Advertising appeals as a reflection of cultural values: Analysis of banks' social media content in different countries

Culture is a multidimensional construct comprising four layers: self-referenced values (individuals' preferences) and practices (individuals' actual behavior), group-referenced values (social norms) and practices (common societal behaviors). These cultural layers may not always align. Such misalignments are referred to as value paradoxes. Previous advetising research has largely relied on Hofstede's cultural dimensions reporting conflicting results and criticizing the model as outdated. However, the model reflects only self-reported values and practices, which limits its ability to capture other cultural facets. This study aims to investigate whether Hofstede's dimensions and the concept of the value paradox can explain the use of advertising appeals in the social media content of banks across eight countries: Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria. This study applies qualitative content analysis using MAXQDA2020 to examine over 800 Instagram posts published between January and September 2024 by 24 leading banks across eight countries. The study highlights the importance of integrating Hofstede's framework with the value paradox approach to accurately identify which advertising appeals resonate with audiences. The findings indicate that banks in the USA, UK, and Australia predominantly employ advertising appeals aligned with individualism, low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and indulgence, with U.S. and Australian banks also incorporating collectivistic appeals. In contrast, banks in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria utilize collectivistic, high and low power distance, masculine, high uncertainty avoidance and indulgence-related appeals. Value paradoxes are prevalent in the dimensions of Femininity, Power distance, and Restraint, especially in economically transitional societies.