Chinese Television Commercials Research Articles

Appeals and Cultural Values in Chinese Television Commercials

China is the world’s fastest growing advertising market, and better understanding of the Chinese market is therefore crucial for both domestic and international advertisers. The objective of this study is to investigate two aspects of Chinese advertising that are under-explored in the literature. One is the use of appeals and cultural values in television commercials for indigenous Chinese brands. The other is the difference in the use of appeals and cultural valuesacross product categories. A content analysis is conducted to examine the use of appeals and cultural values in 428 prime-time Chinese television commercials for indigenous brands. While overall there is more use of rational appeals and less use of emotional appeals in goods advertising than in service advertising, the use of appeals and cultural values varies within goods categories. There is in fact more use of emotional appeals than rational appeals in the beauty and personal care category and the clothing category, and there is no difference in appeals in the food and drink category. These results are likely due to product characteristics, that is, rational appeals are associated with utilitarian products and emotional appeals are associated with hedonic products. The findings reported in this study have important managerial implications, particularly for international advertisers, to choose the right appeal and cultural values for their products.

Multiple modernities and multiple proximities: McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken in Chinese television commercials

Homogenization and diversification are major themes in studies of globalization and culture. McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are often used as evidence to describe these two themes. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which homogenization and diversification occur in the television commercials for McDonald’s and KFC in China as well as the strategic models they adopt to manipulate the tension between homogenization and diversification. La Pastina and Straubhaar’s theory is used to map out two different strategic models: genre proximity and cultural proximity. The study finds that homogenization exceeds diversification in the commercials of McDonald’s and KFC as a whole. Comparatively, McDonald’s adopts genre proximity and KFC adopts cultural proximity. The adoption of different models offers a cultural explanation for KFC’s triumph in the competition with McDonald’s in the Chinese fast food market.

Cultural values and aging in Chinese television commercials

This study examined commercials (N = 141) featuring older adult(s) shown on three Chinese TV stations (i.e., national, provincial, and local) in the fall of 2005 to uncover the dominant value themes, the major product categories, and the association between value themes and product categories. Content analysis results revealed that three dominant value themes (i.e., health/life, product effectiveness, and family) appeared frequently in the Chinese television commercials featuring older adults, in which some major product categories such as food/drink, food/health supplements, and medicine were promoted. Results also indicated that the value of health/life was presented frequently in commercials for medicine and food/health supplements and that the family value appeared frequently in food/drinks commercials. Altogether these results demonstrated the importance of health and a lack of emphasis of modern values in Chinese television commercials which feature older adults, indicating a mixed view of aging (i.e., passive and negative). Findings are discussed in the context of the Chinese culture, aging, and television advertising.

Cultural values in commercials: Reaching and representing the multicultural market?

Abstract Advertisers in the Netherlands and Flanders are discovering marketing opportunities to market to specific target groups such as children and adolescents, and their growing numbers in the ethnic minority population. There have been relatively few empirical studies on the portrayal of these audience segments. In light of the first steps in ethnic marketing theory and practice in the Netherlands and Flanders, this study questions how advertising campaigns actually deal with ethnicity and the multicultural market. This issue is tackled by means of a quantitative and comparative content analysis of Dutch, Flemish, American, Turkish, and Chinese television commercials. The first section of this article sketches a theoretical framework for the measurement of cultural values and the representation of ethnic minorities in commercials. On the one hand it draws on previous cross-cultural research examining the individualism/collectivism dimension of culture (cf. Hofstede, 1991; Schwartz, 1992; Gudykunst, 1998) and on the other hand on advertising research concerned with both content-related, and style characteristics of commercials (e. g., De Pelsmacker and Geuens, 1997). In the second section, the methodology is discussed through an examination of the sample and coding instrument. The results section reveals both similarities and differences in the use of values and communication styles in commercials from individualistic as well as collectivistic cultures. Finally, the conclusions of this study are discussed and recommendations for further research are presented.

Information content of television advertising in China: an update

The current study was an update of Chan's (1995) study of television advertising conducted in 1993 in China. A content analysis of 386 Chinese television commercials in 2002 was conducted. The Resnik and Stern evaluation criteria were adopted to determine the level of advertising information content in television commercials. Compared to the previous study in 1993, Chinese commercials were becoming less informative. The percentage of informative ads dropped from 58% in 1993 to 55% in 2002. The average information cue dropped from 1.5 cues in 1993 to 1.3 cues in 2002 in each commercial classified as informative. The three most frequently used information cues were the same as in the last study, namely, performance, components/contents, and quality. Non-durables and pharmaceutical advertising remained as the most informative while liquor advertising was again the least informative. Information content was found dependent on characteristics of the broadcast channels but not duration.

Modernization and Tradition in an Age of Globalization: Cultural Values in Chinese Television Commercials

The authors analyzed commercials (N= 496) shown on 3 Chinese TV stations in the summer of 2000 to uncover the dominant value themes and identified 13 value themes as applicable in the current sample. This study found that the most dominant value themes in the Chinese commercials were product quality/effectiveness, family, modernity, beauty/youth, and pleasure indicating the prevalence of utilitarian values and the coexistence of both traditional and modern values in the world of Chinese advertising. Value themes identified in this study are compared with previous conceptualizations and discussed in the context of globalization and Chinese cultural change.

Modernization and Tradition in an Age of Globalization: Cultural Values in Chinese Television Commercials

The authors analyzed commercials (N = 496) shown on 3 Chinese TV stations in the summer of 2000 to uncover the dominant value themes and identified 13 value themes as applicable in the current sample. This study found that the most dominant value themes in the Chinese commercials were product quality/effectiveness, family, modernity, beauty/youth, and pleasure indicating the prevalence of utilitarian values and the coexistence of both traditional and modern values in the world of Chinese advertising. Value themes identified in this study are compared with previous conceptualizations and discussed in the context of globalization and Chinese cultural change.

Toward an Understanding of Cultural Values Manifest in Advertising: A Content Analysis of Chinese Television Commercials in 1990 and 1995

Based on Richard Pollay's concept that advertising is a “distorted mirror,” the author analyzed the content of 483 Chinese television commercials in 1990 and 1995. Results show that “modernity,” “technology,” and “youth” predominate in Chinese advertising in the 1990s, and the dominance of “quality” in 1990 was superseded by “tradition” in 1995. Symbolic values from both Eastern and Western cultures occurred more frequently in 1995. This change implies that contemporary Chinese advertising is not only a “distorted mirror” but a “melting pot” of cultural values. Results also indicate that the new advertising law taking effect on 1 February 1995 did not reduce Western values depicted in Chinese commercials.

A conceptual framework for understanding the content of advertising: Its application to the specific case of Chinese television commercials

The conceptual framework for explaining advertising content formulated in this paper begins with environmental factors such as culture and economic system, and ends with the ads themselves—with advertising industry factors, such as practices and views/values of its actors, and consumer factors, such as experience making up the middle two layers. An empirical application of this model, through variables derived from it, to Chinese television commercials suggests post‐hoc substantiation for the most part. Future studies could pose and test a priori hypotheses (for other countries, media, and variables) leading to the refinement, clarification, and elaboration of the model.

Information Content of Television Advertising in China

A content analysis of 324 Chinese television commercials that appeared on Chinese national and local channels was conducted. The Resnik and Stern (1977) evaluation criteria were adopted to determine the level of advertising information content in television commercials. It was found that 58 per cent of the sampled commercials were classified as informative. The most frequently occurring information cues were performance, quality and components/contents. Non-durables and drug advertising was most informative while cigarette and liquor advertising was least informative. Information content was not dependent on characteristics of commercials like duration, broadcast day, time and channel.