest and interaction between both countries in terms
of any cultural or business affairs especially after 1998(Sweden abroad official).

1.2 Problem Discussion

Everyone is grown up with encountering flooding of mass media in this world now in forms
of television, films, magazines, music, movies, internet etc. and in this mass media world
advertising is known for creating impact on minds of the customer.

But how this impact is created (Katke: 2007 in Abideen: 2011). Companies use advertising as
a communication tool between them and consumers, therefore by analyzing and studying
consumer buying behavior companies devise their marketing strategies because it tell them
regarding factors which affect the way buying preferences are developed. Functional
attributes a company incorporates in advertisement are not the only factor to pursue the
consumer some other major factors to create long lasting impact of advertisement on
customers (Latif: 2011).

One of the other factors influencing the buyer’s preferences is culture as according to Geert
Hofstede personal feelings and thinking patterns are much influenced by social environment
where one grew up go through life experience.

In the publication “Cultures and Organizations, Software of Minds”, he highlighted that

People, groups and nations think, act and feel differently around the globe. And such patterns
of thinking are called software of minds which can be termed as “culture” in customary terms
(Hofstede: 2010) Markie de Mooij adds to it that Hofstede’s model of national culture is the
first one which is based on consumer behaviors, she correlated the dimensions of Hofstede’s
cultural model which are relevant to advertising and branding based on meta analysis of
consumer behavior data (De Mooij: 2010).

The thesis mainly focuses on comparative analysis of Telenor group Television

advertisements in Sweden and Pakistan: identification of cultural values in television
commercials and will be explained by Hofstede’s model and its correlation to advertisement
by De Mooij. The goal of the thesis is to find out how the advertisements of Telenor Sweden
and Pakistan differ from each other on basis of cultural values, are there any similarities also
between TV advertisements of both countries.

The research is expected to contribute in providing some new and useful information as it
aims to represent the relevance of values and characteristics reflected in the advertisements to
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for Sweden and Pakistan. The study also involve observing
the similarities, therefore any divergence from defined values will also be discussed.

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1.3 Purpose of the study

The purpose is to explore how values and characteristics of Swedish and Pakistani
advertisements differ on basis of cultural differences; are there any similarities? The research
is conducted to obtain better cross cultural understanding of both countries. The foundation of
the research is score of each Hofstede’s cultural dimension for Sweden and Pakistan and its
correlation by Markie De Mooij in advertising across cultures.

The study will reveal interesting results because Hofstede score for each country is varying in
a great deal for Sweden and Pakistan, moreover Sweden and Pakistan are located in two
different continents and differ to a great extent in geographical locations, thinking patterns,
political and economic conditions, and inclination towards religion and gender portrayal. The
research is not only significant because it will highlight similarities and differences but it will
also help to find out, which country’s advertisement focus more on highlighting cultural
aspect in their advertisement.

The research will also help for cross cultural understanding of Sweden and Pakistan because
sometimes companies (specially western and European) face problems by incorporating
values and characteristics in their advertisements (television, magazines, and radio) which are
proscribed in specific culture i.e. IKEA had to remove woman from their Saudi Arabia’s
catalogue which was then strongly criticized because of women rights, Saudi religious stance
and strong male dominant culture. Lately IKEA had to apologize over removal of women.
(Independent UK: 2012). Similarly advertisement by “the Christian Party” in 2009 was
criticized by atheists because of its slogan “There Definitely is a God, so Join the Christian
Party and enjoy your life” (Telegraph UK: 2010) whereas according to euro barometer
survey, 38% people in U.K believe in God (eurobarometer:2005).There are many other
examples for such cases. Therefore it is important for investors and companies to know
culture of specific region.

1.4 Limitations

The field of interest in research is regarding Telenor direct advertising through Television,
however the company use other sources for direct as well as indirect marketing i.e. pamphlets,
brochures, sale promotions, personal selling etc which are not taken into consideration .
Moreover the study is focusing on executional aspects of advertisements for general audience;
the research is not conducted on behalf of the Company.

1.5 Research Question

“How Swedish and Pakistani Television advertisements by Telenor differ from each other on
basis of cultural differences; are there any similarities?”

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2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This section will provide relevant studies and theories related to culture, Communication and
advertisements along with conceptual framework for thesis.

2.1 Marketing and advertising.

Alvin J silk in the Book “what is marketing” defines marketing as:

“What an organization must do to create and exchange values with customers”

(Alvin J silk-2006, Vii)

John O Shaughnessy defined marketing analytically in his book “competitive marketing

(1995: p4)”, as

“Marketing covers those activities that relate the organization to those parts of the outside
world that use, buy, sell or influence the output it produces and the benefits and services it
offers”

Companies adopt marketing across globe which is known as international marketing which is
basically allocation of resources by company without regard of national frontier. Through
international marketing companies seek profits around the world through systematic and
planned basis. Products are designed on the basis of customer needs of specific country and
country based promotional efforts are done in international marketing (Paul: 2008).

Advertising is one of the marketing tools and paid form of communication designed to pursue
the consumer (Grewal, Levey: 2010). There are three basic functions of advertising “Inform”
function of advertisement communicates product features, information, and location of sales.
Basically it informs about new product to the consumers.

The ”persuasive” function of advertising actually tries to persuade consumer for purchase of
product. As far as “reminder” function of advertisement is concerned, it helps to remind the
consumer about the product so that customer don’t buy from competitors brand and remember
the product.

2.2 Buyer’s Behavior and Advertisement

“Consumer behavior is the study of the processes involved when individuals or

groups select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences
to satisfy needs and desires.”
(Solomon, Bamossy et al. 2006, p6).

Schiffman and Kanuk describe consumer behavior in another way as,

Consumer Behavior focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available
resources (time money efforts) on consumption related items”
(Schiffman and Kanuk 2000, p 5)

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Cultural values are one of integral part of consumer’s self and it is not an environmental
factor. Needs and wants of consumers are changing rapidly with time and marketers should do
efforts in recognizing the changing needs of consumers to grasp buying behavior of customers
in better way. The first step is to understand the audience and then advertisement should be
devised in such a way, that it should attract the target customer. And for this it is important to
understand “buyer’s decision making process”

2.2.1 Buyers decision process

According to Lee & Johnson (1999), there are two groups in which customer can be split. 1.
Business 2. Consumer buyers, Resellers, manufacturers, nonprofit institutions are included in
business market where as consumer market includes households and individuals who
purchase the product or the services for personal use.
There are series of stages involved in Buyers decision making process which is given below.

- Need Recognition
A marketing professional or advertiser should try to influence the consumer decision by
recognizing his/her original needs. And advertisement content should be made in such a
way that it should depict clearly that the said product can satisfy the need of customer.
- Information search
After need recognition by the consumer, he/she will start searching information regarding
the product needed. If the customer has already tried the similar kind of product in the past
then the starting point of the search will be the gathering the information from that point.
Relatives, friends can also influence the buying behavior. Advertisements plays important
role in attracting customer towards certain features of the product and gather information
regarding that.
- Alternative Evaluation
Emotional and rational approach plays important part in this phase because the buyer
wants to get best in terms of quality, price and many other factors so he/she evaluate the
alternatives available.
- Purchase
Now when the buyer has looked upon all the alternatives, gathered all the required
information, the next step is purchasing the product. This phase includes whether, where,
when, what to buy. At this stage advertisement plays important role to keep buyer on his
current decision and not letting him move from his decision.

- Post purchase evaluation

After purchase customer formally and informally evaluates the product according to its
features, usability and other features. The state of cognitive dissonance can occur when
the buyer goes in state of doubt for large ticket items.

2.3 Defining culture

Culture is derived from Latin word “Cultura” meaning “cultivation” and was first used by
Romans; however Germans practiced sociological meanings of culture two hundred years ago
under the name of “kulturges-chichte” (Burke, 2008). Sir Edward Burnett Taylor, an English
anthropologist in 1871 gave one of the earliest definitions of culture, which is used today as
well. He defined cultures as;

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“Complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, Customs and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society
(Taylor & Samovar: 2009, p 9).
The definition by Taylor is accepted and applicable now a day as well and it is quite broad
as it includes “any other capabilities and habits”.
Cultures differ from each other on basis of beliefs and values. Different cultures have
different values and values which are important in one culture (group of people) may not be
as important in another culture. So cultures affect the marketing behavior and urge the
business organizations to promote their products and services according the certain/specific
culture for promotion of products and services (Jain, 1993)

Jens Allwood provide very simple and effective definition of culture as, “culture refers to all
the characteristics common particular group of people that are learned and not given by the
people” (Allwood: 1985).According to Jens Allwood a culture has four dimensions i.e.
Patterns of thoughts, behaviors, artifacts and nature. Another definition of culture by
Hofstede is;
“…the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group
or category of people from others.” (Hofstede, 2005:4)
It is social environment through which culture is learned and derived rather than inheritance
and genes. Each culture has different coding of mind depending upon group of people which
belong to that specific culture and the coding levels differentiate according to different
cultures. For example each culture has different gender roles, social class, dressing/dressing
by profession, habits of eating. A culture can be identified as “corporate culture”, “national
culture” or “age culture”. However this research is based on national level of culture.
(Hofstede, 2003: Mooij, 1998).
2.4 Consumer behaviors and Cultures.
The process involved in consumer behavior is defined by De Mooij as “the study of process
involved when people select, purchase, use, dispose of products, services, ideas or
experiences to satisfy needs and desires (DeMooij2010: P 93). In this process various
components are which are shown in diagram below.

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 Figure 3 Cross Cultural Consumer Behavior Model
Source: (De Mooij & Hofstede 2010, p 86)

Everyone in a society holds the concept of “self”, which is image about our current
personality and the personality we want to be. The idea of self, identity and image is linked to
the concept of self. Cultural values play very important role in conception of consumer self.
Individualistic cultures perceive the concept of self as “autonomous entity” and each person
holds distinctive set of qualities, attributes or processes and behaviors are developed on basis
of configuration of these attributes. For example youngsters in individualistic societies
developed their identity to function independently in society apart from their family whereas
in collectivist cultures the identity is developed by encouraging dependency and the complex
relationships in the society exist which are very complex.

In collectivist culture the concept of self is considered as “interdependent entity” developed

and encompassed by social relations, so in collectivist cultures there are more “familial self”,
“we” self. In masculine culture the concept of self is enhanced as “self esteem” whereas in
feminine culture the concept of self is modesty (De Mooij: 2010).

Personality can be defined as “sum of qualities and characteristics of being a person” (De
Mooij 2010, p97). Personality of each person is unique in its own way having traits like
autonomy and sociability; different people behave differently in different situations. In
individualistic cultures persons have individualistic autonomous and independent
characteristics combined with internal attributes (motives, abilities, traits and values) let them
to behave in certain way.

Whereas in collectivist cultures these factors are varied by impact of social roles, which in
turn let them to behave in certain way? People belonging to different cultures have different
personality traits. The recent model for studying variation in traits in different cultures is Four
factor Model called ‘Big Four’ which these variations relate personality traits to Hofstede
Cultural Model. The Four personality traits are extraversion, openness to experience,
agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. (Hofstede & McCrae: 2004).

Discussing about social process steering consumer behaviors contains emotions and
motivations and is bounded by cultures and variation in motives helps for development of
advertisement appeals across cultures. Psychologists argue that Emotions (anger, fear,
sadness, joy) are universal however the use of these emotions, meanings and intensity of the
emotions vary according to specific cultures. According to study East Asian cultures tend to
display positive emotions only e.g. joy and happiness (De Mooij, Hofstede: 2011).

Mental process has also great impact on branding and communication, how people think,
learn or communicate are mental /cognitive processes. Three kinds of processes are involved
in cross cultural studies i.e. abstract versus concrete thinking, categorization and information
processing. The collectivist culture members are inclined towards concrete features of product
because they are not much used of conceptual thinking; however members of individualistic
cultures are more inclined towards abstract brand features.

The second process i.e. categorization is about categorization of people and objects by people
on basis of individualism and collectivism. Individualistic cultures categorize on basis of rules

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and regulations whereas collectivist cultures categorize on basis of relationships among
objects. Information processing varies along with individualism/collectivism and power
distance. In high power distant and collectivist cultures people tend to gain information
through implicit communication and prefer to buy product on basis of trust on company and
feelings whereas people in low power distant and individualistic culture tend to gain
information via friends and media for purchasing. Information flow automatically and
frequently caused by social interaction and knowledge is acquired unconsciously “well
informed” is co related with low context, individualism and low power distant culture
(Hofstede, De Mooij: 2010).
2.5 Marketing communication across cultures-Communication Theory

The effective marketing communication model consists of sender, receiver and message
which are connected to each other by the channel and the message may be distorted with
distracting stimuli (noise). Perceptions are shared through marketing communication and it is
successful only when the senders and receiver’s perceptual fields are congruent to each other.

Figure 2 Marketing Communication process (Czinkota & Ronkainen 2007, p387)

As shown in the model the sender receiver and the message are connected by the message
channel. The process of communication should start prior enquiry by marketer regarding
potential customer/ receiver.

The sender should study about characteristics of receiver for communicating message.
Converting the message into symbolic form for understandability of receiver is encoding.
Message channel is the way through which the message is send to the receiver and decoding
is the process of transformation of symbols of message in the mind. In successful
communication process sender and receiver’s reflection of needs overlap and it shows that
communication process has worked.

Noise is the distracting stimuli which interfere the accurate message reception. It is very
important for international marketer to be aware of cultural noise (Czinkota & Ronkainen
2007). Perceptual encoding and decoding gaps originated from cultural differences between

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sender and receiver distort the communication between people belonging to different cultures.
The more and better information regarding target audience, consumer behaviors, purchasing
power, cultural values and demographic behaviors of the buyers can lead to development of
better promotional strategy in international advertisement. (Root, 1994).

2.6 Verbal Communication Styles across Cultures.

Cultures vary in terms of Communication styles which are reflected in advertisements.

Cultures differ in terms of direct and indirect communication styles for example
individualistic cultures use more metaphors in communicating whereas collectivist cultures
prefer indirect communication style. For example Korean LG commercial shows that an old
man is sitting with a baby on top of the mountain will be thought as continuity and long term
orientation whereas in U.S it will be considered in its original meanings. The impressive
advertisement across cultures uses interpersonal style of communication. Ting Toomey and
Gudkunst explains the way, variation in verbal communication style are described by cultural
dimensions. There are two main styles concerning importance of context i.e. “verbal personal
style” and “verbal contextual style”.

Verbal personal style is related to individualistic centered language, enhances “I” identity and
is mainly linked to low power distant cultures where status is equal. The verbal contextual
style is role centered and focus on role identity related to context, and is linked with
collectivist and high power distance societies.

Rich and expressive language is used in elaborate verbal style whereas in exacting or precise
style no more or less than required information is provided. There are long pauses more use of
understandings, silences in succinct or understand style, and silence is meant to be having
some meanings. Elaborate verbal style is mostly used mostly in high context cultures with use
of metaphors, flowery expressions whereas exacting style is used in low context cultures with
low uncertainty avoidance. Advertisements of individualistic cultures opt direct
communication style by use of personal pronouns i.e. I, we whereas advertisements of
collectivist cultures focus more on drawings, symbolism or metaphors. (De Mooij: 2004).

Advertisement styles are mapped out by applying basis of interpersonal communication.

Advertisement style of low power distant individualistic cultures is direct, explicit and
personal commonly personalized lecture in advertisement with identified presenter for
promoting the product and advertisements are carefully focusing on the endorser’s
personality. Advertisements are more structured and serious in high uncertainty avoidance
countries. There are detailed visuals along with the demonstration regarding use of product
and such type of style is called Germanic style. Low uncertainty avoiding cultures depict
more humor in advertisements, masculine cultures use celebrity endorsers. (De Mooij: 2004)

2.7 Advertisement across Cultures

Understanding cultures is increasingly important for global advertising and Hofstede model of
national is applicable to global advertising and marketing. The model explains various
concepts of self, identity, personality which further helps in devising branding strategies (De
Mooij, 2010).

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Standardized advertisement across global market is not as much effective as adaptative
strategies for local markets; therefore it has become increasingly important to understand the
cultures (Dow, 2005). So cultural values depicted in advertising are integrated part of
consumer self rather than environmental factor (De Mooij, 2010). Consumer self identity
(culture, image, values) along with social and mental processes (previously described in
consumer buying behavior) affect the advertising appeal and style. (De Mooij, 2010).
Advertising reflects the pattern of our thinking, the way we do things in our daily life i.e.
eating, relaxing, talking, working, having fun, things which moves us.

A number of researches are done for analyzing cross culture advertising mostly through
content analysis and surveys to know which advertisement practice can work better in which
country. The values incorporated in advertisement matching with values of the customer leads
towards more successful advertising. Below is the conceptual analysis of Hofstede’s Model
on basis of varying consumer behaviors.

2.8 Hofstede’s Dimensions of National culture and Advertising

In the publication “Culture and Organizations: Software of the minds, Geert Hofstede
explains culture as;
“It is the collective programming of mind that distinguish the members of one group or
category of people from others”
(Hofstede 2005: p 4)

In social anthropology culture is not only patterns of thinking acting and feeling but also
include all the menial and ordinary things in life i.e. eating, showing, greeting, certain
physical distance , loving etc (Hofstede 2005).

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are of great importance because before that no cultural model
was developed to study consumer behavior. Hofstede model of national culture distinguish the
cultures according to four dimensions: power distance (PD), individualism/Collectivism
(IDV), Uncertainty avoidance (UA), Masculinity/femininity (MAS) and long term/short term
orientation (LTO) (De Mooij: 2010). Below is the application of De Mooij’s theory on
Hofstede’s cultural dimension however it would be discussed on bases of four cultural
dimensions as no score is available for “long term Orientation (LTO)” for Pakistan, therefore
this dimension would not be studied for cultural differences.

2.8.1 Power Distance (PDI) and Advertising

Hofstede defines Power distance as;

“The extent to which less powerful members of the society accept and expect that power is
distributed unequally “

(Hofstede in De Mooij: 2010, P 75)

Higher power distance indicates the way human inequalities in wealth, prestige, source of
power are addressed and accepted in societies. People who have more power are more
privileged and considered as right and good and therefore people try to develop and maintain
power distance (Hofstede, 1980).

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In large power distant cultures, everyone’s social status is clear and everyone is holding
rightful place along hierarchy and it provides a great deal in understanding role of global
branding in advertising. Luxury and fashion items appeal more for fulfilling social status
needs (De Mooij, 2010). It is trend that elders (mother, aunt, grandmother etc) advice younger
and elders have more respect in society because of their age. In large power distant cultures
whereas younger advice elders in small power distant culture and youth is more independent
and individualistic, authority is seen as negative character in low power distant culture with
more focus on equality. Societies with their respective trends and culture depict these
elements in their advertisements. De Mooij also illustrates that aspect of humor is more seen
in less power distant cultures whereas the focus on status symbols are more used in higher
power distant cultures (De Mooij, 2005). High power distant advertisements with celebrity
endorsements have more impact on audience and ability for persuasion of audience (De
Mooij, 2001).

2.8.2 Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV) and Advertising

Individualism is the degree or extent to which the society encourages the individual decision
making in the society along with actions. It is basically the reflection of way of living of
people in particular society. Individualistic behaviors may be thought as selfishness in
collectivism societies (Hofstede, 1980). Ties among people in individualistic societies are
loose and everyone is expected to take care of his/her immediate family only. In collectivist
society people are integrated into groups, cohesive subgroups which in exchange of
unquestionable loyalty provide protection to the members of group (Hofstede, 1997).

De Mooij defines the difference between individualism/collectivism as “people looking after

themselves and their immediate families only, versus people belonging to in-groups that look
after them in exchange for loyalty” (Hofstede & De Mooij 2010:89).
Collectivist cultures are polychromic while individualistic cultures are monochromic. In
advertising individualistic cultures clock symbol as symbol of efficiency is more
understandable as compared to its understandability in collectivist culture (De Mooij, 2005).

In individualist cultures, mostly there is direct and personalized way of addressing people i.e.
“you”, “I” (low context communication), and where as in collectivist culture “we” is mostly
used for addressing (High context communication). Low context communication is mostly
textual, whereas high context communication is mostly visual (De Mooij, 2010). Moreover
unexpected guests are most of the time welcomed in collectivist cultures and food is served to
them, they have different perception of hospitality than individualistic cultures (De Mooij,
2005).

The response of members of individualistic and collectivist societies is different to

advertisement emphasizing individualistic or collectivist appeals (De Mooij 2010). In
advertising privacy is more cherished in individualistic cultures where as people as shown
together with family, community along with depiction of in-group benefits , harmony etc.
The advertisement emphasizing the individualistic values will not be workable in collectivist
society because they are not desired and practiced in the society (De Mooij, 2005).

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Another prominent difference in advertising is that, during sales promotion in individualistic
culture people will like to get the point as fast as possible where as in collectivist culture the
building of trust and relationship between parties is necessary for persuasion. So in
advertising both are depicted in different ways i.e. persuasion versus creating trust (De Mooij,
2010).

2.8.3 Masculinity vs. Femininity (MAS)

Masculinity refers to the societies where “masculine values are dominant in culture, for
example clear distinction between gender roles in society. Words like toughness, assertive,
focused, successful are for men whereas women are more considered to me modest, focused
on quality of life, tender etc. whereas in feminine societies the roles of gender overlap, both
men and women are supposed to be concerned about quality of life, tender and modest and
caring for others (Hofstede, 2005).In traditional masculine culture all the values which are
which are considered to be as male values ( ambition, materialism, success, performance,
assertiveness, achievements) are considered to be important to the society and opposite of this
is feminine culture (Hofstede, 1980). In masculine culture most of the household is done by
women, where as it is shared by both in feminine culture moreover men tend to do more
shopping in feminine cultures (De Mooij: 2010)

The countries which score higher on masculine index are more inclined towards winning
mentality and more orientation towards results whereas feminine cultures are service oriented,
more focus on quality of life over winning and respect for looser. People of feminine culture
are not much concerned about status and showing the success. (De Mooij: 1998)

In advertisements of masculine culture achievements are more depicted therefore jewelry and
status brands are used for showing one’s success. (De Mooij, Hofstede 2010). Sometimes the
combination of masculinity and individualism is shown in advertisement of masculine culture
for showing success and need to win. Aggressive typologies, competitiveness, dreams and
expectations are expressions in masculine culture advertisements. Status plays important role
for showing success, whereas in feminine cultures safety, protection, care are more depicted
in advertisements (De Mooij: 2010) Moreover Fictional advertisement are preferred in
feminine cultures where as non fictional advertisements are more preferred and effective in
masculine cultures (De Mooij: 1998).

2.8.4 Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) and Advertising.

Uncertainty avoidance can be defined as “the extent to which people feel threatened by
uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid the situation” (De Mooij 2005, 67). It is the degree
to which society is unwilling to accept and cope with uncertainty. Law, technology, religion
are used for addressing uncertainty. Many element are related to this dimension i.e. need for
security, application of information, dependence on experts etc (Hofstede 1980).

Communication in cultures with higher uncertainty avoidance is more formal where as

competitions and conflicts are threatening. Which result are higher level or tension and
anxiety among people which is released in various ways like use of hands while talking,
driving fast and aggressively, showing emotions. Whereas members of low uncertainty
avoidance cultures don’t often show their emotions and are tolerant drivers as well (De Mooij,

17
2005). People of low uncertainty avoidance are more open to change and innovation as
compared to people of low uncertainty avoidance (De Mooij, 2010).

High uncertainty avoiding cultures are threatened of competition and conflicts whereas
countries with low uncertainty avoidance believe on few rules, more believe on common
sense, competition and conflict is not threatening to them. (De Mooij: 1998).
Advertisement style is detailed and more serious with additional demonstrations in high
uncertainty avoidance cultures whereas in low uncertainty avoiding cultures there is more
aspect of humor. (De Mooij: 2010).

In advertisements of cultures with higher uncertainty avoidance, there are more details
regarding use of products and all related technical information are presented whereas in
advertisements of low uncertainty avoiding cultures the most important this depicted is results
of using specific product (De Mooij,2010). Tests and test results fear appeals are more
focused in high uncertainty avoiding cultures advertisements along with very detailed
technical information. Moreover characters depicted in advertisements of cultures with higher
uncertainty avoidance are more groomed and well dressed (with matching accessories as
compared to low uncertainty avoidance cultures (De Mooij, 2010).

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3. METHODOLOGY

This section will present the way of collecting data for analyzing and answering the research
question. The design of the research will be presented followed by research approach and
data collection.

This research is based on qualitative approach for gaining more in depth knowledge and to get
clear picture from describing existing data and analyzing the similarities and dissimilarities.
One more reason for choosing qualitative research method is variation in number of
consumers in Sweden and Pakistan. The total population of Pakistan is approximately
187.343 Million with cellular subscription of around 123 Million. It would be difficult to get
clear results through quantitative research done on small portion of very large target audience.
However continuation of this research by quantitative analysis on a large target audience and
more diverse scope can provide generalizable results.

Yin (1989) described five strategies for conducting research which are; Survey, experiments,
archival analysis, case study and history. In this research the question under observation
contains “how” factor and the purpose of the research is to get better understanding of cultural
values in advertisements therefore case study strategy has been adopted to answer the
question.

According to Patel & Davidson (2003), in deductive way of looking into a thing, the results
are already established in existing theories, which are later tested in the concerning case.
Therefore I am using deductive case study approach as the results have already been
established by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for Sweden and Pakistan, however I will apply
the existing theories on Television advertisements for exploring the results, the similarities
and divergence.

According to Yin(1994), the existing theory being critically tested is appropriate through
single case studies , however more than one unit of analysis can be involved in single case
study , which is referred as embedded single case studies. In this research as the whole case is
studied in totality; however different unit of analysis have been used therefore holistic
embedded single case study.

3.1 Data Collection & sample selection

According to Denscombe (1998), data can be collected through four main sources;
questionnaire, interview, documents and observations. In this research I have used direct
observation of television commercials for data collection. However in case study approach,
for maintaining the reliability and validity of research, it is more appropriate to use more than
one source of evidence.
The primary data is collected through direct observation and interpretation of researcher the
researcher. To maintain the validity and credibility of research systematic observation was
carried out with the help of two neutral observers of the videos.

For comparison television commercial, judgmental sampling technique was used for
separating advertisements of Sweden and Pakistan on basis of these criteria.

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 1. The broadcasting time of commercials is within last three years and doesn’t exceed
that duration i.e. 2010-2013.

2. The advertisements available on official Channel of the company on YouTube.

3. It was made sure that commercials were aired on Television Channels.

Once the data was separated on basis of above criteria, five television advertisements were
randomly selected for each country. The sample was selected randomly because the research
is being conducted to explore the predefined theories and observing the sample before
choosing could cause biasness of the researcher regarding selection.

3.2 Data Analysis

According to Yin (1994) there are two strategies for data analysis which provide researcher a
system for understanding what to analyze; the two strategies are relying on theoretical
prepositions and developing case description.

To facilitate the understanding of collected data, I rely on theoretical propositions by

following by Miles & Huberman’s (1994), which contain three concurrent activities.

1. Data reduction.
Data reduction is part of data analysis where data is analyzed to focus, simplify, abstract and
transform the data by using conceptual framework, thus sharpening the data for conclusions
and verification.

2. Data Display
After data reduction, the data is presented in form of text and tables in organized and
compressed form, as data is more assembled for drawing conclusions.

3. Conclusion drawing and verification

In this stage researcher draw meanings from collected data by noting explanations,
patterns, causal flows, regularities, possible configurations and propositions. Verification
is “fleeting second thought” in researchers mind, it can be done by reviewing the
document again and discussion with colleagues for developing “inter subjective
consensus” for validity.

In the first step all advertisements were translated into English. Swedish TV commercials
were translated by one native speaker with Swedish as mother language and the other
Swedish speaker with Swedish as second language. Pakistani advertisements were translated
by one native speaker and author both having Urdu as mother language Although the basic
purpose of the research does not include studying linguistics, however the translation was
necessary as it reflected the communication style and is correlating to situations in creating
meanings to cultural values.

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In the next step each advertisement was thoroughly reviewed multiple times by researcher and
the two other collaborators for description and creating the meanings out of it. The
advertisements were analyzed and simplified by taking into consideration Claude & Lee
(2009) advertising execution domains which are highly significant in cross cultural studies.

The visual data was in written descriptive form, the domains for observations are

- Language: The spoken and visual message including product name, information,
delicate messages and terms is in local, standardized or bilingual i.e. English.
- Humor/emotion: The aspect of humor/emotion in gestures, situations or words.
- Characters and roles represented; character will be analyzed in term of sex roles,
endorsement styles (celebrity vs. character building)
- Influence of religion and more; reflection of religion, history, national heroes.
- Visual elements of advertisement; reflections of sight, image, movement.

Table 4.1 contains the details of domains for observation. (Claude & Lee: 2009).

1 Language Local vs. international

2 Humor vs. emotion situations, words
3 Characters & roles Sex roles, endorsement styles (celebrity vs. character
building)
4 Influence of religion & more Reflection of religion, history, national heroes
5. Visual elements Sight, image, movement

The meanings would be created by systematically identifying Swedish and Pakistani

advertisements on basis of four cultural dimensions Power Distant (PD), Individualism (IDV),
Uncertainty avoidance (UVA) and masculinity/femininity (MAS) and correlating the score to
De Mooij research on national cultures and advertising. The score for Sweden and Pakistan by
Hofstede is summarized below.

Table 4.2: Score by Hofstede for Sweden and Pakistan

Country Power distance Masculinity Uncertainty individualism

avoidance
Sweden 31 50 29 71
Pakistan 55 5 70 14

In the last step the selected and identified data is analyzed on basis of theoretical framework
developed on basis of earlier research for identification of cultural elements and
characteristics in Television advertisements. Meanings are created for each Hofstede’s
cultural dimension by correlating them to attributes and characteristics of cultural values
highlighted by Geert Hofstede and Markie de Mooij in their studies for advertising strategies
and global branding. Table 4.3 shows the list of attributes which provides the source of
observation.
Table 4.3 Criteria for analysis

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Values General meanings/attributes in local branding

Collectivism Celebrity Endorsement

Trust building style of advertisement

Extended family

Enhanced body movement and facial expressions

Eating/drinking together

Togetherness and care for family

Individualism Enhancing/building endorsers personality

Nuclear family system

Persuasion style of advertisement

Limited body movement and facial expressions

Eating drinking alone/with friends

High Power Distance Reflection of social status

Luxurious appeal

Showing respect for elders

Elder advising younger

Emotional appeal

Low Power Distance Younger advising elder

Humorous appeal

Masculinity Detailed advertisement

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 Reflection of winning and success

Fictional advertisement

Distinct gender roles

Femininity Short advertisement

Mixed gender roles

Realistic advertisement

Reflecting safety and protection

High Uncertainty avoiding Formal dressing

More visual contents than verbal

Past/history oriented

Low Uncertainty avoiding Informal dressing

More verbal contents

Reflection of technology/future oriented

Reflection of sports and health activities

Source: The Hofstede Model: application to global branding and advertising strategy p88-95

Cultural values and characteristics are identified in Swedish and Pakistani advertisements
which then lead towards findings and conclusion.

3.3 Validity and Reliability

According to Daymon & Hallway (2002), the researcher’s background, culture and
characteristics can influence the results and interpretation.
Yin (1994) described the four parts of validity and reliability i.e. constructs validity, internal
validity, External validity and reliability.

To increase the construct validity of study, investigator triangulation technique was used
where more than one strategy is used for data analysis. According to Miller & Kirk (1986) the
observations of the study matching with alternative reliable source is considered to be valid. It

23
can be regarded as dependability, according to klenke (2008) if the study repeated by the
other investigators generates the similar findings, it is considered to be reliable.

Therefore to maintain the validity of research two independent individuals belonging to

advertising and marketing background were asked to describe the videos by using
brainstorming method for video elicitation. They were asked to watch the television
commercial and describe them in terms of research framework derived from advertisement
execution modes. although to ensure reliability of study, each individual including researcher
described their observations separately and then matching the visual interpretations however
there are still chances of involvement of bias involved in research.

The previous background of one individuals is from Pakistani ethnicity is master in business
administration with specialization in marketing and currently working with Swedish
marketing firm whereas the ethnic background of other friend is from Sweden, working in
news and media department of very famous Swedish IT firm.

3.4 Ethical Issues

The thesis is not conducted by personal interaction with the Company and is based on
secondary data therefore no primary ethical issues are involved. The data under observation is
publically available by company on several web domains. The analysis is based on
perspective of viewer not on company perspective or point of view.

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4. RESULTS

In previous section methodology of the study was discussed.in this section results are
discussed for influence of culture in Television advertisements.

4.1 Description of Television advertisements

Television advertising employ various strategies to persuade viewers through camera rhetoric
including lightning voice over, editing, texts, sound effects and other elements and analysis of
television medium can include divergent and extended interpretations therefore it is difficult
to interpret and analyze each and every single piece (Roy, 1998).

The study will describe visual features represented through sight, sounds, images and
movements, the verbal features are used a tool to enhance certain value or convey the
message they would also be analyzed. However the study doesn’t focus on linguistics and
parts of speech. The advertisements of both countries are in their local language and translated
in English.

4.1.1 Television Advertisements of Sweden

i. Telenor- Sören rastar hunden 2013

A man (character name: sören) is shown fixing collar in his dog neck by sitting down in the
entrance as he is going out for a walk along with his dog. He talks to his wife “darling we are
going for a walk” and the women says “ok see you then” the woman is holding cup of
tea/coffee in the hands along with newspaper and wearing morning gown. on the way another
man who is washing car in front of his home waves him hand, but sören is so busy in talking
that he doesn’t notice that, then he pass through the football ground where children are
playing(girls and boys together) , then through a tunnel. He is talking in English “now I can
speak, no I have all the time you need, I know the feelings, send me the pictures, yeah I am
downloading the picture now, sorry I don’t understand finish” .while talking he also pass
through waterfall and he reach at the end of mountain and there is no way further, so he ends
the call by saying “I will call you back”.

After few seconds his wife calls him and asks “will you be at home soon”, he says yes I will
be at home in 5 minutes...Maximum 10 minutes and then there is a verbal message

25
“Experience the real freedom with 4g, welcome to telenor”. At the same time the visual
message “welcome to your new generation mobile network” along with Telenor logo. There
is no background music or song during commercial.

ii- Telenor - Sören testar skräddarsytt 2012

Sören is cooking in the kitchen; wife comes out from the bedroom which adjoins to the
kitchen and the living room with a magazine in her hand. Sören is wearing morning gown
while his wife is wearing formal dress, hairs properly combed and designed wearing a ring in
her hand and small earrings.

She shows one page from the magazine to sören and asks “wouldn’t it be the great wedding
style? Sören replies very beautiful. And after a very short pause while his wife is looking the
magazine page with great interest , sören draws her attention towards some site “express
fashion house” and say “look here, tailor yourself on the internet ”on Samsung pad and starts
exploring men and women styles. In next scene they both are sitting comfortably in the living
room on a sofa and wife is interestingly exploring dress.

The next scene starts in bedroom where sören wife is taking measurement of her shoulder
with inch tape is taking measurement of his waist, and both discuss about other measurement
and lengths. Then there is reflection of a marriage in church; every one along with sören and
his wife are formally dressed. While the wedding is going on Sören gives her wife the unfixed
flower from her dress to fix that back at the same time his pain falls down because of wrong
fitting and there is verbal message. “At Telenor, it’s like designing tailoring your subscription
and trying this which suits you best” along with the visual message “customizes- the best
subscription for you-Telenor. There is background music or song

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 iii. Telenor - Sören flyger runt i en drömvärld med sitt supersnabba bredband

In the first scene Sören is sitting in office kitchen as everyone including Sören is wearing
formal dress, Sören inserts Telenor internet stick in his laptop which takes him into another
fictional world. Sören is flying in the air with laptop as wings on his back, butterflies are also
flying around. It is imaginary world with green grass, green trees, and colorful flowers. This is
the only advertisement with background vocals “World Wide Web, Here I am living happy,
this is no stress; Here is my new home address”.

The imaginary world is reflected as the world of World Wide Web with imaginary signs of
“@” in the clouds. In the next scene, while Sören is hitting many colorful balls with sword, a
man appears out of the ball and there is visible @ sign in the background. The man talks to the
Sören regarding liking this World Wide Web. As the Sören press the button with facebook
image, a prominent facebook like image appears. in the next scene Sören is signing contracts
in imaginary world and looks at the visual message “Experience real freedom with Telenor
superfast broadband”, with verbal message Just now cost all 49/månad for rest of the year”

iv. Telenor - Sören pausar sitt abonnemang från utlandet

Sören along with his wife are caught in jail of some other country and there is another man in the same cell
with them, sören is wearing beach shirt and trousers, while his wife is wearing pink shirt which reflects that
they came out of country for holidays.

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Sören’s wife screams at two policemen passing by in the yard “we have right to make one phone call”. The
policeman gives phone to Sören and asks him to make just one call, Sören and his wife says thanks with a
smiling. And sören urge to make call by saying his wife “now we solve it like this”; a caterpillar is sitting
on the phone while sören is talking “We are arrested/caught, we don’t know why. We need help. I
want to pause my mobile subscription. ?, sören pause the telephone and asks her wife “A half
year??” , wife gets angry , and annoyed and says desperately “Sören! What are you doing?
Sören smiles with a little laughter during telephonic conversation and “Naturally my wife will
also pause her subscription”.

Wife is so astonished after listening his conversation, she put her hands on her face with
tension and shake her head as saying “no” and divert her attention from sören and stand
holding the jail bars but sören keeps talking and looks at his wife. At this point there is verbal
message “Only with Telenor you can stop your subscription up to 6 months. Welcome to the
flexible operator” and the visual message” pause your subscription during the period”. After
this a local man who was sitting in the same cell without shirt asks” can they pause my
subscription also in Swedish language?” There is no background music.

v. Telenor - Sören och hans vänner surfar hur mycket de vill 2012

In the first scene, Sören along with his friends are running towards sea in excitement to surf in very winter
season with snow all around and ice on shores of the sea. All are wearing surfing suits with surfboards in
their hands, the friends seems to be little reluctant but sören says “no no no, come, come”. As they reach
near the sea they stop for a while as sören foot slips because of ice but he says come on buddies, one friend
respond “ its cold” sören replies “shit cold” and go inside water.

The other two friends run back because of cold. And then there is verbal message displayed “At Telenor,
you can surf as long as you want without worrying about the cost. With new Max deal get free
surf, free calls and free SMS / MMS. Tablet and Smartphone included” along with visual
image showing a tablet, a phone and visual message “max deal”, “Fri Surf på båda”. In the
last scene Sören asks the friends sitting in car “what are you doing” and friends reply “surfing,
as much as we want” There is no background music or song.

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4.1.2 Television Advertisements of Pakistan

i. Telenor international Dialing(Saudi Arabia) 2013

The commercial is continuation of “Rashid Farooqui Telenor Commercial 2012”; both

characters are same with continuation to previous story.

In the first scene some children are seen as playing together in rain in a house front yard, in
the second scene a man is driving taxi in Saudi Arabia. A woman bring traditional snacks for
children to eat, who are playing in rain, on the same time it starts raining in Saudi Arabia and
man feels the rain with his hand . All children in home are eating snacks happily from one
plate. One of the boys among children, who is child of the man driving taxi in Saudi Arabia
becomes emotional while eating snacks as he remembers his father. On the other hand the
man sees the same kind of snacks on one shop in Saudi Arabia.

The boy in Pakistan calls his father through Telenor package and man becomes very happy,
he buys the same kind of snacks from shop and both start eating at same time and talking with
smiling and laughing. In the background there is song saying “such is our relationship,
despite distances, the bounds doesn’t break. This is how our relationship is!” At the end it is
focused that Telenor doesn’t let the relations break and also information about activating
package and call rates along with Telenor logo.

ii. Rashid Farooqui Telenor Commercial 2012

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In the first scene a boy along with his father are happily watching the national airplane
departure and flying for destination. As the plane departs and lost out of site expressions of
child turns from happiness to sadness.

In next scene it is shown that father shows airplane and details about it on his mobile to the
child by using internet even on his not so expensive mobile. To make him happy father buys
him ice-cream and take him to shrine of founder of Pakistan (national leader).

Again in next seen the father is showing information regarding that shrine to child. Both
discuss the founder of Pakistan while sitting in local bus and in the same time there is
background song “we two have a story, and this story is very old...Story of we two, only we
two “and then there is background voice that “every story, every happiness must be fulfilled
when there is Telenor Talk Shalk mobile internet…which is in range of each and every
Pakistani”. Then the visual contents focus on cheap price and the way of activating it in
bright colors. At the end of commercial son runs towards father, and shows him exam sheet in
which he got full marks.

iii. Fawwad Khan Telenor Talk Shalk-2011

A boy wakes up and astonished to see that his father has messed up the entire kitchen and
trying to cook breakfast. He asks “papa, where is mom” and man replies “mom is sick, why
not we make breakfast for her today”.

But as he doesn’t know how to cook, he messes up all the things in the kitchen. The boy takes
the telephone number of his auntie, aunt and grandma and asks his father that call auntie for
learning how to make milkshake, for French toast, aunt and for rest of breakfast call grand
ma. And in background message is communicated “now on any network, call from Telenor
Talk Shalk on low rates, so talk on any network as long as you want and then the procedure to
activate that.

At the end man cooks breakfast in proper way and take that for his wife along with his kid and
wife is very happy. But become sad when wife says now you have to make lunch also. The
entire setting shows them belonging to upper class family and the voice in the end is saying
“call your loved ones on lower rates through Telenor”.

30
iv. Telenor Talk Shalk Relaunch-2010

The first scene seems to be showing a sons emotional meeting with his parents while he is
leaving for abroad and after 5 minutes of check in he calls his father to say “father take
care of yourself” and father facial expressions shows happiness.

In second scene players of cricket team are sad because there coach is in hospital, coach
calls the players to motivate them and tells some tips to win the game and all players
seems to be glad after talking to coach. In scene three a man comes out of interview room
and got call from boss that you got the job.

He is so happy that he even hugs a stranger. In scene 4 a girl is cooking food as her
mother telling her the recipe to cook. And in background there is again voice “there is
pleasure of enjoying relations during talking, life is special because of talking. So there is
Telenor Talk Shalk to build and keep relations and to finish the distance“

And in last fast clips, the boy who went abroad is standing again with his parents; all the
boys are with their coach in hospital with winning trophy, the man who got job is shaking
hand with his boss, the girl who was asking recipe is sitting with her mother in law in
garden. All of them are holding cards mentioning “Telenor Talk Shalk” in their hands and
the along with this while all these visual contents are running there is verbal message
regarding company and how it builds relations in this world and to minimize the distance.

v. Telenor Talk Shalk Love-2010

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In the first scene a woman is shown as putting jam on toast for her husband who is reading
newspaper. She say to her husband I am missing my elder sister a lot can I call her daily, man
says why not.

Then they are watching TV and woman says “my nephew was used to sleep after listening
story from me, can I call him daily”? Man says “off course”. Then she says I want to call my
best friend Aisha daily. Can I? Man says ok .then they are having family dinner with man’s
younger brother and girl asks, my brother is U.S.A don’t eat food on time...can I call him once
a day, wouldn’t you mind. The man says “never” and gives her new phone. The younger
brother jokes. ”she will spend all ”man says “no” and then in background voice it is said that
“there is no sadness because of distance between relatives , now call local or abroad in very
cheap prices and then the way to activate the offer.

5. ANALYSIS
The analysis of Television commercials of Sweden and Pakistan would be discussed in this
section.

5.1 Analysis of Swedish Advertisements

The first advertisement reflects Sören (character) who is the same character in all other four
advertisements and is not a celebrity. The advertisement seems to be building the character of
endorser in advertisement instead of celebrity endorsement as one character is reflected in all
advertisements carrying new stories in his life. Humorous appeal seems to be reflecting main
message rather than emotional as the character is shown so involved in talking that he doesn’t
know that he reached at end of mountain in unknown place and then asking his dog to take
him home back as he lost the way but on the other hand he is saying his wife that he will
reach in maximum 10 minutes whereas the situation reflects that he himself don’t know at
what time he will reach home .There are no background vocals and scenario is more close to
the real life event.

In one scene character (sören’s wife) is holding a cup of tea/coffee, and newspaper in the tray,
which and in another scene a man is washing car reflects that work at home can be performed
by both men and women. In scene where there are many children (both male/female) are
playing together football and it shows that girls and boys are not separate in culture because
of their gender and also the trend of playing games. A tunnel from which he is walking and
there is road above him on which a vehicle is passing by reflects the inclination towards
safety and protection by building underpass for pedestrian so that instead of passing by the
road they pass beneath that.

The conversation of Sören with his friend is in English, in the middle the man says “no no I
don’t understand Finnish” it can be assumed from conversation that he is talking to someone
in Finland rather than in Sweden .along with this there is a scene where he is watching his
mobile and saying “I am downloading the pictures” symbolize the more focus of
advertisement towards results and features (more talk time, cheap calls abroad, good internet
connection. And then his wife calls her and asks, will you be home soon and he replies
absolutely I am coming in Four minutes, maximum 10 minutes. Direct communication style is
used in conversation in this scene with reflection of humor for audience in advertisement, as

32
he himself don’t know at what time he will reach home but telling his wife that he will reach
after Four and then maximum 10 minutes.

After story is finished both visual and verbal information regarding the product is reflected
with precise style of communication, providing only relevant information no more no less, no
story building or narratives and there are no details highlighted regarding use of product in
visual or verbal message

In the first scene of second advertisement Sören is informally dressed and cooking in the
kitchen and the woman is properly dressed which shows that gender roles are not specific or
differentiated i.e. a man is working in kitchen and a woman is preparing to go out. The use of
tablet for designing and tailoring of cloths reflects inclination towards use of technology in
every day.
Although in home both Sören and his wife were not dressed formally in the wedding scenario
everyone is formally dressed. In the last, Sören loose paint and his wife unfixed dress are
assumed to reflect the message that it is better to try first, and at the same time there is verbal
direct message that Telenor allows you to try along with designing and tailoring the
subscription and also visual textual message “customize the best subscription for you-
Telenor” and the message is directly addressing the target audience

There is no background music during the whole advertisement, only verbal communication in
direct style. There is no use of flowery, expressive extended language or indirect meanings.

This advertisement also seems to be adopting humorous appeal as at the end Sören paints fall
in the church with prominent characteristics of Femininity like mixed gender roles, reflection
of use of technology and more verbal contents in advertisement.

The third advertisement is fictional advertisement by adopting humorous approach. Sören

along with other people is reflected as wearing formal dress either he is sitting is office
kitchen or signing the contracts. While he is signing the contracts, the other characters include
both men and women in formal dress, the scenario reinforce the mixed gender roles in
feminine culture. Although it is fictional advertisement where Sören is shown as entered in
imaginary beautiful world as he inserts the Telenor stick in his laptop. Although message
regarding company product is conveyed indirectly however the background song and verbal
message are conveying message directly to the customer and all advertisement is focusing on
product features.

In fourth advertisement Sören and his wife are in different situation and surroundings. The
whole scenario reflects that they are stuck in some other place where they came for holidays.
The advertisement adopts humorous approach as in such difficult situation Sören is talking to
pause his mobile subscription on telephone rather than asking for help and the other man(not
belonging to Sweden) sitting in same cell is enhancing the humorous aspect in last by asking
in Swedish language ”can I pause my subscription also?”Sören’s wife is expressing her
feelings of anger by showing her emotions with extended movement of hands and arms

After the phone call visual and verbal message appear simultaneously telling about feature of
the product using direct communication style addressing the target audience directly without

33
using expressions or details. In whole advertisement there is no depiction or focus regarding
methods of unsubscribing.

In the fourth advertisement again the character Sören is going for surfing along with his
friends. Again in this advertisement humorous approach has been used for conveying message
regarding product feature, where it is reflected that it is difficult for Sören and his friends to
surf in winters but with Telenor you can surf as you want. So when Sören asks his friends
sitting in car that what are you doing and they reply “surfing, as much as we want”.

The advertisement transfer information verbally more that visually and again there is
reflection of technology in advertisement. Information has been transferred to audience by
using direct communication style by addressing “you” rather than communicating indirectly.

5.2 Analysis of Pakistani Television Advertisements.

The first TV advertisement reflects building of endorser’s personality by continuation of same

character and story as reflected in previous advertisement. The first commercial seems to be
reflecting the significance of relationships and togetherness and sharing through visual
portrayal of all the children eating from same plate, boy emotionally remembering his father
calling him before eating snacks and then both father and child eating snacks at same time.

Emotional approach has been used by visible changing expressions on faces of both father
and child i.e. sad before talking to each other and remembering each other, and then
excitement and happiness on face as both talk on phone and eat snacks at same time (sharing
feelings of happiness). Background vocals and visual message enhance the emotional
message by transferring messages like “we have such a good relation; this is how our
relationship is”. Elaborate verbal style is used overall in advertisement because of use of
flowery, rich, indirect, expressive language.

The advertisement also reflects better economical conditions as compared to previous

advertisement, where both characters were travelling in local bus with not so expensive
clothing and mobiles whereas in this advertisement the man is shown taking good money in
return of driving taxi in Saudi Arabia with proper uniform and having better mobile set as
compared to previous advertisement. However the visual images of house setting and clothing
of children still reflects them belonging to specific class within low income group. However
distinguishing clearly between lower and lower middle class is difficult in this scenario
because many other elements are included for analyzing specific classes.

The whole scenario tends to reflect very strong bonding, affiliation and relationship between
father and child. The style of advertisement is focusing on trust building, body movement and
facial expressions of both characters are enhanced however the advertisement is building
endorsers personality rather than celebrity endorsement.

In second advertisement, the visual arrangement tend to build characters belonging to specific
social class with low income group, and same characters carry the story in 2012
advertisement.

34
Traveling in local buss, expressions of disappointment on face of child as plan disappears
from sight, using mobile internet on less expensive mobile, wearing less expensive cloths
along with verbal message “Telenor Talk Shalk mobile internet…which is in range of each
and every Pakistani” reinforce that strong class system exist in the society and also reflected
in advertisements. Again the emotional attachment is shown between son and father, as father
is doing his best to make his son happy, emotional background vocals focusing on “relation of
we two” during whole advertisement and in the end the verbal message regarding completion
of happiness and story of every Pakistani through Telenor make it more emotional.

The advertisement also tend to reflect attachment with history and personalities by visiting
shrine of national leader, showing his child details regarding shrine and personality and then
the child reflects all details in his exam.

Reflection of importance of winning and success is shown in last scene of advertisement

where expressions of father and child are full of over joy , excitement and happiness as the
child gets full marks in exam. Again there are enhanced body movements and facial
expressions however this advertisement is also not celebrity endorsement.

There is background song in the advertisement which starts as the advertisement starts and
end as the visual verbal message starts and the wording of the songs shows that verbal
contextual style of communications is used as it is role centered i.e. repetitive use of “we too”
in the song. Visual message use indirect elaborate verbal communication style because instead
of addressing directly “you” or “we”, it is addressing on “every story”, so message is
delivered broadly by addressing everyone indirectly.

Comparing the setting of the house and room with the first advertisement “Telenor
international Dialing (Saudi Arabia)”, the house is more furnished and decorated, which
shows that the affordability of family shown in this commercial is more than affordability of
family in previous commercial.

In the third TV commercial, the settings in the reflects a man making breakfast and all the
vegetables, oils and other things are misplaced messed up in kitchen. The expressions of
astonishment on the child face reflects that it is new for him that father is making breakfast.
The man moves back after putting egg in frying pan as he do it from a little height and the oil
splashes out, he turns on the shaking machine without putting cover so all milk shake splits
down, at the same time the smoke coming out of microwave oven indicates that something is
burning inside and then man say ”French toast”. At the same time boy points out towards the
stove that the pan has catch fire and man rushed towards that. All these discussed scenarios
signifies that the man do not know how to cook. Same is confirmed when the child asks him
“papa where is mom” and the man replies that mom is ill so today we will make breakfast.
The previous scene and the conversation reflects that there is trend that women in the home
do cooking because it is shown that man don’t know how to cook. The stoves are not glass
stoves but gas stoves, which indicate not much use of new technologies.

There is no background song but music during advertisement and after ending of previous
scene there is verbal indirect message regarding product features. The message can be
assumed as indirect because it is not just telling regarding product features but addressing in

35
the way that “call your loved ones on low rates”. Then there is detail regarding the procedure
to activate the package with both visual and verbal message. In the last scene both child and
father bring breakfast for lady in bedroom. And the phrase by the woman “who is going to
make lunch” along with tensed expressions on face of father and child show that they don’t
want to make lunch. Extended and enhanced hand and body movements are done by the man
while he is describing his son that today we will make breakfast which shows the more use of
body language while talking. However aspect of humor is used in this commercial and overall
commercial focus on family and relations.

In third advertisement all scenes tend to reflect four different stories with different characters;
however the message is same for three stories which is importance of relations and respect for
elders and how Telenor helps to build relationships and bonds among people. Where as one
story reflects the importance of winning and success.

The first scenario reflects the care for parents as their child is leaving abroad but calling them
and asking them to take care of themselves in his absence, the second scenario reflects the
importance of advice from coach as he is shown in hospital while players are getting ready to
play game. The third scenario reflects the importance of success and achievement as man is
shown happy and exited after getting new job. the last scenario reflects the importance of
advice from elders as daughter in law is asking recipe from her mother in law and it is
reflected that she is acting upon her advice.

This advertisement also seems to be adopting emotional approach through above discussed
stories along with emotional background score and verbal message focusing on role of
Telenor in building relations and minimizing the differences.

In the fourth advertisement, whole scenario reflects them to be newly married couple, and
reflects the division of gender role as it is visually represented that woman is preparing
breakfast and dinner for her husband and husband’s brother. Man dominance can also be
assumed as being reflected because woman is asking permission from husband for calling her
family members. However the message conveyed by the company is again importance of
relations and staying connected and respect for elders. As verbal conversation between them
represents that the girl is closely connected with her brother, sister, nephew and friends. She is
not taking her sister name but instead calling her in respectable name allocated in the same
language for calling all elder sisters i.e. “baji” and same is the case reflected in last scene
where younger brother is not calling his brother with his name instead calling him in local
name given to call all elder brothers as “bhai”.
At the end there is verbal message informing about the value of relations even in presence of
distances, and then the detail of activating the subscription is provided.

All advertisements reflect the sequence of story with continuous background vocals and at the
end representation of both visual and verbal information regarding product/package
information and technique to activate certain kind of package offered by the company.

36
5.3 Comparison of Cultures in Advertisements.

The score of power distance in Hofstede’s power distance index for Sweden is 31 whereas
for Pakistan it is 55. (Appendix2). According to the score and existing theories people in
Pakistan are more power distant and acceptance towards inequality is high as compared to
Sweden.

In Pakistani Television advertisements social classes are portrayed differently on basis of

clothing, house and traveling. These differences are more highlighted by comparing all five
advertisements with each other.

The social class structure (upper, lower, middle) in Pakistan is developed on basis of
combination of wealth and position in social structure and are very prominent in the society
(Qadeer: 2006). A person having wealth and higher income in Pakistan do not prefer to travel
by local bus or by walking. Therefore in advertisement No.2 the father with his son traveling
by local bus, not wearing too expensive cloths is depicting them belonging to a lower class
and company’s main focus in advertisement is that the services are in reach of “every
Pakistani”. In advertisement no.1 which is continuation of Advertisement no.2 because of
same characters , it is shown that now man got job in Saudi Arabia and he is earning good
money(as he is taking cash from taxi driver), and purchased relatively expensive mobile as
compared to previous advertisement.. However in all other commercials modern and
affordable items (i.e. luxury car, houses, kitchen, living room, clothing, jewelry, and
accessories) are portrayed for showing them belonging to another social class.

All the characters in Swedish Commercial are calling each other by their names whereas in
Pakistani advertisements elders are called in traditional general way for calling elders rather
than taking their names i.e. elder brother as “bhai”, elder sister as “baji” etc .

Trend of respect for elders and listening to their advice is shown in Advertisement No.3, 4
and 5 of Pakistani Advertisement, where girl is asking her mother in law how to cook food
and a girl is asking her husband for his permission for calling her sister, brother and other
relatives.
All five Swedish advertisements seems to be adopting humorous approach for conveying
message regarding features of the product, either Sören is going for walk, going for wedding,
going for surfing. The aspect humor is transferred both visually and verbally either by
conversation among characters or their actions. However no background music or vocals are
used in any of advertisement.

On the other hand four out of five advertisements adopt emotional approach for conveying
message regarding features of the product, only one advertisement includes the aspect of
humor. All advertisements include background vocals and music and both verbal and visual
messages convey the message regarding importance of family, bonding, relations and
togetherness.

Score of Pakistan on Hofstede’s individualism index is 15 (Appendix 3) which reveals that

there is a lot of difference as score is varying on index for Pakistan and Sweden as score for
Sweden in this index is 71. Pakistan is collectivist society as per score on index and Sweden is
individualistic society.

37
None of Swedish and Pakistani commercials are celebrity endorse, although two Pakistani
commercials are promoting celebrities as typical person as product and service users but they
are not endorsing the product by any written or spoken statement as a celebrity. Swedish
Television advertisements are reflecting the same person as main character in all
advertisements and he is neither a celebrity nor endorsing the product by giving any
statement. The personality of same character is built by different situations and stories
through all advertisements.

”we” factor is reflected in both visual and verbal contents as all commercials focus on bounds,
relationships, loved ones, strong relations, for example in advertisement no.3 in many
emotional situations i.e. man leaving for abroad and calling his father to take care of himself,
a man getting job and girl asking her mother in law about recipe and in background the verbal
content contains message “there is pleasure of enjoying relations during talking” . and in
advertisement two visually the strong bonding is shown between father and son and the vocals
also communicate the message “story of we two” so all advertisements seems to be
emphasizing on “we” culture and strong bandings. However the families in the advertisements
are not living as extended families, which is associated as characteristic of individualistic
culture. In Swedish advertisement all advertisement show nuclear family rather than joint or
extended family and there is no background verbal contents along with visual contents which
focus on family, bonding, relations, togetherness etc.

All Pakistani Commercials are more detailed and long focusing more on building trust rather
than providing direct information. Mostly the elaborative indirect style of communication is
used for discussing the important features of the product. And this is done with the help of
visual message along with background music, emotional approach and much enhanced facial
expressions and body movements of the characters. In advertisement no.1verbal contents in
the background with emotional music “every story, every happiness must be fulfilled when
there is Telenor Talk Shalk mobile internet…which is in range of each and every Pakistani”
are used as trust building strategy rather than providing information directly. And there is long
description of technical details about activation of certain subscription in the end of every
commercial.
Swedish Advertisements are focusing on conveying message directly without using long,
descriptive, flowery words and symbols and verbal message in the end of every commercial
directly addressing the audience i.e. “you”. They are more centered to deliver information and
detail regarding product by actions of characters in advertisements and then verbal message at
the end rather than building trust. In advertisement no.1 Sören is walking and talking in whole
advertisement and at the end message is delivered verbally regarding long talk time. in
advertisement no 2 by taking measurements but getting unfitted cloths at the end the company
conveys message regarding product that use it along with customization before subscribing. In
advertisement no.4 they show that due to winter it is difficult to surf in the sea but Telenor
provide surfing facilities without any obstacle. All advertisements are information centered
rather than providing technical details.

As far as masculinity/femininity is concerned there is distinctive difference between Pakistan

and Sweden. Pakistan having score of 50, it shows that Pakistan is relatively masculine
society and score of Sweden is 5 which show that according to index it is more feminine
society.

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Except advertisement no.2 all Pakistani advertisements reflects difference in gender roles i.e.
women making food, tea, breakfast and men doing work outside homes i.e. driving, office or
reading newspaper at home. Element of success and desire to show success is reflected in
advertisement no.2 where the boy gets full marks in exam and shows the result proudly to the
father, and also in advertisement no.5 where the cricket team is willing to win the match even
their coach is hurt and the man hugging a stranger after getting the job. therefore prominent
male values like success, toughness, focused, are assumed to be reflected in advertisements.
Whereas in almost all advertisements women are inclined towards quality of life, softness,
taking good care of home, making food for family.

In Swedish advertisements gender roles cannot be distinguished. In advertisement no.1 the

woman holding cup of tea/coffee in hand shows that she made that, however in advertisement
no.2 she is properly dressed and sören is standing in the kitchen which shows that he is
making food and the lady is getting ready to go outside so gender roles are not specific and
there is no depiction in advertisement which shows values like eager to succeed, toughness,
focused etc.
Pakistan scores 70 as far as uncertainty avoidance in concerned in (Appendix 5) which
means that preferences of Pakistan for avoiding uncertainty is high whereas Sweden scores 29
on scale whereas on uncertainty avoidance index which shows that in Sweden there is low
need of rules in interaction of people.

The Pakistani advertisements are focusing both on details regarding products and results both
visually and verbally. Detail regarding usage of special call package is described (visually,
verbally) in all advertisements along with prices and benefits (visually, verbally). The
dressing in all advertisements is informal other than advertisement no.5 where a man is shown
in office settings.
In Swedish advertisements the more focus seems to be on product features without conveying
any secondary message i.e. details regarding activation of package both visually and verbally.
The dressing of the characters is formal in advertisement no.2 while leaving from home and
advertisement no.4 where character is reflected as sitting in office and meeting professional.
Other than these scenarios the dressing is informal.

In advertisement no 2 of Pakistani advertisement the character along with his child is reflected
as much influenced by national hero and transfer the information about the personality to his
child by taking him to shrine of national hero. And the influence seems to be transferred to
child as he write about the same personality in his exam. In advertisement more focus is
towards cheap call rates and mobile sets seems not to be so advanced as compared to Swedish
advertisements. In Swedish advertisement more inclination is reflected towards technology as
in advertisement no.2 Sören and his wife are tailoring cloths on tablet, company is promoting
technology in every advertisement i.e. 4g, fast surfing, ending subscription etc.

Reflection of sports and activities is reflected in two Swedish where character along with his
friends in going for surfing and in another scenario where children are playing football in
background of character. In one Pakistani advertisement sport activity is reflected when team
is shown as preparing for the cricket match.

39
6. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

The purpose of the study was to analyze and clarify how the advertisements of Sweden and
Pakistan differ in terms of cultural differences on basis of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and
De Mooij correlation of Hofstede’s cultural model in advertisement. Along with differences,
the research also focuses on highlighting the similarities.

Overall finding reflects that although advertisements of both Sweden and Pakistan contains
elements and attributes of cultural values especially in advertisement of Pakistan; however
changing trends and deviations are also observed.

6.1 Differences between advertisements of Sweden and Pakistan

 The advertisement appeal is mostly humorous for Swedish advertisements is and

emotional in four out of five Pakistani advertisement. In all Swedish advertisements
the main message is communicated with aspect of humor whereas in all Pakistani
advertisements the main message is communicated emotionally with combination of
emotional vocals and expressions.

 Another highlighting feature is use of body movement and facial expressions in

advertisements. Characters in Swedish TV were not using enhanced body movements
or facial expressions accept in one situation where characters are caught in jail and one
character seems to be reflecting very strong emotions of anger on face along with hand
movements. Characters in Pakistani TV advertisements were using enhanced hand,
arm body movement along with very strong expressions of smile, sadness, happiness
on face. Which is also determined as the characteristic of collectivist cultures by De
Mooij (De Mooij: 2010)

 Women role are also one of distinguishing feature in advertisements. In all Pakistani
advertisements women is either doing households i.e. cooking in most of
advertisements whereas men are either doing work or reading newspaper. This is
reflected as one of prominent value of masculine culture as described by Hofstede
(Hofstede: 2010). However no clear gender roles are reflected in Swedish
advertisements, which are considered as one of characteristic of feminine.

 According to Hofstede (2010) younger respect elders in High power distant culture
and same characteristic is correlated by De Mooij as belonging to advertisements of
high power distant cultures where elders are respected and listened to; whereas in low
power distant cultures respect is not related to age and younger advice elders. Same
trend is reflected in Pakistani and Swedish advertisements where elders are not called
by their names and younger are listening and acting upon their advice whereas in
Swedish advertisements every character is calling the other character by his/her name
without taking age into consideration.

40
  Pakistani advertisements are comparatively long, detailed with trust building and
indirect communication styles to convey message, whereas Swedish advertisements
are shorter in length with less focus on product details, more focused on technology
and features and directly addressing the target audience regarding the features of
product. The features of the product are reflected by actions of the characters in
advertisements.

 One of Swedish Television advertisement is fictional advertisement whereas none of

Pakistani advertisement is fictional, whereas this characteristic is associated with
advertisements of masculine culture by De Mooij (2010).

6.2 Similarities between advertisements of Sweden and Pakistan

 Almost all Pakistani advertisements are reflecting importance of relations, bonding

and togetherness but none of commercial seems to be reflecting extended family living
together except only one scene in fifth advertisement where relatives are shown eating
together. The characteristic of nuclear family is very similar to Swedish
advertisements and this is remarked as characteristic of individualist culture by
Hofstede whereas in comparison living together (elders, peers, juniors) is
characterized as one of feature of collectivist culture and advertisements by Hofstede
& De Mooij (Hofstede: 2010), (De Mooij: 2010).

 All the Swedish Television advertisements are reflecting the same person as main
character and he is neither a celebrity nor endorsing the product. None of the Pakistani
TV advertisement is celebrity endorsed where celebrity is endorsing the product by
any written or spoken statement about the product. Although in Pakistani
advertisements of the year 2010 and 2011 celebrities are presented as common
characters in advertisements but not endorsing the products. There is also trend of
character building reflected in 2012 and 2013 advertisements where same characters
(Not celebrities) are building different stories in two separate advertisements. Whereas
according to (De Mooij & Hofstde: 2010), collectivist cultures mostly use celebrity
endorsements as a tool for communicating credibility of the product to the customers.

 None of Pakistani advertisement reflects dress conformity but only one scene in one
advertisement where the man is shown in office settings. Similarly two Swedish
advertisements are reflecting the character wearing formal dressing in office and
wedding settings. The characteristic of dress conformity is much likely linked to
Collectivist culture (De Mooij: 2010), whereas in all other situations characters of
Swedish and Pakistani advertisements seems to be reflected a wearing informal dress.

 Other similarities include reflection of sports and health activities in advertisements of

both countries, incorporation of both visual and verbal contents. All these
characteristics are associated with low uncertainty avoiding feminine culture. (De
Mooij: 2010)

41
6.3 Conclusion

After above discussion it can be concluded that as far as conveying integral message
regarding products and services is concerned Pakistani advertisements are using more
emotional approach by highlighting the values which is described as belonging to collectivist
and masculine culture by Hofstede and Sweden is using more humorous approach for
conveying the companies’ message regarding product which is characterized as feminine
value by Hofstede (Hofstede: 2010). Swedish advertisements are conveying the message
directly by relating the situation with the message whereas Pakistani advertisements are using
indirect style for communicating the message regarding product and linking the situations.

By exploring the cultural differences and detailed discussion and comparisons it can be
concluded that the values of individualism and femininity are more prominent in Swedish
advertisements whereas values of collectivism and masculinity are more prominent in
Pakistani advertisements.

Pakistani TV advertisements seems to be more influenced by cultures as compared to Swedish

TV advertisements .However the research also reflects that Swedish and Pakistani
advertisements are showing divergence from the predefined theories. Characteristics and
values defined by Hofstede as belonging to individualistic and feminine culture i.e. nuclear
family, formal dressing, and celebrity endorsements, sports and other activities, non fictional
advertisements are also reflected in Pakistani advertisements, similarly values and
characteristics associated with advertisements of masculine and high uncertainty avoiding
cultures i.e. formal dressing , fictional advertising background music and vocal are reflected
in Swedish advertisements, however the divergence in Swedish advertisements is not on large
extent.

Overall certain cultural values which are less considered as part of Pakistani culture by
Hofstede are reflected in Pakistani advertisement. Swedish and Pakistani advertisements are
similar to each other in many aspects but what is the reason for these similarity although the
scores tell that both cultures are almost opposite as compared by Hofstede . The question
needs to be explored further and provides basis for future research.

6.4 Future research

The research can lead to further research for exploring the divergence in cultural values: is
there any value shift?

“Why there is divergence in cultural values incorporated in advertisements and to what extent
it is changing”. Comparison between more than two countries can provide broader picture for
example comparison between advertisements of Pakistan, India, Sweden, American and
China.

The research can also proceed for future research in other related areas for these two specific
regions as there are not so many researches conducted for understanding culture and
investments scenario in Pakistan because of unstable political and security situations.

42
However if we critically analyze the investments and profit of Telenor (Norwegian company)
as an example, the figures show that although total investments by the company in Pakistan
are half of their total investments in Sweden. However The Profits are also half of the profits
in Sweden. So if we compare them in figures the proportion of investments and profits are
same in both countries. (Figure 1) .Recently Sweden has invested in India by extending IKEA
chain along with its further investments in south Asian countries i.e. Bangladesh, Thailand
and China. By conducting more critical researches on Pakistani business markets (especially
telecommunication) and Swedish investments can open door for Swedish investments in
Pakistan and understanding the culture can help companies to devise striking advertisements
for the target audience.

43
Figure 1: Figures regarding investments and profits
Source: www.telenor.com

44
 7. APPENDIX
Appendix I

http://geert-hofstede.com/sweden.html

45
APPENDIX 2 Index of Power Distance; Hofstede: 1999:26
Hofstede : 1999 :26

46
APPENDIX 3

47
APPENDIX 4

48
APPENDIX 5

49
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