Culture,cognitive style and consumer response to informational vs. transformational advertising among East Asians: Evidence from the PRC |
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Authors: | Geng Cui Hongyan Liu Xiaoyan Yang Haizhong Wang |
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Institution: | 1. Faculty of Business, Lingnan University , Hong Kong;2. School of Management, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies , Guangzhou , China gcui@ln.edu.hk;4. Management School, Jinan University , Guangzhou , China;5. School of Management, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies , Guangzhou , China;6. Business School, Sun Yat-Sen University , Guangzhou , China |
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Abstract: | 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. |
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Keywords: | advertising Asia China cognitive style consumer attitudes international marketing |
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