University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Communication
Master’s programme: Corporate Communication
Master Thesis
Cross-cultural online communication use of international companies: a case study of IKEA
Student: Akvile Puluikyte Student Number: 12261505
Supervisor: Anna Berbers
2 Abstract
Social media has become an important tool for brand communication. With the help of social networks, brands can communicate to their customers from around the world in an easier and cheaper way. Because of such possibilities, brands have developed social media profiles localised to the countries they are communicating to. One such brand is IKEA – an international home furnishing brand that has 46 different Facebook profiles targeting different countries. And while more and more brands implement such a communication strategy, there is still a lack of academic research that analyses this type of international communication. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to examine the extent to which IKEA localises its messages online by comparing two countries: the UK and Lithuania. A content analysis was conducted on IKEA’s Facebook and Instagram profiles created for both of these countries. In total, 240 posts were coded and analysed. The results showed that IKEA uses a global communication strategy on both Facebook and Instagram, which means that it implements the same creative strategies and execution types in both countries. Results also showed that even though the overall communication strategy does not differ in both
countries, the use of cultural cues does. The analysis showed that IKEA uses much more cultural cues in its UK profiles compared to Lithuanian ones and this is evident on both Instagram and Facebook. While this study tried to fill in the research gap of cross-cultural social media communication in Europe, it also resulted in practical implications. This study can be used by other international brands as an example of how to create successful cross-cultural communication in Europe.
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Introduction
Social media has revolutionised the way organisations promote, relate and communicate to the society (Aral, Dellarocas, & Godes, 2013). While on one hand, social media brings new opportunities for organisations who want to communicate to their customers, on the other hand, it requires them to try new communication strategies and tactics (Godes et al., 2005). Social media provides a new way for businesses to communicate to their consumers by considering the location and culture of the country they are communicating to (Copus & Carnogursky, 2017). This way social media becomes the main tool that helps companies reach consumers all over the world. To do that in a more authentic way, organisations create social media profiles designed for a specific country.
Localised social media profiles help to reach distinct audiences and communicate to them in such a way that is appropriate to their culture. One example of such practice is an
international home furnishing brand IKEA. On social media, the brand has profiles targeting specific countries rather than using a global profile. IKEA has 46 Facebook profiles, each for a different country like the Netherlands, USA, Norway, Malaysia, etc. (IKEA Facebook profile, 2019) and 17 Instagram profiles for such countries as Sweden, Germany, Japan, Jordan, etc. (IKEA Instagram profile, 2019). The aim of this study is to look at the differences between how IKEA communicates to two different countries by using two different social media platforms.
For this study, Lithuania and the UK have been chosen as the two countries to which IKEA communicates to. The two European countries have been chosen because they
represent Western and Eastern Europe and, while they are in the same continent, they do have different cultures and norms that should be taken into account (Bains, 2015). IKEA has been chosen as the case for this research because it is a well-known international brand operating
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in 52 countries (IKEA website, 2019). IKEA is an interesting example of international communication, because as Baxter and Landry (2017) argue, IKEA uses both standardised (global) and adaptive (local) communication strategies when it comes to reaching customers worldwide. On one hand, IKEA releases catalogues that differ in each country based on language, currency as well as the culture of that country (Baxter & Landry, 2017). On the other hand, the brand takes pride in creating a uniform brand image in every country of the world (IKEA website, 2019).
It appears that with the rise of social media, the company is turning to a more local approach online, which seems to be quite successful. IKEA’s international Facebook profile has more than 28 million followers (IKEA Facebook page, 2019), while IKEA UK on Instagram is followed by 884 thousand people and IKEA Lithuania Instagram is followed by 13.6 thousand people (IKEA Instagram pages, 2019). Based on such high following rates online, it is fair to say that IKEA’s online strategy could be a good example for others, which is why it is important to study the case of this international brand. This will be done with the following research question:
RQ: To what extent does IKEA use standardisation and adaptation strategies in their social media communication?
There is a lack of research on standardisation and adaptation in Europe. In the context of international advertising, Europe is usually compared to Asia or the USA (Hornikx & de Groot, 2017), however, there are only a few studies looking at the different cultures inside Europe (Koudelova & Whitelock, 2001). Moreover, there is also a need to look at
international advertising in the age of social media. While Hatzitomas, Fotiadis, and Coudounaris (2016) have studied Facebook content in Europe by comparing the UK and Greece, there is a lack of studies looking at standardisation and adaptation on Instagram, let
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alone studies comparing Instagram and Facebook. The researcher aims to fill this research gap.
While looking at societal relevance, the aim of this study is to show how other
international companies can use social media to either standardise or adapt their advertising strategies for their international customers. This kind of study, comparing two social media networks in terms of international advertising is highly relevant now as social media becomes more and more important. Mangols and Faulds (2009) argue that to consumers, social media seems to be more trustworthy than the old media such as TV, radio or newspapers, but it has the same power to influence them on various customer factors like brand awareness,
behaviour, attitudes and purchase intention. Consumers are turning to social media for
information about companies and their products, therefore now is an important time to look at the use of social media by the companies themselves.
The researcher of this thesis will first look at the theoretical background of standardisation and adaptation strategies as well as social media and the role of culture. Then, the researcher will explain the research methods that were used to conduct this study. After the method section, the results will be explained and discussed, followed by the limitations and future possibilities of this research.
Theoretical Background
International communication strategies: Standardisation and Adaptation
In the era of globalisation, companies who wish to expand their business worldwide are faced with a question of how to do that successfully. Mueller (1991) suggests, that
international businesses can choose to either standardise or specialise their advertising campaigns to different regions. Agrawal (1995) calls these approaches standardisation and adaptation. Even though Mueller (1991) and Agrawal (1995) use slightly different
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terminology, the main ideas behind them are the same. The standardisation approach, supported by Fatt (1967) and Levitt (1983) suggests that advertisers should focus on the similarities of consumers around the world rather than look for differences between them. Agrawal (1995) notes that the positive outcomes of standardisation include reduced costs of planning and a more international brand image. The specialisation approach suggested by Mueller (1991), which Agrawal (1995) calls adaptation, suggests that advertisers must take into account the cultural, economic or media differences of countries and should use localised messages and content to target every country separately (Britt, 1974; Nielsen, 1964). In order to stay consistent throughout this thesis, the terms used in the following sections will be “standardisation” and “adaptation” when referring to international communication.
According to Agrawal (1995), international advertisers have been debating on which approach is better since the 1950s. While over the years, advertising practitioners have been jumping from one approach to another, Agrawal (1995) notes that academics have been consistent in advocating for the adaptive approach. In their study of television
advertisements, Koudelova and Whitelock (2001) found that international brands tend to adapt their communication to the countries they want to reach. In a more recent study by Jiang and Wei (2012), where they researched advertisements in print newspapers, the authors also found international organisations using an adaptive strategy to communicate to
international audiences. Other examples by Lin, Swarna, and Bruning (2017) or Fastoso and Whitelock (2012) show the same results and provide some interesting insights. For example, Fastoso and Whitelock (2012) argue that the standardisation approach works best for high luxury brands that want to keep their brand image the same no matter the country they are communicating to. However, more affordable brands choose to adapt their communication strategies (Fatoso & Whitelock, 2012).
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Standardisation and adaptation in the age of social media
With the rise of social networks, organisations have more tools to reach international audiences than ever before, yet the question of which approach is better still stands. Wei and Jiang (2005) cite Duncan and Ramaprasad (1995) to argue that a way to study cross-cultural advertising in a more detailed way is through the creative strategy and execution used in an advertising campaign. Creative strategy in a campaign is the guiding principle and the general message the organisation wants to send to the audience – this can be a specific argument or an emotional appeal that the brand uses (Wei & Jiang, 2005). The execution refers to the advertising appeals that are used to execute the creative strategy like pictures, colours, text, layout, etc. (Wei & Jiang, 2005). Based on this, Wei and Jiang (2005) have developed a more detailed model to examine the standardisation or adaptation of a brand. They propose four types of advertising strategies: global, glocal, local and single case. Global strategy refers to a highly standardised creative strategy and a highly standardised execution. Glocal strategy refers to a highly standardised creative strategy but an adapted execution. Local strategy refers to an adapted creative strategy and an adapted execution. Single case strategy refers to an adapted creative strategy but a highly standardised execution.
Academics have started to study international advertising in terms of standardisation and adaptation on social media only in 2013 (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013). Since then, not a lot of research has been done to study which approach is used by international brands on social media. The research that has been done also brings conflicting results. For example, a study by Hatzithomas et al. (2016) shows, that Vodafone implements a local strategy (highly adapted creative strategy and highly adapted execution) in their Facebook campaigns to communicate to their audiences in the UK and Greece. However, another study on car manufacturers in Europe, show that they tend to use a more glocal strategy on Facebook
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(Copus & Carnogursky, 2017), which involves a highly standardised creative strategy with an adapted execution.
According to Phua, Jin, and Kim (2017), Instagram and Facebook are the most popular social media platforms for following brands online, therefore, it is important to look at how brands use them. While Facebook and Instagram are the most popular platforms, they are also very different. First of all, they cater to different demographics. While Instagram is more popular amongst younger users, Facebook is used by older users (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Second of all, the type of content on these platforms is also different. Instagram relies on visual content like images and videos, while Facebook is used more for information in a written form (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Third, these mentioned differences also influence the way brands use these platforms and which strategies they choose. According to Klassen et al. (2018), brands on Instagram create relationships with their followers by using such strategies as relatable content, positive emotions and stories. However, relatable content on Facebook is perceived negatively. The aim of this study is to look at how an international brand uses these two platforms to adapt its content in two countries. Therefore, based on the previously
mentioned differences between Facebook and Instagram, the researcher proposes the first hypothesis:
H1: The adaptive communication strategies (global, glocal, local, single-case) used by IKEA on social media will differ on Instagram and Facebook.
The impact of cultural dimensions on international communication
In order to see if a company uses a more standardised or adaptive strategy, the
communication of an international brand needs to be studied in at least two countries. The two countries – Lithuania and the UK – will have an effect on how IKEA communicates to the audiences in each of these locations. That is because international brands usually use
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specific cultural cues in their advertising in order to target a specific country or culture. While many researchers agree that cultural cues adapted to a specific country in an advertisement make it more successful (Hornikx & De Groot, 2017; Kaynak & Kara, 2013), the extent of adaptation of cultural cues needed is not clear and always depends on a particular country (Hornikx & O’Keefe, 2009).
De Mooij (1998) distinguishes four manifestations of culture: symbols, rituals, heroes and values. The author argues that while values are the deepest manifestations of culture, symbols are the most superficial ones and are easy to replicate. Because of that, symbols become cultural cues used by advertisers to target a specific country or culture. According to De Mooij (1998), symbols can be words, pictures or gestures that carry specific meaning to those who share the same culture. It is not communicated directly, but it is understood by
everybody of the same culture (Trice & Beyer, 1993). For example, for Lithuanians, the Lithuanian flag is a symbol that carries an important meaning of independence, whereas for people in the UK it does not have a shared meaning. Another manifestation of culture that can be easily replicated by brands is language. Trice and Beyer (1993) suggest that language as a part of culture is executed through jargon, slang, humour, metaphors, etc. and
organisations use these language forms to create cultural images (Trice & Beyer, 1993). In this study, the researcher will look at symbols and language as cultural cues used by IKEA to adapt their content on social media.
It is important to look at these cultural cues because not a lot of research has been done on the use of cultural cues in Europe. Hornikx and De Groot (2017) argue that most research is done comparing complete opposite countries like the USA and China or the UK and Japan. Here the results usually show that the more Western a country is, the less cultural cues the advertisements will have (Harun, Teo, Hussin, & Nasir, 2014). When looking at Europe, Whitelock and Rey (1998) show that in the UK, international advertisements tend to be less
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localised than in central European countries, which means that advertisers in the UK use less cultural cues that relate to the British culture. Another study by Hoeken, Starren, Nickerson, Crijns, and Van den Brandt (2007) showed that consumers in Western Europe view
advertisements without adapted cultural cues more favourably, whereas consumers in Eastern Europe prefer advertisements with adapted cultural cues (Lepkowska-White, Brashear, & Weinberger, 2003). Following this reasoning of previously mentioned studies conducted in Europe, the researcher proposes the second and third hypothesis:
H2: IKEA will use more cultural cues in their Lithuanian Facebook profile than they will in their Facebook profile in the UK.
H3: IKEA will use more cultural cues in their Lithuanian Instagram profile than they will in their Instagram profile in the UK.
Method section Research Design:
The research question of this study was explored with content analysis. Such research method was chosen because the aim of this research was to analyse social media content and draw conclusions from these analyses and observations in a systematic and easily replicable way (Riffe, Lacy & Fico, 2014).
Sample:
The researcher used nonprobability sampling. This method was chosen because of a couple of obstacles that occurred while collecting the data. Probability sampling such as constructed weeks was not feasible as the four social media platforms did not have a shared schedule for posts. The researcher noticed that some profiles posted up to three times a day, while others would go months without posting anything. Because of time restrictions, the
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researcher could not use systematic sampling and randomly select posts from all the data. Therefore, while acknowledging the limitations of such method (Riffe, Lacy, & Fico, 2014), it was decided to use nonprobability sampling and analyse the most recent posts from each social media profile. As the researcher aimed to conduct chi-square and t-test analyses later on, the sample size was selected to be 240 social media posts – 60 posts per social media profile. Based on Van Voorhis and Morgan (2007), this sample size is large enough to find a medium to large effect in the population.
Data collection:
The data for this analysis consisted of social media posts made by localised IKEA profiles. Data was collected from two Facebook profiles: IKEA UK and IKEA Lithuania and two Instagram profiles: IKEA UK and IKEA Lithuania. As this data is available to everyone online, no special data collection tools were used. The researcher visited the four social media profiles and manually screenshotted the posts for later analysis. The sixty posts per profile were collected on the 18th of November, 2019. On the IKEA Lithuania Facebook profile, the 60 most recent posts were from the 18th of November, 2019 to the 2nd of September, 2019. On the IKEA UK Facebook profile, the 60 most recent posts were from the 14th of
November, 2019 to the 12th of January, 2018. On the IKEA Lithuania Instagram, the 60 most recent posts were from the 15th of November, 2019 to the 22nd of July, 2019. On the IKEA UK Instagram profile, the 60 most recent posts were from the 16th of November, 2019 to the 20th of August, 2019.
Codebook and operationalisation of variables:
Based on previous research on standardisation and adaptation, the researcher evaluated the extent of standardisation and adaptation through the creative strategies and executions used on social media. The researcher also coded cultural cues used in each social media profile in
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both countries. As each strategy, execution and cultural cue was coded as a separate item and not a scale, the researcher did not conduct a factor analysis. The following section will explain the operationalisation of the dependent variables and the structure of the codebook. The full codebook with coding instructions can be found in the appendix.
The first section of the codebook was used to code general information about the post: coder, social media platform and country of that social media platform. The second and third section of the codebook coded the creative strategy and execution of a social media post. According to Wei and Jiang (2005), creative strategy is the most important part of a campaign as it acts as a guiding principle or the main message of a campaign. While the execution is used to decide how to translate that message to an audience. The researcher copied the codebook for creative strategy and execution from Jiang and Wei (2005), who have been inspired by Simon (1971) and Koudelova and Whitelock (2001).
Creative strategy. Based on the previously mentioned researchers, the variable of creative strategy was operationalised with ten creative strategies: information, argument, motivation with psychological appeals, repeat assertion, command, brand familiarisation, symbolic assertion, imitation, obligation, and habit starting. The information strategy refers to a presentation of facts or basic news of a product, shop, brand, etc. The argument strategy refers to using logical reasoning or a fact in order to persuade the customer to buy a product. The third strategy, motivation with psychological appeals, uses emotional appeal to show the advantages of a product and create a desire for a product. Repeated assertion strategy refers to repeating the same information again and again. Command strategy uses some kind of
authority or expert of the field to persuade the audience. Brand familiarisation strategy refers to using loyalty and trustworthiness as a selling point. Symbolic assertion strategy uses symbols to allude to something else, in this case, it was the symbol of IKEA as a
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Obligation strategy uses free gifts and offers that make the customers feel grateful to the brand. The last strategy, habit starting, uses offers to make customers establish a routine or regular practice with the brand.
Execution. The execution variable was operationalised with five executional formats: story, product, visuals, humour, and relationship. The codebook by Jiang and Wei (2012) proposed to code each execution with a couple of categories, however, for this research, the codebook was simplified to observe if an executional format was used or not. The first executional format, story, refers to a post having some sort of story, problem and solution, example of how a product is made or used, whether it is written in text or shown in a video. The second format is product and refers to a post showcasing a specific product. The third format is visuals, which refers to a post having any type of visual like image, video, gif, etc. The format of humour refers to a post using a joke, pun, irony, etc. The last executional format is relationship and refers to a post showing any kind of relationship, whether it is a friendship or a family.
Cultural cues. The fourth part of the codebook was used to code cultural cues, however, because most research of this field looks at culture from an individualistic or collectivistic point of view, the researcher had to create this part of the codebook herself. It was inspired by De Mooij (1998) and Trice and Beyer (1993). The variable of cultural cues was
operationalised with five specific cues: language, national symbols, jargon, people and location. The language cue refers to what kind of language is used in the post and if it is the national language of the country. The second cue, cultural symbols, refers to symbols used in a post that allude to a specific country, for example, flag, traditions, food, local celebrations. The jargon cue refers to a specific phrase or proverb that is only used in the national language of the country. The people cue refers to local celebrities or influencers that are used in a post. The final cue, location, refers to a post using a specific location of the country in their post.
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The data was coded by an international student from Lithuania, with knowledge of both Lithuanian and English languages as well as the culture of these two countries. For intercoder reliability testing, the researcher invited another Lithuanian student who is also fluent in both languages and is somewhat familiar with the cultures of these countries. The intercoder reliability was tested on 40 social media posts (10 posts per profile). The results for creative strategies varied from Krippendorff's α = .69 to 1, the results for creative execution varied from Krippendorff's α = .71 to 1 and the results for cultural cues varied from Krippendorff's α = .90 to 1. The full results for each question can be found in the appendix, tables 1-3. The acceptable level for intercoder reliability varies depending on the researcher or author of a publication. For example, Riffe, Lacy, and Fico (2014) note that Krippendorff himself has suggested that the coefficient should be above .80 to indicate reliability, however, he has also suggested that coefficient as low as .67 could also be acceptable in order to draw tentative conclusions. Lombard, Snyder-Duch, and Bracken (2002) suggest that a coefficient of .70 is often seen as acceptable in various research. Therefore, the researcher accepted the intercoder reliability but proceeded to discuss the low reliability items with the second coder and altered the explanations of said items in the codebook for future coding.
Results
The first hypothesis proposes that the adaptive strategies (global, glocal, local and single case) used by IKEA will differ on Facebook and Instagram. To answer the question posed by this hypothesis, the researcher looked at the creative strategies and executions used on each social media platform (Wei & Jiang, 2005). Chi-square tests showed that IKEA uses the same creative strategies on their Facebook profiles in Lithuania and the UK. Ten chi-square tests were conducted to compare the use of strategies in each country, the conditions for using the
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chi-square test (80% of cells have an expected frequency of 5, no cells have an expected frequency of 0, the contingency table has at least 3 columns or rows) have been met. Strategies that varied the most with a significant difference between Lithuania and the UK were the Information strategy (X2(1, N = 120) = 17.25, p<.001, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .14), Command strategy (X2(1, N = 120) = 10.39, p=.001, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .09) and Imitation strategy (X2(1, N = 120) = 7.43, p=.006, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .06). Such strategies as Brand familiarization (X2(1, N = 120) = 0.15, p=.70, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .001) and Habit starting (X2(1, N = 120) = 2.03, p = .154, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .02) were used in the same way in both countries. Prediction of creative strategy improved from 1% to 14% when we take into account the country IKEA is communicating to. For the full list of statistics of all strategies, see Table 4 in the appendix. Because the majority of the strategies were not significantly different between the two countries, it can be concluded that IKEA uses the same creative strategies on their Facebook profiles in Lithuania and the UK.
In order to see if IKEA uses the same executions on their Facebook in both countries, five chi-square tests were conducted. In all cases, the conditions for using the chi-square test (80% of cells have an expected frequency of 5, no cells have an expected frequency of 0, the
contingency table has at least 3 columns or rows) have been met. Three out of five execution strategies were significantly different between Lithuania and the UK: the use of visuals (X2(1, N = 120) = 9.73, p=.002, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .08), relationships (X2(1, N = 120) = 4.23, p=.040, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .04) and use of products (X2(1, N = 120) = 5.71,
p=.017, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .05), while the other two were not different. Prediction
of execution improved from 1% to 8% when we take into account the country IKEA is communicating to. For the full list of statistics of all strategies, see Table 5 in the appendix.
According to Jiang and Wei (2012), if three out of five execution strategies are
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show statistically significant results, the strength of association between the countries has to be taken into account. The results show very weak association, therefore, the execution formats used in both countries have to be considered to be the same. Based on Wei and Jiang’s (2005) standardisation and adaptation model, IKEA implements a global
communication strategy on their Facebook profiles in Lithuania and the UK, which means that it employs a highly standardised creative strategy with a highly standardised execution.
The researcher ran the same chi-square tests to analyse the use of creative strategies and execution of IKEA on Instagram. In all cases, the conditions for using the chi-square test (80% of cells have an expected frequency of 5, no cells have an expected frequency of 0, the contingency table has at least 3 columns or rows) have been met. Chi-square tests showed that IKEA uses the same creative strategies on their Instagram profiles in Lithuania and the UK. The only strategy that significantly differed between countries was the Argument strategy (X2(1, N = 120) = 6.51, p=.011, Goodman and Kruskal tau = .05), while the other nine strategies were not significantly different. Prediction of creative strategy improved from 1% to 5% when we take into account the country IKEA is communicating to. For the full list of statistics of all strategies, see table 6 in the appendix.
When looking at the execution strategies of IKEA on Instagram, chi-square tests showed that the brand uses the same executions strategies in both Lithuania and the UK. None of the execution differences were statistically significant. To see the full list of statistics for
execution, see table 6 in the appendix. According to Wei and Jiang’s (2005) model, IKEA uses a global communication strategy on their Instagram based on the posts analysed in Lithuania and the UK. Therefore, the first hypothesis is rejected, because IKEA uses the same global communication strategy both on their Facebook and Instagram profiles.
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The second hypothesis proposes that IKEA will use more cultural cues on their Lithuanian Facebook profile rather than the UK one. Independent sample t-test was conducted to test the second hypothesis. Levene’s test for equality of variances was significant, F (118, 108.729) = 17.93, p<.001, equal variances not assumed. Results showed that IKEA uses more cultural cues on their Facebook platform in the UK (M = 1.42, SD = 0.56) than in Lithuania (M = 1.22, SD = 0.42). The mean difference (Mdiff = 0.20) is statistically significant, t (108.73) = 2.22, p = .029, 95% C.I. [0.02, 0.38], and represents a moderate effect, d = 0.43. The second hypothesis is rejected.
The third hypothesis proposes that IKEA will use more cultural cues on their Lithuanian Instagram profile than the UK one. Independent sample t-test was conducted to test the third hypothesis. Levene’s test for equality of variances was significant, F (118, 59) = 180.15,
p<.001, equal variances not assumed. Results showed that IKEA uses more cultural cues on
their Instagram platform in the UK (M = 1.42, SD = 0.65) than in Lithuania (M = 1, SD = 0). The mean difference (Mdiff = 0.42) is statistically significant, t (59) = 5, p<.001, 95% C.I. [0.25, 0.58], and represents a very strong effect, d = 1.30. The third hypothesis is rejected. The researcher would like to address the fact that the standard deviation of the cultural cues used on the Lithuanian Instagram account is zero. This can be explained by the fact, that IKEA only used one cultural cue – national language – on this account. Therefore, the number of cultural cues did not vary, which resulted in a standard deviation of zero.
Conclusion and discussion
The aim of this research was to examine the extent to which an international home furnishing brand IKEA uses standardised and adaptive communication strategies on social media. The results of the content analysis conducted to answer the research question showed that IKEA uses a standardised rather than an adaptive communication strategy on both
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Facebook and Instagram. Even though the first hypothesis proposed that IKEA would use different adaptive strategies on different social media platforms, the results showed that the brand implements a global (Wei & Jiang, 2005) communication strategy. This means that IKEA uses the same creative strategies and execution formats in both countries and both social media platforms. Besides adaptive strategies, the researcher also looked at cultural cues used on Facebook and Instagram and proposed that IKEA will use more cultural cues in Lithuania rather than the UK (Hypothesis 2 and 3). However, the results showed that the brand actually uses more cultural cues in the UK on both Facebook and Instagram. Possible reasons for the outcomes of the analysis will be explained in the following paragraphs.
The results of the first hypothesis (IKEA using the same standardised communication strategies in both countries and on both social media platforms) can be explained from two different perspectives. Firstly, it could be possible that the two countries chosen for this research are not as different as it seems. Akaka and Alden (2010) argue that culture now moves through technology and media and therefore it is no longer restricted by borders of countries. With the rise of globalisation, it could be argued that the countries in Eastern Europe and Western Europe are more similar now, even if some authors propose that the cultures of such countries are still different (Bains, 2015). Therefore, there is no reason to adapt the creative strategy and execution to Lithuania and the UK as they are not that
different and can be viewed as sharing the same European culture. It can be hypothesised that if the same study was conducted comparing a country in Europe and Asia, the results would be different. However, the aim of this study was to research Europe and its different cultures while addressing the lack of studies focusing on that.
The chosen countries are not the only reason for such results. The company that was selected for this study has also influenced the results of the first hypothesis. Fastoso and Whitelock (2012) argue that companies use standardised communication strategies in order to
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create an overarching brand image in different countries. More specifically, Akaka and Alden (2010) note that brands tend to use such strategies which suggest that consumers use the same products around the world by implementing universal values and targeting the same markets. IKEA is an international company, but they do keep their brand image similar from country to country: they offer the same Scandinavian style products in Europe, Asia, the US, etc., they use the same values of family and togetherness, which can be understood all around the world (IKEA website, 2019). Therefore, the way to explain why the first hypothesis was rejected could be that IKEA purposefully uses the same creative strategies and executions on social media, to create a continuous brand worldwide.
The results of the second and third hypotheses were unexpected to the researcher,
however, they provide a very interesting insight into the communication differences between the two countries and even between social media platforms. The results showed that IKEA uses significantly more cultural cues when communicating to their audiences in the UK both on Facebook and Instagram. This shows a completely different result from the one suggested by theory (Hoeken, et al., 2007; Whitelock & Rey, 1998), but it can be explained in a couple of ways. First of all, no other study has ever compared Lithuania and the UK and as already mentioned in the theory section of this thesis, most researchers choose to compare European countries with Asian or American ones. For those who have looked specifically at Europe, comparisons were made between France and the UK (Whitelock & Rey, 1998), Germany, the UK and Netherlands (Hoeken et al., 2007). More importantly, previous studies tend to look at traditional media instead of social media, which could be the main reason why the results of this research differ from the ones found by others. For example, Whitelock and Rey’s (1998) study was conducted on TV advertisements, while Hoeken et al. (2007) conducted an
experiment with fake newspaper advertisements. Both of the examples used traditional media, so, while the theory supports the claim that Western countries use less cultural cues in
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traditional media (Whitelock & Rey, 1998), the results of this research show that the dynamics of social media have to be taken into account.
Okazaki and Taylor (2013) argue that social media differs from traditional media in three ways: it is more accessible, more interactive and shifts the power from the firm to the consumer. They also mention that social media creates an opportunity for personalisation, therefore brands tend to personalise their content accordingly to whom they are
communicating to. So, why did the results from this research showed that IKEA’s content is more personalised (with the help of cultural cues) in the UK rather than in Lithuania? The first answer to this question could be based on the differences between the level of social media knowledge in Lithuania and the UK. In a previous study, Lepkowska-White, Brashear, and Weinberger (2003), argued that there is a difference between how people in the US and Poland react to international advertising because of the different advertising culture in each country. The researchers claim that when the study was conducted, Poland was relatively new to advertising, therefore the consumers in Poland were not as refined in their preferences when it came to advertising. While this was suggested in a study of traditional advertising, the same argumentation can be used for looking at social media. The way IKEA
communicates to its customers in Lithuania and the UK could differ because of the contrasting internet and social media culture in each country. Hootsuite’s (2019) digital report shows that internet use in Eastern and Western Europe is quite different, with 94% of the population using the internet in Western Europe and 80% of the population using it in Eastern Europe. Following Lepkowska-White, Brashear and Weinberger’s (2003)
argumentation, it could be proposed that Lithuanians are less advanced in online communication, therefore they do not need special cultural cues in order to see IKEA’s communication more favourably. Whereas, customers in the UK need more cultural cues as they are used to brand catering to their culture for a longer time.
21
Another reason for these results could come from the different economic contexts of these two countries. First of all, IKEA has 18 stores in the UK and only three in Lithuania (IKEA website, 2019). Overall, when looking at where IKEA stores are located, more are located in Western and Northern Europe than in Eastern Europe (IKEA website, 2019). So, the reason why IKEA uses more cultural cues on their social media in the UK could be explained with the fact that the brand is more familiar with their customers in that country. It is also evident that IKEA has more customers in the UK than in Lithuania, so they dedicate more time persuading and communicating to their customers in the UK. This could mean that IKEA can devote more time to understand British culture and incorporate it into their social media. More stores in the country could also mean that more money is dedicated to the
communications department, therefore more people are focused on making social media content relatable to customers in the UK.
The conducted research raises new questions for future researchers, however, it also provides some important results. The way IKEA uses social media can be seen as an example for other brands that wish to communicate to their customers in Europe. Based on IKEA’s example, other brands could also use the standardised communication strategy that creates a unified brand image across all countries. At the same time, it is important to remember that this study was conducted on one company that specialises in furniture and home décor, therefore the results could possibly be generalised only to other similar furniture shops. The researcher would not expect to find the same results when looking at apparel or food shops as they would use different creative strategies for different types of products. Moreover, the results of this research could only be generalised in the context of Lithuania and the UK or Europe at best. These and other limitations will be explained further in the following section of this thesis.
22
Limitations and further study Limitations
This study had a couple of limitations that need to be addressed in order to give way for future research. Firstly, the main limitation of this research was the sample size and the sampling technique. The sample size was moderate – 240 social media posts, 60 posts per social media profile. Even though the sample size exceeded the minimum sample size proposed by Van Voorhis and Morgan (2007), for a more generalisable result, a bigger sample is needed. Moreover, the researcher had to choose non-probability sampling to collect said posts because of time and resource restrictions. Because of such a sampling technique, the results cannot be generalized to a larger population (Riffe, Lacy & Fico, 2014). The specific company and the selected countries also mean that the results can only be
generalized to some extent. This means that the same results could only be expected from other furniture shops in Europe but not from brands in different industries or in other regions of the world.
Another limitation of the study came from the codebook. The researcher used a codebook that was created by previous scholars, which was mostly used to code traditional media (Jiang & Wei, 2005). This codebook was chosen because it has been used by numerous researchers to study the standardisation and adaptation of advertising and brand
communication. Hatzitomas, Fotiadis, and Coudounaris (2016) also used the same codebook to research international brand communication on Facebook, seemingly proving that it can be used on social media as well, however, the results of this research show that the codebook is lacking in a couple of areas. The current codebook for standardisation and adaptation does not take certain social media features into account. For example, the creative execution part, which looked at how the creative strategies are executed with such items as “story”,
23
“visuals”, “humour”, etc. None of the items measure how interactive social media posts are or what type of content is shared on social media. While coding, the researcher noticed that IKEA UK Instagram encourages its followers to share pictures of how they use IKEA products and then repost the ones they like the most. The same interactive strategy was also noticed in the Lithuanian IKEA Facebook profile, where followers were asked to vote for their favourite designs, react to posts in order to express their opinion and tag other people below the posts. This is a very interesting strategy to use, however it was not statistically analysed as the researcher used a codebook created by previous academics.
Future research
Based on the limitations identified previously, future research should firstly look at how different companies communicate to their audiences in various places. As there is still a lack of studies looking at the differences between European countries, more researchers should make it the focus of their studies in the context of international communication. It would be interesting to see how companies of different industries use standardisation and adaptation strategies, for example, the clothing or food industry. The results of this study show that there are a lot of communication possibilities on social media, however, it is not known if different companies use these possibilities depending on the industry they are in. Comparing
companies based on their country of origin would also bring interesting results. As IKEA is a Swedish company, it is possible that it is easier for it to communicate and relate to other European countries, however, the results could be different if an American brand was chosen for research. The results would also differ based on the industry or size of a company.
Therefore, future research should focus on comparing how different companies use cross-cultural communication on social media.
24
As another limitation of the study suggests, future research should study standardisation and adaptation strategies on social media with a new or improved codebook. While the main creative and executional strategies bring valuable results, new items should be added to both parts of the codebook (not taking into account the cultural cue part of the codebook). For the creative strategy section, the researcher would suggest adding some items identifying
corporate social responsibility (CSR). During coding, the researcher saw that the IKEA UK Facebook posted quite a lot of content regarding such important issues as the LGBTQ+ community, environmental topics, children’s education, etc. On the other hand, such topics were not presented to the Lithuanian audience. By adding this item, researchers could identify which CSR topics are more important to each country and use this to gain insight into the different countries. As already mentioned in the limitations, the execution strategy section of the codebook should include items measuring the interactivity of the social media posts. Overall, the whole codebook should be revised to better suit the research of social media.
The most important area for future research should be the use of Instagram by
international companies. There is a lack of literature and research focusing on Instagram and how it can be a great communication tool for companies and while this study tried to provide some sort of insight into the use of Instagram, there is still so much more to explore. As mentioned before, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms to follow and interact with brands (Phua, Jin & Kim, 2017). More importantly, Sheldon, Rauschnabel, Antony, and Car (2017) note that Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media
platforms, therefore, the importance of Instagram is very likely to continue to grow and more research is needed to explore how brands can use this platform to engage their customers. This research showed that the strategies used by IKEA in the UK and Lithuania on Instagram are not statistically different, however, based on the fast growth of this platform, this is likely
25
to change. Such features as Instagram stories or product tags are likely to have an influence on how this platform is used by various companies to make adapted and even personalised content for different countries. Therefore, future researchers should analyse the use of Instagram by companies and how it impacts not only customers but employees or partners.
Limitations aside, this research provides insight into how a big international brand chooses to communicate to different countries. Most importantly, this study tried to fill in the research gap of standardisation and adaptation use in Europe as well as the use of different social media platforms for international communication. While looking at societal relevance, this study provides an example for other companies on how to successfully communicate to customers by using Facebook and Instagram. Overall, this study shows the importance of social media for businesses who want to reach their customers worldwide.
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Appendix Table 1
Intercoder reliability results for strategy items.
Name of item Intercoder reliability level
Information α = .69 Argument α = .72 Motivation with psychological appeals α = .71 Repeat assertion α = .75 Command α = 1 Brand familiarisation α = .73 Symbolic assertion α = .72 Imitation α = .83 Obligation α = .86 Habit starting α = 1 Table 2
Intercoder reliability results for execution items.
Name of item Intercoder reliability level
Story α = .78
Product α = .71
Visual α = 1
Humour α = .75
33 Table 3
Intercoder reliability results for cultural cue items.
Name of item Intercoder reliability level
Language α = 1 National symbols α = 1 Jargon α = 1 People α = .94 Location α = .90 Table 4
Results of chi-square tests for strategy use on Facebook
Strategy Chi-Square test
Significance Effect size Prediction of
strategy Information x2(1) = 17.25 p<.001 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .14
14% Argument x2(1) = 1.35 p = .246 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .01 1% Motivation with psychological appeals
x2(1) = 1.53 p = .215 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .01
1%
Repeat assertion
x2(1) = 1.04 p =.309 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .01
1% Command x2(1) = 10.39 p = .001 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .09
9% Brand
familiarisation
x2(1) = 0.15 p = .697 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .01
1% Symbolic
assertion
x2(1) = 2.91 p = .088 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .02
2% Imitation x2(1) = 7.43 p = .006 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .06
6% Obligation x2(1) = 4.90 p = .027 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .04
4% Habit starting x2(1) = 2.03 p = .154 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .02
34 Table 5
Results of chi-square tests for types of execution on Facebook
Execution Chi-Square test
Significance Effect size Prediction of execution Story x2(1) = 0.31 p = .580 Goodman and Kruskal tau =
.01
1% Product x2(1) = 5.71 p = .017 Goodman and Kruskal tau =
.05
5% Visuals x2(1) = 9.73 p = .002 Goodman and Kruskal tau =
.08
8% Humour x2(1) = 0.83 p = .361 Goodman and Kruskal tau =
.01
1% Relationship x2(1) = 4.23 p = .040 Goodman and Kruskal tau =
.04
4%
Table 6
Results of chi-square tests for strategy use on Instagram
Strategy Chi-Square test
Significance Effect size Prediction of strategy Information x2(1) = 3.08 p = .079 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .03
3% Argument x2(1) = 6.51 p = .011 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .05
5% Motivation with
psychological appeals
x2(1) = 2.23 p = .136 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .02
2%
Repeat assertion x2(1) = 1.01 p =.315 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .01
1% Command x2(1) = 0.34 p = .559 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .01
1% Brand
familiarisation
x2(1) = 1.01 p = .315 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .01
1% Symbolic
assertion
x2(1) = 1.01 p = .315 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .01
1% Imitation x2(1) = 2.03 p = .154 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .02
2% Obligation x2(1) = 3.08 p = .079 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .03
3% Habit starting x2(1) = 1.01 p = .315 Goodman and Kruskal tau
= .01
35 Table 7
Results of chi-square tests for types of execution on Instagram
Execution Chi-Square test
Significance Effect size Prediction of
execution Story x2(1) = 3.33 p = .068 Goodman and Kruskal tau =
.03
3%
Product x2(1) = 3.39 p = .065 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .03
3%
Visuals x2(1) = 2.23 p = .136 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .02
2%
Humour x2(1) = 2.03 p = .154 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .02
2%
Relationship x2(1) = 0.21 p = .648 Goodman and Kruskal tau = .01
1%
Codebook Introduction
The aim of the following codebook is to study social media posts shared by an international home furnishing company IKEA. The thesis in which this codebook is used focuses on international social media use of IKEA, more specifically, if the company uses a more standardised or adaptive approach when it comes to cross-cultural communication.
Standardisation occurs when a company uses the same communication strategies and content in all countries without taking into account the differences between them. Adaptation occurs when a company adapts their communication strategies and content depending on the countries they are trying to target.
Sample
The sample consists of 240 social media posts – 60 posts per profile. The social media profiles are: IKEA UK Facebook, IKEA Lietuva Facebook, IKEA UK Instagram and IKEA Lietuva Instagram. For the intercoder reliability testing, two coders have to code 10 posts per profile (40 posts in total).
Coding instructions
For the intercoder reliability test, both coders will code the same 40 posts. The screenshots of the posts can be found in a shared Google Drive folder. The coders should only look at the screenshots and not go to the actual social media profiles, to not be influenced by the comments. If the screenshot contains both textual and visual information, the coders should code it as one post and base the coding on all the information provided from the screenshot. If there is a screenshot of a video, the coders are advised to click on the link that will direct
36
them to the video on the social media platform. The needed links were provided in the same Google Drive folder. For any questions regarding the codebook/posts, the coder is advised to contact the researcher.
Structure of the codebook
The first part of the codebook looks at general information about the post, social media platform, coder, etc. The second part looks at the creative strategies used in posts. The third part looks at executional formats of posts and the fourth part looks at cultural cues used by the profiles.
Part 1: General information about the post Question 1
Coder Name of the coder
1 Akvilė
2 Rūta
Question 2:
Platform Social media platform
Which social media platform is used for this post? The coder should code 0
if he/she accessed the screenshot from a folder called IKEA Facebook and 1 if it came from a folder called IKEA Instagram.
0 Facebook
1 Instagram
Question 3:
Country Country of the social media profile
Which country is the profile made for? The coder should code 0 if the
profile name contains identification that it is created for the audiences in the UK. For example, code 0 for @IKEAUK and 1 for @IKEALietuva.
0 United Kingdom
1 Lithuania
Part 2: Creative strategy. The following part will code the creative strategy used in social media posts. This part of the codebook is taken from Wei & Jiang (2012). There are ten strategies, proposed by previous researchers. One post can execute more than one strategy.
37 Question 4:
Strat_1 Information
Does the post contain ONLY information/news about a
product/company? The coder should code 0 if the post contains only basic
information about products/the brand and not any arguments or motivations to visit a store/buy a product. For example: product recall, logo, information about the stores, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 5:
Strat_2 Argument
Does the post contain an argument why the consumer should buy a product/visit the store? The coder should code 0 if the post includes logical
reasons or excuses to buy a product. For example: new school year as a reason to buy a new table, cold weather as a reason to buy a blanket, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 6:
Strat_3 Motivation with psychological appeals
Does the company use emotions and appeals to explain how the consumer will benefit from the product? The coder should code 0 if the post contains
information about the emotional benefits of a product or if the post attempts to create a desire to own a product. For example, if the post uses an emotional appeal rather than reasoning and arguments.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 7:
Strat_4 Repeat assertion
38
0 if the post contains information that is stated more than once. For example, if the post states how practical a product is more than once in the same post.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 8:
Strat_5 Command
Is the information in the post presented by an authority/expert? The coder
should code 0 if the information in the post is presented by some kind of authority or an expert that tries to persuade the audience to view it more favourably. For example, an interior designer, home designer, decorator, artist, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 9:
Strat_6 Brand familiarisation
Does the post contain information about brand loyalty? For example:
loyalty card (IKEA Family), members-only deals, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 10:
Strat_7 Symbolic assertion
Does the post use any symbols of the brand? The coder should code 0 if the
post presents symbols that represent the brand of IKEA. For example, anything related to the brand being Swedish (but not the names of the products): Scandinavian celebrations, food (meatballs), traditions, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
39 Strat_8 Imitation
Does the post contain testimonials by other customers? The coder should
code 0 if the post contains recommendations of customers or celebrities, influencers, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 12:
Strat_9 Obligation
Does the post contain information about free gifts or offers? The coder
should code 0 if the post contains information about offers or gifts that are meant to make the customer feel grateful to the brand.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 13:
Strat_10 Habit starting
Does the content of the post encourage the customers to start a regular practice that involves the brand? The coder should code 0 if the post
contains information about how customers can benefit from regularly using the products or coming to the store, etc. For example: “eat breakfast at IKEA everyday”.
0 Yes
1 No
Part 3: Executional formats. The following part will code the execution of the creative strategies used in social media posts. This part of the codebook is inspired by Jiang and Wei (2012). They propose 5 execution formats where each of the format has from two to five sub-categories. For this codebook, the researcher has simplified the codebook suggested by Wei & Jiang and has used the same five formats, but without the sub-categories. One post can be coded as having more than one execution format.
Question 14: Exec_1 Story
40
Does the post include some kind of story? The coder should code 0 if the
post contains a story (of how the product was made/of how a customer has used it, etc.), a presentation of a problem and solution, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 15:
Exec_2 Product
Does the post present a particular product? The coder should code 0 if the
post is made about a particular product, product line, etc. This does not include product recalls.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 16:
Exec_3 Visuals
Does the post include visuals? The coder should code 0 if the post contains
any kind of visual. For example: picture, video, gif, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 17:
Exec_4 Humour
Does the post include humour? The coder should code 0 if the post contains
a joke, irony, pun, etc.
0 Yes
1 No
Question 18:
Exec_5 Relationship
Does the post include some kind of a relationship? The coder should code 0
