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Ambiguity is not tolerated, so clear and simple landing pages with a strong call to action are
necessary in order to retain your target audience.
Some countries that lean towards low-context are the United States, Australia,
Germany, and Switzerland.
More words
Clean
Straightforward
Strong call-to-action
Clear image of the product
Facebook ads are an example of simpler ads that are focused on what the ads is saying rather
than the picture in it. While flashier ads are considered more likely to get attention (and get
clicked on), many low-context people find these ads annoying. A balance has to be struck
between having an ad that draws attention to itself, yet not so much that people are repulsed
by it.
High-Context Marketing: Visuals, Sounds, and That Flashy Stuff You Find Annoying
When you’re planning on expanding beyond Anglo-English cultures, your advertising
strategy needs to change, lest you bore your target audience. High-context cultures are all
about the situation, and respond much better to ambiguity, especially if it has some flair to it.
Whereas low-context cultures prefer more words (to a certain extent), high-context cultures
prefer more images.
China, Japan, Turkey, and Mexico are some countries that lean towards high-context.
Colorful
Large pictures
Celebrity endorsements
More dramatic angles of product
In contrast, take a look at the ads on the front page of Weibo, which is considered China’s
version of Facebook. Not only is the page itself busier (and Weibo even has little one-eyed
mascots!), but the ads are larger and have much more movement to them. They are similar to
Myspace ads, but someone from China would be less likely to find these obtrusive.
Chinese McDonalds: The natural center of the landing page is a giant image of a product.
There’s also a video playing on the page, with minimal text (most of which is accompanied
by an image)
United States McDonalds: The natural center of the page is text (It’s a fresh new world with
the Premium McWrap), with a smaller accompanying image of the product. There isn’t any
movement on this version of the landing page.
Both pages are advertising new McDonald’s products, but they are giving off very different
vibes that appeal to their core audience. There are always exceptions to this (check out low-
context Germany’s current McDonald’s page), but the layouts generally tend to fall along
these guidelines.
United States Only? You are Not Exempt
Although most people in the United States are considerably low-context, with the proportion
of minorities increasing in the US (especially high-context Spanish speakers), it’s necessary
to include high-context advertising strategies in your mix.
Additionally, the Southern United States tends to lean high-context, whereas the Northern
part of the country tends to be low-context. In order to effectively target these segments of
the population, it’s important to take the above guidelines into account.
Why is knowing this important for your advertising strategy? Creating an ad is more than just
translating the words into another language. Often, when directly translated, an ad will come
out sound unnatural, even if it is grammatically correct.
The most effective ad strategies are ones that best relate to the target audience’s wants and
needs, and knowing the language in conjunction with the culture is a great way to connect.
How context is used is only one facet of culture, but becoming aware of how it comes into
play can increase the effectiveness of your ads and landing pages in your advertising strategy.