We might compare this with Carlsberg Humor. The British are relatively neutral, meaning that they like advertisements with understated humor. One particular Carlsberg (Danish beer brewer) advertisement is an example of this.
A Danish couple are shown receiving therapy. The wife says that she can't stand her husband any more, she despises him. The therapist asks how long this has been going on. The wife replies "since he started his new job." The therapist then asks what he does. The husband says that he's a long-distance lorry driver, delivering all over the world. The therapist asks what he delivers and the man looks at the floor, too embarrassed to answer. The wife turns on the husband and says angrily "tell her." The husband then admits he delivers Carlsberg Export. On hearing this, the therapist (a woman) leaps across the room and attacks him. The punchline, heard as a voice-over, says "Carlsberg-the Danes hate to see it leave as much as we like to see it arrive."
Humor is an integral and valued part of the Irish communication style and, as such, it is generally successful in marketing products to an Irish audience. However, humor is notoriously difficult to transfer across cultures, so care should be taken to match the Irish style. An example of successful humor is a Guinness TV commercial where a comic actor dances in a crazy way to a catchy tune while drinking Guinness. The implicit message seems to be "I'm mad and fun, and I don't care what people think." It appeals to many Irish people's image of themselves or how they would like to be: individuals who express themselves in a funny, offbeat manner, with a happy-go-lucky, "devil-may-care" attitude.
Pop Songs and Artists
The use of popular songs associated with a product is often used in the UK. This is often more effective than using a jingle, which might be found irritating even though memorable. The songs tend to work better if they are linked with the product in some way. For example, Cadbury's launched a new hot chocolate drink. Their ad features supermodels on the catwalk. Everything starts to collapse and they fall in heaps, tearing their dresses. A singer begins to sing "when things go wrong, I'll be there for you"-well known in the UK as being by the soul band Hot Chocolate. He stands out as the one calm feature amidst chaos, dressed in a suit of Cadbury's signature purple, holding out a steaming cup of hot chocolate to the distressed models.
It isn't just the musical association that might be missed outside of the UK. It might not be appropriate in some countries to show models apparently being humiliated in this way, with their clothing in a state of disarray.
Presentation Styles
Presentation styles in Taiwan are subdued. The Taiwanese are used to sales representatives who are not very expressive. Therefore using a lot of hand gestures and body movement may be less effective when presenting to the Taiwanese. They may be suspicious of salespeople who are overtly enthusiastic or who spend a lot of time talking about the tremendous superiority of their product. Talking "too much" is often associated with not knowing much, or to use a Chinese saying, "You have more saliva than tea."
In contrast, the neutral orientation of the Dutch is reflected in their presentation style. Don't expect a Dutch salesperson or team to give a passionate presentation about their product. Presentations tend to be sober and low key, but at the same time informal and friendly. This style may be misinterpreted by people from other cultures. For example, since the Dutch are not inclined to show tremendous enthusiasm, Americans can misinterpret this to mean that Dutch presenters don't really believe in their products. Germans tend to interpret the Dutch informal presentation style as unprofessional; the Dutch tendency to use self-mockery may be seen by Germans as a lack of self-confidence.
Friendly Service in South Korea
Personnel in the service industry in Korea work hard, but given the neutral orientation of Koreans towards those who are not within their circle of intimates, it is difficult to get them to make a serious effort to be friendly to strangers. Expatriates in Korea sometimes perceive this as a lack of customer service. They also complain about unfriendly government officials. However once you get to know people in Korea, or have an intermediate contact person who knows them, service will be much more friendly. The lack of friendly customer service to those without contacts may lead to opportunities for those western companies that are especially good at delivering high-level customer service.
Creating an Overall Feeling Tone
Rather than displaying overt emotion to sell a product, the Japanese will strive to create an overall "feeling tone" in an advertisement. This approach is especially popular when advertising traditional Japanese products, such as tea or miso shiru (soup). For example, the tranquility of old traditional Japan requires little display of human emotion to get a message across. A recent ad for tea begins with four people in samurai costumes on a gondola-style boat. They are drinking the tea while slowly moving through the water as if they are in a dream. Then one calmly says "Lunch is just about over. We'd better return to the office." There are weak grunts of agreement. This hits a chord with the Japanese because they understand the feelings and atmosphere even though there are no strong changes in facial expression.
Ads that Caused Offence
What is considered funny in one culture can be misunderstood in another, interpreted at best as silly and at worst as offensive, with both reactions being contrary to the desired effect. For example, an Irish banking group recently introduced an advertising campaign portraying naked men with fig leaves and bibles. This ad had been successful in the UK. In Ireland, however, it caused much offence and there were so many complaints by the clergy in offices around the country that it had to be withdrawn. What was seen as a joke in the UK was considered bad taste in Ireland, where both nudity and religion are sensitive issues.
Another advertisement that bombed was a Benetton commercial, showing a new-born baby still attached to its umbilical cord. The "shock value" marketing approach of this image did not work and resulted in more offence than appreciation from the Irish public.
Sales Promotion
In promoting their products, Germans may often appear to be less enthusiastic than their counterparts from more affective cultures. Rather than trying to create a positive emotion in their customers, German salespeople prefer to emphasize the "objective" characteristics of the product and often use complex, pseudo-technical terminology to describe the product's advantages. When a new product is launched, it is therefore often more important to convince one's own salespeople of the benefits of the product rather than appealing to their emotions.
Cheering and publicly celebrating individual star performers in the sales team is also rather unpopular. The recognition of such achievements is often done in a very neutral way that excludes hype or dramatic effects.
Verbalizing Emotions
A remarkable way of neutralizing the expression of emotions is to describe them in words, rather than showing them through gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice. Just saying "I'm happy" without the nonverbal display of the emotion may strike affective people as unbelievable. For more neutral people like the Chinese, however, it is common to verbalize the emotion without a trace of the other signs of happiness. This can be observed in Chinese commercials. A person or a group of people will tell you, completely straight faced, how happy they are with a certain product. They will then continue by explaining why they are so happy. Just being happy is not enough to convince the reader or viewer; there has to be a reason as well.