Running head: EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 1

Evaluating Brand Integrity Through Standardization and Localization in the International

Gaming Market

Nina Jacobs

Northeastern University EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 2

People use brands to communicate. The clothes we wear, the technology we carry, the cars we drive all elevate a first impression for everyone we meet to know who we are and what we believe in. It is impossible to simply purchase a product. Now, consumers must buy into a company: its messages, its executives’ political stances, its corporate responsibility, and its reputation. For a company to rise above the competition, it has to have a coherent and cohesive brand, not only to sell products, but to give its customers an identity.

Since the development of the first home console in 1972, the gaming system—or systems

—a family owned has been a defining characteristic for many children over the last 5 decades.

People take the same pride in being a Nintendo person or a PlayStation person as they do in being an iPhone person or an Android person. In order to remain relevant and pervasive in the industry, gaming manufacturers must present a recognizable brand that consumers can use to tell the world who they are.

The United States is Japan’s largest economic partner. Japan and the U.S. are also the two biggest producers of video games and gaming systems, a market that has only recently become a global one. While their economic exchange is essential to their partnership, they are also beginning to encroach on each other’s market. In order to maintain the levels of success they have achieved in their home countries, it is essential for gaming manufacturers to appeal to consumers from other countries, particularly from both the U.S. and Japan. Consumers from everywhere in the world must be able to identify with their preferred company in the same way if they are to be able to identify with each other.

According to multiple theories of intercultural communication, the U.S. and Japan are on opposite sides of nearly every dimension of culture. Therefore, it is imperative to understand effective cross-cultural advertising techniques for countries with such disparate ideologies. In EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 3 order to cultivate that understanding, I compiled case studies of Nintendo’s, Microsoft’s, and

Sony’s advertising campaigns in the U.S. and Japan, which I supported by conducting a content analysis of a selection of commercials for their game consoles.

Literature Review

History of Cross-Cultural Communication

After World War II, the U.S. occupied territories across the world. However, their diplomatic corps were lacking—less than four percent of Foreign Service officers had any fluency of Japanese or Chinese (Rogers, Hart, & Miike, 2002). The Foreign Service Act, passed in 1946, established the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) as an “in-service, graduate-level training institute for State Department employees and others in the Foreign Service” (“FSI History,” n.d.). The training provided by the FSI included language training and employed the strategy of hiring native speakers as teachers, which promoted an understanding of the importance of cultural comprehension in the process of language instruction.

The FSI recruited experts in numerous fields, ranging from linguistics to sociology to cultural anthropology. One of these experts was Dr. Edward T. Hall, who joined the FSI in 1951

(Rogers et al., 2002). Among other achievements, Hall is credited with conceptualizing the field of intercultural communication. Unlike other cultural anthropologists, who generally studied single cultures at the macro-level, Hall focused his investigations on micro-level behaviors and interactions between people of different cultures (Rogers et al., 2002). He brought this approach to the Foreign Service when trainees complained about learning anthropology through a traditional curriculum. A conceptual education using case studies of specific cultures had no practical value for them—they felt it was useless to learn about Navajo culture when the U.S. did not have an embassy on the Navajo reservation. Hall worked with linguist George L. Trager to EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 4 reconceptualize the FSI’s anthropology curriculum, uniting anthropological and linguistic perspectives to create a new framework that emphasized communication across cultures (Rogers et al., 2002).

Much of Hall’s work focused on nonverbal aspects of communication, with particular emphasis on different cultures’ use of space and time. One of his better-known theories concerns the degree to which members of a culture use nonverbals to communicate information. Some countries, like the U.S., are very direct in their speech, tending to spell things out directly

(Wurtz, 2006). Hall referred to these as low-context (LC) cultures, as only a small amount of information is communicated indirectly. Conversely, high-context (HC) cultures rely heavily on communicative cues other than words, such as tone, body language, and use of silence. Japan is one of the closest countries to the high-context end of the spectrum (Wurtz, 2006).

In addition to their use of nonverbals, HC and LC cultures differ in their thought patterns.

LC cultures hold the belief that there is an “objective truth that can be reached through linear processes of discovery” (Wurtz, 2006, p. 279). They emphasize logic and rationality and prefer to spell out every detail so that their message is understood exactly as it was sent. HC cultures employ more circular reasoning, jumping back and forth between cause and effect, or step one and step two, assuming that the listener will follow. They are characterized by indirect and cyclical conversation and writing styles and can even communicate without ever directly mentioning the subject of conversation (Wurtz, 2006). Languages of HC cultures are often structured in ways conducive to this kind of thinking, taking forms in which it is acceptable to leave out a topic or subject that is already mutually understood.

Hall’s theory of high- and low-context cultures is often compared and connected to many other communication theories. The most common connection is to the six dimensions of cultural EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 5 values identified by Geert Hofstede, a Dutch communications scholar. His original theory comprised four dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, and masculinity-femininity. He has since introduced two others, orientation toward time and indulgence-restraint.

Individualism-collectivism correlates most closely to Hall’s theory and was in fact proposed as an alternative to the high-context/low-context dimension (Wurtz, 2006). The dimension examines whether individuals place a stronger emphasis on their own needs or the needs of a group. Individuals in collectivistic cultures value family history and relationships highly and tend to place stock in strong relationships and personal loyalties in both social and business contexts. One’s own needs are often set aside in favor of maintaining group harmony

(Hofstede, 2011). HC cultures like Japan tend to be collectivistic. Individualistic cultures, on the other hand, emphasize the goals and achievements of the individual. People are expected to be independent, and competition in business is healthy and expected. Personal opinions are also highly valued (Hofstede, 2011). Individualism is more common in LC cultures such as the U.S. and is a key component of capitalist culture.

The indulgence-restraint dimension was added to the Hofstede model in 2010 (Hofstede,

2011). Indulgent cultures allow “relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun” (Hofstede, 2011, p. 15). These cultures see higher percentages of their populations declaring themselves “very happy,” a higher importance of leisure, and more people actively involved in sports. In restrained cultures, the gratification of these needs is highly regulated by strict social norms. A perception of helplessness is prevalent, freedom of speech is seen as unimportant, and people are less likely to remember their positive EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 6 emotions (Hofstede, 2011). Asia and Eastern Europe score higher in restraint, while North

America and Western Europe fall toward the indulgence end of the scale.

Standardization and Localization

Two main schools of thought dominate the world of international advertising.

Standardization refers to the practice of employing a unified marketing approach across all markets (Jeong, Kim, & Seo, 2018). This means that companies use the same logos, slogans, and commercials in every country in which they market their products. This practice arose from the assumption that the needs and preferences of consumers are becoming more homogeneous, so the same techniques and appeals will be equally effective. In order to communicate these appeals, advertisers use two main forms of language transfer: subtitling/captioning and dubbing/translation (Pagani, Goldsmith, & Perracchio, 2015).

In a television advertisement, subtitling allows for the maintenance of the original dialogue, including the narrator’s or actors’ tone, inflection, or volume, as well as the original soundtrack. Conversely, dubbing allows for easier comprehension because viewers do not have to read while taking in the visual content of the ad (Pagani et al., 2015). Subtitling has become more popular in recent years because it is quicker and cheaper than dubbing (Pagani et al., 2015).

Standardization has several advantages, particularly financial benefits. Running the same marketing program across multiple markets can substantially lower costs as compared to designing an individual campaign for each country (Jeong et al., 2018). It also gives a brand consistency across markets.

The opposite approach to standardization is localization. This school maintains that differences in culture, taste, media infrastructure, and economic development are insurmountable barriers to standardization (Kanso & Nelson, 2002). It also posits that advertisers must consider EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 7

“consumers’ resentment of international corporations’ attempts to homogenize their differing tastes and cultures” (Kanso & Nelson, 2002). Advertisers using localization create completely separate advertising campaigns for each market, which allows for greater adaptation of imagery and appeals, but is much more costly and time-consuming.

Because firms rarely implement either complete standardization or complete localization,

Peebles, Ryans, and Vernon (as cited in Kanso & Nelson, 2002) differentiated between traditional “prototype standardization,” in which advertisements are identical across markets, and

“pattern standardization.” Pattern standardization refers to campaigns with a standardized concept or theme, but actual ads that are adapted to local markets.

Notes on gaming culture

To understand this analysis, there are a few key terms to know. First, a gaming console is a device that outputs a visual signal of a video game to an external screen (i.e., a TV or computer monitor). The screen is separate from the device, unlike an arcade machine, and is not portable, unlike handheld gaming devices. The games generally come on discs similar to CDs and use a wired or wireless controller.

Another concept to understand is the difference between “casual” and “serious” gamers.

Casual gamers are people who play games for fun and enjoyment. Serious gamers, on the other hand, dedicate themselves to playing, studying, and improving at games, often choosing to focus on one or two. They often tend toward darker and more competitive games, such as first-person shooters. These categories are arbitrary and fuzzy at best, but many game makers use them to target their advertisements. EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 8

Gaming History of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft

Though it is now widely regarded as a superpower in the world of games, Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a producer of Japanese playing cards called hanafuda (Kohler, 2010). The company still makes hanafuda, but after eight decades, they began expansion into toys, quickly followed by the family entertainment market in 1973 (Hao, 2018). Ten years later, in 1983,

Nintendo released its first home gaming console, the Famicom (short for “family computer”).

The Famicom was released in America in 1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, revitalizing the U.S. gaming industry (Hao, 2018).

Six years after the NES, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in

America. This was followed by the Nintendo 64 in 1996, which “set new standards in realistic

3D gaming” (“Company History”). Next came the GameCube, which used optical discs instead of cartridges, in 2001. The company turned its focus to handheld systems for a while but came back to home consoles in 2006 with the Wii, the first console with motion-sensitive remote controllers. Over the years, Nintendo built on the technological advances of the Wii’s motion control capabilities by adding the Wii Fit board, which expanded the market from pure gameplay to the adult health and fitness audience. From 2006 to 2015, the Wii sold over 100 million units

(“Console unit sales of Nintendo’s home consoles from 1997 to 2018”). The 2012 Wii U developed on the Wii’s motion control gameplay with the Wii U GamePad controller, which featured a second screen that games could utilize for additional menus and controls. Most recently, the Switch launched in 2017 as a home console that can transition to a handheld mode.

As of March 2018, over 18 million Switch units have been sold (“Unit sales of Nintendo’s home consoles from 1997 to 2018”). EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 9

Nintendo has long valued uniqueness, flexibility and sincerity (“About Nintendo”). These core values reflect Japan’s unique balance of collectivist values and a focus on technological advancement. With a goal of staying on top of the ever-evolving entertainment market, Nintendo designs innovative products with the “typical Nintendo experience” in mind. Though uniqueness is more associated with an individualistic perspective, flexibility and sincerity are hallmarks of a collectivist culture.

Since its conception, Nintendo has marketed itself as a creator of games for everyone.

Their language has increasingly shifted away from “gaming console” to “family entertainment system,” and unlike other companies, they create games for everyone, not strictly hardcore gamers. Since the introduction of the Nintendo DS and its signature touch screen technology,

Nintendo has made games for non-gamers, like cooking tutorials, language-learning games, and simulated board games that players of any level can enjoy. Nintendo’s core value of inclusivity is the foundation of its corporate identity.

Microsoft is most famous in America for its founder, Bill Gates, who dropped out of

Harvard at 19 to found the company. The company created the first iteration of the world’s most popular computer operating system, Windows, in 1983 (Nayak, 2014). Microsoft continued to release new versions of Windows, including Windows 95, which sold over 1 million copies in 4 days, and Windows 98, the first consumer-focused version of Windows. Microsoft also developed Microsoft Office, an office suite of applications.

In November 2001, Microsoft entered the gaming market with the Xbox, a competitor of the PS2 and the GameCube (Nayak, 2014). It was succeeded by the Xbox 360, which was released in 2005 and had sold 78.2 million units as of June 2013. The console sold out upon release. The console was redesigned multiple times before being discontinued in 2016, and in EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 10 that time Microsoft released Kinect, a motion sensing device that allows the player’s body to act as a controller (Spencer, 2016; Chen, 2010). The third Xbox console, the Xbox One, launched in

2013 to compete with the PS4 (Walker, 2013). The new console brings several new features geared toward use as an entertainment system as well as a gaming system, and also utilizes an updated Kinect.

Microsoft’s company values align with individualistic values well: listed first on their

“What We Value” page is innovation, above more group-oriented collectivist values like diversity and inclusion, corporate social responsibility, and trustworthy computing. Despite this,

Microsoft has often struggled to be seen as innovative in comparison to its competitors. While the iPod and iPhone are now ubiquitous in modern society, Microsoft’s Zune and Windows

Phone never gained the same kind of traction. The Xbox is also less known internationally as compared to other symptoms

The Xbox line of consoles is marketed for serious gamers. While Nintendo boasts recognizable family-friendly characters such as Mario and Kirby, Microsoft is best known for its first-person shooters and other action-based games, with highest-selling series including Call of

Duty, Far Cry, Halo, Mortal Kombat, and Grand Theft Auto (notable exceptions include

Minecraft and The Sims, which, while popular on the Xbox, were designed for PC play) (“Most played games”).

Sony began as Toukyou Utsushin Kougyou Kabushiki-gaisha (Tokyo

Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) in 1946 with just 20 employees and ¥190,000

($5,681.81 today) startup capital (“History,” Sony). In four short years, the company launched

Japan’s first magnetic tape recorder, the G-Type, followed by its first transistor radio (the TR-55) in 1955. In 1958, the company’s name was changed to Sony Corporation to facilitate EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 11 international business dealings (“History,” Sony). Sony began expanding into television and continued their work in audio, producing audio and video cassette recorders, including Betamax

(a competitor to VHS) and the Walkman portable cassette player.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc launched the PlayStation console in Japan in 1994, and in America in 1995 (“History of Sony Interactive Entertainment”). Their most successful console, the PlayStation 2 (PS2), launched in March of 2000. This console uses DVDs for game distribution, meaning that films can be viewed on the console. PS2 was released in America in

October of 2000, and hit the milestone of 10 million systems shipped worldwide in under a year.

The console received an update in 2004, still under the name PS2. It was discontinued in 2013, but with an estimated 155 million consoles sold, it remains the best-selling video game console of all time (citation needed). The launch of the PS3 in 2006 introduced online gaming to the

PlayStation brand. The PlayStation Move motion controller was revealed in 2010 to compete with motion capture technology from Nintendo and Microsoft. Finally, Sony’s newest console, the PS4, was released in November of 2013 in America, launching in Japan in February of the following year. New features in this console include increased sharing capability and a touchpad in the wireless controller. As of December 2018, Sony has sold 91.6 million PS4 systems worldwide (“History of Sony Interactive Entertainment”).

Sony’s very collectivist purpose is to “fill the world with emotion,” bringing people together with their technology (“Sony’s Purpose and Values”). Listed among their values are dreams, curiosity, integrity, and sincerity. The former two, presented together, convey Sony’s dedication to technological advancement. The latter two, also together, represent a collectivist view of business as a relationship built on trust. EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 12

The Sony name is still best associated with their electronics and appliances, particularly their televisions. However, its many product lines are so far distanced from each other that they are hardly recognizable as being from the same parent company. PlayStation manages to avoid the possible pitfalls of this situation by functioning as a brand on its own. It touches both casual and serious gameplay circles, boasting turn-based RPGs and rhythm games as well as more intense and violent games such as the Persona series and the Uncharted games (“PlayStation 4

Exclusives”).

Current Study

In order to assess each company’s use of standardization and/or localization, I performed case studies of the advertising strategies of Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Each study consisted of a textual analysis of several ads from each company. The analysis covered 36 ads: 12 from each company, and within that, six each from America and from Japan. Each set of six

(Nintendo’s Japanese commercials, Nintendo’s American commercials, Sony’s Japanese commercials, Sony’s American commercials, Microsoft’s Japanese commercials, and

Microsoft’s American commercials) contained three ads for their most successful gaming console (the Nintendo Wii, the Microsoft Xbox 360, and the Sony PlayStation 2) and three for their newest console (the Nintendo Switch, the Microsoft Xbox One, and the Sony PlayStation

4). Three ads were chosen for each due to the age of some of the consoles (the PS2 was released in 2000); usable recordings of commercials for the older consoles were difficult to locate. For the sake of consistency, I limited my selection to ads for consoles, rather than handheld systems, games, or other accessories—to date, Microsoft has produced no handheld systems.

For each group of twelve, I began by assessing the ratio of localized to standardized ads.

If there were any standardized ads, I noted if they were subtitled or dubbed/translated (Pagani et EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 13 al., 2015). I then analyzed each ad on its own. As outlined in my literature review, I selected two of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to aid in my analysis: individualism-collectivism and indulgence-restraint. To assess the individualism-collectivism dimension, I coded each ad for the following traits noted by researchers:

 Individualism: competition, self-expression/individuality, being the best (as a player or as

a product), freedom, personalization/choice, new experiences, technological achievement

(Hofstede, 2011; Luna & Gupta, 2001; Zhang & Neelankavil, 1996; Zhao, 2017)

 Collectivism: cooperation, friends, family, everyone likes, anyone can play, versatility,

immersion, playing together (Hofstede, 2011; Luna & Gupta, 2001; Zhang &

Neelankavil, 1996; Zhao, 2017)

Indulgence-restraint was evaluated by the degree to which the ad suggested a culture of freedom, choice, and personal happiness:

 Indulgence: happiness/enjoyment, control over circumstances (Retnowati, 2015)

 Restraint: passivity—things happening to a subject (Retnowati, 2015)

It should be noted that due to the nature of video games as leisure products, the commercials are predicted to show more traits of indulgence, regardless of country of origin.

Following the coding for the two cultural dimensions, I coded for characteristics of HC and LC cultures. These characteristics tend to overlap with those of the individualism- collectivism dimension, with HC communication coinciding with collectivism and LC communication resembling individualism. However, this paradigm more directly concerns the amount of information that is explicitly stated in an advertisement, compared to that which is expressed implicitly. Advertisements featuring abstract concepts (operationally defined as ads that do not feature the console or company, but instead some other appealing imagery) are more EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 14 appealing to HC cultures. People from LC cultures have a higher tolerance for large amounts of text and information, including product specifications and prices and explicit incitements to purchase (Bai, 2016).

Case Study: Nintendo

Nintendo’s English commercials for the Wii and the Switch present an image of personalization and versatility. The emphasis on personalization was paramount to the Wii’s

North American launch, with the introduction of personal avatars called Miis, customizable controls for right- or left-handed players, and a larger number of games directed at non-gamers.

The English Wii commercials show such a high degree of personalization that two of the three commercials selected for analysis did not show actors playing games with each other, cooperatively or competitively. Each friend or family member is shown playing the game that suits them best, and while they watch and encourage each other, there is only one brief shot between the two commercials where a family uses the Wii together. The Switch commercials feature more interaction, but with taglines like “Gaming my way” and “There’s a game for every gathering,” the focus on personalization is just as strong. However, the Switch combines this value of personalization with highlights of its versatility. “Gaming my way” refers not only to the wide variety of games available, but to the various configurations in which the Switch can be used.

Though many of the English Nintendo commercials feature families and groups of friends, they are somewhat individualistic. As mentioned above, all of them show at least one occurrence of people playing by themselves; one Switch commercial stars only one actor.

Themes of self-expression and personalization were present in four of the six commercials each.

One commercial featured a father and daughter who each had their own Switch, demonstrating EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 15 the individualistic value of personal possessions. The two consoles have different colored controllers, again showing the possibilities for personalization. However, the individualist influences were fairly balanced with collectivism, with 14 occurrences of individualistic themes and 15 occurrences of collectivistic themes observed. This reflects pattern standardization, as the company’s core values and those of the target audience are both well represented (Kanso &

Nelson, 2002). The ads also lean more toward indulgence, with five depicting happiness/enjoyment and two showing personal control.

The Japanese commercials produced by Nintendo also uphold the value of versatility, but in a way that showcases technology rather than individuality. One of the earliest Wii commercials features no actors, but rather animations of a human hand holding the Wii remote which explain the different ways in which the remote can be used. One of the campaigns used to promote the Switch also celebrates the versatility of the device: the Itsudemo, dokodemo, daretodemo (“Anytime, anywhere, with anyone”) campaign showcases the Switch’s multiple configurations. More so than the English commercials, the Japanese commercials promote

Nintendo as a gaming system for everyone. Many of their commercials feature multi- generational families or large groups of friends playing together. They also feature younger children than the English ads do, demonstrating the accessibility of their games for all ages.

Nintendo’s Japanese ads show far more groups playing than their English ads. Because of this, both cooperation and competition were more common in the Japanese ads. However, they were always depicted together, and the competitive games were enjoyed by everyone. Most notably, four of their commercials were centered on the theme of “everyone likes,” which is paramount in collectivism. A related theme, “everyone can play,” was present in three commercials. Both of these are encompassed by the new Switch slogan. These commercials EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 16 show more of a collectivist influence, with 18 theme occurrences noted as opposed to nine occurrences of individualist themes. The overwhelming presence of the “playing together” theme reflects a collectivist sense of belonging.

Overall, the two campaigns are fairly similar, with especially strong agreement in the areas of enjoyment, “anyone can play,” and versatility. Because of the pattern standardization technique employed by Nintendo, they reflect similar themes which are consistent with the company’s ideals. The emphasis on versatility is much stronger in the more recent commercials due to the introduction of the Switch, but flexibility is one of Nintendo’s core values, and adaptation to the needs of their customers has been central to their business approach since its beginning.

Case Study: Microsoft

Victory reigns supreme in Microsoft’s English commercials. The most common themes were “best” and technological achievement, making for an overall highly individualistic campaign. Unlike Nintendo’s ads, which often feature friends or family, the English Xbox commercials do not feature people playing together. In fact, only one commercial shows someone using the product, and only two show people at all. The focus is on the product,

Microsoft’s technological achievements, and sales. Four commercials featured the theme of technological advancement, providing information on features of the console. Three of the four also made claims of being the best in some way, whether regarding the quality of the console or the price.

The values displayed in Microsoft’s English commercials mirror those of their country of origin. With an overwhelming 19 instances of individualistic themes, as compared to just three collectivistic themes, these ads are undeniably American. They are designed for low-context EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 17 audiences: information and price/sale themes are present in two ads each. One commercial is not even for the device; it is for a discount when purchased with another Microsoft product.

Additionally, the commercials were much more likely to feature competition; only one referenced cooperation, and it was between the console and games, not between people.

Microsoft’s Japanese commercials resemble their English commercials. Again, the most common theme is technological achievement, seen in four ads, followed by new experiences, observed in three. Microsoft promoted the Xbox 360 in Japan with two abstract commercials— again defined as commercials that do not feature the console or company. The Japanese campaign also only features one ad showing a product in use. In addition, the campaign for the

Xbox One featured two standardized commercials. One, Shin no Pawaa wo Taiken seyo, was also analyzed in its original English form (“Feel True Power”). This ad features translated text.

The second was a web trailer for the Xbox One that featured subtitles for an English voiceover track throughout the commercial. Three lines of text were translated at the end. Both commercials used prototype standardization.

These commercials are nearly as individualistic as their English counterpoints. Thirteen occurrences of individualistic themes were counted, compared to just four collectivistic themes, each of which occurred only once. Like the English ads, three of the commercials did not feature any people, focusing instead on the console or its games. This series of ads did show people playing together, but the shot lasted only a few seconds. However, the two abstract ads are reflective of a high-context culture.

The two groups of ads are ideologically similar—very individualistic, with an overwhelming emphasis on technological achievement. This is emblematic of Microsoft, which EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 18 places innovation above all else. It reflects American conspicuous consumption, but conflicts with many aspects of Japanese culture that consumers look for.

Case Study: Sony

Immersion and new experiences were the two most commonly observed themes in

Sony’s English commercials, particularly in those for the PS2. Taglines like “The Third Place” and “Live in your world, play in ours” underscored the idea that when you play on a PS2, you enter a world that defies rules and expectations. Furthering these two themes was the presence of three abstract story-based ads for the PS2, depicting new worlds that players could enter while playing. Two of the PS4 commercials also carried the theme of immersion, putting players into the world of their games.

Similar to Nintendo, these commercials showed a balanced influence of individualist and collectivist themes, with 10 occurrences of each. Of the two most common themes, one was of each ideology. This again shows a solid understanding on Sony’s part of the values of their target country. They also show signs of both indulgence and restraint, as well as the three abstract ads contributing a high-context lean.

Sony’s Japanese ads were the most diversified of the six groups. The most common themes were self-expression/individuality (which occurred three times), “everyone likes” (three times), happiness/enjoyment (four times), and abstract (four times), each of which indicates a different cultural dimension. The Japanese campaigns also feature story ads, including one five- minute collection of vignettes chronicling the week leading up to the release of the PS2.

While the Japanese ads were slightly more collectivist, with 12 occurrences of themes as compared to eight individualist themes, at least one theme was noted from all six of the cultural EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 19 dimensions. The most common were happiness/enjoyment and abstract, which mesh well with

Japan’s advertising culture.

Sony’s commercials have an interesting relationship to each other and to the company.

Overall, happiness/enjoyment, playing together, and abstract ads were the most common themes, but the frequencies of each were not consistent across the two groups. Their relationships to

Sony differ as well. Sony’s English ads adhere well to the values of dreams and curiosity. The

Japanese ads are more collectivist and more abstract, which is indicative of a Japanese perspective; however, they are not as reflective of Sony’s corporate values. Additionally, the wide range of themes and topics means the overall campaign was less consistent than those of the other two companies.

Discussion

Findings

Three companies with distinct values, business models, and histories have created three disparate ad campaigns. Nintendo’s commercials valued family, playing together, and flexibility;

Microsoft’s high regard for innovation was reflected in their commercials; and Sony’s created new worlds for players to explore from the safety of their couch. Each utilized a different strategy for intercultural advertising.

Nintendo was the only company to utilize pattern standardization. Their English and

Japanese campaigns showed the most agreement, using similar slogans, images, and themes that reflect the company’s values. They put the most weight on accessibility of the three companies, reminding audiences time and time again that Nintendo is for everyone with themes like

“everyone likes” and “anyone can play.” Additionally, while not discussed in the applied EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 20 frameworks, Nintendo’s commercials are the most visually consistent, with similar settings, lighting, and color palettes across the campaigns.

Microsoft’s commercials feature the most screen time for the product and the least for people. With seven of their twelve featuring only the Xbox console or its games, these ads are the most individualistic of the three. They were also the most likely to feature other products, with several ads mentioning or showing games, accessories like the Kinect, and other Microsoft products. In addition, Microsoft was the only company whose commercials featured comparisons to competitors in the form of claims of being the best. This is likely due to their American origin.

American advertising campaigns are much more likely to use comparison appeals; in Japan, it is largely assumed that all products on the market are of good quality, and so disparaging a competitor is an unappealing trait (Johansson, 1994). Microsoft’s ads also conflicted with

Japanese culture in their targeting toward serious gamers. The competitive and intense games highlighted in the ads are appealing to their target audience, but unwelcoming to new or casual gamers, who could interpret the culture as highly guarded and too hard to break into.

Sony’s ads, like the Sony brand, lack a unifying message. Their commercials boast the widest range of themes in both English and Japanese. The biggest area of consistency for Sony is their use of abstract, story-based advertising. As a result, their ads were longer than those from the other two companies, the longest reaching five minutes in length. The most consistent part of the campaign was the English commercials for the PS2, centered on immersion, new experiences, and the idea of the Third Place—a space outside of the home or workplace meant for socialization and the exchange of ideas (Oldenburg & Brissett)

Microsoft and Sony both used a mix of localization and prototype standardization, the latter using subtitles and translation of onscreen text. While subtitling is less appealing to EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 21 audiences, it is faster and cheaper for companies, and allows for the preservation of a speaker’s inflection and tone. The standardization also ensures that the feelings conveyed are consistent

Limitations and recommendations for future research

There were several limitations to this study which may have affected the outcome.

Principally, there was only one coder assessing ads based on fairly subjective criteria. Only two of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions were used, one of which is the most recently added and therefore does not have a strong precedent of use. Additionally, as noted above, few ads were available for the older consoles, which limited the number of commercials that could be used for each group. Finally, the “success” of the campaigns could not be objectively analyzed because sales of a product are tied to the qualities of the product; because the consoles are not the same, advertising effectiveness is not the only influence on sales.

The first step for further research should be to address the limitations of this study. The number of commercials analyzed should be increased, and should be expanded to include the companies’ other consoles. The ads should be coded by more than one person. Analysis using

Hofstede’s other four cultural dimensions would also help to develop the literature.

Recommendations for best practices

Considering the three case studies, Nintendo’s model of pattern standardization was the most effective of the three. The English commercials exhibited strong individualistic influence, but a balance was maintained between the independence valued by Americans and the collectivistic sense of belonging held dear by Japan and Nintendo. The themes were consistent across markets and products, creating a unified brand image that invited consumers to join the

Nintendo family regardless of their demographics. Regardless of the country of origin, a EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 22 company’s commercials for each country must be recognizable as representative of the same company and product, something which Sony and Microsoft were unable to achieve.

Outlook

Due to the Switch now driving the gaming industry toward multifunctional consoles, I predict that advertising will follow, and themes such as versatility and personalization/choice will become much more prominent. As competition between the three companies grows, emphasis will shift to the autonomy to make those choices and changes, reminding consumers that they make their own choice of which company to identify with and how they want other to see them. Prototype standardization will also become more common because of the speed and low cost of production. However, the real change will come from the rapid technological advances on the horizon, such as higher resolution and frame rate, and new technologies like VR.

The reason this will be so difficult is due to the method of dissemination—namely, television.

The new higher frame rate that a game is capable of running at will not be visible on older televisions, which will prevent companies from showing off new technologies. Rather, advertisers will be forced to create new methods of focusing on what the product experience feels like to draw in new customers. This will be more difficult for companies like Microsoft, who has previously relied heavily on product stats and gameplay shots. As gaming technology continues to advance at this pace, the player experience will become the product. This bodes well for a gaming culture in which the brand defines the player.

The culture of brand as identity is unlikely to change, given that it has only increased in prominence as consumers’ options have diversified. Further research on the topic of Japanese-

American international relations will assist advertisers in conveying the experience of playing EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 23 their games to an audience who communicates emotions, values, and identity in a completely novel way. EVALUATING BRAND INTEGRITY 24

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