McDonald’s and Coca-Cola Ads in the Russian Market

Continuation

McDonald’s’s Adverts in Russia

In this section, we shall discuss the results from McDonald’s’s adverts that we have already summarized in the previous section similar to what we have done for Coca-Cola Company. First, let us briefly review the results of the sentence structure used by McDonald’s’s in its advertisements; just like with Coca-Cola we can see that McDonald’s’s has throughout maintained the use of English words in all of its advertisement strategies in Russia. As we get to analyze the marketing strategy that McDonald’s’s uses in Russia we are going to see a striking similarity between the marketing approaches used by both these two Companies as far as advertisements of their products are concerned. And this is not by coincidence given that both these companies have global brands; more importantly, the fact that McDonald’s is one of the largest distributors globally of Coca-Cola implies that their similarities are more than just one. But because McDonald’s’s line of products are slightly more and inform of foodstuffs we shall see how it has customized its adverts to address this uniqueness.

Compared to Coca-Cola, McDonald’s has used significantly more words in general in the advertisement of its products in Russia; consequently, the number of English words used is also significantly high. In 2010, the number of words used in McDonald’s adverts is seen to have significantly increased to more than 65, with English words being 47. If we look back at the data of the sample adverts for the three previous years that McDonald’s has been advertising in Russia we realize that the Russian words used in the advert have been decreasing over the years while the English words have been increasing.

One of the possible reasons that could explain this decrease in the use of Russian words in McDonald’s adverts can be explained by the historical entry of McDonald’s in the Russian market in the early 90s which means that it has been in the market for more than two decades now.

Because McDonald’s entry into the Russian market was relatively late in the early 1990s just about the time that Coca-Cola was also entering the Russian market, it’s possible that the Company had to initially rely largely on the use of Russian language in its advertisement to capture the market. As years went by it probably become necessary to lessen the use of local language and adopt the use of English to position their brand as global brands. Luckily, because the use of English words in advertisements by McDonald’s occurs in the context of a video clip that does not necessarily require the viewer to understand the language, these adverts have become very successful in marketing McDonald’s products despite the element of the foreign language.

Indeed, one of the research studies that has researched the subject of advertising in Russia concluded that “the most successful use of imperatives in Russian advertising is to explain the way the product is used through concrete action” such as through demonstrations as well as nudging the consumer to try the product (Morozova). In this study cited by Irina which details the findings of the effects of English words in Russian advertisements, Morozova states that the best-designed adverts in Russia are the ones that do not have all words in abstracts form, but rather adopts a mixture of both abstract and concrete words (Irina). To achieve this mixture it is suggested to have 80% of the Russian concrete words making up the advert and the rest being English words (Irina).

A critical analysis of the structure of both McDonald’s and Coca-Cola Companies shows that this is actually the case and this ratio is being closely attained in these Companies advertisements.

Another reason that could explain why McDonald’s, as well as Coca-Cola, has continued to use their taglines in English is explained by this research study to be because of the impossibility in accurately translating these taglines to their equivalent meanings in Russia (Irina). This is a common challenge for all major global brands that tend to market in countries where English is not the first language. As such many global brands that have established themselves in English-speaking countries find it extremely hard to accurately translate their globally renowned taglines to Russian equivalents and “life tastes good”, globally used by Coca-Cola is given as one of the examples. A final reason why McDonald’s and Coca-Cola continue to use English words in their adverts in Russia is because of the limitations of the Russian language; Dimshits asserts that “Russian language does not easily accept new meanings” (Dimshits). These are therefore the range of reasons, factors, market strategies, and concepts that explains the structure of adverts that Coca-Cola and McDonald’s use in Russia.

Compared to Coca-Cola, McDonald’s has used significantly more words in general in the advertisement of its products in Russia; consequently, the number of English words used is also significantly high. In 2010, the number of words used in McDonald’s adverts is seen to have significantly increased to more than 65, with English words being 47. If we look back at the data of the sample adverts for the three previous years that McDonald’s has been advertising in Russia we realize that the Russian words used in the advert have been decreasing over the years while the English words have been increasing.

One of the possible reasons that could explain this decrease in the use of Russian words in McDonald’s adverts can be explained by the historical entry of McDonald’s in the Russian market in the early 90s which means that it has been in the market for more than two decades now.