Advertising And Consumer Culture In China

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Chinese advertising as an industry, a discourse and profession in China’s search for modernity and cultural globalization. It compares and contrasts the advertising practices of Chinese advertising agencies and foreign advertising agencies, and Chinese brands and foreign brands, with a particular focus on the newest digital advertising practices in the post WTO era. Based on extensive interviews, participant observation, and a critical analysis of secondary data, Li offers an engaging analysis of the transformation of Chinese advertising in the past three decades in Post-Mao China. Drawing upon theories of political economy, media, and cultural studies, her analysis offers most significant insights in advertising and consumer culture as well as the economic, social, political, and cultural transformations in China. The book is essential for students and scholars of communication, media, cultural studies and international business, and all those interested in cultural globalization and China.

This book examines the social, psychological, legal, and ethical impact - perceived or proven - that may result from advertising in the booming Chinese market. The book provides readers with an understanding of the two-way relationship between advertising and Chinese society. Major issues addressed include rising consumerism, consumers' attitudes towards advertising and reactions to advertising appeals, cultural messages conveyed in advertisements, gender representations, sex appeal, offensive advertising, advertising law and regulation, advertising to children and adolescents, symbolic meanings of advertisements, public service advertising, and new media advertising and its social impact. Advertising and Chinese Society resorts to a variety of research techniques including content analysis, survey, experiment, semiotic analysis, and secondary data analysis. The book will enhance the sensitivity of scholars and practitioners interested in Chinese advertising and its social ramifications.

"“Chinese people should consume Chinese products!” This slogan was the catchphrase of a movement in early twentieth-century China that sought to link consumption and nationalism by instilling a concept of China as a modern “nation” with its own “national products.” From fashions in clothing to food additives, from museums to department stores, from product fairs to advertising, this movement influenced all aspects of China’s burgeoning consumer culture. Anti-imperialist boycotts, commemorations of national humiliations, exhibitions of Chinese products, the vilification of treasonous consumers, and the promotion of Chinese captains of industry helped enforce nationalistic consumption and spread the message—patriotic Chinese bought goods made of Chinese materials by Chinese workers in factories owned and run by Chinese. In China Made, Karl Gerth argues that two key forces shaping the modern world—nationalism and consumerism—developed in tandem in China. Early in the twentieth century, nationalism branded every commodity as either “Chinese” or “foreign,” and consumer culture became the place where the notion of nationality was articulated, institutionalized, and practiced. Based on Chinese, Japanese, and English-language archives, magazines, newspapers, and books, this first exploration of the historical ties between nationalism and consumerism reinterprets fundamental aspects of modern Chinese history and suggests ways of discerning such ties in all modern nations."

This book looks at the recent emergence of "new ordinary consumption," in urban China and defines new ordinary consumption as a consumer practice in which people routinely integrate products and items, traditionally reserved for special occasions, into their daily lives, to accentuate their own well-being. The book, through the case study on the adoption of cut flowers and upscaling non-floral goods, provides insights on how deal proneness and high price sensitivity pose challenges to many market retailers. It also proposes how to go about resolving these challenging issues in retail through the alteration of perceived reasons to consume. The author also examined social media marketing narrative that two direct-to-consumer floral goods sellers used, to guide consumers away from the social and cultural baggage of consumption, thereby giving more consideration to products reshaping consumers’ motivation, and driving the purchase. Heeding the findings of floral startups that awakened consumers’ aspirations to redefine their everyday personal lives, and making such aspirations a profitable business, this interesting case study suggests that it is time to revisit the appeal of conspicuous consumption in the present-day Chinese markets. Anyone interested to learn more about the Chinese consumers and their novel consumption habits would find the book a useful reference.

Since the introduction of economic reforms and an open door policy in 1978, China has been proclaimed as "the emerging powerhouse of the twenty-first century". The Chinese market's attractiveness to international marketers has also received significant boost as a result of the country's admission into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Accordingly, advertisers look at China and perceive tremendous opportunity in 1.3 billion Chinese consumers which represents one-fifth of the world population in what is called the world's largest market. Being viewed as a new frontier for consumer good investment does not mean that advertising in China is simple. On the contrary, many Western business firms which have invested their capital into Chinese businesses have suffered setbacks or even failure. Thus, it is important to understand that despite the dramatic impact of economic reform and the drive for modernization over the past two decades, the Chinese market has many special characteristics that make it a challenging place in which to do business including making advertising in this market . This book examines the key barriers/constraints that foreign firms should be mindful of in order to develop a viable advertising strategy in a changing China in which abundant opportunities await those that can fulfill it.

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,0, TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Professur für Englische Fachsprache der Wirtschaftswissenschaften und technischen Wissenschaften), language: English, abstract: In recent years, China has witnessed the most skyrocketing economic growth in history. For Germany, China has become the third most important trading partner. Especially for German key industries like the automotive branch and mechanical engineering, the Chinese market has become vitally important. The shift from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market in China with an excess of supply over demand is accompanied by extreme competition between countless suppliers, which forces competing companies to implement efficient and effective marketing strategies in order to acquire customers. Cultural factors in China and Germany differ so much that they affect the entire success of business. They act as invisible barriers that must be overcome, not only in order to build competitive advantages, but in order to be competitive at all. When entering the Chinese market, foreign firms must consider that they will operate in a completely different culture, in which perception, communication, norms, values and other aspects cannot be compared to their respective German counterparts. As this thesis will show, many foreign firms fail in the Chinese market due to their inadequate altercation with cultural specifics, an unwillingness to adapt their strategy to the cultural environment, or a product-market mismatch based on cultural dissimilarities. In order to implement marketing strategies flexibly and effectively in a completely different environment for a completely different target clientele, it is indispensable for German marketers to learn about Chinese culture mindfully. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to prepare German marketing professionals for conducting marketing activities in the Chinese market by demonstrating the impact of culture on marketing, making German marketers more familiar with Chinese culture, and by providing useful advice for their marketing strategies.

One part riveting account of fieldwork and one part rigorous academic study, Brand New China offers a unique perspective on the advertising and marketing culture of China. Jing Wang’s experiences in the disparate worlds of Beijing advertising agencies and the U.S. academy allow her to share a unique perspective on China during its accelerated reintegration into the global market system. Brand New China offers a detailed, penetrating, and up-to-date portrayal of branding and advertising in contemporary China. Wang takes us inside an advertising agency to show the influence of American branding theories and models. She also examines the impact of new media practices on Chinese advertising, deliberates on the convergence of grassroots creative culture and viral marketing strategies, samples successful advertising campaigns, provides practical insights about Chinese consumer segments, and offers methodological reflections on pop culture and advertising research. This book unveils a “brand new” China that is under the sway of the ideology of global partnership while struggling not to become a mirror image of the United States. Wang takes on the task of showing where Western thinking works in China, where it does not, and, perhaps most important, where it creates opportunities for cross-fertilization. Thanks to its combination of engaging vignettes from the advertising world and thorough research that contextualizes these vignettes, Brand New China will be of interest to industry participants, students of popular culture, and the general reading public interested in learning about a rapidly transforming Chinese society.