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.     

Culture,Attitudes, and Media Patterns in China,Taiwan, and the U.S.: Balancing Standardization and Localization Decisions

ABSTRACT

A study was undertaken to examine cultural orientations, attitudes toward advertising, and media use patterns across China, Taiwan, and the United States. China and Taiwan share similar cultural backgrounds, yet their economies and advertising industries have evolved quite differently due to different social and political settings. The United States was included to provide a point of comparison. Understanding media patterns, cultural orientations, and attitudes can help better ascertain the potential for using standardized strategies by international advertisers across different markets. Industry and consumer trends in evolving markets can also be monitored. Consumers in China and Taiwan were found to be more similar than different. For example, consumers in both markets were less individualistic and more collectivistic than their counterparts in the U.S. They also exhibited more favorable attitudes toward advertising than American consumers. Furthermore, Chinese and Taiwanese respondents spent significantly more time with print media than American respondents. Implications of the findings for balancing standardization and localization decisions are discussed.     

Challenges facing China's television advertising industry in the age of spiritual civilisation: an industry analysis

Foreign firms face a number of cultural, legal and industry challenges as China's television advertising industry is asked to contribute not only to the country's material civilisation but also its spiritual civilisation. Since the early 1990s, Chinese Government policies have focused on advertising content in relation to both censorship and moral issues. This paper provides an insight into the challenges facing advertising and outlines opportunities for researchers, educators and international scholars into the new millennium by tracing the growth and changing role of advertising in China.     

广告创意产业的差异化竞争策略

中国广告市场的逆向选择现象是广告公司同质化竞争的必然结果,也是影响广告创意产业竞争力提升的关键因素。本文运用信息经济学的逆向选择理论和企业竞争优势理论,对我国广告市场存在的逆向选择现象、危害及其成因进行深入分析,指出差异化代理是解决广告市场逆向选择问题的根本途径,并具体阐述了广告创意产业差异化竞争的四种策略。     

商业广告用语的翻译技巧

商业广告的主要目的是激发潜在顾客购买产品的欲望。因此,商业广告翻译的成败直接关系到中国的产品能否走出国门并占据国外市场。应针对英文广告的用词特点及文化差异对商业广告翻译中词汇的选择与应用的影响等方面进行研究,从而探索广告英语的翻译技巧,以实现商业广告的最佳效应。     

Culture,cognitive style and consumer response to informational vs. transformational advertising among East Asians: Evidence from the PRC

Existing literature suggests that people's cognitive styles vary significantly across nations and cultures, and that East Asians emphasize holistic information processing and are more receptive to transformational advertising than people in the West. Yet, both theoretical rationale and empirical evidence of the effect of cognitive style on consumers' advertising responses are lacking. This study proposes a congruency-activation model and adopts a three by two experimental design to examine Chinese consumers' attitude towards different advertisements. The results indicate that Chinese consumers prefer transformational and integrated ads to informational ads under both low and high involvement conditions. Protocol analysis shows that Chinese consumers engage in more affective processing than cognitive thoughts. Thus, marketers should consider the effect of the cognitive style of indigenous consumers when devising international advertising strategies.     

老字号品牌广告采用流行文化对品牌真实性的影响——一个有中介的调节模型

真实性是中华老字号品牌特有的优势。在当前激烈的市场竞争环境下，老字号品牌更新变得尤为重要。在老字号品牌更新过程当中，更新策略是否会对老字号品牌固有的优势与属性造成负面影响？这一问题在理论与实际上均具有深入探讨的迫切性。本章依托组织合法性理论，探讨了老字号品牌采用流行文化的广告中，消费者感知文化差异对品牌真实性的影响机制。实证研究以三个老字号品牌广告为样本，共搜集到631份有效数据。数据分析结果显示，在老字号结合流行文化元素的品牌广告中，消费者感知传统文化与流行文化的差异性对广告合法性与品牌真实性均有显著负向影响；广告合法性在消费者感知广告中文化差异与品牌真实性之间发挥部分中介作用；而消费者流行文化卷入度显著降低了广告中感知文化差异对广告合法性的影响，以及流行文化卷入度在广告中感知文化差异与品牌真实性之间的调节效应完全通过广告合法性起作用。该研究结果丰富了品牌真实性与品牌合法性领域相关文献，具有一定的理论与实践意义。     

跨文化背景下商业广告设计的视觉元素关注度研究——以餐饮类平面广告为例

本文以餐饮类平面广告为实验材料,研究了中国和美国被试者对平面广告中的图形、色彩、文字、编排及构图等视觉元素的关注度。本研究从文化认知理论出发,以文化认知差异为前提,探寻了东西方族群对商业广告中出现的视觉信息的不同处理方式。以商业广告中视觉设计的原则为标准,解构了平面广告设计中的视觉构成元素并进行一一比较,得出商业平面广告设计中中美两国被试者的视觉元素关注度差异。最终获取了各种视觉元素的评估结果和相对权重,形成了商业图形广告设计元素关注度的先后顺序。这一实验结果对跨文化认知心理理论在跨国广告设计中的应用有借鉴和启发作用,可以为跨国公司和设计师提供技术指导,设计出更符合消费者需求的商业广告。     

Food advertising targeting children in India: Analysis and implications

In spite of advertising being severely critiqued for planting erroneous behavioral patterns in young children, there is limited research on advertising aimed at children in the Indian context. This study explores issues like gender representations, stereotypical portrayals, deployment of various appeals, persuasion tactics, and Indian advertising policies in the food commercials targeting Indian children. Hypotheses were developed based on socio-economic and cultural aspects specific to Indian ethos. Content analysis was carried out on commercials appearing on five major children's television channels in India. Results indicate that ads depict boys significantly more than girls, and demonstrate mother as the primary approver for choice of food. Additionally, results reveal that ads use familial settings more than other contexts. Emotional appeal is found to be more prevalent. However, unlike hypothesized, ads were not found to use scholastic or fantasy cues more than athletic or non-fantasy cues. The findings are examined through an ethical lens, and implications for various stakeholders are presented. The study provides advertising policy makers and executioners insights into ethically congruent communication strategies to be used for advertising to children.     

Employing standardized promotion strategies in Mexico: The impact of language and cultural differences

To what extent can standardized advertising programs be effectively employed in two key NAFTA markets? Mexico and the United States were the sites for an experiment using print advertisements exhibiting varying degrees of advertising standardization to study the impact of language and cultural differences. The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) was used to examine the cultural values of the respondents (n = 354). Cultural value dimensions important in the two countries were uncovered utilizing factor analysis. Using t-tests, results show that consumers in the two countries differ significantly on all five cultural dimensions uncovered. Further, significant differences in attitude toward the advertisement were found for each of four products based on the degree of standardization employed. Total customization was significantly preferred over all other combinations of languages and pictures. For those US firms considering marketing activities in Mexico, conclusions, implications, and strategies are suggested. 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.