Addressing the Advertising of Controversial Products in China: An Empirical Approach

China is a country that has undertaken a great transformation since the late 1970’s, and among these changes, has seen a massive growth in the advertising industry with the influx of foreign advertisers, and the development of regional and global media, such as satellite television and the Internet. This has resulted in the Chinese people of all ages having a greater opportunity of exposure to different types of advertising, including the advertising of potentially controversial products, which could clash with traditional Chinese values. Using a stakeholder theory approach, this study analyzes the responses of 630 Chinese respondents to discover who is offended by controversial advertisements and determine ways potentially offensive advertising messages can be reduced, thereby assisting marketers in being more socially responsible in their advertising messages.     

An Examination of Sales Promotion Programs in Hong Kong: What the Retailers Offer and What the Consumers Prefer

This study gives an insight into the retailer's capability of managing sales promotion by examining the sales promotion programs offered by Hong Kong cosmetic and toiletry retailers and the consumers’ preferences. The results indicate that instant-reward programs are popular among retailers and preferred by consumers. The results also show that the preferences for sales promotion programs are dependent upon consumers’ demographic and sociocultural characteristics. Implications for advertisers designing and communicating sales promotions are offered.     

Interpersonal Relationship,Service Quality,Seller Expertise: How Important Are They to Adolescent Consumers?

Drawing upon social capital theory and psychosocial development theory, this paper argues that a true buyer–seller relationship is a key determinant of favorable consumer behaviors for adolescent consumers of hairstylist services. Other important determinants include quality of the service delivery process (i.e., service quality as measured by the five SERVQUAL factors) and quality of the core service (in this case, the hairstylist's expertise). A survey of 350 adolescent consumers confirms these predictions. It shows that a true interpersonal relationship negatively moderates the positive effects of service quality on consumer satisfaction with, and overall assessment of the hairstylist. This negative moderating effect is labeled resource substitution benefit and the argument made that this is the fourth social capital benefit. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A promotion mix budgeting model for retailing

Our two-equation model of retail promotion provides a well-balanced explanation of both retailers' perceptions of promotion tools and their budget allocation across the promotion mix. While previous studies have examined each of these two components separately, few have integrated both in the one study. Factor analysis was used to simplify the choices of promotion tools. This reduced the number of promotion tools to four, namely mass media, in-store promotion, sales promotion/direct mail and personal selling. We support earlier studies which link budget promotion mix spending (behaviour) to perceptions about the effectiveness of each medium (attitude). The range of determinants of perceptions has been extended by incorporating the roles of retail strategy, store ownership, culture and promotion intensity. We have estimated the budget promotion mix equation using a production function theoretical framework. Although this makes little difference to the strong relationship between retailers' perceptions of promotion tools and budget allocations, the theoretical framework does enable formal estimation of cross-media substitution. We find that the two short-term oriented promotion media are substitutes. Our model has been applied to apparel retailing in Australia, with considerable scope for applications to other retail categories and to other countries.     

The role of renqing in mediating customer relationship investment and relationship commitment in China

There is a growing research interest in guanxi marketing, which has been considered the Chinese version of relationship marketing. However, very little empirical research has investigated the implicit nature of renqing, the underlying mechanism that explains the cultivation and maintenance of guanxi. This study examines the role of renqing in mediating customer relationship investment and relationship commitment in the insurance industry. The authors surveyed 245 car insurance policyholders in China. The findings confirm the mediating role of renqing in such relationships and show that renqing explains a very high proportion of the variance in levels of customer relationship commitment. This result offers valuable insights and suggestions as to how to increase levels of customer relationship commitment in China.     

Muslim religiosity and purchase intention of different categories of Islamic financial products

Considering the rapid growth of Islamic Financial Products (IFPs) worldwide and the limited research on Muslims’ buying behaviour of such products, this research examines the relationship between religiosity, consumer buying attitude and purchase intention towards different categories of IFPs. The findings suggest that buying attitude has full mediation for deposit, credit and capital market products and partial mediation for insurance products on the association between Muslim religiosity and their purchase intention. Interestingly, religiosity influenced positively even for insurance and capital market products. This is in contrast with our hypothesised relationships for capital and insurance products. The study contributes to the literature by enhancing our understanding of the complex mediating religiosity – buying attitude – purchase intention relationships for different categories of IFPs.     

Advertising Controversial Products in the Asia Pacific: What Makes Them Offensive?

The advertising of controversial products/services and the use of controversial images to "cut through the clutter" in the marketplace appears to be increasing around the world. However, apart from the general ethical issue regarding the deliberate use of controversial/offensive images for public viewing that may offend some people, it is important to determine what makes a controversial advertisement offensive? A questionnaire was distributed to 1014 students across four different countries in the Asia Pacific region to determine what type of products are seen as offensive and the reasons they are offensive. The results present some important implications for international marketers.     

Applying transaction utility theory to sales promotion – the impact of culture on consumer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is known to have a positive impact on market share and satisfaction levels may be moderated by factors such as price sensitivity and perceived value. Transaction utility theory tells us that consumers make overall cognitive judgements about a price-based promotion after the experience, driving their intention to repeat the process in the future. Studies do show a link between unexpected product promotions and increased cognitive processing of satisfaction and pleasure, and other studies highlight the relationship between consumption satisfaction and culture. However, few studies consider links between culture and acquisition and transaction utility. This study examines the impact of culture on satisfaction and pleasure with, and resultant preference for, price-based sales promotion in two culturally dissimilar consumer markets, New Zealand and China. The study finds that, while transaction utility theory is supported in the collectivist market of China, it is not in the individualist market of New Zealand, suggesting a need for further investigation cross-culturally.     

Perceptions of Offensive Advertising Elements: A China–U.S. Comparison

ABSTRACT

As China continues to rapidly expand and further open itself to market forces, the People's Republic arouses significant interest as a new mega-market. Consequently, the influx of new business opportunities and advertising has resulted in Chinese consumers increasingly exposed to potentially offensive advertising. While some products and images may seem acceptable when advertised in the West, there are some that may offend Chinese cultural sensitivities. The purpose of this study is to better understand similarities and differences that exist between American and Chinese perceptions surrounding offensive advertising. The results highlight a number of statistical cultural differences that have business implications for international marketers.     

Business marketing in BRIC countries

This paper highlights the increased importance of the BRIC countries (i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, and China) in the world economy. The BRICs are not only among the best economic performers but are responsible of a considerable part of the goods and services consumed globally and intensely trade one another. This means significant business interaction that existing research fails to explain. Hence, this special issue was prepared to encourage publication of empirical research of business marketing that involves one or more BRIC countries. This paper briefly introduces to the eleven research papers included in this special issue.