Advertising in Asia – A Cultural Perspective

Dr Kim-Shyan FamVisiting Professor

Szechenyi Istvan UniversityGyor, Hungary

Oct 16 – 21, 2006

Advertising in AsiaMy Research

Why Asia?

“Contemporary Asia cannot be considered a homogeneous entity. The region has a total population well in excess of three billion people. Its people speak several hundred different languages and dialects, and the region is characterized by a cultural, political, economic and social diversity far greater than anywhere else in the world”.

Of every 100 people in the world, 61 live in Asia, 14 in Africa, 11 in Europe, 9 in Latin America, 5 in North America and less than one in Oceania according to the French Institute for Demographic Studies (ODT June 25-26, 2005).

Why Contemporary Asia?

Contemporary Asians have moved beyond a ‘needs-driven’ to that of a ‘wants-driven’ motivation => the new Asian consumers have shifted from a functional

orientation to a more aesthetic orientation.

Force Process Outcome

Force-Process-Outcome (Fam: ‘Effective advertising in China and India’, Proceedings of International

Conference on Research in Advertising, 2005, pp. 161-167)

Elements of

Culture:

Material

Language

Aesthetics

Education

Religion

Social Organization

Politics & Law

Values & Attitudes

Ethics & Etiquettes

Aspects of Consumer Behaviour:

Words, Symbols & PerceptionMotivationAgeSelf-conceptGroup InfluenceSocial ClassSex RolesAttitudes to ChangePurchase Decision MakingPost-Purchase

Aspects of Marketing

Communications:

Impact of Cultural Differences on

Consumer Behaviour & Marketing Communications

Message decisions (appeal, central message)

Creative approaches(execution: casting &activities of people, thesettings, interrelationship)

Advertising styles

Media planning approaches

Indian Values – preference for extended family, freedom in feeling, thinking, and cultivation of one’s inner life. Competition is severely frowned upon in Indian society because it can disrupt relationships by hurting others’ feelings.

Japanese Values – value harmony, co-existence and cooperation rather than confrontation and competition, prefer high level of skill and craftsmanship, perfectionism, and a strong drive for task accomplishment.

Singaporean Values – 5 shared values incorporating: nation before community and society before self; family as the basic unit of society; community support and respect for individual; consensus, not conflict; and racial and religious harmony.

Asian values - are said to place more emphasis on hard work, saving and thriftiness, morality and family cohesion (Sopiee, 1995).

Asian Values

The Marketing Communications Challenge

To identify the cultural factors that are likely toshape some aspects of marketing communications.

My Own Research Program seeks to studythe linkage of cultural orientation with:

• advertisers’ choice of promotion tools• what kind of advertising might work best in each culture?• what type of product advertising should be avoided?• when is a goodbye a good buy?, and• others (agency-client relationships, IMC, managing effective promotion campaigns, etc)

1. Collectivism and Personal Selling (see Fam & Merrilees: Cultural values and personal selling: a comparison of Australian and Hong Kong retailers' promotion preferences - International Marketing Review, 1998)

2. Masculinity and Price-Markdowns (see Fam & Merrilees, Influences of strategic approach and cultural disposition on retailers’ perceptions of price markdowns’, Journal of Enterprising Culture, 1997)

(see Fam & Brito, ‘Gender and Choice of Promotional Tools – Evidence from Portuguese Retailers’, City University of Hong Kong Working Paper, 2001).

3. Cultural values and choice of promotion Tools (see Fam: Promotion practices in East and West: A Cultural Explanation’, Journal of International Marketing and Exporting, 2001).

Advertisers’ choice of Promotion Tools

What kind of advertising might work best in each Culture?

Project value : US$50,000Research commissioned by Lowe Advertising (HK) Ltd.

Paper submitted to Journal of Advertising Research, June 2003)

1. Given the differences in cultural dimensions between the five countries/cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok and Mumbai), what constitutes a likeable (or dislikeable) television commercial attribute and

which attribute is more dominant between the five cities?

 

What kind of advertising might work best in each Culture?

To examine the relationship between cultural values and international (Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong) students' choice of promotional messages. Project value = NZ$18,000; Funded by Otago Research

Grant, 1998-1999.

Three research reports were published and a journal article appeared in the Journal of Product & Brand Management

(see Gray, Fam & Llanes – Branding universities in Asian markets, 2003).

What type of product advertising should be avoided in each local market?

1. To examine the relationship between religion and advertising of controversial products across 6 countries (see Fam, Waller & Erdogan - The Influence of Religion on the Attitudes towards the Advertising of Controversial Products, European Journal of Marketing, 2004)

2. To examine the relationship between gender and advertising of controversial products (see Waller & Fam - Offence to the Advertising of Controversial Products: A study of gender attitudes in China and Malaysia, Journal of Asia Pacific Marketing, 2002)

What type of product advertising should be avoided in each local market?

4. To examine the level of ad restrictions in Malaysia – a view from the people in the ad industry (see Waller & Fam – Cultural values and advertising of controversial products in Malaysia’, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 2000)

3. To examine the level of offence on the advertising of controversial products (see Waller & Fam - Offensive Advertising: A challenge for Marketing in China, Asian Journal of Marketing, 2002)

 

1. When is a goodbye a good buy? – A study of Chinese consumers’ attitudes towards Sales Promotion and its effects on purchase satisfaction. Amount applied: HK$149,500 (Approved on June 6, 2003).

Work in Progress

2. Advertising in the 21st Century Asia – A study of generational shifts in consumers’ views towards the advertising of controversial products. Amount approved: HK$98,000 (2003).

3. Building A Strong Client-Agency Relationship – An Empirical Study of the Contributing Factors. Amount applied: HK$60,000 (Approved on May 2002).