Advertising strategy for teenagers in Taiwan Tatiana Lishchenko, Meng-Dar Shieh, Kuo-Hsiang Chen

Abstract While reaching different markets marketers realize the importance of culture in developing effective advertising campaigns. Global companies entering markets tend to localize their advertisement to fit local culture. Cultural values in the society change with the time. Previous researches demonstrate significant cultural difference between Westerners and East Asians in cognition, value, and social behaviors. Taiwanese located in East Asia and are regarded as an eastern culture in literature. However, being in a fast growing economy, Taiwan is regarded as one of the most high-tech nations, and its cultural values are influenced by globalization and in particular, the export of Western, mainly American values. This study aims to investigate whether localizing of advertising to meet traditional East Asian, collectivism culture value and holistic thinking, is necessary while reaching out to Taiwanese young adults, since during last decades Taiwan has been influenced strongly by western values. The author recognizes the multicultural experience of the Taiwanese young generation and proposes that global values will be more or at least equally attractive for the teenagers in Taiwan. Real food advertisement performances in Taiwan were examined to test the proposed hypothesis. The sample included ad of Dove chocolate (representing western values) and ad of Zhangjunya xiao meimei (representing eastern values). Total number of respondent was 28 represented by college students with fluent English ability from one of the local colleges were evaluating the effectiveness of advertisement based on the criteria developed by Lucas and Britt (1963). The results indicate that Taiwanese teenagers are likely to demonstrate favourable attitudes towards western commercials; however, they find local counterparts more attractive. Therefore, specialization strategy is suggested for marketers operating on this market. However, a limitation must be borne in mind when interpreting the results of this study. There is a source of subjectivity and error in choosing the sample, small sample group and possible influence of brand preferences. Further research should be conducted to confirm the results of this pre-study. Key Words: Youth, advertising, Taiwan *****

Advertising strategy for teenagers in Taiwan

______________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Consumers are exposed daily too numerous amount of advertising. Advertising does not only transmit the information about the product but also transmits cultural information. Cultural values in a society change over time (Tse et al. 1989). Research in consumer behaviour has shown that advertising as a cultural artefact not only transmits and reflects existing values, but also plays a role in shaping new values (Pollay 1986). Advertising acts as an agent of social change in society, it is necessary for marketers to design advertising campaigns that in a way reflects the cultural values of their target audience (Srikandath 1991). Taiwan political situation (one country, two systems), its openness to the world influence, closeness to China and support of powerful Western countries made country attractive for foreign companies to invest and enter the market. Multinationals entering country after the second World War were not only brining new products and services but also new culture, lifestyle into the market: more and more Western appeals were presented in advertisement, western models were used to introduce the products, non-translated advertisement in French or English appeared in magazines and TV. Advertisement reflects not only companies strategic goals but also its perception of local culture. While promoting itself on any market, company has to choose standardization advertising strategy, specialization or a combination of the above two. Foreign companies usually implement standardization strategy taking advertisement from their country and broadcasting it in Taiwanese market, in most of the cases reflecting western values. Other companies adopt their advertisement according to cultural appeal and broadcast different products; thus, implementing specialization strategy. Advertizement of the majority of local companies can be classified as specialized since it targets traditional Asian appeals, while currently some of the local companies are trying to make their message more internalized, by using western models, language, and background. This study aims to investigate whether localizing of advertising to meet traditional East Asian, collectivism culture value and holistic thinking, is necessary while reaching out to Taiwanese young adults. The author believes that the multicultural experience of the Taiwanese young generation will result in equal attractiveness of advertisement containing western and eastern values. The authors are seeking for theoretical evidence and practical suggestions in selecting proper advertising strategies for local and foreign companies for unique Taiwanese cultural background. 2. Literature review Understanding cultural similarities and differences are crucial for creation of international advertising/communication campaigns. Culture is the collective mental programming of the people in an environment and

Tatiana Lishchenko, Meng-Dar Shieh, Kuo-Hsiang Chen

______________________________________________________________ stated that culture is not a characteristic of individuals; it encompasses a number of people who were conditioned by the same education and life experience (Hofstede 1980: p. 43). There are various theories explaining the cultural differences. The influential scholar Mueller (1987) exploring westernization of Japanese magazines developed criteria for explaining advertisement. Standardized advertisement is an advertisement which is used internationally with virtually no change in its theme, copy or illustration, except for translation when needed, whereas Ducan (1995: p. 55) state that standardization means keeping one or more of the three basic components of a multinational advertising campaignstrategy, execution, languagethe same. Proponents of standardization argue that improved, faster communication has stimulated a worldwide acceptance of art, literature, tastes, thoughts, beliefs, language, and therefore advertising. Although people are different, their basic physiological and psychological needs remain the same (e.g.Fatt 1967; Levitt 1983). According to Mueller (1987) when advertising is developed for global customer culture, the following Westernized appeals are expected to be found: individual and independence appeals (emphasis on being distinct, unlike others), hard-sell appeals (stressing brand name, product recommendations), youth and modernity appeals (stress on contemporariness and youthful benefits of the products), product merit appeals (features of the product is described in depth), manipulation of nature appeals (mans superiority over nature is reflected, emphasis on technological achievement). On the other hand, localized campaigns require adaptation or customization of advertising messages in global markets (Caillat and Mueller 1996). Tansey, Hyman and Zinkhan (1990) contend that it is important to understand cross-cultural differences in the way the values are conveyed since they provide situations for interpreting advertisements, are frequently implied by advertisements, vary across countries and may be used for market segmentation. Other researchers are of the opinion that targeting consumers by using their cultural values is a potential marketing strategy in developing successful international advertising strategies (e.g.Henry 1976; Munson and McIntyre 1979; Vinson et al. 1977) and consumers reward advertisers who understand their culture and tailor advertisements to reflect their values (Boddewyn et al. 1986; Harris 1984). Taiwan is an Asian country, thus it is commonly understood that traditional appeals should be stressed when specializing advertisement. Muller (1987) in her work specified that traditional appeals include group consensus appeal (individual is a part of the whole), soft-sell appeal (mood and atmosphere are conveyed through a beautiful scene or the development of an emotional story or verse), veneration of elderly and tradition appeals (older group members are asked

Advertising strategy for teenagers in Taiwan

______________________________________________________________ for advices, opinion), status appeals (use of particular product will improve users status), openness with nature appeal (Mueller 1987). As it has been mentioned above cultural values change over the time. If we take Taiwan as an example, it has been both influenced by Eastern and Western values in the past decades. Several main factors can be identified. Taiwanese modernization, economic development and the influence of the USA forced local consumers to accept modern-western values. Taiwan is a country that has built itself in Americas image, economically and politically (Thomas 2001). Taiwan has undergone economic growth as well as cultural change through the process of industrialization and westernalization. Large-scale multinational corporations invested in Taiwan created a challenging environment for business and changed cultural structure. In the past decades, the growth of Taiwanese economy has been significant, the per capita share of GDP increased from USD16100 in 2000 to $29500 in 2009 (Indexmundi 2010). Additionally, the number of international players on the local market has also increased. Local companies shifted their focus from OEM to creating their own brands, becoming more international. More and more Taiwanese companies become global and are well known around the world. In 2009, the total value for the Top Ten Taiwan Global Brands was NT$237.126 billion (TAITRA 2010). At the same time, Taiwan has reached traditional culture that has been inherited from mainland China. In addition, Japanese culture has a strong influence on Taiwanese culture. Taiwan had the direct experience of colonial rule by the Japanese (Yu and Miller 2003). Chu (1998) indicates that older people in Taiwan can understand the Japanese language and appreciate traditional Japanese culture. Therefore, being influenced by opposite cultural environments, advertising themes in Taiwan have changed over time. Taiwan in its attempt to become an international community, tries to open its children to international influence from childhood, almost in every family children start learning English as a second language from the age of four. We can conclude that Taiwan evolved from a more traditional to a modem-industrial society and therefore the attitude towards advertisements will change, since the teenagers have been grown with this influence it is proposed in this research that Taiwanese young generation will be more or at least equally attracted to global values than to local values. 3. Methodology Real advertisement performances in Taiwan are examined to empirically test the proposed hypothesis. Based on the classification of Mueller (1987) the advertisement has been classified into: localized for

Tatiana Lishchenko, Meng-Dar Shieh, Kuo-Hsiang Chen

______________________________________________________________ Taiwanese market that meet collectivistic culture preference and other with global focus. Our sample was represented by TV advertisements in food product categories focusing on teenagers, because when buying these products teenagers make the decision themselves and have enough money to pay for the purchase. Two advertisements have been chosen for the test with the focus group: Dove chocolate (representing western values) and Zhangjunya xiao meimei popular dry noodles snack (representing East values). There product are substitutes and fall in the same price category. Advertisement sample then was shown to a sample group that was represented by college students with fluent English ability from the college located in Taipei. The age of respondents ranges between 17 and 18. The research was taking place in the second half of February, 2010. Respondents were required to watch each advertisement and then answer a short questionnaire that evaluated how the viewers responded to a particular advertisement. Teenagers had to indicate whether they agree or disagree with the statement (7 point likert scale). Questionnaire questions were borrowed from Lucas and Britt (1963) and intended to measure initial attention, perception, continued favorable attention of interest, comprehension, feeling and emotional responses, motivation, beliefs, intention and decision, and imagery. The questions were as following: 1. The advertisement was easy to understand. 2. The advertisement immediately grasped my attention. 3. The advertisement kept my attention. 4. I will clearly remember what was in the advertisement one week from today. 5. The advertisement generated positive feelings from me. 6. I am more inclined to buy or use the advertised product after seeing this advertisement. 4. Research Results and Discussion A total number of 28 responses have been collected in this study, the majority of which were female. The results of the questionnaire are represented in Table 1. Both advertisements have been positively perceived. However, it terms of all comprehension, attention, memorability and positive responses ad of Zhangjunya xiao meimei got a higher score; but in terms of behavior influence the difference was not high. Therefore, from these results we can conclude that our hypothesis that Taiwanese teenagers will perceive advertisement with Eastern and Western values partially supported. Table 1. Group mean of responses to advertisements. Dove ad Zhangjunya xiao meimei (n=28) (n=28) Comprehension 5.71 6.61 Initial attention 5,04 6.18 Retention of attention 4.79 6.21

Advertising strategy for teenagers in Taiwan

______________________________________________________________ Memorability Positive emotional response Influence on behavior 4.79 4.86 4.64 6.04 5.79 5.25

Taiwanese teenagers are likely to demonstrate favourable attitudes towards western commercials; however they find local counterparts more attractive. Therefore, specialization strategy should be implemented by marketers while operating on this market, it is important to make the messaged understood by local consumers. However, a limitation must be borne in mind when interpreting the results of this study. There is a source of subjectivity and error in choosing the sample, even though these products can be regarded as substitutes they dont represent same product category. In addition, it is impossible to control brand preferences. Focus group has a very small size of 28 respondents which are not equally represented by male and female. As we discussed the limitations we need to carry out the next steps: which would be taking stronger control of sample in terms of age and number of respondents, and creating hypothetical product and taping ads with western and eastern values. In addition, larger focus group with wider age range should be chosen for the next study.

Tatiana Lishchenko, Meng-Dar Shieh, Kuo-Hsiang Chen

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Advertising strategy for teenagers in Taiwan

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