從跨文化的角度分析跨國(guó)公司在中國(guó)的廣告策略--畢業(yè)論文

1、<p>　　重慶大學(xué)本科學(xué)生畢業(yè)論文</p><p>　　從跨文化的角度分析跨國(guó)公司在中國(guó)的</p><p><b>　　廣告策略</b></p><p>　　學(xué) 生: xxx</p><p>　　學(xué) 號(hào)：xxx</p><p>　　指導(dǎo)教師：xxx </p>

2、<p><b>　　專(zhuān) 業(yè)：英語(yǔ)</b></p><p><b>　　重慶大學(xué)外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院</b></p><p><b>　　二〇一五年六月</b></p><p>　　Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University</p><

3、p>　　Study on the Advertising Strategies of Multinational Corporations in China: A Cross-cultural Perspective </p><p>　　Undergraduate: xxx</p><p>　　Supervisor: xxx</p><p>　　Maj

4、or: English </p><p>　　School of Foreign Languages and Cultures</p><p>　　Chongqing University</p><p><b>　　June 2015</b></p><p>　　Acknowledgements</p>

5、<p>　　I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Li Hong, whose expertise, understanding, and patience, added considerably to my undergraduate experience. I appreciate her vast knowledge and sk

6、ills in many areas and her assistance in writing this thesis. Without her prudent proofreading, expert comments and above all generous understanding, I would not have been able to accomplish this thesis. It has been a pr

7、ivilege and great joy to study under her supervision during the time of</p><p>　　My special gratitude also goes to Professor Yu Manjun, whose academic writing course has bestowed me with a foundation on acad

8、emic writing and enlightened me with the right way of making research, and Professor Zhu Wanzhong, whose cross-cultural business course has expanded my horizon and given me great inspirations in writing this thesis.</

9、p><p>　　I would also like to thank all of my other teachers, all of my classmates for their care and help during the past four years of study.</p><p>　　I must also give my acknowledgment to my fami

10、ly for the support they provided me through my university life, and without their love and encouragement, I would not have finished this thesis.</p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　越來(lái)越多的跨國(guó)公司

11、在意識(shí)到中國(guó)市場(chǎng)的巨大潛力后把他們的目光轉(zhuǎn)向這里。為了在激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中處于優(yōu)勢(shì)地位，他們采取各種不同的營(yíng)銷(xiāo)策略。廣告作為營(yíng)銷(xiāo)和宣傳的重要手段有著不可或缺的作用。而克服文化差異被認(rèn)為是跨國(guó)廣告成功的基石。然而，怎樣的廣告才適用于有著不同文化背景的消費(fèi)者呢？是標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化還是要地方化？近40年來(lái)這些問(wèn)題都是國(guó)際市場(chǎng)及廣告文獻(xiàn)所爭(zhēng)論的焦點(diǎn)。 </p><p>　　本文以跨文化傳播為理論依據(jù)，以?xún)?nèi)容分析和案例分析為研究方法，致力

12、于研究跨國(guó)公司在中國(guó)的廣告策略。文章首先闡述了跨國(guó)公司在中國(guó)的廣告背景，其次從跨文化傳播的角度談跨國(guó)廣告的傳播效果，然后提供三種跨國(guó)公司在中國(guó)的廣告策略，并以麥當(dāng)勞在中國(guó)“全球策略，本土表現(xiàn)”的廣告策略為例闡明何為行之有效的廣告策略，最后為跨國(guó)公司中國(guó)廣告策略提出建議，如認(rèn)識(shí)并尊重中國(guó)本土的文化，迎合中國(guó)消費(fèi)者的消費(fèi)心里，在廣告中融入中國(guó)元素、渲染中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文化特色等。</p><p>　　本文不僅是國(guó)際廣告文獻(xiàn)的

13、必要補(bǔ)充，也為己經(jīng)進(jìn)入和即將進(jìn)入中國(guó)市場(chǎng)的跨國(guó)公司更好地參與市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)提供參考依據(jù)。</p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：跨文化傳播，跨國(guó)公司，廣告，標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化，本土化 </p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　An increasing number of multinational corporations turn t

14、heir attention to Chinese market by recognizing its substantial potential for expansion and profit. In order to occupy an advantageous position in the fierce competition, they are adopting different marketing strategies.

15、 As an important means of marketing and promotion, advertising plays a very indispensable role and it is universally acknowledged that understanding cultural differences is often considered a prerequisite for successful

16、int</p><p>　　This thesis employs cross-cultural communication theory as theoretical foundation and mainly focuses on the advertising strategies of multinational corporations in Chinese market. It adopts cont

17、ent analysis and case study as research methods. It first gives a brief introduction of the background of multinational corporations’ advertising in China; then it explains the communication effect of cross-cultural adve

18、rtisement from the perspective of cross-cultural communication. After that, it present</p><p>　　The result of this thesis will be a supplement to the literature on international advertising and be able to pr

19、ovide some reference for the corporations that enter Chinese market, assisting them performing better in the competition.</p><p>　　Key words: cross-cultural communication, multinationals, advertisement, stan

20、dardized, localized</p><p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p>　　AcknowledgementsI</p><p><b>　　摘要II</b></p><p>　　AbstractIII</p><p>　　1 In

21、troduction1</p><p>　　2 Literature Review3</p><p>　　2.1 Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of Culture3</p><p>　　2.2 Porter and Samovar's Cross-cultural Communication4</p><

22、;p>　　2.3 Access to Cross-cultural Advertising Effectiveness5</p><p>　　3 Advertising Strategy Alternatives for Multinationals in China8</p><p>　　3.1 Standardized Strategy8</p><p

23、>　　3.1.1 Definition8</p><p>　　3.1.2 Advantages of Standardized Strategy9</p><p>　　3.1.3 Disadvantages of Standardized Strategy10</p><p>　　3.2 Localized Strategy10</p>

24、<p>　　3.2.1 Definition10</p><p>　　3.2.2 Necessities of Localized Strategy11</p><p>　　3.2.3 Disadvantages of Localized Strategy13</p><p>　　3.3 In-between Strategy — Global Br

25、and with Local Execution14</p><p>　　3.3.1 Definition14</p><p>　　3.3.2 Seeking a Balance — Case Study of McDonald’s15</p><p>　　4 Suggestions for Advertising of Multinationals in

26、China17</p><p>　　5 Conclusion19</p><p>　　5.1 Major Findings of the Study19</p><p>　　5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research20</p><p>　　References21&l

27、t;/p><p>　　1 Introduction</p><p>　　Ever since the end of the Second World War, great stride has been taken in world trade over the past 60 years. Thanks to the establishment of some international

28、and regional economic organizations, such as WTO (in 1995), NAFTA (in 1994), EU (in 1992) and APEC (in 1989), economic boundaries between nations gradually faded away. As corporations in different countries realizing the

29、 substantial potential for expansion and profit the international markets provide, they are taking the initiative in pa</p><p>　　China, the world’s fastest growing economy and the largest market, is witnessi

30、ng increasing presence and involvement of multinational corporations. So far, 400 out of the world’s top 500 multinational companies have made investments in over 2000 projects in China. More than half of the 500 big in

31、the U.S. have set up projects in China. It was reported that 19 of the 20 biggest manufacturers in the U.S., 19 of the 20 biggest manufacturers in Japan and 9 of the top 10 manufacturers in Germany have</p><p&

32、gt;　　As companies are more inclined to market and promote their products and services in a different market, they need to have a comprehensive and intensive understanding of the difficulty they will face in developing an

33、d implementing advertising. In fact, these companies face both an unfamiliar marketing environment with different economic development, different legal constraints, different public infrastructure and different political

34、 systems and customers with different sets of values, customs and</p><p>　　Advertisement, a bridge to connect customers with product, will goes beyond national and cultural boundaries. However, is it possibl

35、e to persuade consumers in different markets with the same advertising message? Will they respond favorably? Or should the message be customized to reflect the local culture? These questions are among the most fundamenta

36、l decisions when companies plan an advertising campaign in different cultures.</p><p>　　In the international advertising literature, the issue of standardization versus localization has ignited a long-runnin

37、g debate among the scholars and practitioners. While this debate still goes on and no ultimate agreement has been reached, many practitioners keep on failing to get their message across the target consumers, even offendi

38、ng them as a result of not taking care of the local customs, beliefs, values, economic reality, and legal regulations of a new market. The present-day situation </p><p>　　To comply with this demand, this pap

39、er employs cross-cultural communication theory as theoretical foundation and mainly examines cultural influence on advertising strategies of multinational corporations in China. It adopts content analysis and case study

40、as research methods. The result of this paper will be a supplement to the literature on international advertising and be used as reference for Chinese companies in foreign market.</p><p>　　2 Literature Revi

41、ew</p><p>　　The central aspect of international advertising strategy paradox has pointed out a need to understand culture and its consequential influence on advertising communication. Therefore, the followin

42、g part will have a review of some major cross-cultural theories for the sake of further discussion.</p><p>　　2.1 Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of Culture</p><p>　　Just as Hofstede (2001) said “cult

43、ure is more often a source of conflict than of synergy; cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster” (p.23). For those who work in international business, it is sometimes amazing how different people

44、 in other cultures behave. We tend to have a human instinct that deep inside of all people are the same, but they are not in effect. Therefore, understanding cultural differences is often considered a prerequisite for su

45、ccessful international bus</p><p>　　According to Hofstede (2001), “each culture must deal with questions that can be resolved according to a series of dimensions, which results in a unique gestalt for each s

46、ociety, depending on the intensity of its tendency towards one or another and of each culture dimension spectrum” (p.34).</p><p>　　The Five Dimensions are </p><p>　　Individualism</p>

47、<p>　　Uncertainty avoidance index </p><p>　　Power distance index</p><p>　　Masculinity</p><p>　　Long-term orientation</p><p>　　Individualism focuses on the

48、 degree the society reinforces individual or collective achievement and interpersonal relationships.</p><p>　　Uncertainty Avoidance focuses on the level of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity within the

49、society.</p><p>　　Power Distance focuses on the degree of equality, or inequality, between people in the country’s society. </p><p>　　Masculinity focuses on the degree the society reinforces, or

50、 does not reinforce, the traditional masculine work role model of male achievement, control, and power. </p><p>　　Long Term Orientation focuses on the degree the society embraces, or does not embrace long-te

51、rm devotion to traditional forward thinking values. </p><p>　　These five dimensions, taken together, can give important insights for someone wishing to enter a new culture for business, study, or other purpo

52、ses. Though he made a great contribution to cross-cultural business field, his research still has some limitation. Hofstede’s Five Dimensions Theory has been criticized on the grounds of being too static (Holden, 2001),

53、or being weak in terms of theoretical foundation (Dahl, 2004). </p><p>　　2.2 Porter and Samovar's Cross-cultural Communication</p><p>　　According to Porter and Samovar (2006), communication

54、has nine ingredients: source, encoding, message, channel, receiver, decoding, receiver response, feedback and noise. Any communication takes places in a certain context and may be hindered by noises in the communication

55、environment, causing communication misunderstanding or even failure. The idea could be illustrated by the following figure:</p><p>　　Figure 2.1 Communication process and steps</p><p>　　Encoding

56、refers to the process of sender putting the message into codes. Decoding refers to the process of the receiver interpreting the message from the sender. Response means the reactions of receiver to the message upon receip

57、t. Feedback means the reactions of receiver that are sent back to the sender after the receiver’s interpretation of the message. Noise refers to the disturbances along the communication processes, which may result in uni

58、ntended message being perceived by the receiver.</p><p>　　A complete process of communication can be broken into five steps: </p><p>　　(1) A Sender has an idea</p><p>　　(2) The send

59、er encodes the idea in message</p><p>　　(3) The Message travels over channel</p><p>　　(4) A receiver decodes the message</p><p>　　(5) Feedback travels to the sender (Guffey, 2001)&l

60、t;/p><p>　　Advertising in essence is also a process of communication. The sender here is the company who prepares and issues advertisements. The receiver is expected to be the target consumer group, although it

61、 is not always the case, as we will see in the advertising effectiveness analysis. The channel refers to all kinds of media or media mix ranging from flyer, direct mail, and newspaper to billboard, radio or TV etc. Messa

62、ges about brands, products or services are carefully designed and encoded in adve</p><p>　　2.3 Access to Cross-cultural Advertising Effectiveness </p><p>　　Among the ingredients of communication

63、, encoding and decoding are of special significance to us. In cross-cultural communication, we find situations in which a message is encoded in one culture but is decoded in another. Misunderstanding or breakdown of comm

64、unication may occur because of different cultural contexts in which the encoding and decoding take place. For example, animals may have different connotations to different groups of people. For lack of such sensitivity,

65、Toyota Company learned</p><p>　　Figure 2.2</p><p>　　（Source: http://news.163.com/08/0114/14/42652G9Q0001121M.html 2009-5-1)</p><p>　　From the above example, we can draw a very impor

66、tant principle for effective cross-cultural advertising: to match the message encoding with message decoding. The principle may break down into the following guidelines:</p><p>　　(1) Identify the target audi

67、ence of the advertisement with the desired response in mind.</p><p>　　(2) Study the characteristics of the target audience, especially the culture-charged ones.</p><p>　　(3) Explore the common g

68、round of the encoding culture and decoding culture</p><p>　　(4) Encode the advertising message in a way that would be appreciated or accepted in the decoding culture (See Figure 2.3).</p><p>　　F

69、igure 2.3 Common ground: cross-cultural communication </p><p>　　The nine-element model as visualized in Figure 2.l and the principle for effectiveness as shown in Figure 2.3 are important theories for commun

70、ication, including advertising communication. They provide the theoretical foundations for the analysis of the three kinds of advertising strategies for multinationals in China: standardization, localization and in-betwe

71、en strategy, which mean the combination of the two.</p><p>　　3 Advertising Strategy Alternatives for Multinationals</p><p><b>　　in China</b></p><p>　　Faced with enormou

72、s cultural differences between the home country and the host country, multinational corporations usually have three different alternative courses of action: standardization, localization and a compromise between the comp

73、lete standardization and localization, namely, in-between strategy. The strategy varies in accordance with many factors such as product category, product's cultural charge and competition environment etc. In this cha

74、pter, we look at the advantages, disadvantages</p><p>　　3.1 Standardized Strategy </p><p>　　3.1.1 Definition </p><p>　　The standardization advertising approach, sometimes known as t

75、he “universal”, “global”, or “internationalized” approach, is defined as the practice of advertising the same product/service in the same way everywhere, that is, use of the same message, appeal, components of advertisem

76、ents for different markets in different countries. It was in 1923 that David L. Brown put forward the idea of standardized advertising. David L. Brown, manager for advertising of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, claim&l

77、t;/p><p>　　just as green is green in Buenos Aires as well as in Batavia, just as two and two are four in Cape Town as well as Copenhagen, just as the main purpose of advertising is to sell goods, in Singapore a

78、s well as in Sydney or Santiago, so all the primary purposes of advertising are identical in all countries, and all fundamentals of good advertising are essentially the same north and south of the Equator and east and we

79、st of Greenwich (as cited in Zhang & Gelb, 1996, p.31)</p><p>　　Comparing the communication processes with a standardized advertisement, we will find that step 1 “A sender has an idea” and step 2 “the se

80、nder encodes the idea in message” are the same in both cultures. Besides, the advertiser assumes that step 4 “A receiver decodes the message” would also be more or less the same, which is not always the case as will be a

81、ddressed later under the “Disadvantages of standardized strategy”. If we refer to Figure 2.3, the standardized strategy could be roughly visu</p><p>　　Figure 3.1 Standardized strategy </p><p>　　

82、3.1.2 Advantages of Standardized Strategy </p><p>　　The advantages of standardized strategy can be boiled down to the following five points. First, it saves substantial costs for advertisement design and pro

83、duction and enhances the competitiveness of the product with lowered price; second, it helps to build up a standardized brand image across the world and reinforces the corporate image (Link, 1988); third, it enables the

84、rapid entry of a product in different countries; fourth, it may help to turn out advertisements of better quality than the lo</p><p>　　Marlboro is a classic example for standardized advertisement strategy. F

85、or long time, its advertisement with the distinctive image of cowboy has been around the developing and developed countries alike. In a standardized advertisement, it presents the world consumers, regardless their cultur

86、al background, the same appeal: smoke Marlboro and be a true man. Actually, what Marlboro sells is not cigarettes but a rough and free lifestyle. Colgate-Palmolive and Disney Inc. are also good practitioners </p>

87、<p>　　Disadvantages of Standardized Strategy </p><p>　　The biggest disadvantage of standardized advertising lies in its inborn incapability to adapt to different cultures in different markets, which may

88、 give rise to serious misunderstanding and cultural conflicts, and ruin the business, even the brand image of the company in the local market.</p><p>　　Lessons of this kind are too many to be exhausted. Tran

89、slation of the brand name and logo is by no means easy; there are many pitfalls of translating the word at the expanse of the meaning. When Kentucky Fried Chicken was first introduced into the Chinese market, the slogan

90、“Finger lick in good” was interpreted as eat our fingers off'. </p><p>　　3.2 Localized Strategy </p><p>　　3.2.1 Definition </p><p>　　The localization advertising approach, somet

91、imes called “adoption”, “customization”, “specialization”, is referred to as designing specific advertising programs to fit with the unique characteristics of each particular markets. The reason for localization of adver

92、tising is to create a differential advantage through local sensitivity and increased communication (Hite & Fraser, 1990). </p><p>　　While some proponents of standardization advertising strategy vehementl

93、y advocate their theory, many advertising practitioners and researchers argue to the contrary. They contend that while people’s basic needs and desires may be similar, the ways they go about satisfying them vary from cou

94、ntry to country (Caillat & Muller, 1996). The global market still consists of hundreds of nations, each with their own customs, life styles, economies, and buying habits, price system and on this ground, it’s </p&

95、gt;<p>　　In communication terms, both the sending of ideas and the encoding of messages run on the track of the decoding culture. When comparing the communication processes with a localized advertisement, we will

96、see that all the five steps from step l “A sender has an idea” and step 2 “The sender encodes the idea in message” across step 3 “The message travels over channel” to step 4 “A receiver decodes the message” until step 5

97、“Feedback travels to the sender” are totally different (While in standardize</p><p>　　Figure 3.2 Localized strategy </p><p>　　3.2.2 Necessities of Localized Strategy </p><p>　　It is

98、 reported that more than 90% of the multinationals are from western countries, about 1% come from middle and Eastern Europe, and the rest are from developing countries (Lu, 2002). Therefore, multinationals and their prod

99、ucts to some extent represent western culture. Naturally, understanding the cultural differences is often considered a prerequisite for their successful advertising. </p><p>　　Chinese culture and western cul

100、ture belong to two different culture systems. According to Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture, we can have a rough idea of the differences between east and west, but it cannot cover all the differences for being stati

101、c and weak in terms of theoretical foundation, such as customs, religion, education, legal system and so on. What is more, the difference between Chinese and western culture itself is a very complicated problem, there ar