Videocast as a reflection of cross-cultural communication. Advertising international brands: case study

The use of certain images can also be dictated by the context and type of vision. For instance, such vague phenomena as “nature” and “power of nature” are not very popular among western audience. Nissan created commercials consisting of several shots of natural landscapes and the name of the car at the end of the sequence, this advertisement was considered a failure in the U.S. This can be explained through Hall's and Nisbett's theories: nature is an abstract notion, a hard-to-grasp one for the low-context Americans, as they are more used to advertisements directly stating the advantages of the product, rather than making vague references to abstract phenomena. Indeed, this reference seems to be unrelated to cars, however, for the high-context Asians the correlation is visible: images of powerful nature and magnificent landscapes imply a powerful car, engine, long-lasting properties of the car model, stylish and sophisticated design. As for the types of cognition, analytical audience is more used to seeing the product in the advertisements, when literally seeing the properties of the product, analytical representatives are more likely to make a purchase or at least get interested in the product. Conversely, holistic Asians grasp the meaning and understand the properties of the product through the references and details. Moreover, the ability to create a sophisticated metaphor in the advertisement is much appreciated by the holistic, high-context audience (Nisbett, 2003).

When designing a coherent message in the video advertisement for a holistic culture, there is a need to create a functional or contextual correlation between the objects and words. The connection may not be obvious, as Asians, holistic cultures, can better see interrelations between different spheres of life. Such method of combining seemingly unrelated areas can add up to a more appealing and persuasive for Asians commercial. Conversely, western audience is more positively affected when all the arguments have the shared underlying basis to them. This creates a powerful compelling message (Faiola, MacDorman, 2008).

In order to convey the analysis and investigate the dependency of the marketing strategy, there is a need to look into the existing case studies - comparative cross-cultural research of the commercial video materials created for different countries. Scholars have already developed the lists of categories that can be implemented to analyze video materials. However, it should be noted, that those lists do not fully cover all the aspects illustrated in the video. Therefore, they can be updated and expanded by the end of the present research. Moreover, marketing is a rapidly developing sphere of social life, hence, some of the aspects might be irrelevant at present. Analysis provided in the present paper will illustrate the modern tendencies of dependency of modern commercial video materials on cultural background.

Societies with vividly expressed traditional incline, such as in Asian countries, represent a popular topic for research in the cross-cultural field. There exists a great number of comparative researches on the Asian versus Western advertisements. However, nowadays with the globalization process gradually covering more spheres of social life, it is believed by some scholars, that even Asian commercials will shift towards more unified western form and values and traditions inherent to these cultures will transform (Kjeldgaard & Askegaard, 2006). On the other hand, globalization may seem to some cultures as a threat, which further urges countries to reinforce their cultural values and traditional approaches (Brame, 1995). When analyzing such abundant in traditions country as China, scholars Hung, Tse and Cheng speak of the need to find a balance between already adopted by the Chinese foreign patterns and the traditional and valued ones, when creating a commercial material, as stated by Jing Zhang, “Chinese people embrace both traditional and modern values” (2009). Scholars speak of the collectivistic properties of certain commercial materials - the advertisements featuring Chinese actors were significantly more popular, than the ones with western models. Collectivistic society tends to trust more to the members of own in-group (Hofstede, 2010). In correlation with the holistic vision of the Chinese consumers there is a need to create commercials in accordance to the complex structures and substances that align with Chinese worldview, therefore, international brands have to match the complexity (Holland 1975). Moreover, due to China being a high-context culture, there lies certain value in the abstract notions and numbers, which are to be considered, when advertising something to the Chinese. For instance, Simmons and Schindler (2003) speak of the tendency to end the price number on the number 8, as it is considered to be a sign of prosperity and good luck. When choosing between adapting a brand or a product name or leaving it in the initial form, marketing specialists have to thoroughly examine the possible translations and associations of the Chinese (Hung et al., 2007).

Another comparative study provided the evidence, that despite the “Americanization” process being strong, the deep-seated cultural roots of Asian cultures, Japanese in this particular study, still have a far more significant influence on the people's perception than that of the integrated westerns behavioral patterns (Hong et al., 1987). In the research authors speak of the language patterns that are inherent to the Japanese language and influence the cognition and mindset. Japanese language is considered more emotive and sensitive, it revolves around more abstract notions and spheres. There exist certain grammatical peculiarities in the language, that reflect this vague manner of expression: omission of subject, no direct distinction between plural and singular nouns, absence of articles and indicator of person for verbs. This may seem illogical and complex to comprehend for a foreigner. Japan language also has a abundant vocabulary for expressing aesthetic and emotional states (Belk & Pollay, 1974). Therefore, Japanese ads primarily utilize the emotive function of the commercials - marketing specialists emphasize the emotional appeal in the video clips. Words, images and accents are not to provide arguments for understanding the need in the product, but rather feel the need. Another feature that scholars touch upon in the research is the Hofstede's dimension of collectivism versus individualism. In American advertisement market it is considered completely normal to create comparative commercials, while in Japanese culture cooperation is a tradition, therefore comparative video commercials are rather rare. (Stewart, 1972) It is considered more credible to advertise own product without belittling and demeaning other organization's or brand's work. The Advertising Code says: "Let us avoid slandering, defaming, and attacking others” (1978). Japanese commercials also tend to be longer than the western ones, which is connected with the aim to build stronger emotional connection between the piece of advertisement and its message and the target audience (Hong et al., 1987).

However, the distinction in commercial videos exists not only between the Asian and western cultures, certain peculiarities can be found in practically every “style” of national advertising. Biswas, Olsen and Carlet provide a research of the French and American advertisements and compare content on the basis of certain categories; emotional appeal, humor and concept of “sex”. Humor is stated to positively influence customers' mood and attitude and create a positive connotation with the product advertised (Holbrook 1986). Certain societies are more likely to use specific types of humor in the commercials, for example, satire was completely absent among the analyzed by scholars advertisements, however, there was a significant number of puns in the French commercials. Overall, French commercials were more likely to contain humor devices than the American ones. There is significantly more value put on the creation of the visually pleasing content in French commercials, they are found to be more artistic, sophisticated (Hall and Hall 1990), attention is given to visual aesthetics. The image prevails over logic, which is contrary to the object-oriented American advertisements. The use of sexual undertones and symbols can be considered more inappropriate in masculine cultures, and, despite all the free-spirited statements inherent to American culture, the united states still score more on the masculinity scale than France. France in general is a feminine culture, therefore, in society sex-related themes and images are not as stigmatized, as in masculine cultures. Hence, concept of “sex” is used in the French commercials more often than in the American ones. Even though the U.S. and France are considered western cultures and have a lot of social and economic similarities, still, there is no defined unified standard, when speaking of the national advertisements.

When analyzing commercial content in diverse countries scholars compile lists of categories by which they analyze the materials. Hofstede's dimensions are taken into consideration not only when speaking of the images and symbols emphasized in the commercials, but also when choosing gender or ethnicity of the model in the commercial, when deciding whether or not to include controversial concepts, such as “sex”, into the commercial. Holistic versus analytical types of vision alongside with the context determine the visual aspect of the advertisement, textual component and choice words. Commercial videos, as an output of human creative thought broadcast values and believes in many ways: technologies allow marketing specialists to utilize various tools to create a unique piece of marketing art.

The research above illustrates the cross-cultural differences that influence content of commercial materials. However, those studies provide comparative analysis of national commercials created by national brands for the local audience. Therefore, those only contribute to proving that certain cultural styles of advertising exist. However, in the modern world a lot of companies go international and target audience not only in their origin country, but also overseas. Therefore, such international brands face the need to adapt to territorial realms and consider cultural features to create variations of commercials for certain countries.

After looking into the previous research, we see that the dependency of the commercial material on cultural background is indeed proven, however, all the scholars speak of the globalization as a possible threat to the tendency to adapt commercials for countries. Hence, considering the interval of time, when the previous studies were conducted and the pace of globalization gaining momentum, there emerges a need to reinforce the statement, that cultural values still prevail over the adopted global patterns.

cross cultural video advertising

3. Methods

The next chapter will describe the methods employed for present research that was designed to answer research question. In the first section the process of data collection will be explained. Next section will give information on the measuring instruments used in the study. Following that, the information about brand-participants and origin country will be provided.

3.1 Data Collection and Procedure

The aim of this study is to examine the degree to which international brands adapt commercial video materials for different countries in terms of visual content and cultural value representation. The present study focuses on the qualitative approach which includes content analysis based on the several defined categories. In order to collect the primary data will be used. The materials considering corporate values of the brands were collected from the official websites of the organizations involved in the analysis. Video materials were collected from the official YouTube channels. YouTube is a global online video sharing platform. YouTube represents the most convenient platform for commercial data collection if the video content analysis needs to be employed, as YouTube offers not only individual-generated content, but videos created by corporations. International corporations also place commercial materials on their websites, however, collecting videos from the official websites comes across as inefficient: the sample consisting of such video materials would not be representative for several reasons. First, corporations tend to post a limited number of most recent video materials on the official websites in order to not overload users with the irrelevant information. Secondly, not every corporation posts suitable for analysis video content on their website: present paper is concerned with commercials with duration longer than 15 seconds. YouTube, on the contrary provides with a gallery of video materials posted since the creation of the brand's channel.

The sample of video materials was created in accordance to several aspects. Videos were collected from official YouTube channels dedicated to the target country of the brand, for example, “Apple UK” or “IKEA Japan”. Commercial videos were chosen according to the specific topic: several advertisements of the same range of products posted on different country-targeting channels of the same brand. Another crucial aspect when collecting video data was the date of publication. In order to conduct a relevant analysis chosen videos date from 2018. Both global and national types of advertisements will be analyzed in the study (Bernadskaya, 2015). Overall, videos were divided into primary category of brand, next subcategory of topic, and then videos in the subcategory of topic were divided in accordance with the target country. For analysis videos were decoded into the form of text. Overall, the category of “Brand” consists of three brands-participants, total number of videos analyzed is 50.

3.2 Brands-participants

In this section the sample of brands will be explained. All the brands chosen for the analysis represent global brands with recognized image on the international market. The brands-participants of the study distribute their products in more than 35 countries and exist on the market for longer than 40 years. Three companies were chosen for the present research: IKEA, Apple Inc., Nissan Motor Corporation. These brands were chosen based on the country of origin: in order to differentiate the sample of brands, all the companies of choice were founded in three different areas of the world - Scandinavian region, the US and Asia. Such differentiation would contribute to the less bias analysis of the degree of adapting to cultural realms.

3.3 Measurement Tools

This section will provide information about the cross-cultural concepts and models used the content analysis. First, the concept of Holistic and Analytical cultures will be employed. Nisbett provides a division of cultures into holistic and analytical types according to their view of self in world and the environment around. Westerners are prone to use more analytical approach, while Asians view self and surroundings holistically. Nisbett's classification will be primarily used in the analysis of visual content and commercial scripts. Next model utilized in the study is Hofstede's cultural dimensions model, the scores of particular countries will be used in the data interpretation process. Hall's concept of context will also be utilized in the interpretation section to analyze both frames' settings and scripting of advertisements.

4. Case Study. Results

In this section of the paper the case study of international brands' advertisements will be conducted. The research consists of several sections: first, the analysis of corporate values of the brand and cultural values of country of brand's origin, second, the comparison of this values - whether organizational values align with the cultural features, next, the video commercials will be analyzed. Video commercials are going to be examined to track cultural features defined as «Hofstede's dimensions» and features indicating holistic and analytical types of cognition, high- and low-context cultures.

4.1 Case study. IKEA

The first international brand I am going to analyze is IKEA, Swedish organization providing services and products for homes - furniture, decor and house-planning and design services.

To begin with it is important to understand the cultural context, in which the brand emerged. To do so, we are going to touch upon Swedish cultural values and dimensional attributions. Hofstede's website provides insight on all the indexes and scores of countries, this source will be used to describe all the countries involved in the following analysis of the brands' commercials.

Hofstede defines Sweden as a highly individualistic country with a score of 71 (out of 100) on the index, hence, the society framework is loosely-knit, in the organization promotions are merit based, individuals' personal characteristics are respected and considered separately, when entering any kind of relationship. Swedish culture is truly feminine, one of the lowest scores on the masculinity index - 5 out of 100. Management is supportive of the employees, people value equality and consensus. In Swedish culture exists a concept of “Lagom” which ensures that every individual has enough and nobody goes without. This cultural pattern coincides with the Masculinity index. Lagom is a national heritage and can be understood through the saying “there is virtue in moderation", it correlates with the Scandinavian strive to simplicity and also minimalism, to a certain extent. This national tradition applies to the consumerism culture as well - as soon as balance should be kept in everything, this deters Swedes from overbuying. Consistency and purchasing “the right amount” are respected (Atkisson, 2000). The Power Distance index score in Sweden is low (31 out of 100), which means that in organizations leaders and superiors are accessible, decisions can be discussed and objected, communication in such societies is participative, which means that the ones holding power do listen to the views of the ones with lower authority and consider their opinions: overall equality is respected. Sweden scores 29 on the Uncertainty Avoidance dimension and, therefore, the representatives of this culture maintain a rather relaxed attitude. If the rules no longer apply to certain situation, they can be changed. Schedules in organizations are flexible and innovation is seen as normal and positive. Speaking of the Indulgence index, Swedes score 78 on this dimension, which defines them as an Indulgent society. Leisure time is valued, money can be spent to please one's desires - in Sweden individuals realize own desires and strive to maintain sufficient conditions to enjoy life. Finally, the long-term orientation dimension, Sweden scores 53 on this index, therefore, the society doesn't express clear preferences on this dimension. Which might be connected with the overall desire of Swedes to keep balance and consider each situation independently, while still keeping own roots in mind.

If speaking of the Holistic versus Analytical types of vision, Sweden can be defined as a more of a holistic country (Nisbett, 2001), however, remains slightly indistinct in certain aspects. Considering this fact, attention in visual content is given to details and creating a background story for the product. Vague notions and concepts can be used to attract audience and, moreover, commercials can rely on triggering an emotional response from consumers.

Sweden is considered to be a low context culture; therefore, the message has to be more explicit, opinions and thought are to be expressed in the written or verbal form. Non-verbal features are to be clear and obvious. The ability to clearly express oneself is valued and expected from individuals, interlocuter doesn't have to rely on small peculiarities of communication process. At the same time Scandinavian countries have own peculiarities: even the explicit message can still be “decorated” with more abstract elements.

Next, the corporate values of IKEA will be examined to trace the connections with cultural features of Sweden and compare them. This will provide a deeper understanding of the brand itself. IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad and now IKEA products are sold in 38 countries - IKEA is an international brand, and is recognized all over the globe. As an old brand it has a strong corporate culture and defines values regarding both relationship with the employees and their customers. The values and information provided below are based on the official statements of IKEA Group.

IKEA, as a brand, understands global tendencies and their own responsibility: being an international business, IKEA strives to bring positive change not only to own community, but also to the whole world. IKEA defines 8 key values of the brand. First, “Togetherness” - the emphasis is on the mutual trust, same direction and having fun together. Here we can see the overlap with Masculinity and Indulgence: even a global organization in Sweden sees the importance of leisure time - employees still need to “have fun”. Moreover, the sense of trust in the community plays significant role in feminine countries - accent is on the amiable relationship inside the in-group. Next value, “Caring for people and planet” - IKEA views itself as a force for positive change all over the globe, the brand is ready to take actions to enhance conditions for everyone. Such a take on global issues aligns with the holistic worldview: IKEA views themselves as a part of a bigger picture, they acknowledge own power and consider not only the problems of own business, but also the world it exists in. This also overlaps with the low Power Distance index: taking into account opinions of ones with lesser authority. The “Cost-consciousness” value - IKEA strives to provide affordable yet beautiful product for their customers to create a functional home, “make more from less without compromising on quality” - this reflect feminine feature, respect of equality and the Lagom tradition of Sweden. To realize the “Simplicity” value the brand adheres to the concepts of simplicity, being down-to-earth and staying close to reality. They also voice their opinion on bureaucracy and call it “our biggest enemy”, which is a feature of a low UA culture, which Sweden represents. The “Renew and Improve” value also reflects this dimension - IKEA strives to improve everything they do and find new and enhanced ways to perform the tasks. There is little to no fear of future ambiguity. Next value reflects the high individualistic score of Sweden: IKEA is “Different with a meaning”, they pose themselves as different from other companies and the ones that dare to take risks and make mistakes, which again fully coincides with the low UA index. “Give and take responsibility” value regards IKEA's desire to let people develop and grow and the brand strives to contribute to this development. They also “Lead by example” - IKEA defines leadership not as a position, but an action, they value people's personal characteristics and values. These two values align with the low PD score, relationship between subordinates and leaders exists in a state of interdependence, and communication takes a form of consultation and a dialogue, when everyone's opinion and voice is listened to and respects.

Notably, IKEA brand has a strong position when entering a new market. When expanding, IKEA understands own responsibility to closely examine new to their organization culture. The official statement is the following: “our most important step was to understand the culture of the country and the aspirations of its people”. Therefore, organization takes time to prepare and thoroughly analyze the market before entering, this action is done not only to successfully sell the products, but also adapt every organizational sphere to cultural realms. Embracing values is stated to be the core step, as IKEA strives not only to offer their products, but also change the society they become a part of. As can be seen from the official IKEA's position, the company takes actions to adapt every aspect to the new cultural circumstances, even the smallest detail is considered and changed, if needed. This includes all the visual components of the brand: websites, social media, TV and internet commercials.

There are 25 official IKEA channels on YouTube, a video sharing platform, and all the channels are dedicated to certain countries. Commercial videos analyzed in the following section will be taken from the official channels of the brand.

As we have already covered, IKEA is an old brand with long-lasting traditions and heritage. The brand tries to incorporate themselves into the everyday lives of people all over the world. This means not only creating relatable commercials solving daily matters of people, but also ones dedicated to celebrations and holidays all over the world.

Topic: Holiday commercials

In the following section the analysis of video advertisements on the topic of New year and Christmas celebration will be conducted. These holidays are popular in the majority of the countries, hence, for such matter it is possible to create a global commercial and broadcast in all the target countries. However, each culture has its own tradition of celebrating and IKEA respects those traditions by following own values and corporate guidelines. IKEA annually creates diverse commercials to advertise new holiday products and wish either happy New Year or Merry Christmas depending on the target country. The analysis of the following videos in the section will be dedicated solely to Hofstede's dimensions paradigm.

The first video we are going to review and analyze is the UK Christmas commercial posted to the channel in November 2019. The onset of the video is the following: a family is portrayed in the flat, the time period and relevance are shown through the Christmas tree in the room. There are 3 characters - a middle-aged couple and their daughter. There is no interaction between people in the beginning of the commercial. A woman gets a text message saying “dinner at your tonight?”, which represents a tradition of families visiting each other to have a meal together and catch up on latest news. It is a common practice to visit someone's house rather than go to a restaurant together. After reading the message, woman gets visibly upset and worried, she looks at the state of the room. Audience is shown shots of the flat: messy floor, various items are left everywhere, overall unwelcoming and not ready for the visitors.

The next shot changes the mood of the commercial - the beat starts to play, we are shown a glass figure of the bunny that starts to sing. The genre of the song is hip hop, music by D Double E - Fresh N Clean (Silence The Critics). D Double E is a British grime MC, rapper and a songwriter. The song starts with the following lyrics “I must confess; This place ain't bless; This place is a mess; (disgusting)” - the mood of the song is aggressive as well as the style of rapping. Audience is shown several more shots of different figurines and toys in the house starting to rap the song, the facial expressions of those are angry and disappointed. The song contains following lyrics that are of an interest to the further analysis: “you don't deserve no guests”; “I don't wanna lay down or rest (are you crazy?), That crack in the wall needs addressing;” “it's just depressing”; “it's barely a house”; “your stylist's fired”; “unacceptable”. The beat continues to play, but the lyrics stop. Throughout the rapping all the human characters were looking offended, however, after the song finished, the facial expressions changed: frowning affective display and narrowing eyes showed the determination, the couple and a child started changing all the old bits of furniture and decor for the new IKEA ones - followed with close-ups of certain items and the names of this products. Family put all the items from the floor to the new storage spaces and tidied up the room. Family are portrayed working together and the last several frames showed those 3 characters hugging and viewing the outcome of renovation: a cozy looking apartment full of new items from IKEA. The voiceover pronounced the name of the song, name of the brand and a slogan: “Silence the Critics. IKEA. The wonderful everyday”. The latter two were put on the screen. The last shot illustrates the visit of family friends and them having a dinner together.

The use of words is harsh and the words chosen have a strong emotive connotation, as for example “disgusting”, “deserve no guests”, “barely a house”, “fired”, “unacceptable'. For certain viewers such advertisement could be completely unacceptable and offensive. However, to understand the motivation behind the whole commercial script we have to first look into the underlying patterns of British culture. The U.K. is an Individualistic and low Uncertainty Avoidance country - those two characteristics merged together define a strong need for innovation in all the spheres of social life. Moreover, throughout recent years Britain faced the wave of consumerism and they heavily indulged this trend. Hence, British people, as individualistic low UA society tend to try new and curious things, and brands also adopt this strategy. Companies are not averse to taking risks and creating edgy content, as can be seen through the commercial. As British market of commercials is stated to be one of the most creative and nonstandard in Europe, IKEA created a rather outstanding advertisement to suit. To the British the use of words seems more humorous then offensive - the Indulgence Index in the country is high, hence, the society is more inclined to view things positively rather than reacting with aggression and grudge. Moreover, as Indulgent society people are likely to spend more money on what makes life pleasant, so, the emotional motivation and impetus, in the form of strong words in the commercial, are enough to persuade British people to renovate the house. Interestingly, masculinity index in the U.K. is high, hence, people are more success driven, they put much effort when creating image of an individual or a family. Therefore, the living areas of the family need to represent the status - visual component plays a significant role. As can be seen from the analysis, the elements and images illustrated in the video commercial coincide with the values inherent to British culture.

The next vide is dedicated to the New Year celebration in Russia and was broadcasted in November 2019. The commercial starts with a frame of a man putting up a Christmas tree, he looks frustrated as the tree is too tall for the apartment, affective display: frowning, sighting and lowering the gaze, next he is cutting the top of the tree, so that it can fit. The sequence is accompanied with the phrase “Ïîêà âû ñòàâèòå åëêó” (rus) (While you are putting up a tree). Next shot depicts a boy carrying a chair, the name of the item and the price is shown. The boy knocks of the glass from the table, as a voiceover pronounces: “Ïîêà ñëûøåí çâîí ïîñóäû” (While you can hear the ringing of the dishes). The woman in the next setting, a kitchen, is preparing salads and hears the shattering of the glass, she seems frustrated as well, same affective displays. The sequence of the frames with woman cooking several dishes at once is shown next, as another older boy is pilling the eggs, as he looks tired and is yawning, and all these actions are accompanied with the phrase “Ïîêà íà êóõíå òàê âêóñíî ïàõíåò” (While it smells so good in the kitchen). Then the man is depicted unsuccessfully wrapping up the presents, frustrated as he was in the beginning of the commercial. The phrase states “Ïîêà ïîä åëêîé ïîÿâëÿþòñÿ ïîäàðêè” (While there are presents under the tree). The music in the commercial is active and energetic, however it becomes silent in the next frame, audience is shown an old whitehaired man wearing red sweater and in the completely new setting - wooden house. The man turns around and says “ß ñóùåñòâóþ” (I exist). The next several frames depict the whole family finalizing everything for celebration together, the voiceover: “Âû ìîæåòå íå âåðèòü â Äåäà Ìîðîçà. Ãëàâíîå, ÷òî Äåä Ìîðîç âåðèò â âàñ!” (it is okay if you don't believe in Father Frost, the main thing is - Father Frost believes in you).

The commercial does indeed depict the reality of Russians preparing for the celebration. As Russia is a high UA culture, preparations need to be done properly, representatives of this culture treat planning and organization very seriously. The occasion, celebration of one of the most significant Russian holidays, is of a high priority and therefore tasks are not considered as fun activity, they are completed with high precision and involve the whole family. Moreover, UA dimension score of Russia overlaps with the low Indulgence, hence, before getting leisure time and reward of any kind, people need to deserve such an opportunity by successfully performing all the tasks prior. The involvement of the whole family, and children in particular, correlates with the high Power Distance score - even though children do not seem to be happy to perform tasks, they take part in preparations as any member of the family, and do not show defiance. The second part of the commercial portrays Father Frost, a folklore character, an alternative to Santa Claus in Russian culture. The usage of such symbol helps to create a positive emotional connotation and change the mood of the commercial. The appeal in the advertisement is not only in the relatable and highly realistic situation, but also in the emotions generated with the fairy-tale character and the possibility of magic moments. This feature is especially important, as in restrains pessimistic societies the concept of “magic” and “fairy-tale like situations” used in commercials creates a really strong positive emotional association. Moreover, the phrase used in the very end of the commercial “Father Frost believes in you” also has an important meaning. As this figure can be seen as someone with more power, such an endorsement is a significant praise and a sign of approval in high PD Russian culture.

Again, IKEA adapted the commercials to the cultural realms in order to efficiently promote the products and create positive association with the brand. Marketing specialists successfully created realistic situation and included the magical atmosphere to create an emotional connection with the audience.

The next video was created for the Malaysian audience and dedicated to the celebration of the Chinese New Year. The first shot depicts two women, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, in the kitchen preparing a holiday meal. The daughter-in-law suddenly starts waving her hands over the pan and says “may every year be a prosperous one” in a high-pitched tone. The lid flies from the pan, as the woman performs a magical movement. Next, mother-in-law's face is zoomed in and she starts to wave the ladle and pours soup over the traditional meal while saying “May you prosper in excess”. In the next frame a husband and a young boy are portrayed, a child shouts “mom” and throws a spoon to the daughter-in-law, she catches the spoon and shouts while performing tricks with the spoons. Next, the husband shouts “mom” and throws a pot to the mother-in-law. She catches the pot and performs magical trick with it, then sends it to fly to the countertop. Mother-in-law shouts “May wealth rain down on you”, while showing the rotating traditional food in the pot. The daughter-in-law holds two pans on her hands and shouts “May your business boom”, as her hands light up to prepare dish on the pans. In the next shot two women look at each other with angry and competitive expressions. They jump and do a flip and land to sit at the table, still looking competitively at each other. Next, facial expressions change, they suddenly smile friendly and the phrase appears above their heads saying: “Prepare for a legendary reunion”. Next, the whole family is portrayed amiably eating dinner together.

The advertisement may seem strange and bizarre to an unprepared audience; however, it is made in the finest Asian tradition. Asian commercial market is expressive, curious and even weird for the western audience. However, this can be explained by the high level of competition among Asian brands - there is a need to surprise and catch attention, to be unique, yet preserve the traditions. This particular advertisement reflects the family values of the Malaysian culture. Malaysia is a high PD country, scores maximum of 100 on this dimension, older generations in the family should be respected, which is shown by the end of the commercial: even though there was a competition between the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law, in the end the amiable and respectful attitude was expressed. Interestingly, “son” characters help own mothers: young boy throws a spoon to help the daughter-in-law, his mother, and the father throws a pot to his mother, the mother-in-law. Even though the masculinity index is not high, the gender roles in the family still remain traditional, as only women are preparing the dishes and male family members are waiting at the table. This may be due to the fact that Malaysia is a normative society, a low score on the Long-term orientation index - traditions are valued and respected. This is also illustrated through the variety of traditional food prepared for the celebration. The magic movements and high-pitch vocalizing are as well resembling Asian martial arts and singing style.

IKEA not only created an entertaining yet relatable commercial, but also managed to preserve cultural peculiarities and showed respect towards traditions of Malaysian culture.

Topic: COVID-19 Quarantine awareness

The next category of videos is dedicated to the analysis of commercials addressing the global lockdown of early 2020. The lockdown happened due to the outburst of the COVID-19, as a result people all over the world were urged to self-isolate and keep social distance. The vast majority of brands used their authority and voice to spread the message of staying home and being conscious and reasonable. IKEA, as a company, that centers own product range on making homes comfortable places for people to enjoy their lives in, used their influence to raise awareness. It is important to state, that however good the message is, there is still profit for a company from creating mainstream content. On the other hand, raising awareness in the time of global crisis and using brand's platform for humanity's sake is not only a marketing strategy, but also a representation of social responsibility of an organization.

IKEA published several videos dedicated to the topic on various official channels. The first videos we are going to analyze is the video created for the Russian audience in April 2020. The onset of the video is the following: the audience sees every shot through windows in a building, a man puts a table in front of the window, while the voiceover says: “Êîãäà âñå íà÷àëîñü, ó Àðòåìà ïîÿâèëîñü ðàáî÷åå ìåñòî” (When everything started, Artyom arranged his working place). The next shot depicts a woman looking through the window on the opposite side of the street and watering flowers in the pots, the voiceover: “À ó Ìàøè - öâåòû” (and Masha got the flowers). Then the shot of the same man turning on the lamp on his table, “Ó Àðòåìà ïîÿâèëàñü ëàìïà” (Artyom got a lamp). Next the woman is shown sitting on the chair, voiceover: “À ó Ìàøè - êðåñëî” (And Masha got a chair). Characters are depicted looking at each other through their windows and smiling, while the voiceover says: “À êîãäà âñå çàêîí÷èòñÿ…” (And when this all ends…). In the next frame the man shuts his curtains and the audience sees a scene through the window that is next to man's one. Two characters are in the room together smiling at each other. The voiceover during the scene: “Ó Àðòåìà ïîÿâÿòñÿ øòîðû, à ó Ìàøè - Àðòåì”. In the final scene characters are portrayed hugging and kissing, the phrase appears on the screen “Áóäåò ëó÷øå äîìà” (It will be better at home”).

The video depicts a rather unrealistic, yet still relatable scenario. People are on a lockdown in their homes and have to social distance from each other, this situation is illustrated through the symbols of windows and distance between the buildings. Windows represent inability to meet and communicate in person. Russia is a restrained society, a pessimistic and cynical one, therefore, in order to create a relatable context, there is a need to depict reality with all the withdrawals and disadvantages, otherwise the audience won't be able to grasp the context and put themselves into characters' place. However, the concept of “hope” and “better future coming” has a great value for the Russians. Especially when put in hard conditions, the sense of hope rises spirit in the society. This is due to the historical background of the country and all the hardships the society, especially the older generation, had to go through, as there were times, when people had nothing other than “hope”. Hence, there is a need to portray this notion through symbols. In the IKEA's commercial “hope” is illustrated through the image of a happy couple getting together after the hard situation was finally over. Moreover, as Russia is a high UA society, there are no exact words about the time the lockdown will end, people are not promised anything. There even are no such words as “soon” in order to avoid false statement, the voiceover just states the inevitable fact of the situation coming to an end at some point in time. But at the same time people are given a reassurance, so that the situation does not seem that threatening and ambiguous. This is also connected with Slavic countries being more polychronic in their perception of time.

Russians cannot be claimed to be neither fully holistic nor analytical type country, as the vision of Russian representatives differs both from that of the westerners and Asian. Both sides had its defined influence over the culture. However, when advertising a product or service there is an incline towards a more holistic approach. The scenes in in the commercial are more holistic: audience is immediately shown a context of the situation, an environment, through the frame perspective and symbols - glass walls between people, distance. Products that are advertised, such as chair, lamp, curtains and so on, exist in a story and are not the main characters of the advertisement. The story of a couple is told through the objects, as if they only help to create a suitable context, it can be read along the lines, that the products give push to the development of the situation. However, there is still no direct focus on people solely when speaking of visual component. People, as any objects in this advertisement, exist in the environment and represent its constituent parts. Moreover, the high context nature of Russian communication is depicted through the usage of symbols and nonverbal expressions in the commercial. The voiceover does not accurately illustrate the actions and emotions of characters in the video, it just states the facts of people purchasing items. However, though the affective displays, such as smiles and gazes, audience grasps the growing connection between the couple. Therefore, emotions and underlying meaning are conveyed through the nonverbal communication.

IKEA managed to create a relatable scenario in the commercial and involve concept and meaning that are valued in Russian culture. Also, the important and relevant message was communicated through the advertisement.

The next video was created for the audience in Singapore and published in April 2020. The commercial starts with a shot of a person watering the plants in the flat, the face is not shown. The phrase on the screen: “it's never been more important to…”. Next frame depicts a family sitting on the couch and reading a book with a child - “make home count”. Then a person doing exercises and laughter behind the camera - “make laughter count”. People chatting via video calls - “make meetings count”. A woman and a baby - “make family time count”. The following sequence of frames depicts various family activities involving children, couples, parents. The phrases following the images have the same structure of “make, blank, count” and contain a correlated word: “moments”, “playtime”, “cuddles”, “private moments”. The final frame contains a phrase on a white background: “Make Home Count”.

Singapore is a highly collectivistic society, therefore, connection inside the group matters. This is reflected in the commercial that depicts families spending time together and performing fun activities. The message conveyed is the following: when staying by each other's side it becomes possible to overcome the hardships. Being a pragmatic society, high long-term orientation score, people are urged to focus on what they can have now without striving to change the situation immediately on their own. Singaporeans tend to not fixate on a single aspect of the situation - they use times of crisis as an opportunity to grow. When having no ability to go outside, representatives focus on the family connections and making life at home pleasant. Low UA index defines society's take on crisis - there is no need to reassure people in the better future, as it is in Russia, commercial is focused around present moment, and making it as joyful as possible. Holistic type of vision is reflected through the sequence of frames shown in the advertisement. There is no accent on any image of character, overall, video exists as a continuity of life captions and creates a bound environment. A single story is told through dozens of people and families without making an emphasis on any of them. Moreover, some of the captions may seem vague and imprecise, but they obtain a meaning when combined with the visual component.

IKEA created a commercial that reflects values of Singapore's society, video concentrates on features important to the representatives and is visually pleasing for the Asian audience.

Next, we will look into the video created for Greece in April 2020. This commercial is different from the two described above. Greek advertisement only contains the following phrases on the white font: “We are not kissing. We are not embracing. We do not go out together. We do not play together anymore. And yet, we care for those we love. Maybe more than ever. We live together”.

The roots of analytical approach lie in the ancient Greek philosophy, therefore, even in this commercial we see how the object orientation works. Marketing specialists concentrated on the message and communicated it through the words directly. There is no need to put those in the environment and convey meaning through other symbols and images. It is important for Greeks to verbalize the most significant part, as they also are the representative of a low context culture. Words communicate meaning better than any other visual component. IKEA's marketing specialists understood the cultural peculiarities and successfully chose not to sugar-coat phrases with other content and associations, so that they have more influence on the audience.

The last video was first published to a Swedish IKEA YouTube channel and then was spread to many other channels. The verbal content in the videos was translated to various languages, however, content was not adapted to fit cultural peculiarities entirely. The video starts with a sequence of shots of different houses and windows, the voiceover says: “Hello, I am your house. I am your home”. Next frame depicts parents playing with children at home - “I am still a place where you raise your children”. Next is a shot of a baby making hesitant steps - “Where you've celebrated good news”. In the following frame a man hides in a tent made up of blankets - “Where you've taken refuge from the bad”. A man crying - “A place where you are yourself”. Then follows a frame with a newborn baby held on mother's hands - “Do you remember when we met?”. A shot of a man stretching in the room - “Come on”. People playing the piano together - “Feel me”; a man sniffing a lemon - “sniff me”; a man arm-wrestling with kids - “enjoy me”. A girl walking on her hands - “we can put everything upside-down”; a man playing drums in a room - “maybe it is about time to move your furniture”; people hugging and kissing seen through the windows - “or to change things up in your head”. An elderly woman sitting in a chair next to an empty one - “I am your home”. An elderly man looking at himself in the mirror - “I will be there for you, enduring everything that comes”. And the final shot of a woman running on a treadmill - “#I Stay At Home”.

This video conveys the “home is a special place” meaning, advertisement reminds of all the moments people experience in their houses. This commercial urges to rethink the concept of a place you have to stay in during the lockdown, to view your house from another perspective. If doing so, home is no longer a prison, but rather a fortress and a safe space. Even though this commercial can be regarded as a global one, it still was changed slightly for some countries, for instance, Czech Republic. The frames of a man crying and an elderly woman sitting alone in the chair next to an empty one were replaced with more positive shots: elderly woman with a parrot and more scenes of children playing. Here we can see a connection with a low indulgence level, restrained society is more pessimistic and negative, therefore, there is no need to show images with negative connotation, as it is considered better to portray positive emotions and focus on the good moments, rather than remind people of the hardships. The shot of a woman working late at night was also added to the sequence, as still there is an emphasis on working and being productive, even though having to spend time at home. In the French variation of this commercial the shot of a woman doing push-ups was added with a phrase “even though things changed, keep the motivation”. As a high UA culture French need to feel emotional safety when dealing with ambiguous situations, there is a need to stick to a kind of a routine in order to stay calm. The shot shows that there is still a way to motivate yourself to perform usual activities inside the house. French also are representatives of a restrained culture; therefore, they feel a need in reassurance and more positive images.