Improving China's Image Through Advertisement

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4.2 Creative advertising to create the image of a strong brand

Research Question 2: Can China create international advertisements that would be conducive to advancing its global image and make use of soft-power?

It has been well established by marketers and economists that a successful ad campaign is able to localize to the target audience and communicate messages in-line for the respective society. Advertisements often sell more of a “concept” of an ideal goal—that concept can vary slightly or dramatically from country to country, but its importance is undeniable. For example, the company, Kentucky Fried Chicken, owned by Yums Food Crops previously dominated in China, where the fast-food market is now worth $174 billion, and American fast food chains popped up everywhere throughout the nation (Song, 2013). As the society became increasingly wealthy and open, however, the novelty of the products wore off. The negative side effects of consuming the product, such as harm to a family’s health, became a great deterrent from purchasing the product and KFC began to see its market shares plunge. KFC’s May same-store sales even declined by around 25% in 2013 (Brandau, 2013)

However, the company ran a huge ad campaign that highlighted the company’s food safety and sanitation—currently a major concern for Chinese restaurant goers as the quality of food and inspection is quite poor. Vice Chairman of Yum’s, Sam Su said that the company would completely revamp the marketing campaign in China for 2013/14 and re-focused their ads (Julie, J. & Burkitt, L., 2014). KFC localized their ads and targeted an issue very specific to the Chinese market—concern over food quality and fear of avian flu. The company sold a “concept” of sanitary food...

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...rom the youth demographic (Lee, 2011) around the world—spreading both appreciation and knowledge of the culture. Products from the nation, such as the notorious Korean BB cream, are now at a point of advantage when it comes to marketing because the previously established media has already paved a pathway for the marketing of items.

China has many paths it can take to create a successful base for international marketing that will boost the nation’s soft-power. However, poor public relations, international relations, and lack of research can all result in negative consequences. If advertisements are done hastily, without knowledge of the target market, or are too conspicuous with propaganda, it is likely that a greater aversion to the products will exist. The importance of understanding the target nation cannot be stressed enough for a successful ad campaign.

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