Today, MABR student Austin Willhoft shares some insights on how marketers can tap into the Chinese consumer psyche.
One of China’s paramount leaders once said, “it doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, if it catches mice it is a good cat,” while explaining the difference between China’s version of capitalism compared to in Western culture (Foreign Policy). The leader, Deng Xiaoping, explained it as “socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” meaning free enterprise ideals incorporated with socialistic principles. Now, Deng’s is regarded as transforming China’s economy from agrarian to service-industry, and also uplifting millions of citizens out of poverty. Much to his credit, China’s system rests on a state-sponsored capitalistic model, in which the government acts as a bulwark in setting standards and granting permissions. For commercial advertising, it is a ubiquitous circumstance in China where consumers, advertisers, and decision-makers tussle over the balance between Chinese tradition and Western culture. Such a tussle permeates because of China’s complex relationship and complicated past with the West, including foreign ownership of large swathes of Chinese sovereign land from the Qing Dynasty’s fall in 1912 to the Chinese Communist Party’s declaration in 1949. Chinese consumers, however, grow up in an authoritarian system where advertising determines citizen-consumers’ attention and sentiments towards brands. Most of these values center on projecting an individual’s social status, which motivates brands to advertise how a consumer will feel elevated purchasing one of its products. All in all, what drives consumer culture in China correlates with brands advertising a sense of modernity, instigating consumer nationalism and cooperating with the Chinese government and state.
A sense of modernity in Chinese advertising and for brands radiates Westernness; however, it also reinforces the individual. As noted in Advertising and Consumer Culture in China, a critical component worth noting when it comes to China pertains to Orientalism, referring to “cultural and ideological expression and representation of the Eurocentric construction of the Orient,” or China (Li, 17). Incorporating or following Western principles functions as a structure “to either emulate or overcome,” because it not only reasserts the individual as modern in approach and style but also provides a contrast to Chinese traditions in meaning and spirit. When it comes to brands and advertising firms, many Chinese businesses tend “to dump their Chinese ad agencies and hire multinational ad agencies once they grew larger or planned to expand” into overseas markets because it puts them among global recognition (Li, 31). Brands operating in China must weigh in the cultural nuisances for individuals wanting to parallel western methods and strategies because without, there is a likelihood consumers and firms would not want to engage due to a lack of foreign experience. Chinese brands have the reputation of “lower quality and are less desirable and modern, leading to a general trend that Chinese products often sell at lower prices than global brands,” and thus remain less competitive on both local and domestic markets (Li, 132). On the contrary, it is pivotal, including two instances of Chinese brands that succeeded with an acclaimed international reputation. Haier, a Chinese electronics brand, achieved global praise not only for its low-cost devices, but the fact its product quality reflected modern assurance (Li, 131). On the domestic level, the brand included the record sales in foreign markets, and as a result, Chinese consumers flocked to stores buying Haier. International success translates to acute brand awareness among Chinese consumers, especially if quality assuages in the individual wanting to assert his status. Another instance revolves around a real-estate strategy in creating “foreign-sounding names” to the likes of “Vancouver Forest, the Victoria Harbor, Yosemite, the Laguna Garden, and the California Garden” as a means of attracting buyers (Li, 120).
For advertising firms and brands, eager to expand to the Chinese market, navigating consumer nationalism corresponds with the purchasing power of an individual. Selling both “nationalism and cosmopolitanism” centers on the primary strategy, which “resonates with dominant Chinese values.” While also relying “on the appropriation of Chinese symbols, images, rituals, historical heroes, and China’s anti-imperialist” history (Li, 23). In the context of this paper, cosmopolitanism refers to the book’s definition stating the concept focuses on “inner life of virtue and thought” in one’s life (Li, 21). In front of modernity, it is a strategy honing in on the global appeal for successful cosmopolitanism in capitalizing on Chinese consumers’ hunch for “integration with the West,” mostly due to the imagination tapping into modernity crave an individual intends on asserting (Li, 24). Many domestic brands partnering with Chinese advertising firms understand when it comes to Chinese consumers’ psyche, the key rests in comprehending one’s prior education, all of which happened under an authoritarian system where patriotic education provided the means of drilling in positive messages about the state. As such, brands and advertising firms create an underlying sense of a “narrative of patriotism, loyalty and national glory,” integrated into campaigns (Li, 109). Xinhua Insurance Company acts as one of the successful brands which highlighted the importance of family but also tying its’ message to protecting the nation. The company released a video teaser in connection to the 2008 Beijing Olympics celebrating Chinese culture, national events and relationships, which each citizen bonds and relates to on a deeper level. Despite traditional Chinese culture prioritizing the country before family, the brand triumphs in emphasizing the substance of each person’s family (Li, 117). By accounting for the individual, brands earn a positive consumer review in helping them reinforce personal identity in a competitive society. Nevertheless, it is essential to remember the competitiveness radiating within Chinese society causes many advertising professionals and brands cooperating closely with the government in order to work in tandem because of “national pride” not “commercial” interests (Li, 78).
Brands, along with advertising firms keen on pursuing the Chinese market, need to foster robust cooperation with the government. Staying on the positive side of the Chinese government stands imperative, principally because state policies factor “a huge role in shaping the structure and practices of advertising in China,” thus making media commercialization an essential tool for the Chinese government communicating messages to the billions of consumers (Li, 65). To say the least, the government not only sets the regulations governing the country but also started licensing advertising professionals in 2007 in order to monitor who and what disseminates messages to Chinese consumers. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security now specifies and grants “certificates for the titles of ‘assistant advertising expert,’ ‘advertising expert,’ and ‘senior advertising expert’ through annual exams,” aimed at ensuring communicators remain loyal to Chinese Communist Party dogma (Li, 167). China, due to these stringent ramifications, stands as the only country with government certifications for advertising professionals working in the country. For the advertising professionals working with firms and on brands, standards and regulations neither can moderate and exclude any images associated with the national state. It does not permit an advertiser applying “superlative words such as ‘state level,’ ‘the highest grade,’ or ‘the best,’ due to the Chinese Consumer Association implementing a strict mixture of “laws, ethics and moral code,” in order to ensure public stability (Li, 170). As anticipated, issues arise with austere laws. What is problematic about complying with Chinese advertising regulations focuses on the inflexible vagueness the government uses when arguing against violators. Since the Advertising Law states advertisements must not interfere with an individual’s “‘normal use of the internet,'” many do not understand the explanation from the government (DeMarco Lawyers). Such a reality “leaves ample room for local authorities to interpret and implement laws, creating inconsistency across regions that have different moral codes” and cultures (Li, 171).
In conclusion, what drives consumer culture in China correlates with brands advertising a sense of modernity, instigating consumer nationalism and cooperating with the Chinese government and state. Underneath the pursuit for modernity, many Chinese consumers simultaneously feel a desire “to revive Chinese culture as a defensive mechanism,” due to an underlying awareness of always chasing prestige, but never achieving it (Li, 229). Chinese consumers, especially wealthy and middle-class individuals, permeate a feeling of exigency when it comes to the sensitivity placed on public perceptions of brands. The sensitivity remains rooted in asserting one’s social status, and thus, selling a narrative rested on the physical appearance of a person. A national consciousness on staying proud of Chineseness attributes to the “proactive production and reproduction of China’s history and contemporary events and the reinterpretation” of China’s alternating geopolitical stance (Li, 108). Brands, including advertising firms, operating in the region must consider such cultural viewpoints, while also amalgamating with the Chinese government in terms of regulations and messaging framework. Overall, advertising professionals and brands tread murky waters while in China, some of which rests on the state’s interpretation of right and wrong.Works Cited
Lawyers, De Marco. “INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING LAW.” International Advertising Law – Regulation in China | Judicature, De Marco Lawyers, 2020, demarco.com.au/de-marco-thinks/international-advertising-law-advertising-regulation-in-china.
Li, Hongmei. Advertising and Consumer Culture in China. Polity Press, 2016.