A Content Analysis of Magazine Advertisements from the United States and the Arab World.

In recent years, a wealth of literature has increased our understanding of cross-cultural differences in advertising content. Abernethy and Franke (1996) point out a gap in literature stating that "no study has examined the advertising information in any African nation, any part of the Middle

East other than Saudi Arabia, or any of the economies in transition associated with the former USSR." The current study, therefore, investigates differences in content of magazine advertisements from the United States and the Arab world comprising twelve Middle Eastern countries and ten African countries. Differences in the depiction of men and women, the extent of comparative advertising, the extent of information content, and the extent of price information are hypothesized, based on the role of religion in forming values (Luqmani, Yavas and Quraeshi 1987), the level of individualism (Hofstede 1980), and whether the culture is high-context or low-context (Hall 1976), as well as economic differences. One thousand sixty- four ads from Egyptian, Lebanese and United Arab Emirates, as well as pan-Arabic general interest, family, and women's magazines, together with 540 ads from three U.S. general interest, family and women's magazines, were content analyzed. It was found that people are depicted less frequently in Arabic magazine ads. However, in ads in which people are shown, there are no differences in the extent to which women are depicted. In ads in which women are shown, they are depicted wearing long dresses, and tend to be pictured in ads when their presence relates to the advertised product. Also, in ads showing people, there are no differences in the extent to which male models are depicted. U.S. ads have more information content, provide more price information, and use more comparative advertising than Arabic ads. Implications for international marketers wanting to advertise in Arab magazines are offered. Limitations and extensions are also discussed.

In recent years, a wealth of literature has increased our understanding of cross-cultural differences in advertising content (Abernethy and Franke 1996). Many studies have compared ad content across dissimilar cultures such as the United States and Japan (e.g., Hong, Muderrisoglu and Zinkhan 1987; Javalgi, Cutler and Malhotra 1995; Mueller 1987, 1992). Other studies have focused on the similarities and differences in advertising expressions between the United States and other culturally similar countries such as Great Britain and Australia (Dowling 1980; Weinberger and Spotts 1989a, 1989b), the European Community (Cutler and Javalgi 1992), Sweden (Wiles, Wiles and TjernlUnd 1996) and France (Biswas, Olsen and Carlet 1992). In a meta-analysis of advertising content studies, Abernethy and Franke (1996) found that those involving the United States dominate the literature, with 40 out of 59 studies analyzed dealing with United States media. In reviewing the literature, they noted that "much less is known about a dvertising information in other countries. For example, no study has examined the advertising information in any African nation, any part of the Middle East other than Saudi Arabia, or any of the 'economies in transition' associated with the former USSR" (p. 15).

This paper extends the research in cross-cultural advertising by analyzing the content of magazine advertisements from the U.S. and the Arab world, which is composed of twelve Middle Eastern countries (Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine [the Gaza strip and West Bank], Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, U.A.E. and Yemen) and ten African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Djibouti, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia). This study is not only a response to Abernethy and Franke's call, but is also significant for several other reasons. First, many Arab countries, such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates, are considered good markets, particularly for luxury goods and services, because of the high level of national income in these countries. The Arab world consists of approximately 275 million people, with total imports of over $150 billion. Second, due to global competition, their economies have undergone tremendous transformation within the last decade. Mos t Arab countries have pursued privatization and liberalization, which has led to more competition, entailing intensive advertising. Third, by contrasting magazine ad content in the United States and the Arab world, this study will facilitate a better understanding as to how Western-oriented advertising practices need to be modified to accommodate the religious beliefs, traditions and lifestyles of the Arab world.

While media in the Arab world are not as developed as in the United States, they are in the process of evolving into a more progressive state. Traditionally, print media have had the dominant share of advertising dollars (Martin 1998a). Newspapers have been the backbone of the Arabic media, but magazines are becoming more popular as advertising vehicles because of improved quality (Martin 1998a). Titles such as Hia compete with Western glossies, and publications of all sorts are improving the quality of editorial work, photography and paper (Martin 1998a). Arab publications can be classified broadly as "local" (for one country), "regional" (for one country with some spillover), or "pan-Arab" (for the whole of the Middle East and North Africa)(Martin 1998a). In this study, we analyze ads from pan-Arabic as well as local general interest, family, and women's magazines from Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. These countries are chosen because they are from the larger North African, Middle Eastern and Gulf regions. Therefore, the results can be generalized to an Arab population of approximately 275 million.

Background

It is generally accepted that consumers respond favorably to advertising messages that are congruent with their culture and reward advertisers who understand their culture and tailor their ads to reflect its values (Zhang and Gelb 1996). Therefore, understanding cultural differences is often considered a necessity for successful international advertising (Keegan 1996). The task of the advertiser is simplified greatly if advertising differences across cultures can be predicted (Albers-Miller and Gelb 1996). Thus, in addition to the existence of differences in ad content, the reasons for those differences are important to the international advertiser.

Differences in advertising content have been explained using different perspectives such as Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Albers-Miller and Gelb 1996), Hall's (1976) high and low context typology (Biswas, Olsen and Carlet 1992; Mueller 1992), and other country-specific variables, such as political philosophy and level of involvement (Rice and Lu 1988), and emotional versus rational style of decision-making (Javalgi, Cutler and Malhotra 1995). Ad content differences are complex and depend upon many factors, including those identified by past studies. To our knowledge, however, no study has explained advertising content based on religious beliefs, although religious beliefs form an important component of culture.

In this study, differences in ad content between U.S. and Arabic magazine ads are explained using cultural and economic reasons. The cultural reasons are based on the notion that Arab cultural values and norms are formed based on Islamic religious beliefs as well as other cultural factors such as the more collectivistic (Hofstede 1980) and high-context (Hall 1976) nature of Arabic culture. The American value system, on the other hand, is based predominantly on Christian beliefs (Protestant and Catholic), and is more individualistic (Hofstede 1980) and low-context (Hall 1976). This study is based on a contention that advertisers, in general, attempt to make advertisements consistent with the value system of the concerned culture. Economic reasons for differences in ad content are based on the United States being an economically more advanced market compared to Arab countries.

Over the past decade, a number of studies have made contributions to our understanding of differences between cultures in terms of the informational and emotional content of advertisements as well as humor, comparative ads and sex role portrayal (Abernethy and Franke 1996). This study investigates the differences in ad content of magazines from the United States and the Arab world in terms of their depiction of men and women, use of comparative ads, extent of information contained in the ad, and use of price appeals. The dimensions studied focus on ad execution and are driven mainly by theoretical explanations of the differences. While much is known about advertising in the United States, not much is known about advertising in the Arab world. Fundamentally, four issues that are important to international advertisers wanting to advertise in Arabic magazines are addressed in this study:

* To what extent are men and women shown in advertisements? Specifically, to what extent are women shown in advertisements and how are they depicted?

* To what extent are comparative ads used?

* To what extent do ads provide information?

* To what extent are price appeals used?

This study is also relevant to the standardization versus adaptation debate. Many scholars believe that it is difficult to standardize advertising and promotion in different markets (Geier 1986; Hornik 1980; Mueller 1992). An important reason is that cultural differences such as differences in language, traditions, beliefs and music dominate communications. Other scholars have suggested that advertisements should conform to the cultural values and norms of the target market in order to communicate successfully with the audience, and also to avoid triggering negative reactions toward a campaign (Boddewyn 1982; Boote 1982; Britt 1987; Hite and Fraser 1988). This study contributes to the debate on standardization versus adaptation of advertising by investigating advertising in a culture that has been seldom studied. Specifically, strategies for adapting advertisements in terms of the depiction of men and women, comparative advertising, information content and the use of price appeals are proposed.

Literature Review and Hypotheses

Before developing the hypotheses, we delineate differences between the United States and the Arab world that could potentially impact different aspects of ad content. The United States and the Arab world differ culturally and economically. While much is written about culture in the United States, relatively less is written about culture in the Arab world. Culturally, the United States and the Arab world can be contrasted in terms of the role of religion (Luqmani, Yavas and Quraeshi 1987), the level of individualism (Hofstede 1980) and cultural context (Hall 1976) in determining values. It can be argued that religion manifests itself differently in the Arab world than in the United States.

Arabic culture is a complex matrix in which the social structure, language and economic philosophy are fully grounded in the Islamic religion. The Islamic law, Shari'a, prescribes all that one should do (Coulson 1964). There are four major sources or roots (usul) of jurisprudence--the word of God himself in the Qur'an, the divinely inspired conduct of the Prophet (sunna), reasoning by analogy (qiyas), and consensus of opinion (ijma) (Coulson 1964, p. 55-59). According to the Sharia, where a problem is not specifically regulated by the Quran or sunna, the method of analogical reasoning must be used to extend the principles inherent in the Qur'an and the Sunna to cover new cases (Coulson 1964, p. 76). Ijma is the agreement of qualified legal scholars in a given generation and is used when analogical reasoning cannot be applied. Ijma and qiyas become important for our study because neither the Qur'an nor the Sunna addresses advertising directly.

The Shari'a is a comprehensive code governing the duties, morals and behavior of all Muslims, individually, and collectively in all areas of life, including commerce (Luqmani, Yavas and Quraeshi 1987). It completely describes the values that Muslims should hold, such as individual freedom, truth, justice, honesty, social obligations, collective responsibility, the roles of men and women and the role of buying and selling. As the Qur'an is followed by most Arabs, it influences Arab values with regard to issues such as business conduct (e.g., the appropriateness of business practices) as well as personal conduct (e.g., relationships with others and the role of women). The Appendix provides further details on the organization of the Qur'an and the sunna. Although the Shari'a does not explicitly address advertising, it is the Arab value system (influenced by the Sharia), along with other cultural factors (such as collectivism and cultural context), that influences advertising content. It must be noted that cultu ral values of the people influence ad content only indirectly through the copywriters and art directors (and their perception of the concerned culture) who create the advertisements in the respective cultures. This study is based on an assumption that ads are made by creative directors based on their understanding of the nuances of the concerned culture.

Depiction of Men and Women

The depiction of men and women in ads from Arab magazines is affected by economic and cultural factors. From an economic perspective, the United States is a more developed market compared to those in the Arab world. Arab markets can be characterized as sellers' markets as opposed to a buyers' market found in the United States. In such a sellers' market, marketers tend to emphasize the availability of the product as opposed to urging consumers to purchase products through testimonials and endorsements. Further, because the markets are relatively small, companies might not use models for economic reasons of producing ads faster.

From the cultural perspective of the Arab world, public expectations and restrictions on business and personal conduct are influenced by messages in the Shari'a. For example, according to the Qur'an, fraud may occur if the seller fails to deliver everything promised in a transaction. Therefore, advertisers try not to make promises that they cannot deliver and tend to focus on the product. This focus on the product would, in general, make advertisers depict people to a lesser degree in Arabic advertisements. While both men and women are expected to be dressed modestly, the Qur'an explicitly addresses the dress code for women. The Surat Al-Noor-Aih-31 in the Holy Qur'an addresses this issue and states that,

And say to the believing women

That they should lower

Their gaze and guard

Their modesty; that they

Should not display their

Beauty and ornaments except

What (ordinarily) appear

Thereof; that they should

Draw their veils over

Their bosoms and not display

Their beauty except

To their husbands, their fathers, .....

Even though the guidelines provided in the Qur'an might not be strictly followed in the contemporary Arab world, public expectation about modesty in dressing by women is influenced by the Qur'an. Advertisers, therefore, are likely not to deviate from this public expectation. They are likely to show women in Arabic advertising if their presence relates directly to the product and if they are appropriately dressed, that is, wearing long dresses and a head covering that does not expose any hair (Al-Makaty et al. 1996). Luqmani, Yavas and Quraeshi (1987) state that because religious norms require women to cover their bodies, international print ads might have to be modified by superimposing long dresses on models. On the other hand, there are few cultural restrictions on the depiction of women in U.S. ads. Therefore, U.S. advertisements are likely to show women more frequently than advertisements in Arabic magazines, and depict them differently. Consequently, in ads where models are pictured, men are likely to be depicted more often in Arabic ads than in American ads. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H1a: Compared to U.S. magazine ads, those in Arabic magazines depict men and/or women less frequently.

H1b: Compared to U.S. magazine ads that show men and/or women, those in Arabic magazines depict women less frequently.

H1c: Compared to U.S. magazine ads that show women, Arabic magazine ads tend to show only the faces of female models, or picture them wearing long dresses for modesty.

H1d: Compared to U.S. magazine ads that show women, those in Arabic magazines tend to use female models when their presence relates to the advertised product.

H1e: Compared to U.S. magazine ads that show men and/or women, those in Arabic magazines depict men more frequently.

Comparative Ads

In Arabic culture, behavior toward others is influenced by messages in the Shari'a as well as the more collectivistic nature of Arabic culture. Arabic culture, in general, encourages people not to compete, at the cost of harming others. For example, in messages related to behavior toward others, the Prophet Muhammad stated that "None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself" and that "A Muslim is the one who avoids harming Muslims with his tongue and hands" (Sahih Al-Bukhari 1996, p. 60-61). Also, the Arabic culture is a collectivistic culture where alms-giving (zakat), sharing of wealth and living in extended families prevails (Al-Thakeb 1986). In such a collectivistic culture, marketers' use of comparative advertising may be perceived to result in loathing among sellers, which is not consistent with societal values. Therefore, comparative advertising tactics would be used to a lesser degree in the Arab world. From an economic perspective, the more competitive nature of markets necessitates the use of "hard-sell" tactics such comparative advertising to a greater degree in the U.S compared to the Arab world.

Similar arguments have been made in regard to the use of comparative advertising in other countries such as Japan (e.g., Lin 1993; Ramaprasad and Hasegawa 1992). They pointed out that cultural norms reflect Japanese advertisers' reluctance to use comparative advertising, which connotes a confrontational practice that could make competitors lose face. Further, Lin (1993, p. 45) stated that, "boasting of product quality and bribing consumers into submission are not in line with the custom of respectful treatment of consumers and respectful projection of company image." These arguments also apply in the context of the Arab culture where the use of comparative advertising tends to be less desirable.

In contrast, the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. started encouraging comparative ad campaigns in the 1970s (Cutler and Javalgi 1992). Comparative ads may explicitly target other products by name and compare advantages upon performance. Such appeals commonly include statements such as "number one" and "leader" (Mueller 1987).

H2: Compared to U.S. magazine ads, those in Arabic magazines use fewer comparative appeals.

In formation Content

In Arabic culture, the best speech is considered to have few words that carry full meaning. Brevity of expression is considered a literary virtue; compressing great meaning into a few words that are easily understood is desired (Faruqi and Faruqi 1986). The Arabic culture is a high context culture where the interpretation of a message is based not only on words, but on the context in which the message takes place. Therefore, advertising to Arabic audiences does not require a great deal of information and explicit details (Biswas, Olsen and Carlet 1992). From another perspective, because of the more collectivistic nature of the society, people use other sources such as friends and relatives to find information about a product, thus reducing dependence on ads as a source of information.

In contrast to the high-context Arabic culture, the low-context American culture relies more on direct communication. Thus, consumers seek more information from ads. Americans are known for their interest in more information and precise details (Biswas, Olsen and Carlet 1992; Mueller 1987). Thus, American culture is reflected in advertisements that try to prove the merits of the product "clearly, logically and reasonably by directly presenting information, facts and evidence related to product merits and purchase reasons" (Hong, Muderrisoglu and Zinkhan 1987).

Our arguments are consistent with findings from a number of studies that information content in ads from low context cultures tends to be higher than in those from high context cultures (e.g., Biswas, Olsen and Carlet 1992; Lin 1993; Mueller 1987). Lin (1993, p. 44) noted that Japan was a high-context culture where communication objectives are directed toward achieving consensus and harmony in interpersonal communication and social circumstance. Similarly, Biswas, Olsen and Carlet (1992) noted that in the "high-context" French culture, the hidden and suggestive meanings might be used by the audience to interpret the messages, thus requiring lower levels of information content. Consistent arguments have also been used by researchers in contrasting the more "hard-sell" approach used by U.S advertisers compared to the "soft-sell" approach used by advertisers from other cultures such as Japan (Lin 1993; Mueller 1987) and the United Kingdom (e.g., Weinberger and Spotts 1989b). These studies support the argument t hat ads from the high-context Arab world should contain less information than those from the low-context U.S. Therefore, we hypothesize that

H3: Compared to U.S. magazine ads, those in Arabic magazines contain fewer information cues.

Price Appeal

Past studies provide some anecdotal evidence about the use of pricing information in Arab countries. For example, Hall (1959) mentioned that price is determined not only by the seller or his wishes but by the set of circumstances surrounding the purchase and this applies whether it is the purchase of a squash in the bazaar or a hydroelectric dam in the international market. Although Hall's research was carried out many years ago, bargaining is still an acceptable practice because many businesses in the Arab world are either individual or family owned, and these owners are likely to be more willing to negotiate prices. In research about agents and distributors in the Middle East, Dunn (1979) quoted a construction worker saying that "a thousand years of bazaar trading has taught them to sit on the product and wait for the customer to come to them," and another as saying "a common attitude in the Arab world is simply, 'We do not sell, but people buy."' While economic factors are important to the Arab consumer, they tend to emphasize price less than brand and company reputation. Consequently, they tend to seek ways to be convinced emotionally about a product. Therefore, advertising tends to be less direct and advertisers use less pricing information. From another point of view, mentioning price might be less desirable in Arab countries because stating pricing might be considered too direct and rude (Lin 1993).

The anecdotal evidence from past studies suggests that cultural context might influence the extent of price information provided in ads (Hall 1959; Dunn 1979). In the high-context Arabic culture, consumers tend to emphasize the context in which the purchase takes place. On the other hand, in the low-context U.S. culture, advertising tends to be more direct and, therefore, pricing information that is directly related to the purchase is provided more often. Also, the U.S. is a mature market where the competition among producers is intense; price is a crucial component in consumer decision-making. In general, researchers have found that price information in ads has a major appeal for American buyers (Cutler and Javalgi 1992; Javalgi, Cutler and Malhotra 1995; Madden, Caballero and Matsukubo 1986). Therefore, we hypothesize that,

H4: Compared to U.S. magazine ads, those in Arabic magazines contain less price information.

Method

Magazines and Countries Analyzed

Ads from popular general interest, family and women's magazines in the U.S. and the Arab world were analyzed. The three categories were chosen because magazines in these categories are popular advertising vehicles, particularly in the Arab world (Martin l99Sa). Also, these categories have been used in past studies on advertising content (e.g., Cutler and Javalgi 1992; Mueller 1992).

The pan-Arabic general interest, family and women's magazines analyzed were Al Majalla, Sayidaty, and Hia, which are published by a Saudi Arabian company in England. Al Majalla is a general interest magazine that covers news, politics and financial information and has a circulation of 99,000 (Martin 1998a). Sayidaty is a family magazine that covers social and family issues, fashion, beauty, accessories, literature and cinema and has a circulation of 150,000 (Martin 1998a). Hia is a women's magazine for the discerning affluent Arab lady and covers topics such as haute couture, jewelry, luxury accessories, cosmetics, tourism and leisure (circulation: 40,000). No individual circulations figures for the different countries were available.

In addition to ads from pan-Arab magazines, ads in magazines from three diverse Arab countries--Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) were analyzed. These countries differ in size, income and represent different geographical regions, namely North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf region. Egypt is the largest Arab country (population=68 million) and has a strong cultural influence on people in other Arab countries (Martin 1998b). It is considered the Mecca of the Arabic advertising world (Martin 1998b). Lebanon and the U.A.E. are relatively moderate states; Lebanon has a relatively large Christian population (Shipside 1997). UAE. is a Gulf country with very high per capita income.

The Egyptian general interest, family and women's magazines analyzed were Rose El Youssef, Nisf Dunia, and Hawaa (circulation: 100,000,212,000, and 40,000, respectively), which are all published in Cairo, Egypt. The Lebanese general interest, family and women's magazines analyzed were Al-Hawadeth, Wafaa, and Snob (circulation: 99,000, 14,000, and 23,000, respectively), which are all published in Beirut, Lebanon; and the U.A.E. general interest, family and women's magazines analyzed were Al Shuruq, Kul Al Usra, and Zahrat Al Khaleej (circulation: 26,000, 92,000, and 34,000, respectively), which are all published in Dubai, U.A.E. The circulation figures for the Arabic magazines were obtained from their publishers and distributors. Of the magazines studied, all except Hia, Wafaa and Snob are weekly magazines. Hia, Wafaa and Snob are published four times in three months. Twelve issues of each weekly magazine and four issues each of the other magazines were used.

The selection of the magazines was not randomized and was based upon matching of magazines from the U.S. and the Arab world in terms of their editorial profile. The editorial profile of the Arabic magazines is comparable to the editorial profile of Time, Family Circle and Vogue, the three U.S. general interest, family, and women's magazine analyzed. For example, Time covers topics such as national and world affairs; news of business, science, society, the arts and the people who make the news (Standard Rate and Data Service 1998), and has a circulation of approximately 4.2 million. Family Circle provides information on a variety of topics, from financial planning to food; from health to beauty and fashion to planning the perfect family outing (Standard Rate and Data Service 1998). It has a circulation of approximately 5 million. Vogue mirrors the changing roles and concerns of women, covering not only issues in fashion, beauty and style but also other issues related to art, health care, politics and new trend s (Standard Rate and Data Service 1998). Vogue has a circulation of approximately 1.13 million. The circulation differences might also be magnified, because readership in Arab countries is relatively higher due to large family sizes and readership in public libraries.

Ad Selection

In carrying out the content analyses, issues from the pan-Arabic and U.S. magazines for March--May 1998 were used. Issues from Egyptian, Lebanese, and the U.A.E. magazines for January--March 1999 were used. In accordance with past research (e.g., Wiles, Wiles and Tjernund 1996), only full page advertisements were analyzed. An analysis of the ads indicated that small ads form a relatively small percentage (less than 10%) of the total number of ads in both U.S. and Arabic magazines. All full page ads in issues for the three months were considered. Duplicate ads appearing in different issues and magazines across different Arab countries were excluded. Also, ads for fashion clothing were excluded as these are less common in the Arab magazines (Martin 1998a) and it is often difficult to distinguish editorial review of clothing fashion from advertisements for clothing (Javalgi, Cutler and Malhotra 1995). Using this procedure, 540 full- page American ads and 1064 Arab world ads were analyzed. Table 1 summarizes the magazines used and the number of ads analyzed.

Performing the Content Analysis

Three graduate students at a mid-sized mid-Atlantic university were trained to perform the content analysis. One student was American and another was Arabic. A third bilingual graduate student fluent in both English and Arabic analyzed the ads independently. They were trained to analyze the content of the U.S. and Arabic magazine advertisements using the following procedure:

1. Count the number of ads showing only men, only women, both men and women, and those showing no models.

2. Count the number of ads where only the faces of the female models are shown or where models wear long clothes covering their body and head.

3. Count the number of ads in which the presence of women relates to the product being advertised, such as cosmetics, perfumes, food, household products, over-the-counter drugs and personal products.

4. Evaluate whether the ads include competitive information, explicitly by mentioning names of competing brands or implicitly by including such words as "number one," "best" or "leader."

5. Use the Stern, Krugman and Resnik (1981) classification system, which determines the level of advertising information based on 14 criteria or cues. This coding scheme which was originally developed by Resnik and Stern (1977) for content analysis of television commercials has been widely used, as indicated in the recent meta-analysis of ad content studies by Abernethy and Franke (1996).

6. Count the number of ads that provide price information.

In order to reduce the effects of fatigue, coding was restricted to four hours a day with breaks after every hour. The inter-rater reliability was calculated using the percentage of similar classifications by the American coder and the bilingual coder for the U.S. ads, and by the Arabic coder and the bilingual coder for Arabic ads and ranged between 0.82-1.0. The inter-rater reliability results are shown in Table 2. All conflicts were resolved by discussion of the differences and consensus among the coders and the researcher.

Data Analysis

There are similarities and differences among countries constituting the Arab world. Therefore, before pooling advertisements from the pan-Arab, Egyptian, U.A.E, and Lebanese magazines, homogeneity among Arab countries has to be established. Homogeneity among Arab countries can be attributed to historical and cultural (religion and language) reasons. Historically, Islam has dominated the Arab world for the past thirteen hundred years. For many years these countries were unified under different Muslim caliphates such as Omayyads, Abbasids, and Ottomans (Cleveland 1964, p. 22-26, 39-50) and until the beginning of this century were a single nation. Also, the percentage of Muslims in Arab countries is uniformly high ranging from approximately 70% in Lebanon and 80% in Sudan to more than 90% in Saudi Arabia. Arabic is the official language in all Arab countries. Although dialects might vary from country to country, the grammatical system and written language are uniform across the Arab countries (Beeston 1970). In other words, cultural and economic differences between Arab countries do exist but there is a similarity of thinking that most inhabitants share across the Arab world due to homogeneity in terms of their religious beliefs and language.

From an advertising perspective, an analysis of the advertisements indicated that 25.2% of Egyptian ads, 27.2% of Lebanese ads, and 35.7% of ads from U.A.E magazines were duplicated across two or more countries or advertised in pan-Arabic magazines, which suggests that multinational companies find a degree of homogeneity in magazine ads from Egypt, Lebanon and the U.A.E. Also, qualitatively, we found that ads from Egypt, Lebanon, the U.A.E. as well as those from pan-Arabic magazines, generally, appear similar in terms of the dimensions of advertising studied. Before analyzing differences in ad content between U.S. and Arab magazine ads, similarities in ads from Egypt, Lebanon, and the U.A.E. were analyzed quantitatively using chi-square tests. In general, it was found that advertising content was similar in Egypt, Lebanon and the U.A.E. with chi-squares ranging from 0.84 to 8.87 with 2 degrees of freedom. In cases where differences were significant (price [chi-square=8.87] and information content with 5 or m ore cues being considered informative [chi-square=8.61], the deviations were not very high (0.7% to 6%). For example, 6.6% of Egyptian ads provided price information compared to 5.9% from Lebanon, and 11.8% from the U.A.E. These differences can be explained by factors such as economic and demographic differences, and differences in the level of industrialization between Egypt, Lebanon and the U.A.E. However, the differences are not big enough to influence the results of the concerned hypotheses. Therefore, based upon tests of homogeneity of advertising content, as well as homogeneity in language and cultural beliefs in the Arab world, we pool pan-Arabic magazine ads with those from Egypt, Lebanon and the U.A.E.

Results

Hypothesis H1a states that more U.S. ads depict people than Arabic ads. As the results in Table 3 indicate, 75% of U.S. ads depict men and/or women compared to 45% of the Arabic ads. The difference between the proportions was tested using a [[chi].sup.2]-test, which indicated that the difference was significant ([[chi].sup.2]=138.3, p[less than].01). Therefore, Hia was supported.

Hypothesis H1b states that more U.S. ads showing men and/or women depict women than Arabic ads. As the results in Table 3 indicate, 81% of U.S. ads showing men and/or women depict women compared to 77% of the Arabic ads. This difference was not significant, and H1b was not supported. Hypothesis H1c states that when women appear in ads, more Arabic ads show only their faces or picture them wearing long clothing than U.S. ads. As shown in Table 3, in 83% of Arabic magazine ads showing women, they were wearing long clothing, compared to 29% in U.S. ads. This difference was significant ([[chi].sup.2]=207.9, p[less than].01), thus supporting H1c. Hypothesis Hid states that when women appear in ads, more Arabic ads show women in ads when their presence relates to the advertised product than American ads do. As shown in Table 3, 93% of Arabic advertisements portray women when their presence relates to the advertised product, compared to 39% of U.S. advertisements. The difference between the Arabic and U.S. advertise ments was significant ([[chi].sup.2]=230.2, p[less than].01), supporting Hid. Hypothesis Hie states that in ads which picture male and/or female models, male models are depicted more in Arabic ads than in American ads. As the results in Table 3 show, 44% of Arabic advertisements that picture male and/or female models portray men, compared to 40% of U.S. advertisements. This difference was not significant, and Hid is not supported.

Hypothesis H2 states that comparative ads will be used more in U.S. magazine ads than in those from the Arab world. As shown in Table 3, 26% of U.S. ads made comparisons, while only 5.5% of Arabic magazine ads did so. This difference was significant ([[chi].sup.2]=140.7, p[less than].01), and hypothesis H2 was supported. Hypothesis H3 states that U.S. advertisements contain more information cues than Arabic advertisements. Tables 3 and 4 indicate that 63% of Arabic ads are informative compared to 88% of U.S. ads based on a criterion of at least two information cues to be present for an ad to be considered informative ([[chi].sup.2]=113.8, p[less than].01). As shown in Tables 3 and 4, when the criterion is raised to five or more cues, it is found that a large percentage (32%) of U.S. ads are informative compared to only 6.8% of Arabic ads ([[chi].sup.2]=327.4, p[less than].01). Overall, as shown in Table 4, U.S. ads emphasize information cues (mean score=3.67) more than Arabic ads (mean score=2.24). Thus, hypo thesis H3 was supported.

Finally, hypothesis H4 states that U.S. advertisements include price information more often than Arabic advertisements. Table 3 shows that 20% of U.S. ads in the sample contain price information, compared to only 8% of Arabic ads. This difference is significant ([[chi].sup.2]=48.8, p[less than].01), and, therefore, hypothesis H4 was supported.

Discussion and Implications

The results of this study should enable advertisers to understand how companies are currently adapting their advertising strategies to the Arab world. Researchers have pointed out that many multinationals follow a "regionalization" strategy by identifying homogeneous cross-cultural groups with similar needs (e.g., Tai 1997). Based on our results, some advertisers seem to be employing a "regionalization" strategy in the Arab world. It is found that there is consistency in the advertising strategies and execution across ads from diverse Arab countries. 25.2% of Egyptian ads, 27.2% of Lebanese ads, and 35.7% of ads from U.A.E. magazines were duplicated across two or more countries. This suggests that Western companies seem to find some homogeneity across Arab audiences. Further, it was found that for ads that are not duplicated across two or more countries, there is consistency in the execution approaches used (i.e., the depiction of men and women, use of comparative advertising, information content and extent to which price information is provided are similar). Regionalization is attractive because it can result in substantial economies of scale and failure to adapt might result in advertising blunders.

Legislation is one of the factors that can potentially influence ad content. Legislation pertaining to the regulation and censure of ads is scarce in the Arab countries studied; therefore, guidelines for advertising have to be drawn from cultural orientation. These observations are consistent with an earlier study by Luqmani, Yavas and Quraeshi (1987) that found little regulation of advertising in Saudi Arabia. We believe there are no regulations related to specific ad content dimensions investigated in this study because if there were any, we would have found zero incidence of usage in at least one country, which we did not. We do recommend, however, that international advertisers give consideration to both regulation and cultural influences, such as those discussed this study, when determining ad content.

The role of regulation in influencing ad content in the U.S. and the Arab world can also be understood by reviewing the arguments and findings of an international study related to advertising regulation by Shao and Hill (1994, p. 352). They stated, "Historically, anthropologists note that traditional societies (notably in developing countries but also in rural parts of advanced markets) are controlled through religious and social conventions" (Gibbs 1982; Merrill 1969). They also noted, "in many religions (e.g., Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism), religious and social duties are indistinguishable" (Terpstra and David 1991). Further, they argued that societal behavior in high-context cultures relies more on social norms and codes than on explicit laws, and that low-context cultures tend to be more legalistic. In their study with foreign affiliates of advertising agencies, they found that social restrictions were more in developing countries and the developed countries tend to be more liberal. From a similar perspe ctive, it is possible that comparative advertising might be perceived as unethical or immoral in the Arab world. The differences in ad content have to be considered in light of possible differences in regulation and attitudes toward comparative ads between the United States and the Arab world, as well as intra-Arab country differences in regulation.

Along with cultural and economic differences, the manner in which advertising is created can potentially influence ad content. For example, Taylor, Hoy and Haley (1996) researched how French creative professionals define creative strategy and specifically studied the use of research in creating strategy. Based on their results, they stated, "One very clear distinction is that the American approach includes pretesting and quantifying consumer knowledge as part of the planning process and the French approach does not" (p. 7) and, "Given a choice, French advertising professionals rely more heavily on intuition and experience for developing strategy than on American-style research" (p. 12). With respect to this study, given that the extensive consumer research and copy-testing research that many companies in the U.S. employ is often not available to the Arab creative professionals, the advertising strategies developed by Arab creative professionals can be assumed to be based upon their intuition and understandin g of Arab cultural norms and nuances. Also, ad content can be potentially influenced by demographic differences among Arab countries such as differences in per capita income. From another perspective, many businesses operating in smaller international markets have to balance the benefits of adaptation with the costs of adaptation. Under such circumstances, it is particularly useful to cut down costs through the use of similar advertising strategies in Arab countries, without offending cultural values and norms.

Consistent with past studies on cross-cultural advertising, the findings of this study suggest that ads produced in one country cannot simply be standardized or directly translated for use in another, particularly if they are different culturally and in terms of economic development. Multinational corporations attempting to advertise in the Arab world should be aware of the

differences in the usage of different ad executions between Western countries (particularly the United States) and the Arab world. While deviating from current practices would not necessarily result in failure, the cultural influences explored in this study (especially the religious restrictions noted) suggest that advertisers should be cautious about making changes. Because understanding the cultural implications of creative strategies is difficult to evaluate, it is recommended that international marketers validate their advertisements with business associates in the Arab world.

Depiction of Men and Women: In general, people are depicted less often in Arabic ads than in U.S. ads. When ads picture men and/or women, men and women are portrayed to the same degree both in the U.S. and the Arab world. However, the portrayal of women differs. When advertising in the Arab world, marketers should carefully evaluate how women are portrayed in their ads. They should realize that currently women are used in magazine ads mainly when their presence relates to the advertised product; for product categories such as cosmetic and beauty products, or for household products such as food and cleaning products and medicines, and that when female models are used, they show the models wearing long dresses covering their body. For example, when female models were used in the cosmetic and personal product ads analyzed, the focus of the ad was on how the product enhances the facial beauty of the model. In general, it is important that advertisers are sensitive to the religious implications of their creative strategies.

The use of comparative ads: In contrast to advertising in the U.S., advertisers in the Arab world tend to avoid direct comparative advertising. If a product or service has a strong competitive advantage, they communicate it using words such as "the best," "better than any other product," and "number one," thus using comparative advertising indirectly. For example, even ads for well-known automobile and cellular phone brands were found to use comparative advertising indirectly. Advertisers, and particularly those with advantages over their competition, should evaluate their advertising strategies accordingly.

Information content: Advertisers should be aware that the Arab language has a profuse vocabulary, which enables advertisers to write both precise and concise copy. Also, Arab societies are collectivistic societies, where consumers do not use advertising as the major source of information. Instead, consumers gather information from other personal and non-personal sources. The function of advertising, then, is to create awareness and interest in the product. Under such circumstances, advertisers can attempt to elicit affective responses to their ads by using emotional appeals as opposed to rational ones. This can be accomplished by emphasizing the brand name and the visual components of the advertisement, as opposed to providing a lot of copy.

Price and promotion information: The findings of this study provide more evidence about the importance of price that supports the anecdotal observations made by past researchers (e.g., Hall 1959; Dunn 1979). In the high-context Arab world, price has a relatively smaller role in consumers' choice of products. Consumers look for brand name products. Generally, advertisers avoid price and promotion information in ads. This, of course, depends upon the reputation of the brand and the type of product. For example, only a few well-known brands, such as Lexus automobiles and Maulinex vacuum cleaners, were found to include price information. Advertisers should, therefore, consider these findings in determining whether to mention price in the advertisement.

Limitations and Extensions

The results of this study should be interpreted considering certain limitations. First, this study examined only one advertising medium with a limited sample of general interest, family and women's magazines. Future research may include other types of magazines such as news, men's, health, travel and sports magazines, to increase the generalizability of the findings. Second, the study covered a three-month time period; future studies may cover a longer time period to explore seasonal and holiday variation. Third, in this study, in addition to pan-Arabic magazine ads, magazine ads from three Arab countries were analyzed. Additional Arab countries, particularly those in Africa, should be included in the future. Fourth, while recommendations made here relate only to ad content dimensions investigated in this study, advertisers can learn more if additional ad appeals and execution approaches are studied in the future. Fifth, Arab countries exhibit somewhat unique demographic characteristics because of a large ex patriate population. The findings of this study apply to Arab audiences and not to the entire population in the Arab world.

As Taylor, Hoy and Haley (1996, p.3) point out, "Our knowledge of how advertising operates in other cultures is based largely on content analyses of the end product (advertisements) rather than studies of the process itself." Our understanding of differences in content of U.S. and Arab magazines would, therefore, be enhanced by studying how approaches used by creative professionals in the Arab world differ from those used by U.S. creative professionals. The same study can also be conducted using an alternative methodology that measures perceptions about the dimensions of advertising studied among people from the U.S. and the Arab world. This study investigated the variation in print ad content based on cultural and economic differences. Variables other than economic and cultural factors, which may affect the content of an advertisement, need to be considered. These factors include product type, type of company, the country's preferred advertising medium and demographic differences. For example, differences i n advertising strategies used by multinational and domestic companies can be explored. Such factors need to be examined more thoroughly in order to attain a more comprehensive understanding of differences in ad content. A multi-country study of this nature might be useful. For example, an analysis of studies using the Resnik and Stern (1977) procedure indicates that there is significant variation in the number of information cues used by advertisers in different countries. Past studies have determined the number of cues to be 3.59 for U.S magazine ads, 2.25 for French magazine ads, and 2.26 for Chinese magazine ads (Biswas, Olsen and Carlet 1992; Rice and Lu 1988). However, these studies were carried out at different times and with different magazines. In the current study, the number of cues were found to be 3.67 for U.S. magazine ads (which is consistent with past research) and 2.24 for Arabic ads. A multi-country study similar to ours would increase our understanding of international differences in adverti sing.

Fahad S. Al-Olayan is a doctoral candidate in international business at Old Dominion University and a faculty member at the College of Business and Economics, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.

Kiran Karande (Ph.D., University of Houston) is an Assistant Professor of marketing at Old Dominion University.

The authors would like to thank former editor Les Carlson, the four anonymous reviewers, and Janet Marta for their insightful comments.

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                   Summary of Magazines, Circulation and
                     Number of Advertisements Analyzed
U.S. Magazines                      Arab World
                                    Pan-Arab Magazines
Type of        Magazine      #      Magazine             #
Magazine       (Circulation) of Ads (Circulation)        of Ads
General        Time          140    Al-Majalla           128
Interest       (4.2 m)              (99,000)
Family         Family        160    Sayidaty             190
               Circle               (150,000)
               (5 m)
Women's        Vogue         240    Hia                  80
               (1.13 )              (40,000)
Total Ads
Analyzed                     540                         398
                                    Total Arab world Ads
                                    Analyzed=1064
U.S. Magazines
               Egyptian Magazines        Lebanese Magazines
Type of        Magazine           #      Magazine           #
Magazine       (Circulation)      of Ads (Circulation)      of Ads
General        Rose El            84     Al-Hawadeth        42
Interest       Youssef                   (99,000)
               (100,000)
Family         Nisf Dunia         120    Wafaa              74
               (212,000)                 (14,000)
Women's        Hawaa [*]          54     Snob               58
               (40,000)                  (23,000)
Total Ads
Analyzed                          258                       174
U.S. Magazines
               U.A.E. Magazines
Type of        Magazine         #
Magazine       (Circulation)    of Ads
General        Al Shurug        40
Interest       (26,000)
Family         Kul Al Usra      118
               (92,000)
Women's        Zahrat Al        76
               Khaleej
               (34,000)
Total Ads
Analyzed                        234
(*.)only six issues of Hawaa were analyzed
because of non-availability
                    Results of Inter-Rater Reliability
                      # of  Wearing long Product Competitive Ads
                      women   clothing   Related     Direct      Indirect
Between American
  and bilingual rater  1.0      0.94      0.82        0.88         0.82
Between Arabic
  and bilingual rater  1.0      0.88      0.84        0.94         0.90
Mean reliability       1.0      0.90      0.83        0.91         0.88
                      # of
                      cues Price
Between American
  and bilingual rater 0.93  1.0
Between Arabic
  and bilingual rater 0.83  1.0
Mean reliability      0.86  1.0
Hypotheses                          U.S. Ads  Arab World Ads
H1a: Depiction of people        Yes 407 (75%)   473 (45%)
                                No  133 (25%)   591 (55%)
H1b: Depiction of women         Yes 328 (81%)   364 (77%)
                                No   79 (19%)   109 (23%)
H1c: Women in long dresses      Yes  94 (29%)   302 (83%)
                                No  234 (71%)    62 (17%)
H1d: Products relevant to women Yes 128 (39%)   339 (93%)
                                No  200 (61%)    25 (7%)
H1e: Depiction of men           Yes 164 (40%)   206 (44%)
                                No  243 (60%)   267 (56%)
H2: Comparative advertising     Yes 141 (26%)    58 (5.5%)
                                No  399 (74%)  1006 (94.5%)
H3: Information content
   2 or more cues               Yes 477 (88%)   669 (63%)
                                No   63 (12%)   395 (37%)
  5 or more cues                Yes 171 (32%)    72 (6.8%)
                                No  369 (68%)   992 (93.2%)
H4: Price appeals               Yes 108 (20%)    85 (8%)
                                No  432 (80%)   979 (92%)
[[chi].sup.2]-value
       138.3 [*]
         1.72 [**]
       207.9 [*]
       230.2 [*]
         0.95 [**]
       140.7 [*]
       113.8 [*]
       327.4 [*]
        48.8 [*]
(*.)Significant at the .01 level
(**.)Not significant
          American Ads                    Arabic Ads
   (1)        (2)        (3)      (4)        (5)       (6)      (7)
# of cues   # of ads   (1)x(2) % of total  # of ads  (1)x(5) % of total
   10          2         20       0.4%        0         0        0.0%
    9          5         45       1.2%        0         0        0.0%
    8          11        88       3.3%        0         0        0.0%
    7          16        112      6.0%        9        63        0.8%
    6          41        246     14.0%        29       174       3.6%
    5          96        480     32.0%        34       170       6.8%
    4         115        460     53.0%        86       344      14.8%
    3         103        309     72.0%       234       702      36.8%
    2          88        176     88.0%       277       554      62.9%
    1          46        46      97.0%       377       377      98.3%
    0          17         0     100.0%        18        0      100.0%
  Total       540       1982                 1064     2384
  Mean                  3.67                          2.24

Appendix

The Holy Qur'an has 30 parts and 114 surahs (chapters). Each part includes several surahs, and there are some long surahs which are included in more than one part. Each surah is divided into parts called Ajat. Some surahs have many Alat, others have only a few. There are several books about the sunna. One of the well-known books on the sunna was by a Muslim scholar, Al-Bukari, in the eight century. This book is a compilation of the sunna from various sources and includes 97 books (kitabs) which are organized by topic.