JYOTIKA RAMAPRASAD

AND
KAZUMI HASEGAWA

CREATIVE STRATEGIES IN
AMERICAN AND JAPANESE
TV COMMERCIALS:
A COMPARISON

JYOTIKA RAMAPRASAD is
associate professor in the
School ot Journalism at
Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale Her research
interests tocus on advertising
standardization/localization
issues and cross-cultural
comparisons of advertising
content and ot consumers.
Current research projects include a study of Japanese
and American student consumers. Chinese advertising
content, and views of international agencies on standardization of advertising

dvertising content consists of two major elements: strategy and tactics {or execution). Attempts to
enumerate these, to exemplify
their suitability for advertising
situations, and to ascertain their
communication effects reach
back several years and still continue. Similarly longstanding
and perennial is the debate on
whether advertising should be
globally standardized or tailored
to the specific culture of individual countries. However, few
cross-culturally comparative
studies have been done on creative strategy.
The purpose of this article is
to fill this lacuna. The paper first
discusses typologies of creative
strategy and the "standardization-localization" debate. It then
compares American and Japanese commercials, particularly
with regard to the use and format of creative strategies.

Creative Strategy Defined

KAZUMI HASEGAWA is a
doctorai student in the Department of Telecommunication at Michigan State University Her research interests
include cross-cultural comparisons of advertising and
consumer behavior and the
effectiveness of comparative
advertising In collaboration
with her present coauthor,
she IS currently engaged in a
comparative study of Japanese and American students
as consumers.

Creative strategy comprises

the "what is said" in an advertisement rather than the "how it
is said," which is an executional
question. Frazer's (1983) definition is lucid: "Creative strategy
is a policy or guiding principle
which specifies the general nature and character of messages
to be designed." A sound creative strategy generally ensures
success; good executions give
advertising the added punch.
Even studies on executional factors underscore strategy's impor-

tance. In a replication of a study

by Stewart and Furse (1986),
Stewart and Koslow (1989) conclude that:
Both studies point to the importance of having something
unique and differentiating to
say about the advertised product. . . . These empirical findings are quite consistent with
the best creative wisdom,
which has long advocated creating unique selhng propositions, distinctive brand images, and making the product
the "hero" of the commercial.
Attempts to formulate a typology of creative strategies have
spawned dichotomous to multiple categories, have included
situational variables, and have
confused strategy with execution. The dichotomy of informational and emotional appeals is
common; several explications of
this dichotomy are available in
the literature (Preston, 1987).
Vaughn (1980) considers this
feeling/thinking dichotomy a situational variable and combines it
with level of involvement to propose a model of four creative
strategies; he suggests that the
match between strategy and the
situation (the quadrants) will
maximize internalization of the
message. Similarly, Simon's
(1971) classification of creative
strategies was undertaken to
provide "useful instructions for
choosing the most effective
types of advertisements for various market and product-brand
situations." Simon's categories.

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however, are not classified by

strategy alone; they also use
some executional and sales promotions criteria. While he does
not call them strategies, Shimp's
(1976) typology of "message
structure" also includes both
strategy and tactics.
Starting anew, Frazer (1983)
culled a list of creative strategies
(generic, preemptive, unique
selling proposition [USP], brand
image, positioning, resonance,
and affective) from "advertising
literature and trade press, from
conversations with advertising people, and analysis of
commercials."
After Laskey's (1988) attempt
to use this typology resulted in
low intercoder reliability, he developed a new typology, based
on Frazer's framework. This typology first coded an ad into the
informational/rational or the image/emotional category and then
into a specific strategy. The informational/rational category included hyperbole, preemptive,
USP, comparative, genericThinking, and other-Thinking
strategies. The image/emotional
category included brand image,
user image, use occasion, generic-Emotional, and other-Emotional strategies. Later (Laskey,
Day, and Crask, 1989), the nomenclature was changed to informational and transformational, respectively, for the firststage categories, and the "other"
category was dropped from the
strategies. Using this coding
scheme, Laskey, Day, and Crask
(1989) achieved satisfactory intercoder reliability.
These strategies are, however,
indigenous to the United States.
At the global level, two questions arise: Does the advertising
of other countries use these creative strategies? And, if it does,
what are the similarities and/or
differences by country in the use
of these strategies?

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The "StandardizationLocalization" Debate

in Advertising
The debate on "globalization,"
begun in the 1960s, initially focused on and largely advocated
standardizing advertising (and
marketing) in Europe (Dichter,
1962; Roostal, 1963). While middle-of-the-road opinions were
heard in the 1960s, it was the
1970s which heralded a more
cautionary approach and suggested taking cultural and psychological differences between
countries into consideration
(Britt, 1974; Douglas and Dubois,
1977). Results of cross-culturally
comparative studies on consumers and consumer responses to
advertising supported this approach (Green, Cunningham,
and Cunningham, 1978; Hornik,
1980). A 1983 article by Levitt,
strongly endorsing standardization, brought the debate back to
the forefront in the academic
literature and unleashed a wave
of responses (Harris, 1984;
Onkvisit and Shaw, 1987) and
research in the '80s. Some of this
research effort focused on the
comparative content of advertising, the content being themes,
techniques, information, and
such. (A representative but not
exhaustive review follows.)
One of the earliest studies
(Marquez, 1979) of this kind
found similarities in Philippine,
Thai, and U.S. advertising. The
author reflects that this is atypical and suggests that, before
adopting standardization, practitioners must check indigenous
cultures. Rice and Lu (1988)
found that Chinese magazine
ads had high levels of information as compared with American
advertising, the comparison being based on findings from previous studies on American advertising. Weinberger and Spotts

Journal of ADVERTISING RESEARCHJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1992

(1989) found less humor in

American than British advertising. Tse et al. (1989) found that
Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan
differed in the consumptive values such as technology, modernism, and hedonism that they
used in their advertising.
Of direct interest to this study
is Reid et al.'s (1985) comparison, using Simon's classification
scheme for creative strategy, of
Clio-winning domestic and international television commercials.
The study found only limited
support for cross-cultural differences in creative strategies, possibly because it grouped all international commercials together
rather than by nation.
Also of interest to this study,
research on Japanese commercials, within and without a comparative framework, has become
available recently. Madden, Caballero, and Matsukubo (1986)
found Japanese advertisements
to be more informative than
American advertising. Another
study (Hong, Muderrisoglu, and
Zinkhan, 1987) found that Japanese advertising used more emotional and informational cues
than American advertising.
Mueller (1987) found that, while
Japanese advertising used traditional appeals like soft sell, it
also used modern and Westernized appeals. Ramaprasad and
Hasegawa (1990) found that Japanese commercials used the
emotional appeal more than the
informational appeal.
Despite this wave of responses
and research, the issue of globalization is far from settled. The
debate has been confounded
largely by the lack of an operational definition of standardization. Further, distinctions are
seldom made between marketing
and advertising standardization
and, within advertising
(referent = creative usually)
standardization, between strat-

A M E R I C A N

egy and tactics.

Against the background of the
globalization debate and within
the tradition of content research,
this study compares American
and Japanese advertising. The
difference is that it focuses on
format variables as well. While
creative strategy is the content
variable of special interest to this
study, number of camera shots
is the format variable of interest;
further, the comparison attempts
to study the relationship between the two. Specific research
questions are:
(1) What are the differences, if
any, in (a) the products advertised, and (b) the length
of commercials on American
and Japanese television?
(2) What are the differences, if
any, in the overall and specific strategies used by
American and Japanese
commercials?
(3) What are the differences, if
any, in the number of camera shots used by American and Japanese commercials by overall and specific
strategies?

Methodology
The study reported on here
used the method of content
analysis. The channels, dates,
and times were picked randomly
for March and April 1989. ABC,
CBS, and NBC were used for the
American sample. The Japanese
channels were the four commercial channels available where the
recording was done. For each
day, one channel was picked
randomly for each country. The
dates included all seven days of
the week and were picked by
the "constructed week" method.
The same sample dates were
used for both countries. The
time for each day was picked
randomly in one-hour slots start-

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ing at 7 p.m. for both countries

and ending with 9 p.m. for the
American sample and 10 p.m.
for the Japanese sample. The
sample, therefore, consisted of
commercials within 14 hours of
programs in each country.
All commercials were coded
for product category (e.g., food),
length, number of camera shots
(visual changing), strategy (e.g.,
informational), and specific strategy (e.g., comparative).
The measure of overall and
specific strategies was based on
the Laskey, Day, and Crask
(1989) typology which first classifies ads into informational or
transformational concepts borrowed from Puto and Wells
(1984). Informational advertising
presents factual information; the
ad should have data which the
consumer accepts as being verifiable. Transformational advertising is affect-based and endows
the use of the brand with a particular positive experience.
Next, the typology classifies
ads into specific strategies. It is
here that the measure used in
this paper differs. Recall that the
strategies were hyperbole (has
the general appearance of being
factually based, but is not so),
preemptive (has an objectively
verifiable fact(s), but the fact(s) is
not the basis for comparison nor
is it pointed out as being
unique), USP, comparative, and
generic for informational ads
and brand image, user image,
use occasion, and generic for
transformational ads.
Categories in content analysis,
apart from being mutually exclusive and exhaustive, also have to
derive from a single classification
principle (Holsti, 1969). Laskey,
Day, and Crask's (1989) categories do not meet the final criterion. Their "generic" category is
a product-based classification,
while the others are messagebased. It is entirely possible to

have a product (i.e., category as

different from brand) advertisement (such as for milk) which
uses a message strategy such as
USP. The generic strategy was
therefore dropped from the measurement of specific strategies in
this study.
Earlier, the indigenous and
therefore culture-specific nature
of the measure of strategy was
mentioned; its use in the classification of Japanese commercials
may be an ill-suited imposition
of structure on content. Ideally,
strategies within cultures should
be identified first, qualitative
comparisons done next, and, if
warranted, specific comparisons
done last. The typology used
here does not emanate from Japan. Recognizing this limitation,
the sample commercials were
coded using the modified Laskey, Day, and Crask typology. It
is also possible that countries
might not differ as much in the
advertising strategies they employ as in their use and format.
Intercoder reliability tests using Holsti's (1969) formula were
done on a randomly selected
subsample of 10 percent. Agreement was 100 percent for product category and length, 95 percent for involvement, 91 percent
for number of shots, and 90 percent for strategy. For each variable, averages were calculated
across countries.

Findings
Description of the Sample.
The American and Japanese samples had 451 and 382 commercials, respectively. The American
commercials included 140 television station or program promotions of assorted lengths; these,
and similar promotions in the Japanese sample {n = 9), were removed from subsequent analyses.
The final sample size then was
311 and 373, respectively, with

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Table 1
Distribution of Commercials by Product Category, Length, and
Strategy (Overall and Specific) by Country
Variables and their categories

American commercials

Japanese commercials

Grand total

451

382

Grand total minus TV promos

311

373

Product category
Auto/parts
Appliances/furniture
Service

51 (16.6%)
6 (1.9%)
34(11%)

30 (8.1%)
26 (7%)
24 (6.5%)

Image improvement

8 (2.6%)

24 (6.5%)

Entertainment/toys

9 (2.9%)

21 (5.7%)

Alcohoi/cigarettes

7 (2.3%)

43(11.7%)

Household supplies

70 (227%)

81 (22%)

Food

61 (19.8%)

115(31.2%)

Retail

62(20.1%)

5 (1.4%)

Total ("Other' ' not included)

308

369

Chi-square = 119.73; p. = .00.

Length
5

2 (0.6%)

1 (0.3%)

1 (0.3%)

10

9 (2.9%)

14

2 (0.6%)

15

91 (29.3%)

234 (62.7%)

20

3 (1.0%)

1 (0.3%)

27

1 (0.3%)

30

197(63.3%)

134(35.9%)

45

1 (0.3%)

1 (0.3%)

55

1 (0.3%)

60

3 (1.0%)

2 (0.5%)

Total

311

373

Length
15

91 (31.6%)

234 (63.6%)

30

197(68.4%)

134(36.4%)

Total (only 15 and 30 seconds)

288

368

117(37.6%)

135(36.2%)

Transformationai

194(62.4%)

238 (63.8%)

Total

311

373

Chi-square = 66.14; p. = .00.

Overall strategy
Informational

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Journal of ADVERTISING RESEARCHJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1992

the American programs averaging

22 commercials per hour and the
Japanese programs averaging 27
commercials per hour. In assessing total clutter, however, the
number of promotions on American television need to be kept in
mind. The modal product category was household supplies for
American commercials and food
for Japanese commercials (see
Table 1). The modal length was
30 seconds for American commercials and 15 seconds for Japanese commercials. The modal
overall strategy was transformational for both countries. Both
countries used brand image from
among transformational strategies and the preemptive strategy
from among informational strategies most often.
Products Advertised and
Commercial Length. An analysis
of the association between country, on the one hand, and product category and length (15- and
30-second spots), on the other,
done to answer the first research
question revealed a significant
association between country and
product category and country
and length (see Table 1). Of the
American commercials, 17 percent were for auto/parts, 20 percent for retail establishments,
and 2 percent for alcohol; while
of the Japanese commercials, 8
percent were for auto/parts, 1
percent for retail establishments,
and 12 percent for alcohol. Of
the American commercials, 68
percent were 30-second commercials, while of the Japanese commercials 64 percent were 15-second commercials.
Use of Strategies. No significant association was found between country and overall strategy. That is, one country did not
use either the informational or
transformational strategy more
often than did the other (see Table 1). The relationship between
the particular informational strategy used and country was sig-

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Tabie 1cont'd
Variables and their categories

American commercials

Japanese commercials

34(29.1%)

20(14.8%)

48(41.0%)

67 (49.6%)

9 (07.7%)

35 (25.9%)

26 (22.2%)

13(09.6%)

Informational strategy
Hyperbole
Preemptive
USP
Comparative
Total

117

135

118(60.8%)

155(65.1%)

User image

29(14.9%)

23 (09.7%)

Use occasion

47 (24.2%)

60 (25.2%)

Chi-square = 25-31; p. = .00.

Transformational strategy
Brand image

Total

nificant, however. More American commercials used the

comparative and hyperbole strategies, while more Japanese commercials used the USP and preemptive strategies. An association between country and
particular transformational strategies did not exist.
In view of the significant association found earlier between
country on the one hand and
product class and length on the
other, it was necessary to test if
these variables intervened in the
relationship between country
and strategy. While the elaboration model (Babbie, 1986) based
on multi-way contingency tables
could be used, its interpretation,
particularly when a variable has
more than two categories, is

More American commercials

used the comparative and
hyperbole strategies, while
more Japanese commercials
used the USP and
preemptive strategies.

194

238

complicated and fraught with

problems. Therefore, weighting
was used to equalize American
and Japanese cell sizes for each
category within the two variables, product category and
length. The cell frequencies for
Japanese commercials were
weighted up or down to match
cell frequencies for American
commercials. Chi-square tests
were then done to measure the
association between country and
overall and specific strategies.
The results of these tests replicated the original results based
on unweighted data and provided the answer to the second
research question: no significant
association existed between
country and overall strategy and
between country and transformational strategies. For informational strategies, American commercials used the comparative
and hyperbole more and Japanese commercials used the preemptive and USP more (see Tables 2a and 2b).
Format of Strategies. To answer the third research question,
three analyses of variance were
run, one each for overall, informational, and transformational

strategies. The models tested the

contribution of country, strategy,
and country-strategy interaction
to variance in number of camera
shots used in the commercials.
To control for product category and length within this analysis, weighting was used to
equalize American and Japanese
cell sizes for each product category within each of the two
lengths (15 and 30 seconds) used
in this analysis. Again, cell frequencies for Japanese commercials were weighted up or down
to match cell frequencies for
American commercials. Also,
length was standardized at 15
seconds, i.e., number of camera
shots was divided by two for
30-second commercials.
For the total sample of commercials (excluding TV program
promotions and "other" for both
product category and length),
the country and country-strategy
interaction effects were not significant (see Table 3). That is,
American and Japanese commercials did not differ in the number of camera shots they used;
also, neither one of the countries' commercials used more/
less camera shots for a certain
strategy than did the other country's commercials. The strategy
effect, however, was significant;
transformational commercials
used more shots than informational commercials.
For the subset of informational
commercials, such American
commercials used more shots
than Japanese commercials.
While the four specific informational strategies are not perfectly
ordered, their definitions do
support an assumption of increasing amount of specificity of
information. Linear, quadratic,
and cubic trends, assuming an
increase in specificity of information from the hyperbole,
through the preemptive and
USP, to the comparative strategies were assessed, with particu-

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Table 2a
Distribution ot Commerciais by Strategy (Overail and Specific) by
Country Using Weighted Product Category
strategy

American commercials

Japanese commercials

116(37.7%)

97 (31.5%)

Transformational

192(62.3%)

210(68.5%)

Total

308

307

Overall strategy
Informationai

Informational strategy
Hyperbole
Preemptive
USP
Comparative

33 (28.4%)

11 (11.2%)

48(41,4%)

54 (55.3%)

9 (07.8%)

22 (22.8%)

26 (22.4%)

10(10.7%)
97

116

Total
Chi-square = 22.14; p. = .00,
Transtormational strategy
Brand image

116(60.4%)

120(57.0%)

User image

29(15.1%)

25(12.0%)

Use occasion

47 (24.5%)

65 (31.0%)
210

192

Total

Note: The frequencies for American commercials are slightly different from those in Table 1
because product category "other" was removed from this analysis.

lar interest in any interaction of

these trends with country. This
analysis revealed significant quadratic and cubic trends in number of shots; that is, the increase
in shots did not exhibit a linear
parallel to the increase in specificity. Rather, the increase was
S-shaped and peaked in the USP
commercials.
In view of the comparative
focus of this paper, the two significant interaction contrasts
were of larger interest. These
indicated that the increases and
decreases in number of shots
over the informational strategies
were different for the two countries; the changes were a lot
larger for American than Japanese commercials.
For the subset of transformational commercials, American
and Japanese commercials did
not differ in the number of shots
they used. Trends run on the
64

transformational strategies, assuming an increase in specificity

from the brand image to the useoccasion strategy, were not significant. That is, number of camera shots did not exhibit linear
or quadratic trends from brand
image, through user image, to
use-occasion commercials. The
significant linear interaction revealed that, while in American
commercials number of shots
increased with a decrease in
specificity (from use occasion to
brand image), in Japanese commercials the reverse was the
case.

Summary and Discussion

This study revealed some similarities and some differences in
American and Japanese commercials. America and Japan differ
in the products they advertise

Journal of ADVERTISING RESEARCHJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1992

A L S

on prime-time television. While

the difference in alcohol advertising can be accounted for by
the legality of such advertising
in Japan, other differences may
be an indication of differences in
media audiences and/or consumer behavior in terms of purchase decision-makers. The
countries also differ in the commercial lengths they favor; Japan's larger use of 15-second
commercials could be yet another manifestation of the Japanese emphasis on the compact
yet efficient product.
In the frequency of use of informational and transformational
strategies and of the three transformational strategiesbrand
image, user image, and use occasionthe two countries were
similar. These findings appear to
contradict most of the literature
on Japanese advertising which
points to its comparatively
"emotional" nature and its use
of soft sell. The explanation
might partly reside in the difference in the two measures, transformational and emotional, the
latter more likely an executional
element present even in Japanese informational commercials.
In fact, Japanese commercials
were not as unambiguous in nature by the American creative
strategy typology as were American commercials. For example,
because of the Japanese reticence
to use comparative advertising
(Wagenaar, 1978), comparative
commercials (informational strategy) often also included a transformational appeal. Further,
even when Japanese commercials used such informational
strategies as USP and hyperbole,
their executions were rather
emotional in nature. The implication of using American strategies and their definitions to classify Japanese commercials
should be noted.
Past literature (Hong, Muderrisoglu, and Zinkhan, 1987) has

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Tabie 2b
Distribution of Commercials by Strategy (Overaii and Specific) by
Country Using Weighted Length
strategy

American commercials

Japanese commercials

108(37.5%)

107(37.1%)

Transformational

180(62.5%)

181 (62.9%)

Total

288

288

Overall strategy
Informational

Informational strategy
Hyperbole
Preemptive
USP
Comparative
Total

29 (26.9%)

10(09.3%)

46 (42,6%)

56 (52.7%)

8 (07,4%)

26 (24.5%)

25(23,1%)

14 (13.5%)

108

107

112(62.2%)

119(65.5%)

User image

28(15.6%)

17(09.1%)

Use occasion

40 (22.2%)

46 (25 4%)

Chi-square - 22,90; p. - .00.

Transformational strategy
Brand image

Total

180

181

Note: The frequencies for American commercials are slightly different from those in Table 1
because all lengths except 15 and 30 seconds were removed from this analysis. Results of
crosstabs between country and strategy using these selected lengths vi/ithout weighting replicated the results of the original crosstabs given in Table 1.

pointed to the smaller use of

comparison by Japanese commercials. This reflects the Japanese "cultural characteristic of
avoiding confrontation"; in addition, the Japanese do not
want competitors to lose face
(Wagenaar, 1978). The present
study confirms this, finding a
smaller use of the comparative
informational strategy in Japanese commercials. The study
also finds that the Japanese
make less use of the hyperbole
strategy. Instead, the Japanese
use preemptive and USP commercials more often, possibly
because these present less extreme alternatives to present information to the consumer.
The number of camera shots
used did not differ between the
two countries for overall and
transformational commercials;

for informational commercials,

however, Americans used more
camera shots than did the Japanese. Among Japanese consumers "advertising liking" plays an
important role; these consumers
transfer the affect toward advertising to the product advertised.
To develop this affect, Japanese
commercials use mood-creating,
nature symbols which are serene. It is possible that the fewer
camera shots in Japanese informational commercials might be a
manifestation of the aforementioned practice of adopting an
emotional execution of informational strategies.
More important, however,
were the differences by country
in the number of shots used
across the informational and
transformational strategies. For
informational commercials, while

overall the number of shots

peaked with the USP strategy
for both countries, the changes
were much smaller, exhibiting a
more even pattern, for Japanese
commercials. In American commercials, some of the changes
were rather dramatic, pointing
possibly to a clearer demarcation
between strategiesthese being
also associated with certain format conventions. This might
also be an indicator of an ill fit
between the American typology of strategies and Japanese
advertising.
Within the transformational
strategies, commercials in the
two countries exhibited diametrically opposite patterns: American commercials used more camera shots as they moved to less
specificity; Japanese commercials
did just the opposite using more
shots with more specificity.
A review of the findings reveals that the largest differences
in American and Japanese advertising existed in the use and format of informational strategies.

Conclusion
Two major conciusions can be
drawn from the study, one substantive and the other methodological. While acknowledging
that similarities exist between
American and Japanese commercials which might facilitate the
use of some standardization in
advertising, the differences and
their span (possibly media and
certainly creative content and

. . the largest difference in

American and Japanese
advertising existed in the
use and format of
informational strategies.

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creative format) suggest the

need for adaptation, particularly

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in the case of informational strategies. These findings of this

Table 3
Number of Shots As a Function of Country, Strategy (Overall and
Specific), and Country-Strategy interaction*
Function

Number ot shots

Overall strategy
Informational

6.7
8.1

Transformational
F value = 4.54: PR > F = .03
Country for informational
America

commercials
6.93
6.42

Japan
F vaiue = 7.95; PR > F = 0.00
Informational
Hyperbole

strategy
6.6
6.05

Preemptive

10.75

USP

5.52

Comparative
F value (quadratic) = 11.1; (cubic) = 24.9
PR > F (quadratic) = .00; (cubic) = .00
Country by informational strategy interaction
Hyperboie
America
Japan

6,56
6.81

Preemptive
America
Japan

5.41
6.7

USP
America
Japan

19.94
6.97

Comparative
America
Japan

5.98
4.8

F value (quadratic) = 5.80; (cubic) = 18.81

PR > F (quadratic) - ,02; (cubic) = .00)
Country by transformational
Brand image
America
Japan

strategy

interaction
10.19
5.51

User image
America
Japan

8.95
7.34

Use occasion
America
Japan

5.61
9.32

F value (linear) = 19.04

PR > F = .00
* Only significant results are reported.

66

study should give pause to practitioners who advocate complete standardization in global
advertising.
Equally important is the need
for academics who do cross-culturally comparative studies to
consider the transferability
across cultures of concepts used
in the comparison. In the case of
this study, ideally an indigenous
development of the creative
strategy typology for japan with
different and/or finer discriminations is warranted.

Journal of ADVERTISING RESEARCHJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1992

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