Assessing the Effectiveness of Advertising for Behavioral Intentions: A Multilevel Analysis Across Countries

Extant research provides scant insight into the cross-national effectiveness of marketing communication aimed at engaging consumers and into the moderating role of national characteristics. We assess the effectiveness of a cross-national advertising campaign in terms of changing behavioral intentions. Specifically, we examine the moderating effects of country-level indicators to represent three institutional pillars (regulative, normative/ moral and cultural-cognitive) on the mediated associations between three advertising persuasion measures (message comprehension, attitude toward the campaign, message elaboration) and behavioral intentions. Multilevel analysis based on data from a multi-country advertising campaign is examined to test hypothesized within-country and between-country effects. Results confirm the moderating role if the institutional pillars. we discuss implications for international marketing theory and practice.