The implementation of international advertising strategies : An exploratory study in Latin America

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of the implementation of international advertising strategies by first introducing a framework of four options that multinational enterprises (MNEs) can use to implement such strategies and second by drawing on contingency theory to develop and test hypotheses relating to how environmental factors and company characteristics affect such implementation. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses are tested using web‐survey data obtained from 182 Latin American managers based in the Mercosur trading bloc. Findings – Findings show that the choice of implementation process option is contingent on the environmental factor, cultural homogeneity and the company characteristics subsidiary size and MNE country‐of‐origin, yet not on regional economic integration. Research limitations/implications – This exploratory study contributes to advertising theory by offering an alternative approach to the consideration of the international advertising standardization question that focuses on the implementation of strategies rather than on their development. The findings further confirm the theory of regional multinationals in the context of international advertising decisions. Practical implications – The study presents practitioners with four distinct approaches to implementing their international advertising strategies as well as with clear guidelines as to how managers should implement those strategies depending on the specific benefits of standardization they want to achieve. Originality/value – To the knowledge of the authors, this study is the first to specifically address the implementation of international advertising strategies.