The Effect of Cultural Differences on Effective Advertising: A Comparison Between Russia and the U.S‪.‬

ABSTRACT An important first step to successful global marketing is to understand the similarities and dissimilarities of values between cultures. This task is particularly daunting for companies trying to do business with Russia because of the scarcity of empirical data on their value system. This study uses updated values of the Hofstede's (1980) cultural model to compare the effectiveness of Pollay's advertising appeals between the U.S. and Russia. Only six of the 19 culturally-based hypotheses correctly predicted the Russian consumers' notion of effective advertising appeals. The Hofstede dimensions may lack the currency and fine grain necessary to effectively predict the success of the various advertising appeals. Further explanations are offered by a Delphi panel of Russian professors and students. In short, these findings suggest that it would be unwise to use Hofstede's cultural dimensions as a sole predictor for developing advertising campaigns.