ShaoHua Sun
12/16/2012
Culture value in Advertisements
NIKE in China
This
thesis focuses on advertise the product emphasizing how the aspects of the advertisements
are congruent with cultural values. It is given a case to analysis for cultural
value in advertisements in NIKE. The
finding is that the product‘s advertisement should hold local culture, which
can help open new market in different countries. Advertising seeks and is often
given credit for contributing heavily to the economic success of both
individual firms and national economies. Many policy makers in developing
countries perceive advertising as a necessary component of the communications
infrastructure, needed to obtain general economic development. To create the
economic impact of selling goods, advertising operates psychologically,
changing attitudes, images, cognitions, feelings, and ultimately preferences
and values. It has not only psychological, but also sociological and cultural
effects. The cultural value can be effect on advertisements (Ciochetto, 2011).
The
culture of cultural value has two meanings. Frist, this is especially true for
all countries that have their own distinct languages, cultures, norms,
regulations and business environment Different countries has different culture,
they have different cultural effectson advertisements. Then, each firm has its
own culture value effect on advertisements. Build brands loyalty on the
customer by using firm cultural value in advertisements, which is the most
effectively strategy utilized during the firms. To be successful, an
advertisement must be combined enterprise cultural value with national cultural
value (Ciochetto, 2011).
This
thesis observes a study of cultural value in advertisements. It starts with definition
of cultural value and Introducing development of advertisements industry in
China. NIKE as a case in the content, the project focuses on how to build its brand
status promotion by ads. How it uses different cultural value strategy combines
with local culture in different countries. Analyzing two commercials of NIKE
will be success and failure cases.
To understand the cultural messages conveyed by advertising, it is necessary to
explain culture. Parekh (1997) states that, if defined broadly, culture
"refers to the body of beliefs and practices governing the conduct of the
relevant area, be it a specific activity, an aspect of human experience, an
organization or human life was whole." "It may refer to beliefs and
practices regulating all or major areas of human life, and have broadly the
same meaning as the older term 'a way of life'". Referring to the cultural values and meaning conveyed in advertising, Dyer (1982) argues that "the meaning of an
advertisement is not something there, statistically inside an ad, waiting to be
revealed by a 'correct' interpretation. What an ad means depends on how it
operates, how signs and its 'ideological' effect are organized internally
(within the text) and externally (in relation to its production, circulation
and consumption and in relation to technological, economic, legal and social
relation). Ads are not invisible conveyors of messages or transparent
reflections of reality. They are specific discourses or structures of signs
(Dyer, 1982).
Advertising cultural value is unique cultural
values; advertising constitutes one of the elements. Different ads reflect
their own unique cultural identity. This study is focus on two parts of Advertising
culture:
modernity and individual culture.
“Product itself is a carrier of culture, cultural transmission through the
commodity (Alozie, 2003).”
The essence of the commodity culture of product design, production, packaging,
decoration and its development process of the cultural value shown is the
spirit of the times, the national spirit and the enterprise spirit are
displayed by products. It is the core of advertising culture value. Marketing
culture also refers to cultural values. It includes psychological needs,
spiritual temperament, and philosophy; advertising cultural value is the
concentrated expression of cultural forms of advertising, marketing, commodity
culture to culture through the eventual realization. Certain cultural traditions,
beliefs and values to a large extent about the business operators and consumer
psychology, behavior and thus affect the corporate advertising campaign. Advertising
cultural value faces not only promote the products but also faces language,
traditions and customs, regulations, education, natural environment, religion,
economic status differences (Alozie, 2003).
Advertising
appeals are the specific approaches advertisers use to communicate how their
products will satisfy customer needs by embedding a culture’s values. (Pollay
& Gallagher, 1990). Appeal is a tool which can be used in the message by
advertisers in order to create, in the mind of the receiver, a bound between
the value carried by an appeal and the product advertised. Advertisers use cultural values to manipulate and
persuade consumers to purchase, while consumers use it as a source of
information about goods and services that helps them make informed purchasing
decisions. (Vincent, 2004) Researchers have argued that cultural values
are the core of advertising messages and typical advertisements endorse,
glamorize, and inevitably reinforce cultural values (Pollay and Gallagher,
1990). An appeal is something that makes the product particularly attractive or
interesting to the consumer.
Next it is cultural values in ads, we study is designed to
address cultural values in advertisements in China, compare with the United
States and cultural values from changes in advertising appeals. In comparison
with most Western or developed countries, China is generally regarded as a more
traditional and more collectivistic society. Several content analyses have been
conducted to understand the social and cultural consequences of advertising in
China. During the so-called
"Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1975, advertising was labeled as
evil, deceptive, and reflective of capitalistic decadence. No advertising was
allowed or needed, because the Chinese economy was managed through Soviet-style
"five-year plans." However, remarkable changes have taken place since
1978 when the "open-door policy" was adopted. China has evolved in
economic development and modernization by “Reform and Opening” policy (zhang,
2010). Meanwhile, China has come a long way from having no advertising at all
to having a contemporary advertising infrastructure with all modern media in
use (Tse, Belk, and Zhou 1989). For example, in terms of print media, about
8,000 different periodicals are currently published in China, many of which
carry a variety of consumer advertisements (Lou 1995). From 1985 to 1992
advertising expenditure's proportion of gross domestic product more than
tripled from 0.07% to 0.23% (Karp 1994). As a result, advertising has become one of
China's fastest-growing industries (Tefft 1994). With the current annual
advertising spending growth rate, China is expected to become one of the
world's top 10 advertising markets within a few years (Parton 1994). Many U.S.
and Japanese advertising agencies, therefore, have entered the Chinese market
either to serve their present clients that have expanded to China or to pursue
new opportunities with local firms. Despite its rapid growth, the Chinese
advertising industry still much for some distance compare with the most Western
countries. “Chinese advertisements only examined consumption or cultural
values at one level: the mass market(Zhang, 2010).” Television audience measures and newspaper and magazine
readership data are almost nonexistent. Therefore, it is difficult for
advertisers to assess consumer media habits, which may be very different from
those in other parts of the world. Many advertisements are informational in
style. In addition, although a wide variety of media options are available,
both consumer and industrial products are advertised through mass media. As
mass advertising becomes a reality for many American companies operating in
China, understanding cultural differences between the United States and China
and the impact of such differences on the effectiveness of advertising appeals
will be increasingly important to those companies (Zhang, 2010).
Chinese advertisements
not only hold traditional culture of their own, but also absorb the advanced
western culture, which is the mainstream of Chinese advertising development
(Lin, 2001). Cultural values reflected in Chinese advertising at symbolic and
emotional levels and described a “melting pot” of cultural values, the notion
of Chinese advertising incorporating Western and Eastern and modernity and
tradition values (Cheng 1994; Cheng and Schweitzer 1996; Lin 2001). Modernity
values usually were considered as the notion of being new, and acception of the
Western ideas. Tradition values were operationalized as respecting the past,
customs, /time-honored, and legendary (Zhang, 2010).
As one of global enterprises, NIKE has achieved
in the Chinese market. Nike is not only selling products, but
also cultural values. Nike was the most expensive, not only because it was the
preeminent, but also because it is in the minds of consumers "cool (Cool)"
brand. Nike is the consumer in mind the "coolest" brands among the
young generation. In the minds of consumers, Nike preeminent embodies the
individuality, creativity, dynamism and vitality of the basic regard of leisure.
These concepts build success of Nike in the Chinese market unique brand. “Nike
has a symbol of ordinary culture, as consumers of cultural identity hearts chat
points. Nike sold in the Chinese market is a "cool" and
"fashion" of cultural values, their brands points of difference and
the core competitiveness is a sort of cultural identity and social identity to
rely on the consumer experience a sense (Sense) (Zhang, 2010)” There
are two commercials in this analysis are NIKE ads. Both of them are took with
Chinese cultural aspects and both are very familiar to the Chinese people. One
can say that modernity of consumption values and promoting individualistic
cultural values, these elements always make NIKE’s commercials stand out; other
points out traditional and historical aspects, but did not take
all factors into consideration.
Case 1
In the first scene, a student is late to class, and his teacher
points at him with a ferule: “why are you always late?” It is very common in
China that teachers use a ferule to blame students, yet it is not common that a
student dare to fence with his or her teacher. There are actually two scenarios
in this series that are about students’ behavior, by rebelling against the
tradition in class. Confucianism revolves around the concept of harmonious
relationships, and the sense of belonging and conforming is very important.
Respect and honor for teachers is a virtue in the traditional Chinese culture.
A “good student” is supposed to obey his or her teacher. Traditional Chinese
culture teaches us to respect leadership and tolerant and loving people, which
cause to a high level of inequality between teachers and students. There are 10
typical scenarios in this commercial. The commercial also brought back to
people their early familiar scenarios. In commercial, the cast is made up of a whole
bunch of students. All the scenarios are happened around everyone. Many audiences
were moved by those good memories. Those scenarios aroused echo in students’
hearts. Each of scenario has two Chinese characters -- 随时 , which means, any time.
The whole ad conveys a message to Chinese people: “Use your creativity,
anytime, if you want, just do it!”
Nike's “Just do it” campaign seems to be
one of the best commercial campaigns ever created. This one is very creative,
especially because it uses the idea of taking everyday activities and turning
them into something "just (to) do it." Individualism values are
completely lacking in Chinese society, advertising will show being independent or following your own
way. Actually like in other regions in the world, young people in China tend to
be more individualistic.
Case 2
In November of 2004, Nike released its million-dollar, 90-second
TV commercial, “Chamber of Fear,” simultaneously in China, Hong Kong, Singapore
and the United States. The spot features American NBA player LeBron James
defeating an elderly Chinese martial arts master, a pair of dragons, and two
legendary Chinese goddesses in a simulated videogame. The “Chamber of Fear” spot
was produced by Nike's US advertising agency, Wieden & Kennedy. However, it
is important to note that Wieden and Kennedy was not Nike China's advertising
agency at the time (Lury, 2009).
In China, Nike released the commercial through CCTV, which
immediately come to heated discussions on major Chinese Internet sites. On
December 3, 2004, China's State Administration for Radio, Film and Television
ordered a ban on Nike's commercial in a statement issued that the commercial
“violates regulations that mandate that all advertisements in China should
uphold national dignity and interest and respect the motherland's culture.” Nike
borrowed some important cultural symbols in their ads. Nike introduced dragons,
elderly Kung Fu masters, Chinese goddess figures, and Buddhist pagodas in its
TV commercial. Dragons are recognized cultural symbols of power throughout
Chinese history. Carved dragons are easily encountered in ancient historical
sites in China such as Beijing, but the
whole commercial is too aggressive. Cultural paradoxes vary according to different cultures, that
not means violate the local culture. In the commercial, all scenarios against with
the Chinese society are the concept of being harmonious and the need of belonging
and conforming to a community. Although Nike is a sport brand that represents
passion and energy, and aggression is valued at the basketball court of the NBA
and in the U.S., it should follow the Chinese way because value-adding
advertising cannot be exported from one culture to another without losing
effectiveness.
Thus, though the key symbols might be likely to get attention and
might be perceived by the foreign user as a quick way to communicate with the
local culture, they carry a high degree of risk because they may be unknowingly
misused or interpreted in ways unforeseeable to those outside the culture
(Lury, 2009).
In conclusion we revealed cultural
values impact Advertising; Advertising appeals conduct cultural values. Commercial advertising has become an important part of the
cultural region. The relationship between advertising and local cultures
becomes of increasing interest to international observers. For the company involved in international marketing, building
its unique brand status, it is important that they are aware of the local
cultural that they would face when entering a new market, particularly those
with strong cultural codes of behavior. China, in particular, is a diverse
country with a relatively conservative culture. Marketers must be careful that
the content of the images in the advertisement will not offend the local
community.
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