Online integrated marketing communication strategies of international brands: standardization vs. adaptation approaches

Reaching communication consistency across online channels like websites and social media is pivotal for international brands (IBs) in their effort to internationalize their recognition. This study investigates whether and how IBs integrate communication across two online channels in different countries in terms of adaptation and standardization approaches. We perform a content analysis of the websites and Instagram pages of 75 IBs to analyze their integrated marketing communication strategies deployed in two markets: Russia and Italy. This study reveals that IBs may adopt one of the four strategies when considering the design and content of the website and social media simultaneously: (1) standardized convergence, (2) adaptive convergence, (3) mixed convergence, and (4) cross-media divergence. Strategies are described across macro elements developed through a novel fine-grained framework. We discuss our results by exemplifying how communication consistency is reached across identified strategies. With this study that simultaneously analyzes the website and social media communication strategies of IBs, we contribute to the marketing communication literature by conceptualizing key global integrated online marketing communication strategies. In closing, we provide several managerial implications and recommendations for further research on this topic.