Cultural values manifest in HK and Korea TV commercials
Cultural values manifest in HK and Korea TV commercials. Kara Chan Hong Kong Baptist University Young Sook Moon Hanyang University. Cultural values in advertising. Advertising is a carrier of cultural values
Cultural values manifest in HK and Korea TV commercials
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Cultural values manifest in HK and Korea TV commercials • Kara Chan • Hong Kong Baptist University • Young Sook Moon • Hanyang University conferen\2002\mcs_value
Cultural values in advertising • Advertising is a carrier of cultural values • Culture is the “collective mental programming” that distinguishes one society from another (Hofstede, 1983) • A study to compare the cultural values of TVC in Hong Kong and Korea conferen\2002\mcs_value
Hofstede’s typology of cultural dimensions uncertainty avoidance: tolerance for ambiguity masculinity/femininity: preference for achievement, success to relationships and caring individualism/collectivism: relative importance of the individual or the group power distance: acceptance of hierarchy in the society conferen\2002\mcs_value
Hofstede’s score conferen\2002\mcs_value
Research questions • How does the manifestation of cultural values differ in Hong Kong and Korean commercials? • How are the differences, if any, attributed to the cultural dimensions of the two societies? conferen\2002\mcs_value
Matching cultural values with cultural dimensions • References to Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996), de Mooij (1998), and Ji and McNeal (2001) • Framework of cultural values: Hong and Schweitzer (1996)’s framework of 32 values such as adventure, youth conferen\2002\mcs_value
Uncertainly avoidance: occur more frequently in Korea commercials • + technology • + safety • + tradition • - adventure • - magic • - youth conferen\2002\mcs_value
Masculinity: occur more frequently in HK commercials • + competition • + effectiveness • + wealth • + work • - courtesy • - family • - nurturance conferen\2002\mcs_value
individualism: no difference in HK and Korean commercials • + individualism • + uniqueness • + beauty • + health • - collectivism • - popularity • - patriotism conferen\2002\mcs_value
Power distance: no difference in HK and Korean commercials • + social status • + respect for elderly conferen\2002\mcs_value
Sample • N=829, unduplicated; taped in Nov/Dec 2001 Korea: 36 hours of prime time commercials from KBS2, MBC and SBS Hong Kong: 40 hours of prime time from TVB-Jade and ATV-home • Include Public services announcements, exclude promotional messages for TV stations/programs • 1 dominant value for each TVC, inter-coder reliability: 0.94 (HK), 0.98(Korea); 26 Korean TVC with no dominant values are dropped conferen\2002\mcs_value
Sample profile • Main product categories: household goods, food and beverages, services, finances • HK sample: more PSAs, more leisure and retail ads • Korean sample: more automotives, computers, and clothing ads conferen\2002\mcs_value
Results of hypothesis testing Reject H1 Reject H2 Fail to reject H3 Fail to reject H4 conferen\2002\mcs_value
Uncertainty avoidance • Contrary to what is expected, HK ads contains more uncertainty avoidance values • HK sample contained 10% PSAs that frequently used ‘safety’ value • ‘safety’ values often used in finance ads in HK • Finance ads in Korea often used ‘family’ and ‘courtesy’ conferen\2002\mcs_value
masculinity • Contrary to what we expect, HK and Korea TVC have no significant difference in this dimension • Korea as a feminine society always used masculine values of ‘effectiveness’ • The value paradox of ‘desirable’ vs ‘desired’ conferen\2002\mcs_value
individualism • Individualistic values occurred more frequently than collectivistic values in both societies • Put more focus on the needs of the individuals • Hypothesis supported conferen\2002\mcs_value
Power distance • ‘respect for elderly’ was not found at all in both societies • A booming youth market that elderly consumers are neglected • Hypothesis supported conferen\2002\mcs_value
conclusion • Hofstede’s framework is valid in predicting similarities and differences in two out of four cultural dimensions • Future research: compare audience response to ads using values in congruent to the society’s cultural dimensions vs opposite to the society’s cultural dimensions conferen\2002\mcs_value