International advertising in Western Europe: Should differences in uncertainty avoidance be considered when advertising in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, and Spain

In international business communication, there is an ongoing debate as to whether cultural differences necessitate adaptation of advertisements to local circumstances. Value appeals in particular are thought to be culturally sensitive because of the assumptions that (1) cultures differ from each other with respect to which values are considered important and (2) that appealing to important values is more persuasive than appealing to less important values. An experiment is reported in which the persuasiveness of an appeal to security was compared to that of an appeal to adventure. The relative persuasiveness of these appeals was studied in countries that are characterized as high uncertainty avoidance cultures (Belgium (n = 142), France (n = 125), Spain (n = 108)), and a country characterized as a low uncertainty avoidance culture (The Netherlands (n = 101)). The two value appeals proved equally persuasive for each of the countries. The reason for not finding an effect lies in the first assumption being unwarranted: Participants from countries considered as being high uncertainty avoidance cultures did not consider security values more important than stimulation values. The second assumption proved to be warranted: Appealing to security was more persuasive than appealing to adventure for those participants who regarded security to be more important than adventure.