Cultural Characteristics in Advertising by Xinnan Liu

xinnan1 — 2020-10-08 12:49:25 UTC

xinnan1 — 2020-10-08 12:53:26 UTC

Today cultural globalization has caused great changes to many multinational companies and made them pay more attention to the innovation of advertisement. More and more advertisements with distinctive cultural characteristics coming out and drawing the eyes of specific consumers.

TRANSCULTURAL CONTRAVERCY

xinnan1 — 2020-10-08 13:03:29 UTC

“Red envelope” is also a hot topic in China now. People love sharing their interesting stories about “red envelope” through social websites. But towards this advertisement, people tend to have different attitudes.

Agree: This advertisement can attract the interest of Chinese consumers. Giles (2014) & Soliz (2014) believe that people usually adopt similar styles of speaking, when they wish to reduce the social distance. The same theory can also be used in advertisement culture. “Red envelope” can be seen as an accommodation of Chinese culture in their products. Chinese consumers may prefer this kind of product and some people also think this advertisement is also a good way to show Chinese traditional customs to the world.
Disagree：This advertisement talks about the persistence of Chinese family elders to give “red envelope” to children. However, the original name of “red envelope” in Chinese is “压崇钱”, which is used for driving out evil spirit. This advertisement adopts “red envelope” for the promotion of another culture, some opponents regard it as culture appropriation (Ruth, 2020). Another reason is that Chinese elders in this advertisement may seem to be ridiculous and even cause undesirable stereotype to others (Joshua, 1995)

INTENTIONS OF THE AD

xinnan1 — 2020-10-08 13:06:35 UTC

Establishing a better connection between target consumers and their products. In this advertisement, Nike wants to use the “red envelope” as a symbol to transfer a positive association to consumer (Piller, 2017). They can show that their products articulate some traditional cultural values and have Chinese characteristics (Tonnaer, 2010). Besides that, China is a very big market for Nike. How to gain much market acceptance is a very important question and will determine its business management style (Martinez & Vorontsova, 2020).

COMMENTS FROM YOUTUBE

xinnan1 — 2020-10-08 13:08:55 UTC

STATISTICS DATA

xinnan1 — 2020-10-08 13:11:59 UTC

During the outbreak of COVID-19, many companies are facing serious financial crisis, Nike also encounters many problems such as profit declines. Statistically, Nike's electronics sales in China grew 30％ by the end of February 2020.
Data come from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9glDiYJ-Dw0

xinnan1 — 2020-10-08 13:13:18 UTC

QUESTIONS

xinnan1 — 2020-10-09 13:22:12 UTC

1. Should advertisement be more serious on the original meaning of a traditional culture? Do you like this kind of ad?
2. Whether consumers show more interests on ads with cultural characteristics? Will you prefer products with distinct cultural characteristics?

POST YOUR COMMENTS BELOW THIS BOX

xinnan1 — 2020-10-09 13:29:56 UTC

Hi, Group 2,

your selected material is very interesting, and you also did a good job in linking the content analysis with some theories we've learned in this class in a descriptive way. Here are my answers for your question
1. Absolutely yes, as misunderstandings can be easily caused when cultures clashes, I think it is necessary for corporations to do researches on traditional cultures among the target consumers before advertising, sometimes the stereotype and overgeneralization on target context will ruin a company's business in certain market. And I like this ad as it shows the scenery in every Chinese lunar new year in a dramatic way, the enlargement for one tradition is very eye-catching and will evoke the Chinese customers' memory in their childhood.

2. I think it depends on the way of advertising to show one country's tradition, if this kind of ads makes the target customers feel funny but not offended, consumers' interest for the products may be well intrigued. Actually, products with distinct cultural characteristics are appealing to me, but it still depends on which kind of products they are, and in which way these characters are displayed.
After all, making a decision on purchasing one products not only depends on the outlook, but the quality and price plays an important role.

Regards,
Mengfei Hao

Hi, Group2,

I think that advertising creators should take traditional culture more seriously and they should be more careful to choose the traditional cultural elements used in ads. The reason is that, for those people who are familiar with the traditional culture, they will be sensitive to the culture. They live in a life full of these traditional cultures, so they will set up higher standards for such ads. It is difficult to get them to identify. If people can't get in touch with the ads, it will be a failure and even affect the image of the brand.

Personally, I do have more interest in ads with cultural characteristics, because most of them are based on some interesting cultures. However, the key point is whether ads can express the culture well. In ads and products, the abuse of traditional culture will cause the audience's disgust and negative emotions. Therefore, I think it is very creative to combine traditional culture with products and ads, but creators should ensure that the original meaning of traditional culture will be not distorted in the process.

We would appreciate it if you could comment on our poster！
https://padlet.com/zilyuz/8a9jaboct5ks1chk

Regards,
Zhipeng Su

xinnan1 — 2020-10-09 13:38:39 UTC

xinnan1 — 2020-10-09 13:39:09 UTC

xinnan1 — 2020-10-09 13:44:10 UTC

REFERENCES

xinnan1 — 2020-10-10 03:45:51 UTC

Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Gertner, Rosane K. (2019). The impact of cultural appropriation on destination image, tourism, and hospitality. Thunderbird International Business Review 1–5. .

Giles, H., & Soliz, J. (2014). Communication accommodation theory. In Braithewaite, D., Schrodt, P. (Eds.) Engaging Interpersonal Theories, 2nd ed. (pp. 161-174), Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.

Klein, N. (2001). No Logo . London: HarperCollins.

M. A. Gil Martinez., & Yu. V. Vorontsova. (2020). The cross-cultural communications impact on increasing business profitability in digital technologies use. State University of Management, 3 (1), 27-35. https://doi.org/article/d4e67c3ea4d5400199c17b6d5a6cef4a

Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural communication: A critical introduction, Chapter 8: Intercultural communication for sale (pp143-156).

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Ritzer, G. (2007). The Globalization of Nothing . London: Sage.

Ruth, M. ( 2020). Cultural Appropriation. Salem Press Encyclopedia, p2.

Soliz, J. , & Giles, H. (2014). Relational and identity processes in communication: a contextual and meta-analytical review of communication accommodation theory. Annals of the International Communication Association, 38 (1), 107-144.

Taliman, Valerie (1993). Article on the 'Lakota Declaration of War'". Retrieved from: http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/articles/warlakot.htm

Tonnaer, A. (2010). A ritual of meeting: 'sharing culture' as a shared culture in Australian indigenous tourism. La Ricerca Folklorica 61: 21-31.

Conclusion

2020-10-11 09:23:48 UTC

In today's globalized world, it has become an unspoken fact that commoditized cultural and linguistic symbols and images circulate rapidly on a global scale and appear in unexpected places (Appadurai, 1996).

According to Piller, advertising and commercial discourse are more generally a critical space where culture is made relevant to enhance the market value and desirability of a product or service. The idea is for creating “authenticity” and evoking an association with aspects of the source culture.

Be aware of cultural appropriation and stereotypes. Those who regard such appropriation as exploitation point out that when these cultural elements are removed from their original cultural context, their original meaning is lost or distorted, disrespectful, and even blasphemous (Taliman, 1993).

Concepts and theories

2020-10-12 00:20:10 UTC

1. Business management style as well as the type of cross-cultural communication existing in the company will determine the international position of any company (Martinez &Vorontsova, 2020). Advertising is a highly influential form of global economic activity,which on a large part of its expenditure goes on brand creation and maintenance(Piller, 2017).‘super-brands’s value is created not through the product they sell or the service they provide, but rather through their symbolic value(Piller 2017:150).

2. Advertising takes cultural and linguistic symbols and images from one place and uses them in another to create authenticity, to reference an original, and to transfer the positive associations of a cultural or linguistic stereotype onto a product (Piller 2017:143).

3. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) has served as a cross-disciplinary framework for understanding the adjustments individuals make to create, maintain, or decrease social distance in interactions (Soliz & Giles 2014:107). According to CAT, accommodation or convergence is a process of reducing communicative differences between people, which can narrow the social gap (Giles & Soliz, 2014).

4.“Cultural appropriation is the unsuitable, unauthorized, or objectionable use of cultural elements in a context other than that of the culture by outsiders who might lack understanding and/or respect for the culture in question.” (Gertner 2019)

Analysis of the video

2020-10-12 00:22:30 UTC

1.As a means of brand marketing localization by Nike, advertising plays a very important and obvious role. Nike as a ‘super brand’ in sports shoe business,is ‘ “conceptual value-added,”which in effect means adding nothing but marketing’(Klein 2001:15). Nike brand globalization is a process in which ‘something’is replaced whith ‘nothing’(Ritzer,2007).Instead of adopting a globally standardized business model, Nike uses a differentiated and localized marketing approach. In the video, Nike inserts the advantages of its sneakers into the Chinese cultural background of “red envelope”, which has a significant effect in successful cross-cultural marketing.

2. Nike uses both Chinese “red envelope” culture and Chinese language symbols to create “authenticity” according to local characteristics.In the video,after realizing she can’t refuse the “red envelope” from her aunt when she was little,she found running would be a good choice.Thus,she and her aunt began a long time‘Chase game’.However,as she grew up to be a“red envelope”giver, her aunt also wore Nike shoes,which seemed to tell her a new game might began.Through this advertisement, Nike wants to convey the message that by wearing Nike shoes the young can ‘hold nothing back in the new year’, which attracts the attention of Chinese people and promotes its products embeddedly.

3. Nike accommodates itself to Chinese Lunar New Year background by using real Chinese scenarios played by Chinese people in mandarin, along with the element full of traditional Chinese culture—“red envelope”. In this way, Nike successfully converges its products with local Chinese culture, which can narrow the cultural distance with viewers and catch their eyes. Thus, Nike can improve the competitiveness of its own brand in local operation, which is conducive to the success of grabbing local market share.

4.On the negative side,although Nike uses an exaggerated method to show the Chinese custom of giving red envelopes during the Spring Festival, this advertisement tends to create stereotypes about Chinese people easily. The aunt's insistence on giving money may give the impression of stubborn and obstinate Chinese elders, while the girl's persistent refusal may give the impression that she is impolite and disrespectful. But in fact, these practices are traditional Chinese courtesy behavior, which can connect the feelings of two generations. This could also be an act of cultural appropriation, which to some extent distorts the meaning of the act of giving “red envelopes”.

2020-10-12 00:36:19 UTC

xingyuchen5 — 2020-10-19 09:11:53 UTC

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