Journal of Services Marketing

Emerald Article: A comparison of services advertising strategies used in US and Korean magazine ads: a content analysis Hae-Kyong Bang, Young Sook Moon

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To cite this document: Hae-Kyong Bang, Young Sook Moon, (2002),"A comparison of services advertising strategies used in US and Korean magazine ads: a content analysis", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 16 Iss: 5 pp. 443 - 459 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08876040210436911 Downloaded on: 31-03-2012 References: This document contains references to 44 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 1 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 2528 times.

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An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue

A comparison of services advertising strategies used in US and Korean magazine ads: a content analysis
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA

Hae-Kyong Bang

Young Sook Moon

Assistant Professor of Marketing, Hanyang University, Korea Keywords Services marketing, Advertising, Korea, USA Abstract This study assesses the level to which services advertisers follow guidelines for effective services advertising suggested by prior academic literature. The study analyzes George and Berry's five guidelines for effective services advertising strategies and Berry and Clark's four tangibilization strategies. The extent to which these suggested strategies are actually implemented by practitioners in the USA and South Korea is investigated, using a content analysis methodology. It is hypothesized that advertisers in a more advanced services economy like the US would be more in tune with the distinctive nature of services (e.g. intangibility) and would practice these guidelines more frequently than advertisers in a newly developed services economy like Korea. The findings suggest that US services magazine ads do use most of the suggested services advertising strategies more frequently than the Korean counterparts. However, there are a few exceptions, and some of the guidelines were not widely used in either country. Managerial implications and suggestions for further research are provided.

Service sector growth

Introduction The service sector of the US economy has grown substantially in recent years. Cobb-Walgren and Mohr (1998) report that the service sector accounts for approximately 54 percent of GDP and more than three-quarters of the projected increase in new jobs between 1993 and 2005. Many newly developed countries are also moving toward a more service-oriented economy. Countries like South Korea offer their consumers an unprecedented level of choices in services, especially in retailing, banking, insurance, and higher education. Given the growth of the service sector in newly developed countries, it is critical that service businesses understand how to market their offerings. It is especially important for service businesses to develop advertising campaigns that are effective since advertising often represents the first contact a potential customer has with the service provider (Green, 1998). Many services marketers who used to believe that IRAs could be sold in the same manner as soap now question the applicability of product marketing strategies to service marketing (Tauber, 1986). In spite of the growing importance of the service sector, there has been a limited amount of research on services advertising. However, those studies that have been conducted have provided some key conceptual insights. A group of early articles focused on the intangible nature of services and called for different strategies for services advertising as opposed to product
The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0887-6045.htm

Limited research

JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 16 NO. 5 2002, pp. 443-459, # MCB UP LIMITED, 0887-6045, DOI 10.1108/08876040210436911

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advertising. For instance, Shostack (1977) argued that while product advertising intentionally seeks abstract associations (e.g. Coca-Cola tries to be associated with authenticity or Dr Pepper with originality), services advertisers should make efforts to establish non-abstract or tangible manifestations of their intangible services for effective mass media advertising. More recently, several content analyses, as well as one experimental study, have also suggested a need for different strategies in observing that services advertisers are better served by using rational appeals as opposed to transformational (emotional) appeals (Stafford and Day, 1995; Tripp, 1997). Service marketers guidelines Reiterating that special attention should be devoted to making the service appear more tangible, George and Berry (1981) developed six guidelines for services marketers. These guidelines state that services advertising should: (1) Target employees as well as customers. (2) Capitalize on word-of-mouth (i.e. by using testimonials/endorsements). (3) Provide tangible cues about the service. (4) Make the service more easily understood. (5) Promise what is possible (i.e. not exaggerate). (6) Provide continuity over time. Berry and Clark (1986) also emphasized the need to tangibilize services through advertising. They discussed four different ways to tangibilize services, including visualization or association. Unfortunately, no empirical studies to date have studied the extent to which proposed guidelines for services advertising are actually followed by practitioners. Most prior content analyses have focused on the information content of services advertising or professional advertising. Generally, these studies measure information content based on the Resnik and Stern (1977) scheme originally developed for product advertising. While the Resnik and Stern scheme allows for comparisons to many studies of information content over time and across media (see Abernethy and Franke, 1996), it may not capture all of the major types of information used by services advertisers (Abernethy and Butler, 1992; Taylor et al., 1997). Consequently, much remains unknown as to what type of advertising strategies are used by services marketers, and research on the determination of factors and practices contributing to effective services advertising is still evolving (Grove et al., 1997). Advertising content The purpose of this study is to analyze the content of services advertising in the USA and Korea, in order to examine whether services advertisers in the two countries practice the guidelines suggested by prior scholars. In particular, this paper focuses on the following aspects of the content of existing services advertising in the USA and Korea:
.

the extent to which the guidelines suggested by George and Berry (1981) are followed; and the extent to which the tangiblization strategies proposed by Berry and Clark (1986) are used.

George and Berry's guidelines are used because the study is considered seminal and, as noted by Mittal (1999), consistent with subsequent conceptual frameworks for services advertising, including Mittal's along
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with Legg and Baker (1987) and Hill and Gandhi (1992). Berry and Clark's tangibilization strategies are used because of their widespread acceptance in the services advertising literature. A newly developed services economy Korea was chosen for inclusion in the study because it represents a newly developed services economy in Asia. Ha (1998) compared appeals used in services advertising in Hong Kong and the USA. This study compared the USA and a country with a more recently developed service sector. Overall, Korea's development represents a remarkable success story, as it went from being a country with a per-capita income of just US$87 in 1962 to US$8,450 in 1994, and well over US$10,000 today. Additionally it is important to study Korea because it is a major trading partner for the USA, being its fifth largest export market and eighth largest importer in 1997 (Business America, 1998). While Korea has come a long way in terms of its economic development, it is not surprising that its service sector is not as well developed as that of the USA (McKinsey, 2001). In the USA, the service sector almost tripled in size between 1959 and 1990, eventually rising to account for a majority of US GDP (Triplett, 1993). As of 1998, the service sector accounted for 40 percent of Korean GDP (Koreascope, 1998). While substantial, this figure is indicative of Korea having entered the ranks of developed countries relatively recently. Numerous government regulations affecting the service sector, including zoning restrictions that make it difficult to build large retail outlets, have also inhibited the service sector's growth in Korea (McKinsey, 2001). In general, it is unlikely that most Korean service firms face the same high level of competition domestically that comparable US firms do. This study is designed to contribute to the literature both by assessing the extent to which US service advertisers are following the conceptual guidelines and by comparing the use of these guidelines in the USA and Korea. On the latter point, it is hypothesized that services marketers in a more advanced services economy, that is, the USA, are more likely to practice advertising strategies developed for services advertising than those in Korea, which has a newly developed services economy. Literature review US content analyses of services advertising Tripp (1997) reviewed the services advertising literature since 1980 and found that only a limited number of empirical studies have been conducted. Tripp's review notes that research in this area has produced conflicting findings and that the focus has consistently been on differences between product and services advertising in two areas, that is, message appeals and information cues. In spite the limitations of this narrow focus, Tripp asserts that these studies have provided initial confirmation of differences in the way goods and services advertisers present their messages. Content anlysis An early content analysis of message appeals that broke out data by product/service category was conducted by Zinkhan et al. (1992). Based on an analysis of 760 television commercials, the study reported that both services ads and product ads relied primarily on informational appeals as opposed to transformational appeals. In terms of the use of transformational appeals, more services ads were found to use transformational appeals than product ads (27.7 percent vs 12.1 percent). Using the television commercial types developed by Hefzallah and Maloney (1979), they also found that more staged formats and testimonials were used by services advertisers than by other advertisers. An analysis of appeal types conducted during the same
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time frame on 4,220 television commercials also found that services advertisers used factual appeals significantly more often than physical product advertisers (Bush and Bush, 1992). Abernethy and Butler (1992) used the information cues developed by Resnik and Stern (1977) to analyze 562 half- (or larger) page newspaper ads. They found that services ads contained fewer informational cues than product ads (2.10 vs 3.20). Yet they noted that the lower frequency of information cues found in services advertising was largely due to the fact that they used a scheme originally developed for product advertising. Interestingly, the study found that availability information was significantly underrepresented in services advertising although such information is considered more important for services. Information cues A number of subsequent studies examined a subset of the 14 information cues from the Resnik and Stern scheme. For instance, Grove et al. (1995) used four information cues (i.e. price, guarantees/warranties, documentation of performance, and availability) to compare services advertising and product advertising in 17,000 newspaper and 9,800 television ads. They found that services ads provided more factual cues than product ads, and that their incidence increased as service products became more intangible in nature. Cutler and Javalgi (1993) examined visual components of print advertising for services and goods in four areas the visual process used, the appeal content, the headline typology, and implied target audiences. A total of 471 ads were sampled from 1989 and 1990 issues of business, general interest and women's magazines and were classified into four product categories: consumer services, consumer non-durable products, consumer durable products and other. The results of their content analysis showed service advertisements more often contained an emotional appeal, an emotional appeal process (metaphor, storytelling, or aesthetic) and an emotional headline than did product advertisements. They also found no difference in the frequency of quality claims for services ads versus product ads. This is interesting because ambiguity and uncertainty are greater in the marketing of services than in the marketing of physical products (Weinberger and Brown, 1977) and quality claims in services advertising can be used to reduce such risks (Clow et al., 1996). Business-to-business While most content analyses have focused on consumer services advertising, Turley and Kelley (1997) examined the differences between business-tobusiness (B2B) services advertising and consumer services advertising on a variety of advertising execution variables. In their sample of 186 magazine advertisements, 91 ads were for B2B services and 95 were for consumer services. The specific message elements evaluated were message appeal, headline usage, price information, quality claims, and the inclusion of an Internet address. The results showed that while B2B services ads were more likely to use rational advertising appeals than consumer services ads, there was no difference between the two types of ads in the usage of headline, quality claims, price information, and Internet address. In general, most studies have found that services advertisers tend to use rational appeals more often than emotional appeals (Tripp, 1997). It is notable that the use of rational appeals is consistent with the findings of an experiment by Stafford and Day (1995), in which it was found that rational appeals are more effective in generating favorable attitudes toward services advertising. Another experiment of note is Stafford's (1996), in which the
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presence of verbal and visual tangible cues in advertisements for services were manipulated. Results indicated that verbal tangible cues were associated with higher effectiveness on most dependent measures for the two service categories studied (hotels and auto service). The findings of this study are especially important, because they provide empirical support for the notion that if services advertisers actually use certain tangibilization strategies they will be rewarded with more effective ads. Product versus service comparison Prior studies of international services advertising Some prior research has also focused on international services advertising. While none of these studies focused specifically on the guidelines for service advertisers investigated in the current study, some interesting findings have resulted. Most of the prior studies have not focused exclusively on services advertising in the countries where data were collected, but have made product versus service comparison (Albers-Miller and Stafford, 1999). For example, Cutler and Javalgi's (1994) of B2B magazine advertising included ads from the UK. It was concluded that services ads in the UK used a narrower range of appeals than those in the USA. Rajarnatam et al. (1995) compared the information content of appeal types used in Indian and US magazine advertising and found more similarities than differences between the two countries for both product and services ads. In a large-scale study of 11 countries, Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) found that the use of the advertising appeals identified by Pollay (1983) ``was often related to culture in a nonrandom way.'' A few studies focusing on advertising in the People's Republic of China have also been conducted. Swanson (1996) found that a wider array of appeals was being used in Chinese advertising as foreign firms entered the market. Chan's (1996) study of response to television advertising found that Chinese respondents rated emotional ads higher on liking and perceived brand image than informative advertising. She speculated that a reason for this might be more exposure to informational ads when the economy was just beginning to develop. Cheng and Schweitzer (1996) also studied Chinese television commercials and found that the appeals used in Chinese advertising varied by product category and product origin. Services advertising Two studies are especially notable, since they focused more directly on services advertising. The first of these is a content analysis conducted by Ha (1998). Ha's study compared the information and values present in services ads in the USA (n = 105) and Hong Kong (n = 107). Both countries were chosen because their service economies are highly developed. The variables examined included eight information cues derived from the Resnik and Stern scheme, instrumental values (e.g. heroic, stylish, traditional, or easy), and terminal values (e.g. health, love, harmony, or success). It was found that the US services ads scored high on the quality cue, but much lower on price and availability cues than the Hong Kong services ads. In terms of instrumental and terminal values, the US services ads reflected more traditional heritage and appeals to consumers' health than their Hong Kong counterparts. A second key study is Albers-Miller and Stafford's (1999) content analysis of ads in business publications from 11 countries. It was found that the type of appeal used (rational vs emotional) varied by service category (utilitarian vs experiential) when the data were pooled. It was also found that culture had more influence on appeals when the appeal was central to the service selling premise.
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In summary, while a considerable amount has been learned from prior studies, most have not directly investigated the use of strategies believed to improve services advertising. Moreover, in spite of the contributions of the Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) and Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999) studies, the level to which culture plays a role in determining what appeals or strategies help make services advertising effective is not clearly known. While this study is not designed to make inroads into the level to which culture influences strategy, it is designed to explore whether the services advertising strategies in two distinct countries are similar or different. The study Conceptual framework and hypotheses This study examines whether services advertising follows the recommendations made by academic researchers. In particular, the use of George and Berry's (1981) guidelines for advertising services, and the use of various methods of tangibilizing the service are analyzed. The primary basis for predicting differences between the USA and Korea is that while the USA has had a developed services economy for many decades, Korea's service sector is newly developed. As noted by Czinkota and Ronakainen (1998), US firms in several service industries, including banking, legal services, accounting, management consulting, telecommunications, and transportation have proven to be highly competitive in global markets. This has been attributed to the experience of these firms, as well as to intense competition, which has produced higher consumer expectations. Given the level at which US service firms have been operating to serve an advanced services economy at home, as well as expansion into more global markets, one would expect US firms to make use of more advanced techniques for advertising services. In contrast, in Korea, which has a less developed service sector, one would expect to see services ads that are closer in style and format to advertising for physical products than is the case in the USA. This distinction will play an important role in the derivation of the hypotheses developed in the subsequent section. George and Berry's guidelines Of the six guidelines presented by George and Berry (1981) for more effective services advertising based on certain special characteristics of services, five guidelines were deemed applicable for this study. One guideline (i.e. advertising continuity) was omitted since the sample of the current study was not collected for a longitudinal or a multi-media study. The first six hypotheses relate to overall adherence to the guidelines and adherence to each of the five relevant individual guidelines. The hypotheses are based on the USA having a more developed services economy that Korea. Since US services industries generally have higher levels of marketing and advertising experience, it is expected that US firms will follow George and Berry's guidelines more often. Our first prediction is that the total number of guidelines followed in an average ad will be higher in the USA than in Korea: H1. In total, the guidelines for effective services advertising proposed by George and Berry are followed more closely by US advertisers than Korean advertisers. George and Berry's first guideline is that services advertising should be directed to employees in addition to consumers because a major characteristic of service marketing is that it relies more heavily on contact personnel for service performance. Thus services advertising messages
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The hypotheses

should be directed to employees who may then be motivated to deliver enhanced performance to consumers. Employee performance is deemed critical since true differentiation in services marketing lies with contact personnel (Berry, 1986). Not unlike product advertising which targets one or more segments, services marketers should treat their own employees as a potentially important ``second audience'' for services advertising. Given the higher level of development of the US services economy, US ads are more likely to reflect this guideline. Thus: H2. US services ads are more often aimed at employees than are Korean services ads. Word-of-mouth A second guideline is that services advertising should capitalize on word-of-mouth. The ever-present potential for variability in the provision of labor-intensive services is well understood by those who consume services. The higher level of ambiguity and uncertainty associated with services may lead consumers to rely on word-of-mouth in an attempt to reduce perceived risk related to intangible services. Thus effective services advertising in a developed services economy should capitalize on the use of tactics such as a testimonial or endorsement. H3. US services ads use techniques designed to build word-of-mouth more often than Korean services ads. The third George and Berry guideline is that services advertising should provide tangible cues about the quality of service. Consumers tend to be attentive to tangibles associated with a service for cues about the service quality. Although a service is intangible in the sense that performance rather than an object is purchased, objects with well-known meanings may be associated with the service being offered. Thus, advertisers can help lower the consumer's perception of uncertainty and risk-taking by using tangibles in advertising in such a way as to convey appropriate signals about the service. Stafford's (1996) finding that the presence of verbal tangible cues increases effectiveness in an experimental setting reinforces the idea that this strategy will be effective. It is expected that advertisers in a more developed services economy would be more attuned to this advice. Thus: H4. US services ads are more likely to provide tangible cues about service quality than are Korean services ads. Using tangibles The fourth guideline is that services advertising should make the service more easily understood. One of the problems arising from the intangibility of services is that they are often difficult to define or grasp mentally. One method for dealing with intangibility is to use tangibles in advertising as evidence of the service's quality. Sometimes providing tangibles can make the service more easily understood. Again, Stafford's (1996) findings provide support for this conceptual suggestion: H5. US services ads are more likely to contain content aimed at making the service easier to understand than are Korean services ads. Lastly, George and Berry assert that services advertising should promise what is possible. Since service buyers have only fulfilled promises (as opposed to a tangible good) to carry away from the service transaction, it is especially important that service firms deliver on advertising promises. It is better to promise only that which can be delivered at a very high percentage of the time than to promise something that they can deliver only a few times:
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H6. US services ads are more likely to promise what is possible than are Korean services ads. Communication strategies Tangibilization strategies Berry and Clark (1986) proposed four specific communication strategies which attempt to tangibilize aspects of a service or to link a service with tangible cues in such a way that the service itself appears less intangible. A first strategy is visualization. When visualization is used, something in the communication evokes in the minds of prospective customers a sense of experiencing the service itself. Thus, advertising using visualization is designed to give consumers a vivid, mental picture of a service's benefits or qualities. An example would be a cruise line advertisement showing a couple enjoying a romantic dinner on deck on a moonlit evening. A second strategy is association. This strategy links a service to some extrinsic good, person, event, place, or object. Thus, the marketer focuses attention not on the service itself, but on a tangible with credentials that are relatively easier to evaluate. Prudential has been associating themselves with a rock in their advertising to communicate solid and safe service performance. Physical representation is the third strategy. Here, marketers incorporate physical evidence and artifacts into the service itself, and tangibles that are directly or peripherally a part of the service are brought to center stage and emphasized. An example would be showing a UPS truck and uniformed employees carrying a package. Using facts or figures Finally, a documentation strategy uses facts or figures to underscore the value or quality of the service. With this strategy, marketer attempts to document the scope, characteristics, performance record, or effects of the service with concrete information to provide a more realistic picture of the service and give the service credibility. Demonstrating the past performance of annual yields in a graph uses this strategy. As a result of the USA having a more advanced services economy, it follows that US advertisers will be likely to make a wider use of the above tangibilization strategies. Thus: H7. US service advertisers use strategies for tangibilizing the service more frequently than do Korean service advertisers. Method Sampling The sample used in this study was drawn from services ads in US and Korean magazines. News/business magazines and general interest magazines from 1997 and 1998 were selected as the general categories of analysis due to the infrequent incidence of services ads (except for retailers) in other types of Korean magazines. Comparable magazines were chosen For the US sample. For the US sample four of the largest circulation weeklies (Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, Business Week) and two high circulation monthlies (Readers Digest and National Geographic) were randomly selected. For the Korean sample two monthly magazines (Shin Dong A Monthly Chosun) and three weeklies (Economist Korean version, Hankyung Business, Shisa Journal) were randomly selected from a list of high circulation magazines. Owing to the differences in the media landscape and the amount of advertising for services in both countries, the Korean sample was drawn first to include all the unduplicated services advertising
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that appeared in the magazines. Then the US sample (n = 202) was drawn by utilizing a stratified sampling (i.e. every fourth services ad, unduplicated) procedure to yield a sample that was of comparable size to the Korean sample (n = 201), yet representative of services advertising that appeared in the selected magazines. Only full-page and larger ads were included in the sample. Both the verbal and visual content of the services ads were classified according to the following major variables: the five guidelines for services advertising and the four tangibilization strategies. Coders were provided with operational definitions of each category. Operational definitions Coding categories Operational definitions of all coding categories discussed in the paper are shown in the Appendix. In order to arrive at these definitions, prior literature was drawn on. As seen in the codebook, additional guidance was given to coders by using examples that were either drawn from prior literature or presented themselves as being represented during pre-testing. Extensive pre-testing on a set of 40 ads not included in the main study was conducted in both countries in order to train the coders. Lessons learned from this process were incorporated into the codebook. Guidelines. The two US coders were graduate students at a US university and the two Korean coders were graduate students at a Korean university. Coders were instructed to code whether each of the five relevant guidelines was present. Thus, the coders analyzed whether the ad: (1) was directed at employees; (2) attempted to build or reinforce word-of-mouth; (3) provided tangible cues about the quality of service; (4) made the service more easily understood; and (5) promised what is possible. The coding scheme Tangibilization strategies. A next group of variables the coders were asked to code were related to whether and how the ad attempted to tangibilize the service. The coding scheme used was based on Berry and Clark's (1986) strategies for tangibilization. Thus, the categories were:
. . . .

visualization; association; physical representation; and documentation.

Coding procedure The data coding instrument and codebook were initially developed in English. A translation and back-translation procedure was then followed to ensure equivalence of the variables measured. In both countries, coders were trained extensively on ads not included in the sample. On conclusion of the training, each coder coded every ad in their respective sample so that reliability could be measured. Disagreements were resolved by one of the researchers. Table I shows intercoder reliability for these variables based on Perreault and Leigh's (1989) reliability index (Ir). While the reliability figures are generally high, the figures for tangibilization strategy in the USA are somewhat lower.
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Variable Guidelines (total) Also adv. to employees Word of mouth Tangible cues Easily understood What's possible Tangibilization strategy Visualization Association Physical representation Documentation

Number of categories USA Korea 2a 0.84 0.89 0.85 0.94 0.93 2a 0.81 0.71 0.80 0.76 0.92 0.92 0.95 0.97 0.97 0.88 0.84 0.92 0.92

Reliability (Ir) USA Korea 0.89 0.95

0.77

0.88

Note: a Either present or absent was checked for each of the five guidelines and for each of the four tangibilization strategy. The numbers represent the overall reliability figures

Table I. Reliability data

Marketers' practice

Results H1-6 The five guidelines developed by George and Berry in 1981 were used to examine whether services marketers practice recommended services advertising strategies in the USA and Korea. Overall, as shown in Table II, US services advertising used the guidelines at a higher frequency than Korean services advertising (chi-square = 50.66, d.f. = 5, p = 0.000). Thus H1, which predicted greater adherence to the guidelines by US services firms, is supported. In terms of specific guidelines, the US services ads were significantly more likely to address employees than the Korean ads (7.4 percent vs 1.5 percent). This finding supports H2. For H3, US service advertisers capitalized on word-of-mouth more frequently (6.4 percent vs 2.5 percent) than their Korean counterparts. This difference is, however, not statistically significant (p = 0.094). Interestingly, these first two guidelines were by far the least used in both countries. US services ads were also significantly more likely than the Korean services ads to make the communication more easily understood (98.5 percent vs 79.6 percent) and to advertise what is possible (95.5 percent vs 87.6 percent). Both of these differences are statistically significant and provide support for H5 and H6.

Tangible cues

As can be seen in Table II, the lone exception to the pattern of US firms being more prone to follow the George and Berry guidelines is that Korean firms were actually somewhat more likely than the US firms to use tangible
Variable/category Guidelines Also adv. to employee Word-of-mouth Tangible cues Easily understood What's possible USA (%) 7.4 6.4 54.6 98.5 95.5 Korea (%) Overall 1.5 2.5 68.7 79.6 87.6 2 50.66 6.98 2.81 7.80 35.11 7.31 d.f. 5 1 1 1 1 1 p 0.000 0.008 0.094 0.005 0.000 0.007

Table II. Comparison of guidelines between the USA and Korea types of guidelines used in all services ads
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cues (68.7 percent vs 54.5 percent). This leads to the rejection of H4. However, it appears that the operationalization of tangibilization was not adequate to pick up all cases in which a specific tangibilization strategy (as defined by Berry and Clark) was used. As the Appendix shows, coders were trained to only code cues associated directly with the service and only a limited number of specific types of cues were included in the codebook. Therefore, it is likely that the figures presented below from Berry and Clark's scheme present a more accurate representation of the frequency of use of tangibilization strategies. Hence, our operationalization based on the George and Berry definition of tangibilization appears to have been inadequate for testing H4. Use of tangibilization strategies H7 Results shown in Table III also demonstrate a different degree of usage of various tangibilization strategies between the USA and Korea (chi-square = 27.79, d.f. = 3, p = 0.000). In general, the US service ads were more likely to use tangibilization strategies than the Korean ads based on the Berry and Clark framework, thus supporting H7. Visualization and documentation strategies were used significantly more often by US advertisers. Association strategies were also used more frequently in the USA, but the difference was not statistically significant. The lone exception to the above pattern of greater frequency of tangibilization in the USA was found for physical representation. The frequency of using a physical representation to tangibilize the service was similar in the two countries. In both countries, documentation was the most widely used strategy (64.7 percent of US ads and 47.3 percent of Korean ads). Table IV shows the distribution frequencies for the number of tangibilization strategies used in individual ads, as well as t-test results comparing the mean number of the strategies used. As can be seen, the US ads used significantly more tangibilization strategies than the Korean ads (t = 4.16, d.f. = 401, p = 0.000). Moreover, a considerably higher proportion of the Korean ads did not use any tangibilization strategies.
Variable/category Tangibilization strategy Visualization Association Physical representation Documentation USA (%) 29.7 12.9 21.3 61.4 Korea (%) Overall 16.9 7.5 22.4 47.3 2 27.79 8.51 2.66 0.022 7.54 d.f. 3 1 1 1 1 p 0.000) 0.004 0.103 0.883 0.006

Table III. Comparison of tangibilization strategies between the USA and Korea types of tangibilization strategies used in all services ads
USA Korea

Number of strategies used

(%)

(%)

None 23 One 117 Two 50 Three 12 Four 0 Total 202 Average number of strategies used: 1.25

11.4 63 31.3 57.9 90 44.8 24.8 45 22.4 5.9 3 1.5 0 0 0 100.0 201 100.0 0.94 (t = 4.16, d.f. = 401, p = 0.000)

Table IV. Comparison of tangibilization strategies between the USA and Korea number of tangibilization strategies used in individual ads
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Discussion A number of interesting differences have been found in this comparative study involving the USA and Korea. Consistent with our hypotheses, US services ads used four out of five guidelines more frequently than the Korean services ads. This suggests that US services advertisers, as a result of being in a more developed service economy, may be more attuned to the unique nature and requirements of services advertising. However, it is also possible that aspects of Korean culture lead Korean advertisers to believe that the guidelines are less applicable to them. The Korean services ads' relatively frequent use of tangible cues may be due to a need for Korean services marketers to literally demonstrate to their prospective customers something about their service capacity or quality (e.g. new buildings or equipment, or uniformed employees) in order for them to patronize the business. This might be especially important in newly developing services industries in Korea that are trying to attract new customers to the services industry in general. Adherence to guidelines Interestingly, the level to which the various guidelines were adhered to within each of the countries was quite variable. For instance, services advertisers capitalized on word-of-mouth relatively infrequently (6.4 percent for the USA and 2.5 percent for Korea), and addressing employees was found to be infrequent for both countries (7.4 percent for the USA and 1.5 percent for Korea). While the latter finding may be compensated for by internal company communications, the fact that word-of-mouth was under-utilized may indicate that practitioners do not believe that most services advertising needs to perform this function. Thus, it appears that practitioners in both countries do not regard the first two of George and Berry guidelines to be important in many contexts. In contrast to word-of-mouth and addressing employees, much higher frequencies were found for promising what is possible (95.5 percent for the USA vs 87.6 percent for Korea) and for the advertising messages being easily understood (98.5 percent for the USA vs 79.6 percent for Korea). It appears that advertising practitioners in both of these two diverse countries believe that promising what is possible and making the message easily understood are important objectives for services advertising. Understandability Making the service easily understood may involve different levels of familiarity with services advertising. In this content analysis study, understandability was measured in terms of understanding the category of service (e.g. financial service or entertainment service), or different types of the service offerings (e.g. availability of 401K, cash management, or annuities). Whether this kind of information contributes to differentiation of services is of much interest. An area for future research is whether improved consumer understanding of ``what about the service,'' or ``how'' rather than ``what type of service'' would be a more effective differentiating advertising message for services, which in turn may lead to meaningful consumer understanding of what a service business has to offer. Some prior service quality studies have addressed this issue, and there is a need to focus on consumer understanding of services advertising as it develops (Day, 1992). In terms of the use of tangibilization strategies, US services ads were, overall, more likely to tangibilize their services than Korean counterparts. The only strategy that the Korean services ads used slightly more often was the physical representation strategy and this difference was not statistically significant. The US services ads were more likely to attempt to help consumers visualize the experiencing of the benefit of service, to link
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familiar extrinsic objects, symbols, or meanings to their service, and also to provide facts and figures to support the scope or characteristics of their service. Promise what is possible Managerial implications The findings of this study suggest that US services advertisers make heavy use of three of the five guidelines suggested by George and Berry. It is apparent from this research that the vast majority of service businesses believe it is important to promise what is possible and help the consumer understand the service. Additionally, tangible cues are provided in more than half of all US ads. These results suggest that services advertisers in the USA typically hold a strong belief that good services advertising should provide tangible cues, make the service easily understood, and describe what is possible. While most Korean ads use these three guidelines too, Korean ads are less prone to make the service easily understood or describe what is possible. It is possible that this is a function of services advertising in many service businesses being relatively new. Alternatively, it is possible that some aspects of Korean culture make these strategies less viable. Further research using an experimental methodology is needed, in order to assess the impact of culture on advertising strategy in these two countries. Such studies are important, as it has been suggested that cultural variables such as contextual level of the culture, individualism versus collectivism and uncertainty avoidance, among others, affect Korean advertising (Taylor et al., 1997). The finding of a higher use of the Berry and Clark's tangibilization strategies in the USA than in Korea suggests that some service businesses that compete in Korea might want to consider making more effort to use such strategies, and especially visualization and association strategies. Documentation was found to be the most commonly used tangibilization strategy in both countries. This is particularly interesting in that Stafford's (1996) experimental study suggests that verbal cues can lead to higher effectiveness while visual cues did not have the same impact. The high usage of documentation strategies is consistent with the notion that managers' conventional wisdom matches up with the findings of the Stafford study. Nevertheless, more experimental studies like Stafford's (1996) are needed in order to confirm this possibility. Future research Limitations One limitation of the study is that it included only one medium, that is, magazines. Additionally, only certain types of magazines were included due to the differential media landscape of Korea and USA. Services ads from women's magazines or more entertainment-oriented publications were not included in the sample. Future research is needed to compare Korean and US services advertising in other media. A second limitation is that two variables used in the study (i.e. guidelines and tangibilization strategies) were derived from conceptual studies, rather than empirical data. More studies are needed to improve operationalization of various variables important in understanding the effectiveness of services advertising. This is not unexpected, given that services advertising is a part of an evolving research area (Fisk et al., 1993). Conclusion This comparative study found that services advertising showed some differences between the USA and Korea. The study found that US services
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advertisers used strategies conducive to generate more effective advertising at a higher frequency than Korean services advertisers. More specifically, US services ads were found to be more likely to address their own employees, to make the communication more easily understood, and to advertise what is possible. Additionally, the US services ads were more likely to use visualization and documentation. A few similarities were found between the countries. Some of the guidelines were under-utilized for both countries. However, they were used more frequently in the USA than in Korea. On the whole, the study seems to support that services marketers in a more advanced services economy are more sensitive to the unique nature of services as opposed to products, and techniques to make services advertising more effective than services marketers in a newly developing services economy. However, caution must be taken in interpreting the results since the impact of cultural variables cannot be isolated in content analysis studies (Taylor et al., 1997). Future research that takes a longitudinal approach and research examining other countries would be helpful in determining whether this finding holds up across various different countries.
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George, W.R. and Berry, L.L. (1981), ``Guidelines for the advertising of services'', Business Horizons, Vol. 24, July/August, pp. 52-6. Green, C.L. (1998), ``Communicating service quality: are business-to-business ads different?'', The Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 165-76. Grove, S.J., Pickett, G.M. and LaBand, D.N. (1995), ``An empirical examination of factual information content among service advertisements'', The Services Industries Journal, April, pp. 216-41. Grove, S.J., Pickett, G.M. and Stafford, M.R. (1997), ``Addressing the advertising of services: a call to action'', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 1-6. Ha, L. (1998), ``Advertising appeals used by service marketers: a comparison between Hong Kong and the United States'', The Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 98-112. Hefzallah, I.M. and Maloney, W.P. (1979), ``Are there only six kinds of TV commercials?'', Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 57-62. Hill, D.J. and Gandhi, N. (1992), ``Services advertising: a framework to its effectiveness'', The Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 63-74. Koreascope (1998), ``Korean sectoral production rates and GDP'', Koreascope, Seoul, available at: www.koreascope.org/etext/sub/1/1/index3-c.htm LaBand, D.N., Pickett, G.M. and Grove, S.J. (1992), ``An empirical examination of the informational content of services advertisements'', American Marketing Association, Summer, pp. 166-7. Legg, D. and Baker, J. (1987), ``Advertising strategies for service firms'', in Suprenant, C. (Ed.), Add Value to Your Service, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 163-8. McKinsey (2001), ``Helping Korea change course'', McKinsey & Company, available at: www.mckinsey.com/monthbymonth/articles/helping_korea.html Mittal, B. (1999), ``The advertising of services: meeting the challenge of intangibility'', Journal of Service Research, Vol. 13, August, pp. 98-116. Perreault, W.D. Jr and Leigh, L.E. (1989), ``Reliability of nominal data based on qualitative judgments'', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 26, May, pp. 135-48. Pollay, R.W. (1983), ``Measuring the cultural values manifest in advertising'', Current Issues and Research in Advertising, pp. 71-92. Rajaratnam, D., Hunt, J.B. and Madden, C.S. (1995), ``Content analysis of US and Indian magazine advertising'', Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 93-109. Resnik, A. and Stern, B.L. (1977), ``An analysis of information content in television advertising'', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 41, January, pp. 50-3. Shostack, G.L. (1977), ``Breaking free from product marketing'', Journal of Marketing, April, pp. 73-80. Stafford, M.R. (1996), ``Tangibility in services advertising: an investigation of verbal versus visual cues'', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 13-28. Stafford, M.R. and Day, E. (1995), ``Retail services advertising: the effects of appeal, medium, and service'', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 57-71. Swanson, L.A. (1996), ``People's advertising in China: a longitudinal content analysis of The People's Daily since 1949'', International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 222-38. Tauber, E.M. (1986), ``Advertising in a service economy'', Journal of Advertising Research, April/May, p. 9. Taylor, C.R., Wilson, R.D. and Miracle, G.E. (1997), ``The impact of information level on the effectiveness of US and Korean television commercials'', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 1-18. Triplett, J.E. (1993), ``Economic concepts for economic classifications changes for the future'', The Service Economy, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 1-6. Tripp, C. (1997), ``Services advertising: an overview and summary of research, 1980-1995'', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 21-38. Turley, L.W. and Kelley, S.W. (1997), ``A comparison of advertising content: business to business versus consumer services'', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 39-48.
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Weinberger, M.G. and Brown, S.W. (1977), ``A difference in informational influences: services vs goods'', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 389-402. Zinkhan, G.M., Johnson, M. and Zinkhan, F.C. (1992), ``Differences between product and services television commercials'', Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 59-66. Appendix. The codebook for services advertising (1) #: Coder Id (2) ###: Case Id #: (001-200) (3) #: Country: (1) USA (2) Korea (4) #: Year: (1) 1997 (2) 1998 5-9 Five guidelines for more effective services advertising (George and Berry, 1981): check for each guideline (presence/absence) if yes (1), if no (0). Note: These categories are not mutually exclusive. Simply check whether each of these guidelines has been followed by services advertisers. (5) #: Advertising also to employees?: (1) Yes; (0) No
. . . . .

Especially when the performance is people-based. To encourage, motivate, educate employees to perform. To positively impact employees. Setting a job performance standard for them to follow (as in a job requirement)? As a employee of this service firm, do I feel that the overall advertising message is also communicating the management's expectations for me?

(6) #: Capitalizing on word-of-mouth?: (1) Yes; (0) No

. .

To persuade satisfied customers to spread the word. Customers with prior experiences speak from their personal experiences (testimonials): if testimonials are used, write ``3''.

(7) #: Providing tangible* clues?: (1) Yes; (0) No

. . .

Both visual and verbal. Tangible clues should be directly associated with the service. Well-known endorsers or symbols that have clear and distinctive image or meanings for consumers. Use of photos showing facilities (e.g. buildings), personnel (e.g. with a friendly smile) or numbers (e.g. history of the firm).

(8) #: Making the service more easily understood?: (1) Yes; (0) No
. .

Does the ad help the reader understand what the service is about? Tangible clues above are often used to make the service more easily understood.

(9) #: Advertising what is possible (possible in a sense that what they promise explicitly or implicitly will be deliverable through the service provided)?: (1) Yes; (0) No
. . . .

Are they promising realistic expectations? Can they provide the service as promised at a very high percentage of the time? No fantasy, puffery, exaggeration. When making promises in services advertising, prudence and caution should rule.

(10) Tangibilization strategy (Berry and Clark, 1986) used?: check one strategy to tangibilize benefits: (0) No tangibilization strategy is used for this service advertisement. (1) Yes. 11-14. Is this tangibilization strategy esed?: (0) No (1) Yes
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(11) Visualization. By giving a vivid mental picture of a service's benefits or qualities to evoke in the minds of prospective customers a sense of experiencing, or not experiencing, the service itself (e.g. Carnival Cruise Lines and Carnival Tours):
.

As if you were in the person's place, seeing a movie involving people or a situation, or making the service very real to the potential consumer.

(12) Association. By linking a service to some extrinsic good, person, event, place, or object which consumers can relatively easily evaluate (e.g. Quantas, the Australian national airline, using a koala bear, or GM's Mr Goodwrench):
.

These extrinsic objects have credentials or distinctive meanings for consumers so that they can easily relate or recognize as such.

(13) Physical representation. By incorporating a part of physical evidence and artifacts of the service itself (e.g. American Express gold card shown in an ad). (14) Documentation. By using facts and figures to underscore the value or quality of the service to document the scope, characteristics, performance record (e.g. graphs or charts), or effects of the service with concrete information (e.g. certification by a recognizable or reputable appropriate authorities, endorsements, or accreditation).

&

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