There are three key qualifiers in this question – “deep traditional roots,” “channels,” and “approaches to advertising.” Sketching a boundary around these qualifiers will make our discussion more meaningful. First, a couple of caveats: this discussion will include brand/product advertising and exclude “political” or “social” advertising; and second, we’re discussing an urban advertising audience and not a rural audience.

Unquestionably, Asia is a main economic engine for the world economy today. And as we have noted previously, this vast region is deeply rooted in its broad traditional roots of collectivism, family as social unit, and society above individual.

Irrespective of the economic cycles that every market goes through, each is also deeply rooted into its own broad marketing traditions. America prides itself on individualism and freedom, while Europe has its tradition of individualism and adventure, and Africa is known for tribal clan loyalties and living life for today.

Traditional roots of a market create its fundamental character, and healthcare advertising and communication leverage these roots to try to connect with the marketplace. Given this logic, no market or culture should be receptive to another’s advertising channels and approaches. Let us examine this logic further with the other two qualifiers embedded in this question.

Advertising’s main aim is to inform and change attitudes or behavior using a simple and one-dimensional message, or a layered and multi-dimensional communication. To achieve its aims, advertising has to ensure that it reaches the intended people and make the message relevant for them. For reaching people, advertising leverages different communications channels to put across an argument, thought, idea, or information. Interestingly, globalization has made advertising channels very similar across markets – Asia as well as Western – and marketers can plan their global campaigns by leveraging similar channels like TV, print, outdoor, and Internet in any market.

Asia, being a unique amalgam of developed and developing economies, throws open challenges to healthcare marketers because of its differences in technological advancements, population demographics, and political environment. These differences may make it difficult for marketers to use all the channels seamlessly across Asian markets. For example, while China offers the biggest opportunity to leverage disintermediation advantages between Internet and social network services, print and outdoor channels here are more innovative than in their Western counterparts. And ironically, it is not yet possible to use satellite TV in China at all.

Japan’s media channels scene, on the other hand, matches that of any developed Western country. India has complete democracy and freedom in media channels and therefore, offers wide and innovative print and TV reach in every language of the country, but struggles with Internet infrastructure (that is despite being the software capital of the world). Southeast Asia has a balance in terms of population distribution, media channel proliferation, and Internet infrastructure.

Secondly, approaches to advertising are strategies to make the message relevant and involving. Advertising leverages different emotional, functional, or relational approaches in communication to achieve this. Across cultures, both Asian and Western, leveraging basic human characteristics such as happiness, humor, love, fear, acceptance of endorsement, acceptance of rational argument, etc., are the basic approaches to advertising.

However, basic differences in traditions and culture between the Western world and Asia abound. Western society’s “enlightened” values of rational absolutism guide the pursuit of happiness rooted in individualism, whereas Asian’s morally relativistic values prepare them to appreciate the sense of collectivism for society’s growth. Such stark differences lead advertising to have very different hooks in these two different worlds. For instance, in most FMCG advertising, where the homemaker is the target audience and the protagonist in advertising messages, the Western way of portraying her vs. the Asian way of portraying her are often very different. In commercials that originate in the West, smartness or logic in the homemaker’s decision often is the relevant hook, whereas in an Asian context, her desire to be seen as the focal point of the entire family more often is the relevant hook. In both the cases, the approach of advertising could be based on love, care, or rational decision, but the tone and manner in which it is expressed is different.

Fundamentally, traditions and social milieu are strong features seen in cultures, countries and markets and can have varying degree of receptiveness to Western-oriented content channels and approaches to advertising. India, with its long history of foreign invasions and in its pre-economic liberalization era was more receptive, but is now changing rapidly and negotiating the balance between the West and Indian communication. Japan and China, with their own cultural practices dating back thousands of years, but with recent influences of the West on lifestyles, can indeed be more receptive to Western-oriented content in advertising – especially in certain categories such as automobiles and consumer durables that a show higher influence and acceptance of Western figures and content.

The core differentiation in communication content in Asia is best leveraged and uniquely optimized when local understanding/insight of demographic, cultural, and political influence are leveraged properly. Otherwise, broader approaches to advertising channels would remain similar across Asian and Western markets.