Fit or misfit of culture in marketing communication? Development of the culture-ladenness fit index

We introduce culture-ladenness fit (CLF) in marketing communication as a new semantic memory concept and the CLF index as a new tool to measure the effectiveness of culture-laden marketing communication. Culture-ladenness is how much cultural representation consumers perceive in communication, and the CLF index measures how well culture-laden communication aligns with four mental categories against which consumers evaluate fit: (1) the product category, (2) target consumers, (3) the brand image, and (4) the image of the brand’s strategic partners. We report three empirical studies that develop and validate the CLF index using twelve items for a long version (study 1 and 2) and four items for a short version (study 3) of the index measure. The CLF index is a viable tool that marketers can use as a key performance indicator (KPI) to measure and control the marketing effectiveness of culture-laden marketing communication.